AJC teacher quality series: Georgia’s Fair Dismissal Law makes it costly to fire problem educators
Today’s installment of the AJC series on teacher quality in the Sunday AJC concentrates on teacher job protections and the obstacles to firing problem teachers.
I have found great disagreement among education leaders on how hard it is to remove an ineffective or problem teacher from the classroom. Some school chiefs tell me it is a matter of careful documentation and can be done, while others say it’s a major undertaking that saps all their time and energy and still ends up in court battles.
In the fifth entry in the ongoing AJC teacher quality series, reporters describe a recent tribunal hearing to fire an Atlanta teacher for incompetence and insubordination: Located at the district’s headquarters, the hearing room is staged like a traditional courtroom: In front sits a hearing officer, paid for by the district to oversee the proceedings. To the officer’s right: three tribunal members, designated by the school board, who in Atlanta can each bill up to $150 a day, plus expenses. To the officer’s left, a court stenographer who typically charges $100 a day plus $7 per transcript page. And facing the officer and tribunal sits the school district’s attorney, behind stacks of papers that hint at the hours spent investigating the case.
The AJC is making this occasional series on teacher quality available only to subscribers. You can read today’s full article by picking up a copy of Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper’s iPad app. Here is a link to the AJC digital options, including an E-subscription, which gives you the actual paper online.
Here is a link to our Part 1 discussion here on the blog.
Here is a link to our Part 2 discussion.
Here is a link to our Part 3 discussion:
Here is a link to our Part 4 discussion:
And here are some findings from today’s installment of the teacher quality series:
–The Atlanta cheating scandal is shining a spotlight on teacher job protections, which were abolished in 2000 under then-Gov. Roy Barnes but restored three years later by his successor, Gov. Sonny Perdue.
–Atlanta taxpayers are spending $1 million a month to keep about 130 educators named in the report on paid leave while the district prepares legal cases needed to fire them. The school district expects to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more in legal fees. That’s because schools must build legal cases against teachers with three or more years of experience, who can only be let go for eight allowable reasons. Teachers can appeal their firing all the way to the state Supreme Court.
–Supporters of the law say teachers need protection against unwarranted accusations or angry parents, or from the political maneuvering of meddling school board members. But critics say the laws are an impediment to Georgia’s attempt to improve the quality of the teaching workforce. As the pressure to improve test scores increases, they argue, so must the flexibility to remove bad teachers.
–The time and financial commitment required to fire a teacher in Georgia means only a small number of teachers in metro Atlanta districts - less than 1 percent of the workforce – are let go in any given year.
–It often takes a year to build a case against a teacher for low performance, but by law the case usually can’t include actions from previous school years. In other words, once a teacher signs a contract for the new school year, problems from the past can’t be used as evidence to fire them.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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164 comments Add your comment
Another Math Teacher
October 9th, 2011
5:02 pm
school observer:
“Good teachers don’t need protection because they do their jobs and they do it well.”
When you make statements such as this, you lose all credibility.
Education Insider
October 9th, 2011
5:04 pm
One would think that you would do everything in your power not to hire a bad teacher. Unfortunately since the only criteria schools use to hire is a college transcript, a teaching certificate and a “good gut feeling”, they hire nearly anyone who shows up. Teachers come in to little to no induction process. They have job descriptions, if there is one, that rarely match expectations. They are rarely observed. Little attention is paid to putting together the right mentor with the right mentee.
Additionally schools reluctance to press charges when they do find wrong doing allow those who steal from the system and thus from children to continue to muddle the candidate pool. Yesterday I found where the “new principal” hired by a local school in my area was removed from his previous position as the principal of a charter school for financial hanky panky. Since that would not show up on a background check we now recommend to our clients doing a simple Google check. That is how the board member in Desoto, TX found out about Kathy Augustine…who made $188K for one days’ work.
jd
October 9th, 2011
5:09 pm
If you have to fire someone, you made a bad hiring decision — Focus on improving the hiring and the rest will take care of itself.
