Prince William County Teacher Work to the Rule

MoonHowler

News and Messenger:

Teachers walked out of Forest Park High School as a group to the sound of applause at 2:18 p.m. Monday.

As the teachers made their ways to the faculty parking lot, students stood outside the school and showed support for their educators.

Teachers at Forest Park, Battlefield and Patriot High Schools, as well as Potomac Middle, started a “Work to Rule” campaign Monday in response to the recent school budget proposal.

Superintendent Steven L. Walts’ proposed budget does not include a step increase for any schools employees for a third year in a row. There are no plans for staff or program reductions, either.

The budget, which was discussed at two recent School Board meetings, also indicates that there are no plans for raises until 2016 at the earliest.

On Monday, teachers entered their respective schools as a group at the same time — 7:15 a.m. at the high schools — and left schools when their contract hours ended at 2:15 p.m.

A crowd of about 30 teachers walked out the front door of Forest Park to their cars shortly after that scheduled time, many of them wearing “Work to Rule” pins.

Nicholas Watkins, an English teacher for 10th and 11th grades at Forest Park, said around double that number walked in together in the morning.

“There were 50 to 60 teachers,” he said, wearing a “Work to Rule” badge.

Teachers and staff members who receive stipends or other compensation for coaching athletic teams or other like commitments remained at the school as required. Watkins said that contributed to a lower turnout at the end of the day.

This is the third year that teachers in Prince Willliam County have not  had a step increase.  This year they will not get a raise and it is predicted that there will be no raise through 2016.  This is absurd.  In the same  newspaper was an article saying Prince William County was the 9th wealthiest county in the United States.  9th wealthiest?  Pay your teachers and pay them well.  They also have the largest class sizes in the state of Virginia, on average. 

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Liberal Claptrap

MoonHowler

I rarely say Liberal Clap-trap but I might have to make an exception. I just finished watching tbhe much acclaimed ‘Waiting for ‘Superman.’   I have never endured such liberal clap-trap.  That is not to say there was not some merit. I can pretty much find merit with almost anything. 

What I did find is lots of bashing and no real solutions.  The great teachers I saw were rapping out math problems.  I am not so sure that is what makes a great teacher.  There were lots of kids trying to get into magnet and public charter schools.  These were kids who wanted to learn.  Kids who want to learn are easy to teach.  This fact is not exactly a news flash. 

What the film failed to point out is that each of these kids had parents who valued education.  The parents were not necessarily educated themselves but they prioritized education to be pretty much the most important thing in that kid’s life.  That is the secret.  That is what makes for outstanding schools.  Chock them full of kids whose parents set high expectations and value education and the sky is the limit. 

 

 

Governor to propose ending continuing contracts for teachers and principles

MoonHowler

From newsadvance.com in Lynchburg:

Teacher contracts and uranium mining will get Gov. Bob McDonnell’s attention during this General Assembly session.

McDonnell said he will ask legislators to require all teachers undergo performance reviews every year, and “remove the continuing contract status from teachers and principals.”

Instead, annual contracts would be offered to teachers, McDonnell said.

“This will allow us to implement an improved evaluation system that really works, and give principals a new tool” for managing schools, McDonnell said during his State of the Commonwealth speech to the Senate and House of Delegates.

Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, said he expects to support many of the governor’s education-reform proposals, but the continuing-contract idea was a new one.

I don’t see doing away with continuing contracts as “teacher reform.”  In the first place, principals aren’t on continuing contracts as principals.  They are on continuing contract as teachers.  Why does McDonnell think that yearly evaluation will make better teachers?  A full evaluation, usually done triennially for continuing contract teachers is very time consuming on the part of the teacher and the evaluator.  Why would  taking away the aspect of a continuing contract make for better teachers?  I say it would not.

 

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McDonnell targets VRS and higher education for money infusion

MoonHowler

Governor McDonald has targetted 2 critical areas for huge cash infusions:  VRS and higher education.  The governor plans to pump over 2.2 Billion into the state pension plan.  He also intends to spend over $200 million over the next two years in higher education.  Both areas are quickly approaching critical mass of not being able to do what they are intended to do.

According to hamptonroads.com:

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s announcements this week that he intends to pour $2.2 billion into the state pension system and boost spending for higher education by $200 million over the next two years are remarkable in two respects.

