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Justin M. Bowen / Las Vegas Sun
In this May 11, 2011, file photo, Arthur Gamboa leads a discussion with students in his Modern Literature class at Palo Verde High School. The School District has announced plans to lay off 1,015 teachers and literacy specialists.
By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Published Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 12:01 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 3:52 p.m.
Sun coverage
The beleaguered Clark County School District announced today it will send pink slips to 1,015 teachers and literacy specialists next month, triggering the worst-case scenario in dealing with a $64 million budget shortfall.
Under the final budget plan being voted on at Wednesday’s School Board meeting, the district will lay off 840 teachers and 175 literacy specialists, which include librarians and reading coaches. The layoffs represent about 6 percent of the district’s 18,000 licensed employees.
If approved, the layoffs would constitute the largest actual “reduction in force” in the district’s recent history. The Clark County School District — the fifth largest in the nation — is the largest public employer in Nevada with more than 37,300 total employees.
Upon hearing the news of layoffs, the local and state teachers union immediately slammed the School District’s decision, arguing the district has plenty of money to avert layoffs.
The official layoff announcement comes two weeks after an arbitrator sided with the local teachers union on pay raises, capping a bitter 10-month contract battle between the School District and the Clark County Education Association.
Facing a $63.9 million budget deficit, the School District sought concessions from its teachers union to balance its budget. The May 2 arbitration decision forced the district to continue paying salary step and continuing education increases to teachers throughout this school year.
Because salary and benefits constitute nearly 90 percent of the School District’s nearly $2.1 billion general fund budget, the layoffs were inevitable, Schools Superintendent Dwight Jones said. The layoffs are expected save the district about $60.1 million, nearly the size of the deficit.
“The position reductions are necessary in order to accommodate teacher step increases and education increments,” Jones said in an internal memo to school principals sent Wednesday morning. “We will continue to negotiate with CCEA in an effort to find a way to bring back teaching positions.”
The School District’s 357 schools are staffed at 98 percent at the elementary level and 100 percent at the middle and high school levels. The district’s final budget proposes staffing allocations to 93 percent across the board, according to Jones’ memo.
In November, Jones warned principals to prepare a contingency plan to shed about 6 percent of school staff should the teachers union prevail in arbitration.
Most schools are likely to shed between two and five teachers, depending on grade level and student enrollment numbers.
Elementary schools with fewer than 400 students would have no layoffs, according to the district’s internal memo at the time. High schools with more than 2,635 students could lose up to seven licensed positions, according to the memo.
The teacher layoffs will further stress classrooms already brimming with students. In 2009, Nevada had the sixth highest ratio of students to teachers in the nation, according to the most recent state data available.
As a result of the teacher layoffs, average class sizes are expected to go up between two and three students, according to the district.
Middle and high schools will have average class sizes of 34 and 35 students. Elementary schools will have average class sizes of 20 to 21 in the first to third grades, and average class sizes of 33 and 34 in the fourth and fifth grades.
The School District is trying to identify funding “within existing resources” to provide additional support to the most overcrowded elementary schools in the valley, according to the district. This support includes additional custodians and teachers aides, portable restrooms and cafeterias, and changes in bus transportation and traffic patterns around campus.
If the seven-member School Board approves the final budget, pink slips are scheduled to go out to affected teachers and literacy specialists during the second week of June – within the 30 day notice period required by contract – according to Jones’ memo.
Some teachers will be protected from layoffs because of their specialized knowledge, district officials said.
Math, science and special education teacher positions are expected to be safe, officials said. Positions are also safeguarded at the district’s “turnaround” schools: Chaparral, Mojave, Rancho and Western high schools and Elizondo, Hancock and Kit Carson elementary schools, officials said.
Because of the arbitration ruling, the School District must comply with its teachers union’s layoff guidelines, which follows a new state law that would base layoffs first on teacher performance, and second on seniority.
Under the union’s reduction-in-force proposal, teachers with a five-day or longer suspension for bad behavior during the last two contract years would be laid off first. (Next school year, teachers with two unsatisfactory performance evaluations in two consecutive years would be laid off second.)
