- Ron Hargrave becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Operations.
- Dale Ellis becomes Inerim Associate Superintendent of Secondary Education.
- Bill Long becomes Interim Executive Director of Human Resources. (Mr. Long's previous position of Director of Recruitment and Retention would not be filled at this time.)
- Dr. Melanie Taylor becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and she will be running the Learning Division.
- Brenda Clark will be moving to the Race Street office to work with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hargrave on several projects.
- Mr. Johnson also said that Melissa Bartlett would be leaving in September as her husband has accepted a new position and she would be moving with him to their new home.
Mr. Johnson went on to say that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would save about one hundred thousand dollars and redirect about seventy-five thousand dollars. What Mr. Johnson did not say is how this seventy-five thousand dollars was to be redirected. Perhaps some of these individuals received raises as they moved into their new positions. If so, it would probably more than offset the 2% furloughs that were put in place last month. Mr. Johnson did say that when the new superintendent is named, these people would go back to their old positions.
I too wonder if there were raises involved with these moves. If he can re-direct $75,000 will this money be used to hire back teacher assistants? It certainly is a question that needs answering.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding (from rumors only) that Ron Hargrave, Melanie Taylor, Bill Long and Dale Ellis got raises totaling about $45,000.
ReplyDeleteIt's my understanding that administrator pay is paid locally, while state funds (or a lack there of) is what TAs would be paid from.
ReplyDeleteDon't think they can use one to cover the other.
Administrators are not paid locally. They are paid by the state according to a state formula, and supplemented by local funds.
ReplyDeleteI'm an administrator, and I'm paid locally. We're all paid in various ways- some state, some federal, some local, etc. And while an administrator may be paid by the state, additional money can be 'thrown in' from local funds.
ReplyDelete7:24 I thought TA's were paid by Federal funding and that funding couldn't be used for anything else.
ReplyDeleteTry calling the county office for salary information instead of gossiping and wondering and spreading rumors. It's worse than a freaking hen house on here. Bock bock bock bock bock.
ReplyDeleteAugust 11, 2009 11:12 PM :
ReplyDeleteRelief is just a click away...buh-bye
I'd rather stay here and watch the circus.
ReplyDeleteIt is time to pull togehter as a team and discuss our issues together without fear. We are here for the students. There are issues that should have been settled a long time ago, but were not. Let's all start with a positive attitude that this is going to be a great school year. Everyone try to listen to each other and be professionals, and use your co-operative skills. Have a great year!!
ReplyDeleteI think you are all wrong with the raises unless they got a short term raise to handle the different work load that is now required by those administrators until a superintendent is selected...There have been more shifts and moves that you aren't aware of. Changes have come to ISS!!
ReplyDeleteAugust 12, 2009 1:35 PM
ReplyDeleteAny details?
Yeah lets be anonymous and discuss our issues without fear. sounds like a plan.
ReplyDeleteWhen we know the trust factor is there, we will not have to be anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that Denise Holidays position has been taken by the IF at TES. She is a very nice person, but very close to the Holidays. She really believes in Baldrige. So how will our lives really change?
ReplyDeleteHow will we know when the trust factor is there if none of us step out to test it?
ReplyDelete6:37 I'm lost on the facts of your post. If the IF is a very nice person how could she be close to the Hollidays whom you apparently feel were ruining your life? Could it be that the Hollidays really weren't the evil people they have been made out to be? ISS surely fell apart when they left. Just look at the chaos!
ReplyDeleteWhat chaos? What's currently happening are the normal transitional activities. This doesn't mean things are falling apart.
ReplyDelete6:54 I didn't say the Holidays ruined my life or evil. However, I do differ with some of the things that have been done by them. She is a nice person when not in her IF role. When she is in her IF role, she adheres very strictly to all Baldrige principles. I believe that some of these things are useful but I would like to have my professionalism back so that I can use what I find useful in my class. My reason for posting was to give this info. Why is her position being filled? Was it opened to all IF's? I am afraid things are not going to change.