First, each implicitly acknowledges what nearly everyone in Virginia has long known but pretended isn’t true: The state’s failure to keep up with its obligations has reached a tipping point.

That much has been clear on any number of issues, perhaps none more than on transportation, which McDonnell has begun addressing through debt and public-private partnerships that ensure costly tolls on primary routes in South Hampton Roads.

But a study released earlier this week by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission underscored the bleak future of the Virginia Retirement System and the thousands of state workers counting on it.

The report explained the pension system’s condition as a consequence of multiple factors: the state’s pattern of contributing less each year than recommended, the economic downturn, increasing numbers of retirees and fewer workers taking their place. Analysts have calculated VRS is underfunded by nearly $20 billion.

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Sieg Heil the Pepper Spray King

MoonHowler

From the Washington Post:

SAN FRANCISCO — Protesters sitting on the ground supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement on the campus of the University of California, Davis took a face full of pepper spray at close range from an officer in riot gear in an incident that was captured on cellphone video and spread virally across the Internet Saturday.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi described the video images as “chilling” and said she was forming a task force to investigate even as a faculty group called for her resignation because of the Friday police action.

However, a law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force “fairly standard police procedure.”

In the video, an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of several sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.

“The use of the pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this,” Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a message posted on the school’s website Saturday

 

The pepper spray was way over the line in this video.  One has to wonder how the availability of cell phone cameras and video will impact how much campus and municipal police will get by with.  In this video it is easy to pick out which officers enjoy the brutality end of law enforcement.  It isn’t many but those who do abuse their power are obvious. 

There was one in this video who I thought for a minute was going to pepper spray his own officers. 

There is a thin line here. There has to be law and order on campuses.   But you just don’t pepper spray people who are not being violent.    If that is standard police behavior then the standard needs to change.

School Days, School Days…may all be changing

MoonHowler

Today’s Washington Post reports that school jurisdictions around the country are running into so many funding problems that some have chosen to go to the 4 day school week to cut back on expenses:

North Branch, Minn. — Pressed for dollars, a growing number of public schools are doing what many educators once considered unimaginable: eliminating an entire school day each week.

At least 292 school districts nationwide have a four-day week, according to a Washington Post survey, more than double the 120 estimated two years ago.

That’s still a small fraction of the nation’s 15,000 school districts, but it’s one signal that this is shaping up to be a “cliff year” in American education as the evaporation of federal stimulus funds and other fiscal troubles force many schools to make dramatic cuts.

In this community just north of the Twin Cities, they already cut the drama club. And cheerleading, ski club and marching band. So many teachers have been laid off that some classrooms have 40 students and one high school guidance counselor juggles 550 students. When school officials couldn’t figure out what else to squeeze, they lopped off a day.

One such experiment in Virginia came about not because of funding issues but because of the earthquake in late August.  Louisa County High School was condemned because it suffered extensive damage during the 5.9 earthquake.  School officials had to make do with what they had so the high school kids now go to school at the middle school Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.  The middle school goes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.    The teachers and kids apparently love the new arrangement.  School takes in from 8 – 5 pm.  The parents supposedly hate it.  The Louisa County kids probably are not getting the full state mandated times in.  However, it cannot be helped at this point.

What are the advantages of a 4 day week?  1 day fewer bus runs, 1 less day to  crank up climate control,  1 less day to pay hourly workers like cafeteria servers to name a few places to save.  Certainly readers will think of more savings.

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The Ghost of Bull Connor?

MoonHowler

When I was a child, some of the most violent film footage of the Civil Rights battles came out of Alabama.  I remember looking on in horror as demonstrating blacks were knocked down with fire houses and dogs were sicced on them.  These actions  were ordered by the Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor.  Men, women and children were the object of the hoses and the dogs.  These were horrifying scenes, especially for children.  I will never hear the word Alabama that I don’t think of the images branded in my mind. 

These kinds of enforcement behaviors do not exist in a vacuum.  Alabama will always wear the shame of those firehoses and police dogs.  They will always have  the tragedy of Birmingham Sunday in someone’s memory, as long as any of us alive during that  time are still on this earth.  Alabama needs to move away from its history of divisiveness.