Thirty-eight teachers have received disciplinary action in the last two years, according to the district. Therefore, the majority of the 840 teacher layoffs would be based on seniority, which means the brunt of the layoffs will still fall on new teachers.
The School District is now trying to negotiate with the teachers union on the terms of the reduction in force. Instead of seniority, the district wishes to lay off teachers who have been suspended in descending order, from most to least.
“The archaic status quo harms young, outstanding teachers,” the School District said in a comment released Wednesday.
Teachers union President Ruben Murillo said he still contends the School District has the money to avoid layoffs.
"We believe adamantly that the district doesn't have to lay off teachers," he said. "There are several areas we have found in the budget that will bridge the gap."
Murillo pointed to the arbitration decision, which found that the School District has the money to fund step and education increases under its contract with teachers. He also added that the School District is reporting an ending fund balance of $40 million, which, he said, could help offset the layoffs.
Claudia Briggs, the communications director with the National Education Association's Nevada chapter — an umbrella organization of the local teachers union — said the School District is using a scare tactic by using the term "layoffs" to describe what she and Jones called "position reductions."
The School District may lay off fewer than 1,015 teachers, she said, because the 1,015 figure doesn't account for unfilled positions and annual teacher resignations and retirements. These vacant positions, as well as yearly teacher attrition, may nullify the need for actual layoffs, Briggs said.
It is unknown how many vacant funded positions there are in the School District. Officials will not know how many teachers will be leaving the district until the end of the school year. Murillo contends between 500 and 800 teachers on average will leave the district, which may soften the blow of layoffs.
Regardless of the number of vacant positions or teacher attrition, average class sizes will still go by as many as three students, School District spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson said.
"Hopefully with retirements, we can backfill some of these numbers," she said. "But keep in mind, classroom sizes will still rise because when you're cutting positions, you can't refill them."
That has Murillo pointing fingers at the state Legislature, which he says has not funded public education adequately. Murillo said he would like to see School Board members take a more active role in urging the state for more education funding.
"The School Board needs to put the money where their mouth is," he said. "Teacher morale has never been lower. Teachers are ready to fight this reduction in force, for better working conditions and for more education funding."
Bet ya $50 the union fights tooth and nail for bad teachers with seniority vs. good teachers with less so!
So they require teachers to take classes for license renewal, which teachers pay for out of their own pocket. Then CCSD says if you spend your own money to go beyond a 4 year Bachelor's degree, we will payyou for it. Then they expect you to not take the salary increase. Fine, then give back the money the teachers spent on those classes, and CCSD can keep the increases. Never mind the fact that teachers spend thousands of dollars out of their pockets each year for classroom supplies CCSD does not supply. If CCSD had to pay teachers for all the extra time they work without getting paid, it would gop broke in a month.
Well I guess Dwight Jones can always give up his 40% pay increase. After all, he hasn't earned it.
to all those residents that enjoyed a good public education...
whose children enjoyed a good public education...
who now refuse to properly fund this school system...
shame on you...
and remember this...
karma can be a son of a gun!!!
Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling
Can they transfer the Money bilked by the Clark County Firefighters to the school district...No...okay.
Business as usual.
This was to be expected... the teacher's union has always chosen to be selfish and protect the longest tenured instructors. My neighbor is a teacher in this district and stated bluntly to me that she had paid her dues and younger/newer teachers need to understand that she WOULD NOT take any cuts. Wow... teaching our children the basics of how/why this great nation is 15 trillon dollars in debt? The economy is down, so tax revenue is down and thankfully spending must be down in this state. Maybe she should take a simple economics 101 remedial course. Oh... she is a democrat, but that is something that would surprise no one.
Test the teachers. Do polls from the students. Check grades of classes overall.
Guarantee its all the "loyal" old teachers that will end up at the bottom of the scoreboard.
Unions are a joke.
It's no wonder everyone is putting their kids in $10k plus a year private schools in Vegas.
Again, let's keep in mind that the result of the arbitration was a finding that THE SCHOOL DISTRICT DOES HAVE THE MONEY to pay the teachers.
So they are not laying off teachers because they HAVE to...they are laying off teachers because they CHOOSE to.