Oh, and that means we have to fire the folks (the board and the super) who made those hiring decisions!
robert nash
October 9th, 2011
5:34 pm
why can’t we all just join a government union at some level and we will be taken care of from cradle to
grave..see how easy it is to fix all our problems… retire early with great benefits and 50 or 60 days off a year with pay…
lovestoteach
October 9th, 2011
5:38 pm
I teach in a rural county in south Georiga and my husband is a school administrator. He works tirelessly to try and do what is best for his students, faculty, and community. Most nights are a warmed up dinner for him, then back to school for whatever he needs to be at, while my principal leaves school at 3:30 after having turned out all the lights and locked the door to the office! My husband has gotten rid of teachers that needed to find another career, but only after working with them through PDP, mentoring, and support. I believe that all teachers have worked with other teachers who were less than effective. If you want to know who the good teachers are, look at whose classes teachers put their own children. However, please don’t blame all administrators for the problems of firing incompetent teachers. As mad as I get knowing that I am getting the same pay as a moron done the hall, it galls me to no end to know that my principal is paid more than my husband who does a far superior job. But as has been mentioned by other posters, too many systems are seen as an employment opprotunity for whole families, friends, and assorted bubbas. When you have supers who have 3 years of teaching experience(and that was in PE), I guess not much will change. Education needs to change to reflect the increasing demands on our country and our world. It will take courage, insight, and intelligence to accomplish. I am not sure we have that in our current leaders.
lovestoteach
October 9th, 2011
5:39 pm
should have read “down”
catlady
October 9th, 2011
5:55 pm
When I saw the headline, my immediate rejoinder was “Bull****”. There are poor teachers. Those who are allowed to remain are allowed to remain by poor administrators, too lazy or clueless to do the work. There are other teachers who are drummed out to make room for favored ones (coach’s wife), or for family members, or because they challenge the poor administrator.
What I have seen, in almost 40 years, is teachers who have been too cowed, too browbeaten, those whose input has been too summarily dismissed. I have, during that time, been around about a dozen who should have been dismissed. Wish I had the same proportionate experience with everyone else!
bootney farnsworth
October 9th, 2011
6:00 pm
for every 1 competent administrator, there are a dozen bulling autocrats. yes, the current system makes it a pain to fire a poor teacher. but it is the ONLY protection the rest have from the tyranny of the incompetent political animals called administration
bootney farnsworth
October 9th, 2011
6:02 pm
@ robert nash
where do I find this mythical union?
I’d like to join it.
oh, wait – there isn’t one.
school observer
October 9th, 2011
6:05 pm
@another math teacher. Good teachers don’t need protection because they do their jobs, but if they do, due process takes care of that. Besides administrators are usually too preoccupied with the bad ones. If you read my comment you will see that I did concede that incompetence is at every level. I wouldn’t want to leave the many bad administrators out.
bootney farnsworth
October 9th, 2011
6:07 pm
@ school observer
in what universe?
bootney farnsworth
October 9th, 2011
6:09 pm
ultimately, all this boils down to a simple point:
in Georgia we don’t value our own product.
when you pay teachers this poorly and have such low
standards for hiring…
you get what you get
Mac
October 9th, 2011
6:10 pm
Keeping under performing teachers who have no clue how to manage a classroom is MORE COSTLY, and our children are paying the price!!!
Courtney
October 9th, 2011
6:14 pm
Bad teachers get fired. Bad principals get promoted to the front Office.
Trustbuster
October 9th, 2011
6:16 pm
Enter your comments here
The Fair Dismissal Act does not protect incompetent eductors. Georgia teachers have to pass certification exams and often attend training sessions on a regular basis to maintain their teaching credentials. The problem today is money which has always been an issue in the educational system. Increased pay and better benefits will increase teacher quality. Most professions pay more than education despite the downsizing and lay-offs in the private sector.
According to Diane Ratvitch standardized test scores are roughly the same in right-to-work states as union states. Very little disparity exists between performance and test scores. Compare how much money is being spent to warehouse an inmate in Georgia Corrections to educating a child grades K-12.
If you remember two years ago a budget shortfall triggered teacher lay-offs across the state. Some local districts manufactured the crisis in order to nonrenew educators that were unpopular with the system leaders. The Pelham City district was one such example. Now the district has become embroiled in a lawsuit with a former employee acting as a pro se litigant. According to the plantiff’s documentation the teacher was laid-off under false pretenses alledgedly due to budget cuts when no such fiscal crisis existed. The lawsuit was filed a year ago in the US Middle Georgia District Court. Some of charges lodged against the school district include a violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Georgia Open Records Act and misuse of public funds by a former football coach.
MB
October 9th, 2011
6:35 pm
Pincipaled @ 4:02pm “MB. Believe I said that many are weak. Your new principal will back down one the CO staff and lawyers back him down. Wait and see. Our hands are tied like you wouldn’t belief in many ( not all) cases.”