Unfortunately, that is not happening.  Recently enacted laws targeting illegal immigrants have some baggage attached to them that I am not sure Alabama is ready to handle.  The new Alabama law seeks to collect data on all school children as to their status in the United States.  Read More

Alabama Immigration Ruling: Judge compels schools to track immigration status of children

MoonHowler

The rulings are in but the dust is far from settled.  Many of us are still trying to sort out what has been allowed and what has not.  One thing that remains is particularly troubling– schools will be directed to track the immigration status of school children.

According to Yahoo.com:

U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn sided with the state of Alabama on Wednesday on two key sections of the state’s wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigrants. Blackburn refused to enjoin a law that will compel elementary and secondary school administrators to demand students provide birth certificates to prove they were born in the United States, and then compile lists of illegal immigrant children in their schools. In theory, schools could begin to ask parents about their children’s immigration status today, though it’s unclear if they will do so, since school has already started.

In the first place, schools require birth certificates having nothing to do with this ruling.  Students entering school for the first time present  a birth certificate.  A birth certificate does not necessarily determine status if not issued in the United States.   Students without US birth certificates will be on the ones in the line of fire and who will have to provide status information. 

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Blatant over-reaction to school prank puts former PWC principal in the hot seat

MoonHowler

UPDATE:  It was reported on Channel 7 news tonight that the principal, Dr. Karen Spillman has resigned her position with Stafford County Schools.  That should not come as a surprise.  We can assume the resignation was a forced resignation.   9/27/11   11:30

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/09/report-colonial-forge-principal-resigns-after-banana-man-incident–67144.html

There is a little more to the Banana Man story.  After Banana Man was cuffed and headed toward a 10 day suspension, the student body at Colonial Forge came to his defense.  Many T-shirts were made up saying FREE Banana Man.  The administration at the high school forbid the students to wear the shirts and even confiscated some of them.  The ACLU has now come in on behalf of the students of Colonial Forge High School in Stafford and has told administrators in Stafford County that they must allow students to wear their Free Banana Man T-shirts.   The students   had been forbidden to wear Free Banana Man T-shirts prior to ACLU intervention. 

Of course, the school system can choose to ignore the ACLU, if they choose.  The principal is Dr. Karen Spillman, former principal in Prince William County.  She certainly is not getting community support or the support of her boss, as we shall learn later.  In fact, Dr. Spillman has quite a record for stirring things up and turning a 1 into a 10 when there is no need for a 10. 

Leaving My Marc  Blog  tells quite the story.  Apparently this isn’t Dr. Spillman’s first brush with controversy.  Remember the reporter who was arrested over the ducks at Woodbridge High School a number of years ago?  It seems that one Dr. Karen Spillman was involved in that debacle also.  Leaving My Marc reports the following from Freedomforum.org: [Editor’s note- the Kelly Campbell story is a number of years old.]

Reporter Kelly Campbell went to school last week to finish up a feature on baby ducks and wound up in handcuffs and cooling her heels at a police station.

Students no doubt will be heartened to see someone besides themselves suffer under “zero-tolerance” policies afflicting the nation’s schools these days. But the reporter’s arrest raises legitimate questions about the ability of the press to perform its constitutional role and about the dismissive attitude of many government officials toward public accountability.

It all started when a photographer for the Potomac News in Prince William County, Va., saw a young person with a duckling at a baseball game last week and took a photo. She found out that the duck was part of a class assignment at Woodbridge High School.

In reporting a story to go with the photo, Campbell learned that biology teacher Douglas Pinion had 100 students take home two-day-old ducklings in an experiment about how they might “imprint” on the humans. She also encountered wildlife experts and some students and parents who expressed concerns about the welfare of the ducks. Her calls to the school to get further information were not returned. So she went to the school, where Principal Karen Spillman invited her into her office for an interview.

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Teacher calls tea party chair a Nazi

MoonHowler

 

 Interesting.  I would think that the tea party would value free speech.  The teacher was on his own time.  Yet the tea party wants vengeance.  The local school board wisely will take no action against the teacher. 

I thought the tea party folks were rude and and strident.  I found it especially offensive that the teacher was told not to teach liberal ideas.   The kids were brought there as children.  The Dream Act  is for children who have been schooled in the United States and who are good students.  It is simply an investment in America.  We need good students to fill our work force.