Clark County School District has chosen to spend the money in other areas, despite being required by contract to use it for teacher pay, and is now saying that they have no choice but to lay off teachers as a result.
Pretty much the same as if I owe you money and then tell you I can't pay you back...even though I actually have enough money in the bank to pay you, I just have it "set aside" to buy a new computer and a vacation next month.
@ sevenhills, even better, lets test the parents. Lets see how active they are in their child's education. Fine them for not checking parentlink, fine them for not attending open house, fine them for all missed homework, fine them for reproducing nitwits.
So birdieman I went to all catholic schools my whole life. never public schoools but yet my parents paid taxes to support them, this was back east. So what say you about the fact that for all those years my parents supported public education and yet I didn't use it. Should they be reimbursed?
And since my education was more costly than a public school education should we have funding to support that. Just wondering.
Question: Is it a thousand pink slips before or after the 700-1000 teachers that are expected to retire? If it does not count retirements, then the net effect will be more crowded classrooms, with few teachers actually losing their positions.
It may be wishful thinking, but I wish that all sides could come up with a solution that would mitigate the harmful effects of crowded classrooms on students.
@VegasHope:
Thanks for your question and comment. CCSD's announcement about the reduction of 1,015 positions does not account for any teacher retirements and resignations at this time. The School District will not have the full accounting of these figures until the end of this school year.
The whole thing with the literacy specialists being laid off is basically a sham. The district was planning to get rid of those positions on paper anyway. Now, they are being replaced with learning coaches that are funded by grants. In effect, those 175 jobs are not lost, just shuffled to a new title and a new funding source.
As for the rest, there is almost no doubt that retirements and resignations will cover them. Oh, and what about all those open positions at transfer time? There were about 1,200 of them. Where did those go?
Coherent article. I hope Mr. Takahashi and colleagues understand the hyperbole when teachers claim class sizes are over 50. They act like Chorus, Band, and such are the norm. It sounds like CCSD is taking appropriate action. There may be more of the same after count day--when CCSD sees that we've lost population, lost students. I like the "test the teachers" idea for when we need to thin the ranks say in elementary schools.
How many people posting here would give up your raise so new people could be hired at your place of employment. Teachers have already given up enough raises. Time for the people of Nevada to understand it is good for the economy to have a well educated society and fund K-12 and higher education appropriately.
Totally agree with jfamily31 - we need to be grading the parents on participation in their children's education.
Guest, too bad that some teachers spent money on graduate degree classes thinking that the CCSD would give them a raise. But teachers always tell students to go to college and not to worry about the cost--looks like they inexplicably took their own bad advice and got scammed.
manfromuncle1: Teachers didn't "think" that CCSD would give them a raise...they had a contract that said that CCSD would pay them x-amount of money if they completed x-amount of education.
I keep telling people that the real problem is a subculture that encourages their children not to value an education. The teachers are NOT the problem. They are glorified babysitters. In that respect, I would suggest that most of the lower-income schools with poor results be shut down, or the teachers get such a large paycut, that they step down and be replaced by someone willing to take pay commensurate with the amount of work that is being done by these students. There is no reason to keep some of these schools open. Remove many of the child labor laws and let the ones who don't want to be in school go to work, as early as 10 or 11 years old. Offer increased vocational opportunities to those who want them. Stop making them go to proper school, where all they do is cause trouble at immense expense to the taxpayer. It's common sense!
Chunky says:
No government, government program, business, family or individual can sustain spending more than they receive in revenue.
Taxpayers have shown little appetite or interest in increasing the already oppressive tax burden.
Balance the budget and make do with what we have!
That's what Chunky thinks!
I am so very happy I didn't have any children that would have to go to school here in Vegas...Basically, from everything I've read since we've moved here, is that Vegas doesn't care about educating children. Doesn't matter if it is grade school, high school or college.
I was actually asked in an interview if I would be willing to continue my education if the company paid for it...I was honest and said "no, cause I have absolutely no faith in any school here in Vegas". Pretty sad.
I just don't understand *why* the higher admin people can't take a salary cut...I mean, how much money is too much money to earn?