You may have MEANT to say many are weak, but what you actually said was: “Unfortunatley this is the reason so many principals seem weak or vindictive.” ARE and SEEM are very different, particularly in context of your post, Thanks for the concession that many are now political climbers; that was exactly the case there. Three years of IRR “classroom experience” did NOT qualify that man to be an instructional leader.
And I doubt your prediction will come true – the new principal has already done some serious clearing out of teachers at two other schools in our district and people know HE means business. (Most of the deadwood at those schools became aware that they needed to move on without the need for non-renewal action. I’ve know of several cases where admins don’t have to go through the entire process; they monitored closely and actually started the documentation..Sadly, much as with children, idle threats reinforce rather than eliminate negative behaviors.)
MB
October 9th, 2011
6:37 pm
Correction: I’ve KNOWN of several cases where admins didn’t have to go through the entire process. (Obviously reading glasses necessary, lol.)
Another Math Teacher
October 9th, 2011
6:40 pm
school observer :
I had a nice long reply ready to go but I’m just going to assume you worked in a district/school with good administrators. I did not have that luxury. Many do not have that luxury. You probably believe that good teachers are protected, but that is just not true. Due process only slows it down.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
October 9th, 2011
6:41 pm
The costs involved in removing ineffective teachers pales in comparison to the damage done to our kids and their futures by such teachers.
P.S. Are the financial costs of removing poor teachers really that great? Or is “high cost” the excuse used by effete school boards and their attorneys to avoid displaying their school systems’ “dirty laundry” in full public view?
Retired teacher
October 9th, 2011
6:58 pm
I had an evaluation one time that was ALL NI. But, I knew the law–and you can not observe a teacher and evaluate them while showing a Video. How to Cut Hair–was the name of it in a Cosmetology HS class. The administrator was new and had no idea what he was doing. Of course, I had it overturned. New evaluation and that time all S–and I was reading a test aloud to a group of students–CAN NOT evaluate while giving a test (or on a field trip either). Without Title 20 rights–you can fire a teacher just because your cousin needs a job.
Thank You Sonny for restoring Teacher Rights. I believe only one state does not have them.
Thank you Michael for all those Teacher’s Rights Workshops.
Due Process is necessary — not always for “bad” teachers but for vindictive Administrators, parents, etc. Seldom has anything to do with instruction. Plenty of APS teachers might not be guilty; some have already been cleared. Tried to tell for years and no one would listen.
old teacher
October 9th, 2011
7:03 pm
Here is a prime example of the necessity of due process for teachers:
Many years ago in a rural Georgia county, the superintendent and some of the school board members were set on closing down the largest high school in the county and consolidating it with a school in a less populated area.
The residents of the area were very upset and planned to protest at the school board meeting. Many of the affected teachers were also planning to attend the board meeting protest since their jobs would be affected–not to mention that many of these teachers were also parents or grandparents of the students who would be affected.
This superintendent threatened (in a regional newspaper) to fire any teachers who came to protest against his plan. Fortunately, he was unable to carry out that threat because of due process rights.
Unfortunately, public school is highly potliticized, and any time politics are involved corruption and abuse of power are not far behind. No one in this country should ever have to fear losing his job by exercising his constitutional rights. Due process protections are necessary.
MB
October 9th, 2011
7:07 pm
Dr. Spinks: Let’s do some math. Someone who has averaged a salary of $76,565 a year over the past three years (according to open.ga.gov) was having her poor performance documented by other teachers more than twelve years ago. If adequate administrative follow-through had taken place, and she had moved to another field, the system likely would have hired someone with much less experience.
For ease of calculation, let’s say that replacement person would have earned an average of $40K per year (year 5 on our current salary schedule) and the existing employee, since she was on the plateau over the 22-year mark throughout that time, averaged $75K. Looking at a twelve-year period, her salary totalled $900,000 while another person’s salary total would have been $480,000. See what procrastination can cost? This school could have had at minimum a competent person in place and saved the system $420,000 over 12 years. And the impact on hundreds – no thousands – of students: incalculable!
It's what Maureen wanted
October 9th, 2011
7:12 pm
Notice how many cases of GOOD teachers being protected by Fair Dismissal have been mentioned here, and yet those who would abolish Fair Dismissal have NOTHING to say about protecting these teacher from retaliation?