ReplyDeleteThe other IF coach is being relocated which means more money just went into the CO. You can't break contracts people so complain as you may and they will now add an IF to the CO payroll and make another teacher an IF. hmmmm that just added to the CO pay load! no changes here just using "change" as an excuse to add CO positions
ReplyDeleteI think it is good she is getting out, the IFs will be back into the classroom by next summer, it is too late for Mr. Johnson to return them to the classroom or they'd have to lay off 32 teachers.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange banks and other businesses can let people go even with contracts, but ISS can't. If we were acting like a business before, then that should be the way it is. Businesses are businessess and schools are indeed different, aren't they ?
ReplyDeleteBusinesses aren't bound by all of the laws that schools are. Those same laws protect us. That's why we enjoy the job security, as tentative as that seems at times, that you don't see in business. Have to take the bad with the good.
ReplyDeleteBaldrige was made for businesses not schools.
ReplyDeleteTeachers have been saying that schools are not businesses, because our students and children are totally different. They are unique human beings and you can not turn teachers or students all into the same clones. We all are made out of different molds, so teachers have been changing with every classroom of students.
To teach you need to be very adaptable.
ISS Teachers and Assistants (Attention)
ReplyDeleteYes, and we are going to have to be very adaptable this year. Our assistants are to do no clerical work, so teachers ,that means you will be grading all papers, putting them in the gradebook, filing them, and giving feedback to 24 students. When teachers do whole group, such as calendar time and storytime, my assistant is not to runoff any papers or help check any papers , so I guess I do this in my spare time.
When we do a PDSA on both reading and math, plus a L to J chart (supposed to be done every week), then my assistant will get to float to other clasrooms to help other students. Yes, and that is not even counting the state's own assessments which we need to get done by the second week of school. DRAs are not done until the last 20 days of the quarter. Of course, we will probably have a baseline assessment, the first week of school. Then before we know it, it is time for a CFA, and progress reports have to get done because 4 and a half weeks have passed. I hope by then ,I have kept up with 2 PDSAs a week, and the L to J chart.
I do hope we get our basal reading, new math adoption, science , social studies, writing, character lessons ,etc. in there somewhere.
We have to get our 20 minute exercise or outside time in, and lunch, bathroom time, etc. in. That is not counting, during the day I have to get the new remediation program in.
Then I need to get those papers graded, and get feedback to each and every student.
I liked to get some fun and creative time in.
I need to get my STAR testing in and my AR reading started. I need more time!!
I had to go get my classroom ready before I was ever supposed to report back to work, because the first day(Wednesday) is spent meeting all day going over procedures, and some of us know them by heart.
The next day is open house. The room has to be ready. Finally I get my student list. Then Friday is another meeting day. I think Monday, we can work in our classrooms or meet together as a grade level and discuss how we are going to teach the curriculum.
First day then comes on Tuesday.Good-bye parents, we, as a class, have to get our mission statement ready, our rules made and gone over, and get the baseline test done, then get started on the state assessments. Perhaps, we will get to reading, writing and math sometime. Planning on having a great year. I hope I at least get to see my wonderful assistant sometime, too. But, dear assistant, please don't do any clerical work that really would help a classroom teacher so that he or she could teach, at all, that is the new rule at our school.
Right now, I need my pacing guide, my essentials, and my syllabus and I'll get my lesson plan book done.
I just hope I have enough paper for my reading series, and I need to get all this run-off. Oops, and I think this new math needs lots of review ran off, too. Oh well, I guess it is going to be a very busy year. Oh what dreams(or nightmares) ,I am going to have. I need volunteers so please get your criminal checks done soon. Hurry over to your nearest school . Thanks!
To the above poster: your lists of tasks is absolutely dead-on-target!! I now teach in a middle school, but for many years I taught in an elementary school, sometimes a double grade. I don't know how you get everything done and still teach! My hat is off to you! My job is tough, but I at least have a "planning period". You do not, sorry to say.
ReplyDeleteBut you have a job. 15% of Iredell County doesn't but would love to have one. What about the students whose parents lost jobs and worry about eating and having a roof over their heads. This blog is supposed to be about them??? But I see much more complaining about the job of teaching on here than about students.
ReplyDeleteYou know what I have been a parent, a coach, a free tutor , a Bible School teacher, a teacher, Sunday school teacher, a PTO officer , a member of a SIT team, an NCAE rep, a donator of days to those who need medical days, and still am. I am not complaining, I am just listing. My students will be on level or above level at the end of the year, and always are. I can tell you right now, my students come first and I will get it all done.