If Balancing the budget means cuts than so be it. You can't legislate that taxpayer make more money. This is from not doing ANYTHING when the economy TANKED ALMOST FOUR YEARS AGO. ARE WE IN THIS MUCH DENIAL OF THE RECOVERY PROCESS OF A BAD ECONOMY AND HOW IT WILL PROBABLY TAKE MANY MANY YEARS WITH NEVER BEING THE SAME. You are right that there is money to be had it is in the over entitlements and salaries.
Stop focusing on the worthless kids who don't want to learn and put the budget towards the ones that care. This will cut the budget tremendously. Give an education a value again, and the respect will come. Don't give it to everyone for free! It's reverse psychology geniuses.
another educational embarrassment for Las Vegas....there is never a valid excuse for reducing education funding.
THIS BEARS REPEATING...
From the writer of the story, Paul Takahashi, responding to an earlier commenter;
"Thanks for your question and comment. CCSD's announcement about the reduction of 1,015 positions does not account for any teacher retirements and resignations at this time. The School District will not have the full accounting of these figures until the end of this school year."
Well, there you go!
There will be at LEAST A THOUSAND that will not be coming back for a variety of reasons.
THIS is a load of dung served up by your Cutter in Chief,
Mr. Dwight Jones...
As the arbitrator stated;
THERE IS MONEY TO PAY THE TEACHERS.
The district just has priorities other than fulfilling their contractual obligations, much like the 'Too Big to Fail' bunch.
I guess DOING THE RIGHT THING is passe in 2012.
Lay them all off - and perhaps add a few more....
We have had to endure horrible taxes for the teachers to spit in our faces for so so long...
They refuse to listen to the tax payer and puts a union in place.
They put in place LOTS of cushy perks for themselves - something the taxpayer does not have.
They have their unions bankroll political campaigns for the horrible Reid who has failed to do a good job for Nevada.
They spit in the face of those who say get rid of the over paid administrators. We have way way way too many at the local level; state level; and national level.
When the teachers finally ask for the federal government to stop their Department of Education then we know that the teachers are finally to think locally.
In the meantime, LAY THEM ALL OFF.
WE ARE REJOICING IN THIS AS THEY LAID THEIR OWN WAY TO UNEMPLOYMENT.
And if it was all about the kids and not the unions; their perks; their short hours; their summer vacation; their this and that...
we would have enough money for our kids already.
But the teachers are all about them,.
Out of over 38,000 employees, only 18,000 are Licensed teachers? Nobody else sees the problem with that? Put your employees in the classrooms. That is what the schools are supposed to be about.
The district's management team should have its collective butt kicked for some very poor fiscal financial planning, even in light of lower tax revenue the past few years. Has no one ever hear the story of "The Ant and the Grasshopper"? Continuing to fund anything beyond the basics, while laying off employees is utter nonsense.
In kind, the teacher's union needs to come down off it's "throne-on-high" and reread "The Emperor's New Clothes". Continuing to dress-up poor performance under a transparent guise of seniority is completely at odds with any sound thought process.
That said, this eternal and infernal game of one-upmanship between the parties needs to stop and it needs to stop now. It's high time to remember that the purpose of the school system is not so management can ineptly overlord the employees nor is it for employees to sacrifice the competent for the ineffective.
The district exist but for one purpose: to educate students. Let's all remember that and move back to the bargaining table.
Some people really have no clue that so many students in the system really are not capable of being educated, or want one. Start acknowledging reality, and maybe things will improve. Take your Lean On Me Blu-Rays out and start focusing on the students that care again. Kick the bums out. That will save a good chunk of money.
If tax revenue is down because of all the abandon homes, then there should be less students.
The real problem is that there are too many kids.
Vegas is a retirement community and the families that have 6 and 7 kids are costing everyone else who have no kids and are retired.
In China, you get to educate 1 child for free after that you have to pay.
This is what the US needs to do. More kids equals more education taxes. People will have less kids if they really have to pay for them and not make the rest of us pay for their irresponsibility.
1) Just because you attended school, and/or are a current taxpayer doesn't make you an expert on education. Teaching is not a science. It is an art, one that is mastered through a lot of time and effort.