Oh but I forgot, according to Maureen retaliation is so rare, it’s hardly worth mentioning.
@Retired Teacher
October 9th, 2011
7:17 pm
As bad as your observation experience sounds, imagine an “observation” with more than a dozen NI that allegedly took place when the students were at the OPPOSITE end of the building with ANOTHER teacher.
And people question why teachers feel they need Fair Dismissal? Seriously?
TruthBe
October 9th, 2011
8:19 pm
So does hiring their sorry a$$es. The Atlanta Public School Sysytem is a joke. Beverly Hall should be in jail with the other corrupt teachers. And the Atlanta School Board and it’s Counselors also. Clayton and dekalb counties too.
HMS
October 9th, 2011
8:33 pm
–It often takes a year to build a case against a teacher for low performance, but by law the case usually can’t include actions from previous school years. In other words, once a teacher signs a contract for the new school year, problems from the past can’t be used as evidence to fire them.
The second phrase is simply not true. If the documentation supports the dismissal, it can easily extend back more than one year. It often does take more than a year to establish that the teacher shows a pattern of incompetence, insubordination, willful neglect of duties, etc, and has been given adequate opportunity and/or support to correct the behavior, and has failed to make adequate progress.
The process may appear cumbersome, but it is necessary to protect teachers from arbitrary dismissal for political or personal reasons not related to job performance.
school observer
October 9th, 2011
9:04 pm
@bootney farnsworth.In an alternate universe, where we all hold every one accountable for the education of our children.
Dr. John Trotter
October 9th, 2011
9:45 pm
@ Tired of Mess: No, it’s not incompetent teachers who keep us busy; it’s the incompetent and mean-spirited administrators. Just a slight mental adjustment…then you might understand the problem. There are indeed some incompetent teachers, but this is not the overwhelming problem. The overwhelming problems in public education are (1) defiant and disruptive students; (2) irate and irresponsible parents; and (3) angry and abusive administrators. Throw systematic cheating onto the heap and then you have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Public Education.
why
October 9th, 2011
10:28 pm
OK Maureen, you are airing this article on the difficulty of firing inept teachers. So how big a deal is it anyway in the total scope? What percent of teachers (other than APC recent scandal) are we talking about anyway? Is it 10%, 20%, 70% of the teaching force? Is it 1%, 5%? Give us a magnitude so we can see just how rotten teachers are in Georgia. We know there are cases, but how big is the problem? How many? And how are these protections different from firing individuals in companies, corporations, government officials, police officers, or politicians? Trust me, I know for a fact that firing or “releasing” a teacher because student headcount does not justify the position is a very easy thing and that is how most teachers are let go. Tell us the whole story and especially why teachers are singled out for this type of story. It can only be because there is a huge number of incompetent teachers who deserve to be fired. That’s the implication. I’m sure you and the AJC have the data to support the rationale for this headline story, otherwise you are just participating in the current effort to bring down the teaching profession and blame teachers for the downfall of the current generation. Tell us Maureen, what motivates this story? Boosting the AJC publicity? Tell us true.
Maureen Downey
October 9th, 2011
10:39 pm
@Why, Not sure of your point as to why teachers are “singled out for this type of story.” Over the years, the AJC has done investigatory series on mortgage companies, DOT, car dealers, prisons, child welfare, hospitals, insurance companies, banks and legislators. (Those are the series that come to mind, but there are many others.)
Education is the largest investment made by taxpayers, so it should not be surprising that the AJC would look at teacher quality since personnel represents 80 percent of education costs.
Maureen
Political Mongrel
October 9th, 2011
11:05 pm
I have repeatedly seen teachers let go by administrators who were willing to do the correct paperwork and who knew that they would be backed up. I have also seen two administrators who repeatedly tried to push out teachers they didn’t like but couldn’t document their “errors”. The laws that are in place work the majority of the time for administrators who bother to follow proper procedure AND ACTUALLY CAN FIND LEGITIMATE THINGS TO DOCUMENT OTHER THAN DISAGREEMENTS OVER TEACHING STYLES OR PERSONALITY CONFLICTS. Administrators who complain that they can’t do it or it’s too difficult should be examined for their effectiveness and their commitment to doing the jobs they were hired for.
Political Mongrel
October 9th, 2011
11:07 pm
Sorry. Above the two administrators who couldn’t document while trying to boot personnel were red-flagged, examined, and given the boot themselves. I didn’t complete the thought.