ReplyDeleteYou must not be doing anything or perhaps you are a CEO or even an IF! I am not the only one who has a job, but I guess if you have a job , you are expected to do more than those that do not, and you should not open your mouth at all, because you are not supposed to have an opinion. You are ones of those ones who expect everyone else to do the jobs while you just sit around and twitter. Wake up.
4:42
ReplyDeleteYour point about the unemployment rate and the affects are well understood. I don't believe you will find any teacher who would not be empathetic to that fact.
However, teachers are writing about things that impact their students. They are listing their job descriptions and demonstrating how the creation of a matrix of extra things to do simply to show on a chart or report has a negative impact on their students. I think if you were to interview teachers that most would be in agreement the time allocated to students has diminished. This is very upsetting to many teachers as they do understand what should be done to benefit their students. It really should not be perceived as complaints about the job. These teachers understand that extra duties and tasks mandated by the Baldrige model actually interferes with what many consider to best for students.
Thank you so much for understanding the teacher's point of view. It is the time element for any instruction, and those who do not have a classroom do not understand or do not care to understand. They just act as if it is nothing but complaining , and it is not. It is concern for the students who have been neglected for the purpose of extra data. Teachers need to be in their classrooms teaching and some assessment is essential. It is the overload of assessments that interfer with learning.
ReplyDeleteI do sympathize with those who do not have jobs. At this time I do have two sons unemployed. As my husband says at his job where many have been laid-off that the ones who are left also have a burden. The higher-ups do seem to think that they can add more work, because others still live with the fear of losing their jobs. This is a very sad situation, and do not think that our students do not feel depressed when their families are struggling to survive.
ReplyDeleteClassroom teachers see this and feel for their students.
But don't forget the CO gets a raise for having extra duties, TA's and teachers do not.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely the way it works. Those that can dictate get the raises and do less work.
ReplyDeleteAs the world goes on, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Someday this has to change.
From a teacher's point of view, here is how it works...if things go well, and test scores rise--then the rise is due to teachers implementing the brilliant plan of those in charge (and NOT due to exceptional teaching).
ReplyDeleteIf things do NOT go well, and test scores stay the same, or drop--then it is because teachers just didn't do what they were told to do correctly.
So, in summation, to use a colloquial saying--teachers are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. Meanwhile, those in positions of power keep getting raises.
I agree completely with all of you teachers. While teachers were staying late, working at home, and trying to find the time to plan lessons that encouraged learning, and actually teaching, the" Baldrige crew" was coming up with new and time consuming ideas for over worked teachers. No one ever offered raises for all the extra work and time off task that these new ideas required. Meanwhile, last year the leader of the "Baldrige crew" gave raises averaging from 17% up to 40%. Now some of the same ones who got huge raises last year, are now getting another raise because their responsibilites have changed. But I forgot, they are giving up 2% of that. Poor things.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what, it will always be in the teacher's hands. All students may learn differently ,and the group of students can be different each year. Sometimes it may be a harder group and then ,the teacher has to work extra to help those students learn. Sometimes you have to be the parent, the nurse, the psychologist, the counselor or a friend before you can even teach. Today's students may have all the technology in the world at their hands ,but then at home, noone really cares if they get an education. The teacher does really have to do it all, and be it all.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget also that the Baldrige crew got time away from the Central Office "attending conferences or presenting at conferences" while teachers and assistants paid for their own workshops or did without. Who was doing their jobs while they were out of town? Think of all of the preparation that is involved in preparing a presentation. Sure that was done on ISS time as well. Not really sure who paid for all the travel and hotels??????
ReplyDeleteIt is time to cut some of the testing or assessing because we are burning out students.
ReplyDeleteThe first week should be to get to know our students, do our mission statement and get our rules in order with our students. Students who have to come into baseline testing the first week of school are ready to drop-out. They don't care what you call it. How many of you go back to a job that assesses you continually? The data factory continues.
And they wonder why kids hate school...it's not because teachers are not engaging them ...it's because they are being tested to death.
ReplyDeleteMr. Johnson said the positions would revert back HOWEVER will their salaries revert back? Why were they given raises to begin with since we have financial issues??? Doesn't anyone even care about all this. Where is the school board members, PERHAPS they should not be re-elected if they don't care enough to answer these questions? Thank you Mr. Rogers for taking care of issues.
ReplyDelete