On Friday, I received a phone call from Dewoyne Daye, SHS Student Body Vice-President. Dewoyne was concerned because one of the two media specialists at SHS was being transferred to Third Creek Elementary because the individual at Third Creek was retiring. He said that there were no plans to replace the specialist at SHS and that would mean a reduction in services at the High School. Dewoyne was particularly concerned in that this would mean that the library would no longer be open before and after school. He pointed out that many SHS students do not have access to computers at home and that they use the computers in the library before and after school to complete various class projects. Dewoyne also mentioned that the media specialists assist students and SHS staff in many other ways and that one media specialist at the high school would not be able to complete all of these tasks.
All of the high schools except Lake Norman has lost a media specialist due to budget cuts. It was time for West Iredell and SHS to give up a media specialist. Keith Williams and I have worked closely with Mr. (Larry) Rogers concerning this issue. The plan at present is for both ladies to work at SHS and Third Creek.
This will keep both women at the high school a certain number of days per week. A major issue was the time in the morning and afternoon for students to work in the library on the computers. This will stay the same at the present. One major concern is for an experienced person at Third Creek. We are working on it.
Thanks for your interest and Merry Christmas!!!
Here is the pink elephant in the room that I-SS top admins and the BoE would love for everyone to ignore...while the top layer of the I-SS administration greedily grabbed thousands of dollars in raises, they continue to hypocritically ask I-SS students, their parents, teachers, and others in the I-SS to do without and to do more with less.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dewoyne.. it is reassuring to see such an astute sense of right and wrong in one so young. How shameful and disgraceful that the SR&L chooses to 'report' on a trip to pick up a bogus purchased award instead of fulfilling their public responsibility to inform tax-payers about the abysmal management of their tax dollars.
There is no Fourth Estate here in Statesvlle--
what we have instead is 'good-old-boy' network cronyism....what a travesty.
*correction
ReplyDeleteshould read abysmal mismanagement
I am utterly shocked at Mr. Roger's comments, "It was time for West Iredell and SHS to give up a media specialist". Let's tell them it's time for the waste to go!!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease allow me to clarify the situation regarding the media specialist in the high schools. Due to budget cuts, North Iredell and South Iredell had already lost a media speicalist before the situation where a media specialist were needed at Third Creek and West Iredell Middle. It was determined in order to be fair and consistent, a media specialist was taken from both West Iredell and SHS to fill those positions. This has been the policy since the budget situation began to transfer within to fill positions rather than lose them. There is no need to be shocked and there is certainly no waste involved in the situation. We just happen to have a superintendent who believes in being fair to all concerned. Now, you are probably going to wonder about Lake Norman. There are 2,000 students there, and it would be impossible for one person to handle the library there. I am sorry I did not explain the situation fully but it was very late last night when I got the e-mail from Paul and got back to him. For the record, I have sent him an e-mail with further clarfications regarding the media specialist at SHS and Third Creek. There will be someone full time at each school at all times. In fact, it may be an advantage due to the fact that these two ladies understand the situation at Third Creek and are going to work very hard at getting that library up and going. This was not something we wanted to do but due to lack of funding and two vagancies, the two ladies at SHS were willing to jump in and help the situation at both places. It is not ideal but I am very pleased that these two saw the need and have decided to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that they were willing to jump in and help the situation at both places...with no additional monies being paid to them to take on the additional duties. Once again, the people on the front lines doing more with less. The waste above is in reference to all the monies wasted at Central Office in the form of layers of management and raises that were handed out like candy in the midst of a budget crisis.
ReplyDeleteThere are many classroom teachers that are doing more work with less support. As assistants retire or are let go, they are not being replaced. It is sad that the students who need more help are the ones who will lose in the classroom. Assistants will leave as they are pressured more and more to help cover for assistants who are gone. Assistants will be exhausted from bus driving for several schools, and still will be expected to take care of all the extra duties. Their salaries won't change because of all the extra duties, and the assistants will still be at the poverty level. Those at the bottom of the pay scale always suffer the most in good and bad times.
ReplyDeleteAnd coming soon to you ISS parents, assistants are now teaching students in teacher roles as part of their extra duties while being spread thin. All on a poverty salary.
ReplyDeleteHow Wall Street I-SS has become...
ReplyDeletethose at the top getting raises worth tens of thousands of dollars.....while, not only the salaries of everyone below them are frozen-- but also while they are also being commanded to do without, and to do more with less (tragically, the biggest losers in this scenario are, of course, the students)...
Where is the 'modeling?' The top layer of administration should be leading by example, but they are not.
And it will get worse::: see the link to discover what it is that I-SS is currently after----they have to keep funding those raised salaries don't they?
http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html
Note the dates, and then bear in mind the date for the Johnson's speech concerning the state of the school system--Jan. 12th.
There are plans to make teachers (-- oh, not those in the southern end of the county...their students come to school with everything they need to be successful AND the teachers have more assistants AND students have BETTER facilities/technology AND many even have smaller class sizes -- Hmmmm, interesting isn't it? Down there money is the answer, but in other areas, forced adherence to a business model approach is the silver bullet) use Baldrige to chase this carrot...meaning even longer hours, and as mentioned by another blogger, schools with high populations of At-Risk students be forced to use a system that strangles creativity, takes up precious teaching time, and that does not lead to better results, only to drone-like 'A,B,C, or D?' test-takers. Data manipulation will be rampant AND there are to be action plans for those who do not worship at the Baldrige altar.