Political Mongrel
October 9th, 2011
11:11 pm
@Robert Nash: I don’t know where you come from, but the situation you describe does not exist in Georgia for teachers. Period.
Gwinnnettian
October 10th, 2011
12:35 am
Dr. Trotter, You are ingreat form tonight!
Dr. John Trotter
October 10th, 2011
1:20 am
I picked up a copy of the AJC in Publix this evening. I read Jaime’s article. Very misleading. Each time she mentioned the appeals, the implication was that teachers are paid during this appeal process. This is not the case. Once the local school board fires a teacher, the teacher’s pay stops, even if the teacher appeals the case. Using APS as an example of the costs of firing teachers is also skewed. Everything will cost more in Atlanta because of the incompetence of the schoo system’s central office. The folks in the central office drag out everything. They don’t get in a hurry about anything. Remember that this is the school system that “lost” $75,000,000.00 of E-rate monies.
It was obvious that the AJC had an agenda. The AJC already had the outcome determined. The quotes and references were just filler. The clear agenda is that there is an agenda to do away with due process for teaches in Georgia. The AJC will “help” in this effort. Teachers, realize this: The AJC is not your friend. This is the latest numbskull attempt to improve public education. May I repeat our yet to be disputed mantra at MACE? You cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
October 10th, 2011
2:15 am
Dr. John,
I have a specially-designed pitchfork.
Carpetbagger
October 10th, 2011
5:14 am
“You need to put your daughter in public school. We need families like yours to help public education and turn it around.”
That was four years ago and I nixed that idea immediately. I’m glad I did. I guarantee that the debate of poor Georgia education will be around for years to come. This has been going on for decades and what are the results? Up north they would be rioting over this issue.
David Hunt
October 10th, 2011
6:07 am
There needs to be a revolution in the processes of teacher and administration evaluation standards. Until that happens, the conflict and finger pointing will continue with little or no real progress. The current system is ‘top-down’ where one supposedly competent person in an upper level position determines the value/competence/promotion status of his or her subordinates. It is the common practice on industry in all but a few rare instances.
The Gates Foundation is engaged in developing and testing a ‘bottom-up’ evaluation methodology that is showing very promising results. The theory is simple. Students know who the great teachers are. Scientifically survey 300 kids, weighting responses based on the individual student’s academic performance, and you have an INFORMED evaluation. Allow teachers to evaluate their administrators and administration focus and efforts will naturally evolve to ones where SERVICE and SUPPORT become the hallmarks of administration.
Just take the traditional organizational chart and turn it upside down. The superintendent is there to serve his key operation staff … central office exists to serve the local school administration … the school admin staff exists to serve the teachers in their critical roll with the true patrons of our education efforts, the students. Trust our children and the processes of well designed scientific surveys and they will tell us who the great teachers are.
We need to THINK our way out of the current mess.
Mike
October 10th, 2011
8:04 am
The real solution? Until which time the federal government exits the arena of our children’s education, GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. There is no other answer.
Parent watching closely
October 10th, 2011
8:09 am
Fulton County School System is supposed to have their petition for Charter System Status out any day now…in it, one of the main ideas is NEW AND IMPROVED DISMISSAL PROCEDURES FOR TEACHERS. It sounds like they plan to waive Fair Dismissal Law. So, watch the good teachers who have the flexibility to go elsewhere depart asap. Thanks, FCSS, for promoting a policy that will leave us with those who aren’t able to find work elsewhere! See the talent drain away and watch those of us with means enroll our children elsewhere.
What I can’t stand about Jamie’s article is how many times it said teachers can be dismissed for ONLY eight reasons. Seems to me those eight reasons are fairly encompassing, especially with the first two being incompetence and insubordination and the last one being something about any other just and sufficient cause. Though it may be more cumbersome than firing the burger flipper at McDonald’s, my sense is that GOOD administrators who have courage and are WILLING TO TAKE THEIR TIME, PROVIDE A PDP, AND DOCUMENT, coupled with a STRONG Human Resources dept that they know will back them up, can fire teachers who are not successful without an overabundance of trouble (just like many big corporations will jump through the right hoops as they carefully fire). I also wonder where the stats are on what percent of teachers actually take legal action beyond their right to hearing? I bet it is a very low number yet that “fear” and their own incompetence/lack of courage is what keeps the teachers who should be let go hanging around. We need to look at administrators (as others have mentioned) and the role of the big fat salary takers in HR who aren’t doing their jobs.
catlady
October 10th, 2011
8:26 am
Dr. Trotter: On target again! I am also highly distressed with what seems to me to be either deliberate bias or ignorance by the AJC on public school matters. And it seems to be increasing!