Those kids are here.  We can turn them in to productive students or we can send the message that they are trash and should be gang members.  Those tea party folks sent the trash message.  I support the government teacher 100%.  He showed self control.  Nazi was mild compared to what he was thinking. 

Seriously, should Mr. Govt. Teacher even be teaching if he thinks all his students should be deported?  NO.

Fox News is giving its usual propaganda statement.  🙄

Here is how the scenario might work down the line.  Some politician will put the squeeze on the school board to punish Bryant.  They will gave and find fault with his style or lesson.  Teaching is an art, after all, not a science.  They will find a way to mete out some hurt.  I would bet money, however, that it isn’t the end. 

This is Serwious! Free Banana Man!

MoonHowler

In the words of Ming Ming the Wonderpet duck, “This is serwious folks!!! “

 Banana Man has received 10 days suspension from school for running down the sidelines during a football game at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia.  This story is a perfect example of schools picking their battles wisely.  As it turns out, the Stafford County School System has gotten into a pissing contest with not only their entire student body but also the nation.  Banana Man has gone viral. 

Additionally, Banana Man has autism.  Cutting to the chase, his handicapping condition may very well make him impulsive and therefore, not subject to suspension. Banana Man might have the entire nation taking up a collection for the  court challenge of his suspension.  

If Stafford County were smart, they would give the kid a job and let him run the field during half time every game. They would be the envy of all the other high schools.   Mascot Banana Man.  As long as this kid is receiving punishment, the school is the enemy.  

If anyone has video of some big Bubba sheriff leading the kid away, please post it.  These people deal with kids every day.  They should know this is one they will not win.  Not in a million years.  Banana Man is the hero of the hour. 

How does a school system save face after this bad of a screw up?

SAT scores drop to the lowest in decades

MoonHowler

Washington area schools got a big disappointing shock this week.  The SAT test results are in decline.

From the Washington Post:

SAT reading scores for graduating seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday.

In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Fairfax and Montgomery counties and elsewhere.

“Once you hit a certain mark, you want to maintain that,” said Frieda Lacey, deputy superintendent for Montgomery schools. “Don’t think the decline didn’t bother us. It really did.”

Nationally, the reading score for the class of 2011 was 497, down three points from the previous year and 33 points from 1972, the earliest year for which comparisons are possible. The average math score was 514, down one point from last year but up five from 1972.

The College Board attributed the lower scores to the growing diversity of test-takers, many of whom are less prepared for college-level work or are learning English as a second language.

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NCLB waivers to be issued

MoonHowler

Joel Pett Cartoon Lexington Herald Leader

There is an education god!  According to Politico:

Seeing “no clear path” toward reauthorizing the “No Child Left Behind” education law, the Obama administration will unilaterally issue waivers to states, exempting them from some of the law’s regulations.

“Today we’re less than a month from the start of the school year, and…we still believe there is no clear path toward a bipartisan bill to reform “No Child Left Behind,” said White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes in a conference call with reporters, the contents of which were embargoed until Monday.

“Our administration has been working on plans to provide more flexibility. The president has directed us to proceed with those plans.”

Months ago President Obama called on Congress to address the issue of correcting some of the flaws of NCLB that is about a decade old.  Congress apparently went off in different directions and produced nothing.  The president decided to issue waivers to exempt states from having to comply with many of the laws regulations that were particularly burdensome.  Every child, teacher, and administrator is probably collectively cheering the decision.  NCLB, while sounding good on paper, created upheaval in schools and required that unachievable goals be reached by students, teachers and schools. 

On paper the legislation sounds pretty good.  After all, who wants to leave children behind.  In practicality is it dreadful.  The goals are unrealistic and often unachievable.  Schools must go through all sorts of expense and gyrations to document what they are doing to meet the unachievable goals, causing burn out across the board.  NCLB is too much bureaucracy into local affairs.  It needs a burial at sea so kids can get back to learning. 

 

Missouri bans teacher/student contact via social networks

MoonHowler

 

This is a poorly worded law for sure.  It has vague ambiguities.  For instance, the law states no contact with former students.  That is absurd.  For how many years?  Does that mean you can’t befriend  someone you taught 10 years ago who is now a fellow teacher?  Why must lawmakers always demonstrate how little they understand about the arenas their bills impact? Read More