Furloughs in Clayton. No performance pay yet in Cherokee.
As predicted, budget challenges for schools are not going away next year, although there is some brighter news out of DeKalb for teachers.
Here are some AJC stories as well as some info sent to me by teachers about Race to the Top-driven contracts:
DeKalb: The DeKalb school board Monday adopted a tentative $1.16 billion budget for 2011-12, which restores furlough days for district employees. (To be clear, that means that DeKalb canceled almost all the furlough days enacted last year.)
Clayton County: Clayton public school employees will get to keep $6.4 million in incentive pay but must take five furlough days by the end of June under a budget-cutting plan approved Monday. The furlough days will help save the jobs of elementary school counselors and music and art teachers, but elementary gym teachers and those who work with students in in-school suspension programs weren’t so lucky. Even after a spirited debate to hang onto physical education positions, the board voted to cut 60 physical education and ISS jobs.
District employees were given $6.4 million of $9 million in federal stimulus job-saving money late last year in exchange for attending professional development training, which must be completed by June. The money became a political and legal issue during last week’s regularly scheduled meeting and the board tabled a decision until Monday night — when it abandoned the idea of trying to retrieve the money. Monday’s meeting drew a standing-room crowd as district workers came to learn the fate of their incentive pay and possible jobs.
I also received a note that Cherokee was issuing contracts to teachers that included a performance pay option. I had the note on the blog, but Cherokee says the information was incorrect. And while Cherokee is part of the state’s Race to the Top grant, it says it is not rolling out any performance pay plan at this point.
Here is the official response from Carrie Budd, coordinator, Community Relations & Publications, for Cherokee:
Cherokee County School District has not offered any contracts as of yet, and likely will not do so until May. Those contracts will be based on the same salary schedule as the current year (which is NOT a merit-based system). CCSD is an active participant in Race To The Top, but the specific timelines for any performance-based pay have yet to be determined.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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132 comments Add your comment
Dr NO
April 19th, 2011
2:05 pm
” I expect better from teachers.”
PS…just imagane the daiily chaos and mayhem that takes place in these so-called “Halls of Learning.”
Dr NO
April 19th, 2011
2:07 pm
“@ ABC, if you have the balls to meet me I will.” <—A true sign of the ignorant, as it were.
HS Public Teacher
April 19th, 2011
2:16 pm
Dr NO – I have finally figured out what your “NO” stands for….. it is that you have “NO” clue!
In the corporate world, I could quit working at Coca-Cola as an IT person and then get a job at GA Power as an IT person.
In education, if I quit as a teacher, I absolutely CANNOT go teach in another school system. The GA PSC revokes my certification and I cannot get a job in GA anywhere at any time.
Got it?
Dr NO
April 19th, 2011
2:16 pm
“These feel they are better and must be ‘pure’ and not mingle with the ‘undesirables,’ but we really know the REAL reason……………..”
I guess. Or until you enroll your children anyway
Really amazed
April 19th, 2011
2:18 pm
@Christopher, I have many friends that are teachers. Yes, some still want to teach some do say they are only there collecting the pay check and waiting for summer break!!! This is factual when it is coming right from there mouths!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr NO
April 19th, 2011
2:18 pm
” it is that you have “NO” clue!”
Oooohhh ho ho ho…thats a real knee-slapper there that one is…tell it again…COME ON…tell it again!!
Otherwise I guess you have really pigeon holed yourself with this teaching thing…DOH!
Who listens anyway?
April 24th, 2011
2:56 pm
Hey, ABC. You do realize that we put about 6% of our pay into that pension plan, don’t you?? Please don’t act as if we do not contribute. If given the choice, I would gladly opt out of the TRS and put that money away myself where I would have control over it. I am so tired of people who have no idea what it even going on mouthing off about the subject!
catlady
April 24th, 2011
3:26 pm
What will happen to the kids who should be sent to ISS? Are they going to be kept in the rooms to continue ruining the education of the other students?
something to consider
April 24th, 2011
4:34 pm
To abc, dr. No and others: not sure if you knew this, but not only do teachers pay a percentage of their salary to fund their pension, most will NOT be eligible for social security as many systems opted out. Just thought you should know.
BillM
April 24th, 2011
4:41 pm
Its seems get schooled is all about how teachers get PAID. After all isn’t that the most important thing, Protect what is mine and grab a little more all the time.
