Money money money

Things are not looking good for Detroit which must close half of its schools. Thirty-two in a class doesn't look so bad when you realize they are facing 60. (How do you get 60 in a classroom?)

Mrs. H says her district is tightening its belt as well.

I know we will be - but there are no specifics yet.

Money makes the world go around

We have a new governor, Nathan Deal, the lessor of 2 evils. In a recent speech, he laid out the budget saying "no more unpaid furloughs or school-day cuts for Georgia public schools."

While there is more money than last year, there is less than several years ago and, once again (as they have for the past 10 years) the state is not giving the districts what they have to by law.

"The budget Deal is recommending to legislators would send $30 million extra to cash-strapped school districts. That's $60.9 million less than they are owed under the Quality Basic Education Act, the state’s enrollment-based school funding formula, but more than they've gotten in recent years."

He is assuming the districts saved some of the federal stimulus money they received last year.

You know they didn't.

It's gonna be a hard candy Christmas.

Stupid Moves by a School Board

Cobb County's school board is doing some really boneheaded things. It isn't new - all the incumbents were replaced during the last election because the last superintendent kept trying to push through laptops for every student.

Now, the current board keeps meeting in private (which is a violation of the state's open meeting law). When they get caught (on the front page of the local paper) they insist that they didn't do anything wrong.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Cobb let 600 teachers go - anyone with 2 years or less teaching. Then they hired back about 500 of them.

They have lost some incredible teachers to the system. I'm not talking about new teachers (and I am not going to get into a debate about who is a better teacher - new enthusiastic teachers or older experienced teachers) but teachers who have 2 years or fewer with Cobb and several years of experience in other systems.

In Georgia, you are "tenured" if you have three years of experience - or two years in the current district and were tenured in another district.

I just learned about an AP teacher who was caught in the sweep - 2 years in Cobb, 20 in another district in Georgia - and, while they have offered her a job in another high school, she will instead be going to another district in the fall.

Further information about our budget

Still no definitive answer, although we have had to sign our contracts, vague as they are.

It looks like the state supplement is safe (for now anyway) = since that is about 10%, it is good news (for now, anyway).

There will be a job fair to fill some few positions.

Our classes will be bigger......

20% off the top, please

The AJC says that the state will only play for 147 days of school.

The other 20% is to be paid by the district.

Maybe we should just build prisons and send the kiddies along.

Big question for the teachers around here: did the districts know about this when they made cuts - or are more cuts coming?

Contracts had to be in by today. Is that why the news is out now?

Budget Blues and Angst

Our district (like many in the area) has posted the beginnings of where they are planning to cut.

People (teachers) are beginning to speculate: who falls under that definition? Oh, he coaches - he'll be safe. She is the only one with this skill - she'll be safe.

And then people start snapping at each other: I grade harder than you - my expectations are higher than yours, wy should I be let go? I support my family - you are single, I should stay.

It is going to get SOOOOOOO ugly.

Getting out while the gettings good?

We have several superintendents in the area surrounding Atlanta who are suddenly announcing their retirement. As in, wow, I just figured out I can retire now instead of next year, so I will be gone by Easter.

Now, it is either a way of avoiding the budget mess, or a way of solving the budget sort of. As in, if I leave, you can hire someone who costs less.

Are any of you seeing this?

The 6.25% solution

Apparently 6.25% is some magic number. I was reading yesterday that San Francisco intends to fire some large proportion of its employees (maybe it was even everybody, I don't remember) and then hire them back with new contracts. The new contracts would be for 37.5 hours per week instead of 40. If you do the math, that is a 6.25% reduction.

That 6.25% s the same amount DeKalb County is proposing reducing teacher salaries by for next year. Take 6.25% less or some unknown number of furlough days. That percentage (6.25%) of fewer days works out to 12. There are generally 10 extra days for teachers during the year: preplanning is 5, postplanning is about 3 and the rest are teacher work day during the year. If you took furlough days, you would still need to come in at least one day on your own or your room wouldn't be set up and your copies made for whatever you are doing the first day.

I was reading another article about Central Falls and how the district was justified in firing the teachers for refusing the reasonable request made of them: work an extra 25 minutes a day for free. Guess what? Twenty Five minutes out of 6.5 hours is - 6.25%. The comment in the article that got to me was "But the least they expect is that their teachers, making an average $72,000 to $78,000 a year, put in a full day on the job."

Really? I put in more time teaching than I ever did on any other job.

OK. The economy sucks. People are having to tighten their belts. Personally, I would rather get a little less in my paycheck and know that we all make it through to better times.

But can we stop assuming teachers are greedy slackers? And can we take 6.25% from EVERYBODY? Governor Perdue, your portion is $7,687.38. President Obama? $25,000. Just a little solidarity.

More cuts coming

* DeKalb is saying it will offer contracts with either furlough days or paycuts. I read that to say you can come to school during planning but we won't pay for your time. The cuts are 6+%. For a 190 day contract (180 days of teaching and 10 pre and post planning days) that means 12 days of no pay.

* Fulton is saying it is cutting 1000 jobs: all parapros for grades 1-3, the band and orchestra in elementary school and (wait for it) 35 jobs at the district. There are 12000 jobs in Fulton schools, 972 are in the district office - and they can spare 35.

BTW 25 of those jobs have no people in them at this time, so they will only be reducing the amount of money by the 10 who are employed.

I wonder what our contracts will look like?

Lottery money

When Georgia first voted in the lottery, it was with the understanding that it was to be solely used for pre-k and for college scholarships. More and more students are going to college and using HOPE, to the point that it is in danger of running out of money. Now it appears the Governor has buried (in the middle of a 700 page budget) what he intends to do with Lottery funds. Here and here.

I wasn't in favor of the lottery for education because every state I have seen who swore that the funds would only supplement existing education funding cannot resist those lottery funds.

Perdue has pleaded poverty so often, constantly reducing education funding - and now this.

The way he went about it - it's sneaky and underhanded and evil.

Another article I need to read.

rallying cry

Do you think the classrooms are peaceful when the teachers are this upset?





Pretty much says it all.