2) You get what you pay for: if low taxes solved everything, then we would have low unemployment. The ONLY way out of this recession is to educate our children better, even if that means we ALL have to sacrifice.
3) Having been a teacher for nearly a decade, I have seen both good and bad teachers. I am a member of the Union, and would never want them to protect a bad teacher. The union protects your rights, not your job. If an administrator actually does their job, you can fire a bad teacher. I've seen that happen, too.
4) As a teacher, I support a fair way to rate teachers. Here's a challenge to all of you armchair quarterbacks: create one. Make sure you take into consideration the various home lives of the students, and the fact that a student is in my classroom approximately 9,506 minutes per school year and about 244,000 minutes per school year elsewhere. Make a fair system, and you'll be a millionaire. People have been trying to do it for years.
5) The teachers union offered concessions. The district refused it because they didn't get everything they wanted. They returned with an offer that was insulting. We are not the enemy: we are hardworking public servants who care deeply for our students and our community.
6) No teacher I have talked to has any confidence in or respect for Dwight Jones. The sooner he is gone, the better. Under his leadership, the district is bankrupt, teacher morale is horrible, and test scores still haven't improved. Cut this guy loose!
Fine the parents of underperforming children from kindergarten on.
Fine the parents of poor readers.
Fine the parents when kids don't turn in homework, flunk tests, act up in class.
Refine the student body.
Define the future with explicit requirements for passing grades, for proficiency in classes and for parental involvement from day one.
OR
Just expect more of the same:
passing the buck,
blaming the teacher and
fattening 20,000 'support' personnel eating the lion's share of the educational budget while the community blames the teacher doing the best she can in impossible classrooms full of delinquents born into a life of sloth and neglect, illiteracy and entitlement to everything.
It's not up to the teacher. It takes a village.
The corporatization of America continues! Rate everyone! Evaluate teachers who have failing students! Blame somebody, anybody!
Above, all, refuse to actually figure out what the problem is by asking those same awful teachers you hate so much, or just spending some time in the classroom, instead of on your computer, watching movies!
Management in America, like most of us know, is the real problem. The attitude here is that once you reach it, you do whatever you want except work and do your job. Then you crunch some numbers and tell your overworked employees that there needs to be cutbacks. It's so crooked, I tell you, and Joe Sixpack still doesn't have a clue. Has he ever had a job? Really?
Mr. Jzetzsman...
Perfectly stated.
Mr. Lamy...
your usual astute observations;
"It's not up to the teacher. It takes a village."
Yup!
It would seem a lot of the people making comments really do understand the problem. It would seem a lot more of you don't have a clue. You nice folks suggesting we lay them all off, or fire them all fail to take into account the consequences of all those kids running around unsupervised all day procreating, burglarizing, shoplifting, doing drugs. The list goes on and on. I can't wait to see how things look in about 5 or 10 more years. Why anyone would want to be a teacher is beyond my understanding.
For those who think that teachers are greedy and just in it for the money.
Since 2008-2009 to now, the pay scale has not changed. The only increases for teachers were movement either down the scale for time with the district, but for many teachers that didn't happen due to reaching the maximum experience for their pay class. For teachers with a bachelors degree that happens after 5 years, and with teachers with a masters degree after 9 years with the district. The only other way for teachers to move on the salary schedule was to move from class to class which required additional education which was paid for by the teacher. CCSD did NOT offer any raises or changes in the basic salary schedule. The CCSD claim to be giving raises is only based on teachers moving either horizontally or vertically on the pay scale, not by CCSD changing the pay scale.
This is a link to the pay scale for teachers for 2007-2008. http://www.nctq.org/docs/6-07_6890.pdf
This is the link for the pay scale for teachers for 2008-2009. http://www.nctq.org/docs/6-08_6933.pdf
This is the link for the pay scale for teachers for 2009-2010 http://www.nctq.org/docs/6-07.pdf
This is the link for the pay scale for teachers for 2010-2011. http://ccsd.net/employees/resources/pdf/...
This is the link for the pay scale for teachers for 2011-2012. http://www.nctq.org/docs/Clark_County_10...