GA Educator
April 24th, 2011
4:57 pm
This forum is shameful. Dr. NO is getting exactly what he wants, a bunch of angry teachers up in arms over his obviously uneducated comments about education today. As though this idiot has a clue about teaching. I would welcome him into my room any morning, walk out the door, and chat around 3:30 after he spends 7 hours with my 150 high school students. THEN we can talk about merit pay, furloughs and a 40% hike in my insurance premiums while I make about $50K less per year than the average person with my education. Sure, we’re lucky to have a job… but who wants a job that screws you every year? And let’s face it, that has been every teacher’s reality for the past 4 years. Less pay, sliding insurance, sky-rocketing premiums, and self-funded classroom materials since our state is too CHEAP to buy supplies for classrooms. Looks like the joke is on us!
GA Educator
April 24th, 2011
4:58 pm
And thank GOD someone shed some light on our ‘pensions’ – we PAY into TRS, just like any other 401K in the private sector. Jesus, people. Like the state is paying us when we retire!? NO. It is self-funded BY teachers. And like ’something to consider’ mentioned, many counties have opted out of social security, which is criminal in my opinion.
catlady
April 24th, 2011
5:10 pm
Ga Educator: Don’t feed the troll by saying his name or noticing him at all. He will get louder and more obnoxious, then he will go away.
Dekalbite
April 24th, 2011
5:15 pm
Dr. Trotter is absolutely right. If you are depending on the youth of today to be tomorrow’s doctors, lawyers, plumbers, etc., you should remember that poor working conditions for students mean poor learning environments for students.
Low teacher morale, overcrowded classrooms, unsafe, dirty and unsanitary conditions are not happening in a vacuum. All of these negative components adversely affect students. Make a teacher miserable mentally, emotionally, and environmentally and you make 30+ students miserable as well. You cannot separate the members of the classroom which are comprised of a teacher and his/her students any more than you can separate the parents from their children in a home. It is so much worse for students though because they have no choice. Teachers may and will leave the profession. Students will always be there.
Something else to consider
April 24th, 2011
5:26 pm
@ABC – your tales of parental and community support for your school are encouraging, but you missed two important points. First, not only have you alluded with your statements to the importance of said support, something teachers on this blog have been saying for awhile, but you also reinforced what poor schools are missing – also stated by teachers on this blog. Second, you say you aren’t concerned about the poor schools – you should be. Title 1 schools get extra money to make up for the lack of parent support and money. That money doesn’t grow on trees – it comes from your tax dollars. So while you’re patting yourself on the back for a job well done at your school, those you scorn and taking money out of your back pocket. Enjoy life on the high horse – try not to fall.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
April 24th, 2011
7:02 pm
What is your local public school system doing to encourage parental participation in your local schools during the instructional day?
How are teacher organizations encouraging such parental participation? How are your local PTA, local board and your local media encouraging such participation?
Good public schools require The Public to be frequent visitors in them.
school observer
April 24th, 2011
7:18 pm
@ Dr. John Trotter, I realize your organization is designed to support and assist teachers, but you never seem willing to admit that there are bad teachers just like there are bad administrators. Your organization might be more credible if you were fair in your assessment of educators. Teachers should not be subject to arbritary evaluation systems, but they should be held accountable for student learning. Notice I said accountable, not blamed.
ABC
April 24th, 2011
7:52 pm
@Something else to consider: and what do you expect me to do? Go volunteer at someone else’s school? “Make” those parents care like the parents in my school do? Sorry, i can’t save the world. The whole point of this debate is that my conscience is clean. *I* do support teachers. *I* do support my school. I do what I can. And NO, i do not feel sorry for the teachers *I* know in my kids’ school. They are supported, they are treated very well, and they are appreciated, and they know it. They do not have it bad AT ALL. Could they make more money? Sure. SO COULD EVERYONE.
As for the teachers in those Title I schools, gee that’s too bad.. Why did they take jobs in those schools? Why didn’t they get jobs at better schools? I wouldn’t work in a crappy company with crappy work environment. Why do they? And more importantly just what exactly do you want me to do about it???
And madfulton: I have learned that those that threaten, don’t do. And I don’t have any balls. I am a woman. Not that it should make ANY difference.