November 6, 2012
October 10th, 2011
9:11 am
Folks, we need to start paying attention to what’s happening.
Remember to VOTE RESPONSIBILITY ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012
After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said:
‘Let me see if I’ve got this right.
‘You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.
‘You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.
‘You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.
‘You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.
‘You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.
‘You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.
‘You want me to do all this and then you tell me . . . I Can’t Pray!
teacher&mom
October 10th, 2011
9:45 am
@Dr. John & catlady:
As I left church yesterday morning, the following advertisement blared from my radio…”Incompetent teachers cost the tax payers millions. Pick up today’s copy of the AJC for the entire story.”
Most people are NOT going to rush to the news stand to buy a copy. Instead, the AJC and Ms. Downey placed another nail in the coffin of teachers and public opinion. The impression left by the sensationalized advertisement was incredibly harmful, uninformed, and off-base.
art
October 10th, 2011
10:03 am
In the real world if you fail to produce you are fired !
Teachers should have the same standard.
November 6, 2012
October 10th, 2011
10:10 am
@catlady
October 10th, 2011
8:26 am
Dr. Trotter: On target again! I am also highly distressed with what seems to me to be either deliberate bias or ignorance by the AJC on public school matters. And it seems to be increasing!
To Catlady – Several words come to mind – Liberalism, Arne Duncan, George Soros and lastly, but certainly not leastly – A muslim, anti-american socialist in the WH that is using Chicago thuggery to try to control the media, including the very liberal AJC (on the AJC, he’s doing a great job).
Remember, VOTE RESPONSIBLY ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012
Have to be anonymous...I'm being monitored at my school
October 10th, 2011
10:14 am
Art-
Fair enough.
What is my product? Explain to me the “product” of education.
What does it look like? What does it do? Are they all the same? If they are different, do I get fired? If they are all the same, do I get a raise?
Dr. John Trotter
October 10th, 2011
10:16 am
@ art: You are making an assumption. You assume that because an administrative a$$es who is more bent on power than quality teaching only recommends the non-renewal of a bad teacher’s contract. Wrong assumption. Many, many times good teachers are terminated simply because they refuse to be mindless boobs for an egomaniacal administrator or refuse to put out sexually for him or her or refuse to go along with systematic cheating. I know that this may shock you, but this is really what occurs in some of our schools. Due process protects good teachers from bad administrators.
I hope that this will post. Second try.
Dr. John Trotter
October 10th, 2011
10:18 am
Please forgive the typo above. I was trying to tone down the post so that it would post. Ha!
APS Dedicated Teacher Still
October 10th, 2011
10:23 am
Thank God for people like Dr. Trotter and Dr. Craig Spinks.
When you’re an older teacher and the deck gets stacked against you, its hard to fight back. But, fight we do and especially when students are wronged along with us. And my young whipper snappers, we get sick…we are older after all. But, we still have to work just like you. So, don’t get mad because we have to see the doctor a little more; we try to get bandaged up as quickly as possible so that we can return and fight again.
At some point, you have to stop worrying about your job and just do the right thing. If you are a good teacher, do your best. What goes around comes around; look at the Dr. Hall regime.
There are a number of people out there who cannot teach. They can gripe but they cannot teach. If they could, they would be in the classroom. They want to drive good teachers, especially the ones who have the audacity to talk back, out of the classroom. We who care, …do get stressed out, sick and saddled with stress related illnesses. I say to you, don’t give up and don’t listen to nay sayers.
Many administrators cannot teach. If they could, they would still be in the classroom. Strong teachers who don’t bow down to crazy administrators become targets. We get nit-picked to death…NI’d and our contracts are not renewed. No one wants to look at their very own dirty laundry, APS case in point.
And, YES; we do get RETALIATED against. And yes, we do finally sometimes sucuumb and just resign. It is the only way to stay sane, sometimes…
Anonmom
October 10th, 2011
10:49 am
fyi — DCSS’ legal bills appear to be approaching around $20 million out of local tax dollars…. it’s a lot of unchecked dollars that could be going into the classroom if we had a better system of checks and balances and media that was a bit more inquisitive on what was really happening….