I received the following reply from Mr. Johnson today.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Paul,
Thanks for sharing this student's concern. I will try to reach Dewoyne through his principal and explain the reason for this reduction in staff at his school. Both principals have agreed to share these media coordinators on both campuses on a predetermined basis. This is on a temporary basis and is part of the district's plan to avoid layoffs by not filling vacancies that occur due to retirements or resignations. We began this process last school year when we moved media positions from North Iredell High and South Iredell High. This month we have reduced one position at West Iredell High and one at Statesville High for the same reasons. As our local and/or state funding is returned we will replace the second media position at all high schools. Another source of funding is the Raise to the Top Grant which we will pursue if North Carolina is success (we should know in April). Hope this helps explain the decision to share the positions at Statesville High and Third Creek. I will try to explain this to Dewoyne and work with Mr. Rogers on moving his staff around to help cover the void.
Thanks,
Brady
That's right move the staff around and spread them thinner with no more money. It seems that when this type of move was needed in the CO some received healthy increases to accomplish the task. Does anyone really believe the rhetoric that spews from up above?
ReplyDeleteYou are totally correct 7:26. When Mr. Johnson became the interim and other staff was moved to cover positions, they were all given nice raises on top of the hefty raises they had received the year before. No one expected them to take on new responsibilities without more money. Somehow, the board and the CO has lost the way when it comes to giving teachers and other school staff new responsibities without more money. As I have stated before, you can remove the majority of the central office positions, not the office staff that does the day to day jobs that keep the schools up and running, but the positions that sit in offices and think up new things for teachers to do. The same can not be said for schools. If you got rid of the majority of the people in schools, there would be no one to teach the children, to clean the restrooms, and to make sure they had food to eat. Those are the places funds should go first and the CO last.
ReplyDeleteIt goes back to the responsibility of handling taxpayers funds and more importantly in the area of education, money that is supposed to benefit the children. One could say that this behavior or "policy" is stealing from our children. I wonder how ISS parents would feel if they considered many of the "policies" discussed on this blog as just that-stealing from their children. In an era of business and political corruption where transparency is demanded, we are now not only straddling our children with decades of debt, but robbing them of an education. I hope they do not "win" any money from the Race to the Top program, it most likely would just go to fund more outrageous "policies" as we have already endurred.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you ever say that you don't want our school district to receive money from the "Race to the Top" grant? How can you wish that for our students and teachers? Get your head out of the sand and wake up! Without that money, we will lose the 24 teaching positions that the gov't aid paid for this year. I understand that you are upset about CO pay but don't hope for something that can actually help our teachers and students. This money is very much needed for our schools. Focus your anger somewhere else, please!
ReplyDeletePeace on Earth! Too many CEOs receiving bonus money that others need more. I can see where the writer is coming from. Watch the news. We do hope if we receive the money that we can get good programs in place for all students, not just a select few. Perhaps, we can get more assistants, too. Another adult in the classroom certainly helps get more one on one time for all students. Our students deserve this and more.
ReplyDeleteRace to the Top money will go to the top, not schools. It is specific money for "building data systems that measure student growth and success and to inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction". To ISS teachers, this is known as a DASH report and professional development.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, these are things we are already doing. Second of all, getting more money to do it is only going to add to the TESTING....not staff, not TAs, not technology, teaching resources, etc.
Race to the Top money is for testing, and if there's one thing ISS kids DON'T need, it's more testing.
No more testing. Our students are burning out continually on testing!!!
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to the students in ISS. They are reliving Dickens' Christmas Carol. Greed!
ReplyDeleteThe rich get richer, the students and teachers get poorer. One piece of coal for students.
Assistants have been teaching since the very beginning. Siudents learn from everyone, including their parents. The teacher cannot do it all, but that is what is expected. The job descriptions continue to grow for our ISS employees with no extra pay involved.
ReplyDeleteTrue, December 31, 2009 11:11 AM.
ReplyDeleteContrast these facts with the avarice of the upper administrators of I-SS, who give themselves generous raises in the midst of a budget crisis. When they do more, they compensate themselves for the extra duty. When those lower on the totem pole are told to do more with less or without, they are also told to be glad they are employed! This is infuriating!
Why is it that those lower on the totem pole, many working at a rate that is below poverty-level, are forced to bear even more? The percentage of education budget dollars going to the CO of I-SS needs to be cut back to a bare minimum. The percentage going to benefit students -- text books and technology, lower class size, more TA's -- needs to be maximized.
Until this imbalance is corrected, the students of I-SS will continue to get the short end of the stick.
12/31 12:12 Amen!
ReplyDeleteThis too will always be. The powers that rule the world will continue to rule the world.
ReplyDeleteIt is the way of the world. History does not learn from history. Even in the 21st century the same mistakes continue to be made.
We need teachers; not TAs. Teachers need to learn to teach a classroom on their own. Isn't that what teachers are supposed to do?
ReplyDeleteI agree January 10, 2010 3:02 PM ... class size must be lowered; reassign IF's as classroom teachers where they can make a positive difference instead of their current negative one.
ReplyDeleteThis would accomplish two things, it would reduce costs (IF's would go back to being 10-month employees) and it would reduce class size because the number of classroom teachers would be increased.
Very simple.
Teachers do teach on their own, but when the assistant has to cover the class for the teacher to attend a meeting, then the assistant gets to teach. All meetings cannot be held after school, and assistants know our students ,and we can't afford to bring in subs for all the meetings that we have. The onslaught of meetings started with Baldrige, and have been continually growing. The meetings have become much longer and there are many more meetings than we have ever had before Baldrige. Meetings are a continuous part of teaching now.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the problem is all those asst. supers are trying to run the system. At least Dr. Holiday ran the show.
ReplyDelete