ABC
April 24th, 2011
7:56 pm
@HS Public Teacher: wait..seriously?? You cannot transfer to a different school??? EVER??? What if your spouse moves out of state??? Or another city? Are you telling me that when the county hires you, you are stuck in that school till you quit, die, or retire??
something else to consider
April 24th, 2011
8:23 pm
@ ABC – all I wanted you to do was to consider it. Why? Because you come across on here as sactimonious and superior, and you seem to discount ANYTHING teachers have to say, simply because your teachers have it so good. Bully for them. I can guarantee that some of those teachers probably stink, and only get by becuase it’s a “good” school with good socioeconomics. I can also guarantee that some of those Title 1 teachers you so easily dismiss could teach rings around those same teachers.
You said, “As for the teachers in those Title I schools, gee that’s too bad.. Why did they take jobs in those schools?”
Because the turnover in those schools is so great, that it’s easy to get jobs in those schools – it’s most teachers’ foot-in-the-door.
“Why didn’t they get jobs at better schools?”
They will – as soon as slots open up at better schools. The other very real option is that they will leave the profession entirely, which is what 50% of all teachers do within the first five years of teaching. You might think, well great, they found out the summers off weren’t worth it, and good riddance. Truth of the matter is a lot of EXCELLENT teacher with a lot of potential bail because the job isn’t worth it. There’s a lot of talk about keeping the best and brightest – well, those few that aren’t scared aware by the negative press and actually become teachers soon find something else to do that pays more, is easier, and has more respect. The rest of us blog, lol.
“I wouldn’t work in a crappy company with crappy work environment. Why do they?”
Many reasons – they don’t want to give up on something they really want to do; they want to make a difference with the kids; they love kids; they love teaching; they are just biding time until a spot at a better school opens up; they are just waiting until they have kids so they can stay home; they are are in it for the paycheck and counting days til the next break; they have students loans to pay off; they have a house note; they have kids and want to be on the same schedule; they live in a crappy neighborhood but their kids can attned their school…I could go on, but you get the picture.
There are myriad reasons – some altruistic, some pragmatic, some optimistic, and some just pathetic. For the record, they are going to start to leave, and they are going to be leaving in droves. When the best and brightest walk, what do you think you’re going to be left with – even at your “awesome” school?
“And more importantly just what exactly do you want me to do about it??? ”
Nothing except as stated above.. I don’t expect you to do anything about it all except to go back to your ‘burb, and complain to your neighbors about how ungrateful teachers are, what with their summers off and “great” pension plan. And then complain about how much property tax you’ve paid on your McMansion.
PS – Don’t like those assumptions? Then quit making them about teachers.
ABC
April 24th, 2011
8:43 pm
@something: hmmm…some good points. I never complain about my taxes. Property taxes go to schools..I wish they were higher. I am a Democrat bordering on socialist, I wish my prop taxes would go higher. I do not understand this millage thing, but I whatever it takes to get schools well funded, I am all for.
But you really haven’t changed my mind. I think most teachers that are worth their salt would read the comments from teachers in this forum and CRINGE.
just sayin'
April 24th, 2011
8:47 pm
I think Dr. No is full of it…just out to tick people off. He takes any chance he gets to be a moron, just to get everyone else worked up. Poor guy, he must have nothing better to do with his life than to sit and make comments on a blog all day. Maybe thats why his son didn’t have a great education, he was too busy sticking his nose in other people’s business he forgot to get involved in his own child’s life. I’ll bet he was one of those parents….you all know what I am talking about.
something to consider
April 24th, 2011
10:17 pm
@ABC – maybe you’re not the only one blogging under the moniker ABC. There is another who often complains about taxes. I’d agree that teachers would cringe, but likely not for the reasons you think. As for me, as someone who left the corporate world to do this, I can’t wait to go back. It was easier, more fun, and I made a lot more money. As much as my kids, my parents, my fellow teachers, and my admin might want me to stay, I’ve got to go. However I will continue to defend good teachers and correct misperceptions every chance I get.
Toto: High ho silver!
April 24th, 2011
10:29 pm
“We borrow about $ .40 for every dollar we spend. America is on an unsustainable path.”
TURBOTAX TIMOTHY GEITHNER
http://abcnews.go.com/watch/this-week/SH559082/VD55122521/this-week-417-interview-with-timothy-geithner
Teachers, WHY do we borrow $ .40 for every dollar we spend?
THIS IS EVIDENCE THAT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS A TOTAL FAILURE! Future citizens have not been taught the Constitution or its principals. They are completely ignorant of basic economics. Along the way to our economic disaster, many in the financial oligarchy have broken the law, yet NONE have gone to jail! OUR TREASURY SECRETARY COULDN’T FIGURE HIS TAXES AND FAILED TO PAY UP! What idiots we are to put up with this TREACHERY! Parents, reclaim education and the mind and hearts of our children. Our nation is lost, unless we take a stand as Iceland did.
The Lone Ranger’s Creed:
I believe…
that to have a friend, a man must be one.
that all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
that God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
in being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
that a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
that ‘this government of the people, by the people, and for the people’ shall live always.
that men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
that sooner or later…somewhere…somehow…we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
that all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.
in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.[13]
GA Educator
April 24th, 2011
10:48 pm
Are you honestly blaming teachers for the way this atrocious government runs our country?? What in the hell does a 7th grade English teacher have to do with the Obama Administration borrowing almost half of what we spend in this God-forsaken country? As a high school math teacher, I assure you that the current spending formula is not something I would condone as acceptable or responsible… but then again, I’m just a teacher… apparently not fit to run a classroom, much less our country.
It is interesting, to say the least, that teachers take the blame for this treacherous economy. It must be our fault that we haven’t educated those in politics, and that we make WAY too much money for our federal and state governments to keep us on board. But hey, ‘It’s all about the children’. What a joke.
For those of you who have never stepped foot inside of a classroom as a teacher, have never been furloughed from work REPEATEDLY, or had health insurance hikes at an almost FIFTY PERCENT rate in a few short years with ZERO raise in sight, I’d say now is a great time to shove your foot in your mouth. Debating over something that you TRULY know nothing about is asinine.
Fled
April 25th, 2011
12:29 am
Had enough yet, Georgia teachers? Give up. Throw in the towel. Flee.
Education in Georgia is only going to get worse, and you all take it and take it and take it.
Opportunities await those daring enough to take them. My total fees for insurance this year: $0. My total cost for housing: $0. My total tax bill: $0. My salary: low six figures. My kids’ school: internationally recognized and truly excellent.
My teaching assignment: challenging in the extreme. As a teacher, I love a challenge, but I will not be part of a lost cause.
Interviews in Atlanta soon, for those who dare to do something different. For the rest, bend over and enjoy the ride.
Teaching is worse in FL
April 25th, 2011
5:35 am
@ToTo: I’m scratching my head over your post….the biggest jumps in our national debt seemed to follow the 2.5 wars we are currently fighting.
I get the Geithner thing. Why Obama hired a robber baron to look over our economy. I’ll never know.
Toto: High ho GOLD!
April 25th, 2011
11:39 am
The public schools have always promoted FED mythology. That’s why we are toast….
“When you think about it, it’s no wonder that Wall Street and the Fed hate gold. Gold exists outside the system. The Fed can’t manipulate or create gold the way they do Federal Reserve Notes. When gold rises, as it has been doing, it hoists a red flag over Wall Street, the Fed, and the economy….All the lies, corruption, and secrets of the Fed and the politicians can’t erase the dire message of gold.
Russell prophesies apocalyptically:
“The gold-bears will be defeated. It’s only a matter of time…We’re moving nearer and nearer to the edge of the hurricane. I can feel it in my bones…I can feel them caressing my face — the early breezes. They are blowing gently and hinting of the forthcoming gold hurricane that will sweep across the US and the planet with all the force and power that was seen when gold was first discovered at Sutter’s Creek during the California gold rush of 1849. The gold rush of the 2000s is in the wings.”
Richard Russell
Warrior Woman
April 25th, 2011
3:03 pm
HSTeacher said “Boiled down, the contracts make college educated people slaves (doing any work at all that is asked at a whim) for a calendar year at some target level of pay (which may be reduced at a whim for any reason at all) and oh yeah, the college educated people can be released during that so-called contract year for most any reason at all. The contract only locks that person into a slot such that the person cannot do anything else.”
You’ve just described employment at will. So now you have been offered a contract that treats you like most other professionals in Georgia.
“In Georgia education, the employer holds all of the cards. If the teacher quits, then the school system submits their name to the GA PSC and that employee loses their certification – which means that they cannot get another job in Georgia. This is certainly NOT how it works in industry!”
Ever heard of noncompete clauses? Quit and your barred for going to work for a competitor, much as teachers in the situation you described are barred from working for another school district.
“In Georgia, a teacher can be suddenly assigend to wash out garbage cans. If they refuse, then they can be deemed to have “broken the contract” and again the GA PSC can revoke their certification and that person can no longer work in GA.”
And private sector employees have clauses in their job descriptions that include “other duties as may be required.” So they can be assigned to wash out garbage cans and fired for insubordination if they refuse. Being fired for insubordination seems like a good way to close yourself off from the job market.
@senseandsensibility – “If a teacher is to be paid based on evaluations… I want to be able to evaluate the parents and students for doing their part as well.. anyone receiving government subsidies should have to be at every open house, every special ed meeting, required to check on their kids once a week in a progress reporting system.”
When you pay me, you can feel free to evaluate me and have it mean something. Perhaps if the vast majority of open houses and PTA meetings weren’t a complete waste of time, more parents might participate.
Elizabeth
April 25th, 2011
4:18 pm
“When you pay me, you can evaluate me”. I DO pay you. I pay your business because I use your products. Would you like to be paid by the number of products I buy, or how I am treated by your workers, or the exhorbitant prices of the goods and services you force me to buy– such as food, clothes,cars, houses, insurance, medical care, legal fees, etc.,–? If I paid you what I thought you and your goods and services are really worth– not the inflated prices you charge for these things– then you would make far less than I do. What? Not responsible for the prices, services,goods that your company/employer/business/sells? Too bad– you get to take the blame anyway–JUST LIKE TEACHERS DO EVERY DAY.
If you don’t like what you are getting, change where you go to shop.Take your spoiled child out of my classroom and homeschool him, send him to a private school, or do the no school route. When you have found out how it is to teach,most of you will come back because you can’t handle being with your little darlings that long and actually trying to TEACH, much less DISCIPLINE, the little darlings. Get him out of my class so I can teach the ones who want to learn and whose parents have no other option, just like I have no option about my health insurance, life insurance, working conditions, and the goods and services ( such as eating and living with a roof over my head) that I must purchase to live.
It is hopeless. As long as teachers are perceived to be the only problem in the classroom, NOTHING will change in education in this state.
JAT
April 25th, 2011
5:43 pm
Pay for performance is nothing but a fad that will last about 5 years. After the powers that be see how many teachers they’ve lost and can’t find any to replace them, it will go away.
Something else to consider
April 26th, 2011
12:02 am
@ Warrior Woman – I sure hope you don’t own your own business, since based on your interpretation of at-will employment you could be opening yourself up to some lawsuits. Contract employees are NOT at-will employees. The terms of the contract do govern the contract relationship, however, what teachers are upset about is the one-sidedness of the contract, something that’s not common in business. Why? Because in business a quality employee can walk over to the competition – we have no competition in education.
You might also want to research the concept of the “implied contract” – just because there isn’t a written contract, that doesn’t mean the employer can fire the employee without cause. Generally, an employer cannot fire employees in any way that constitutes discrimination or is a violation of state public policy. It also can’t contradict any actual or implied promise regarding the criteria or procedures for employee termination.
Also, a non-compete clause doesn’t mean that the person can’t EVER work in that industry again. It also doesn’t mean that their professional licensure is at risk – a lawyer won’t lose his license because he chose to go to another law firm. It has more to do with someone using trade secrets, company contacts and clients, or other confidential information that would give the employee an unfair advantage his former employer. There is plenty of professional contract work that does not include a CNC. Overly broad CNCs are generally found by the court to be unenforcable. Teachers don’t have non-compete clasues; they risk losing their licensure. Different animal.
Like others, I do not want to be evaluated on the kids performance on a test like the CRCT unless some things change. First, the test needs to be better, and it needs to measure what it purports to measure. Second, it needs to mean as much if not more to the students – they must be held accountable, too. You would realize that if you ever saw a 14 year old Christmas tree a test simply because they were tired of testing and knew it didn’t count. Third, students need to be remediated if they are below grade level. Not retention – that doesn’t work. But if a kids can’t read in the third grade, putting him in the third grade, crossing fingers, and hoping for the best isn’t a good plan either…and that’s what happens in virtually every school in this country…no child left behind, my tookus. Finally, there needs to be a way to exempt students who transfer too much and are absent too much. Both of those reflect on the parents, not the teachers, and both of those cause huge gaps in a child’s education. You can’t get your kids out of bed and to school on time, then I don’t want to have your kid’s score count for me.
Of course all that’s a fool’s paradise, cause everyone knows it’s all the whiny teachers fault – and that’s why I’m leaving at the end of the year and going back to the wonderful, fun, less stress “real-world.”