Tell me again that teachers are greedy.
I have one question for those of you advocating firing the "bad teachers". Please describe a "bad teacher".
@jac. We can talk about "tax payers" when mining pays its fair share to the state of Nevada. We can talk about the "tax payers" when the national chain stores, the local stores, the banks, etc pay a tax on the profit that they make in Nevada. Right now, they pay nothing except an unemployment tax, and a small payroll tax which is not an incentive to create more jobs.
I know "low taxes will bring business to Nevada." Yeah, right. Just like that Apple branch in Reno that is there only because we don't have taxes. How many Ipods, Ipads, etc are made in Nevada?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may...
I am not a big fan of NPRI, but everybody needs to look at Transparent Nevada listing for CCSD for 2011. It is over 800 pages long with 50 names per page. It takes over 36 pages to see teachers names on the list. That is over 1800 executive staff and administrators. The first page totals over 8.5 Million or about enough money to fund the teachers at a high school. Here is the link, look at the list for your self.
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/cl...
Tanker. Not trying to put down teachers. But let's call it like it is. Teachers work 6 ours a day for a 180 day school year minus vacation, ....... And all the other union bennies no one else gets. Regular folks work 40 hours a week for at least 50 weeks. That's 2000 hours a year to a teachers 1000!
I am not bagging on teachers, but whatever the annual salary it is theoretically double what they actually earn. So your 70k salary is actually 140k, but you only work half the year, so you only get 70 of it.
140 grand a year for a teacher is more than adequately funded in my opinion.
@airweare (Joe Lamy) -
Did you intend to include sleeping time in that 244,000 minutes? If so, you really have a knack for playing with numbers. One can't use "normal" sleeping hours to teach (not you, not me), so to compare your teaching time to my "home teaching" time that includes 8 hours of sleep for my child (and me) is not a valid comparison. Looks impressive for the teacher, at least on paper anyway, doesn't it?
The "teach-opportunity" time at home is, much more realistically, 5 to 6 hours per day (not including meal times, hygiene time, ect). So that is about 54 hours a week times 26 weeks (w/ weekends), or about 84,250 minutes (a good long ways off from 244,000).
Number Spinning aside...
I spend 2 hours a day with my son, every week day. I work with him on his assignments (math, spelling, reading, vocabulary, et. al.). That's 120 min a day, 5 days a week, 26 weeks - 15,600 minutes a school year.
Now, I also spend, on average, 4 hours per weekend just with him (not watching TV, video games, etc). Taking him to the library, helping him to learn to be a critical thinker (so he can see how figures can be "improved" to make an invalid comparison); and how to use common sense - add in another 26 week-ends @480 minutes for 6240 additional minutes.
During the year I take him, and only he and I, on an educational vacation, 5 to 7 full days - at least 40 hours total; let's add in 2400 more minutes.
During the year, he and I camp with the Boy Scouts (add in 2400 more minutes). We attend about four hours of scout meetings a month (26 weeks * 1 hour is 1560 minutes).
There are more examples, but the above will suffice - my son is learning during our times together, maybe not the structured book learning of a sit-down-listen-to-the-teacher learning, it's much more hands on and practical.
The total time I spend in good, solid, quality time teaching my son, working with my son, nurturing my son is at least 28,200 minutes per year... about three times as much as a school teacher, like yourself, might see him....
Now, maybe you'll say I'm not like most Fathers because most don't put in the sheer number of hours I do - maybe that's true; maybe you'll say that, because I don't have a teaching credential, I can't possibly have any idea what I'm talking about - but here you would be totally wrong (I do hold five different engineering degrees, one business degree, and more professional licenses and certifications than I'd be polite to count out here - and I used to substitute teach in public & private schools).
I'll guess I'll wrap up by offering this:
"Remember that there's always someone smarter than you, dumber than you, more confused than you, less lost than you, more secure, less confident, more sensitive, less reserved, more dysfunctional, etc. Enjoy the benefits of meeting some, and show compassion for the others; tomorrow the roles may be reversed. (Sherrill Zucker,2008-An Open Letter to My College-Bound Son)
The problem is not with the union or Jones - it's with the Governor and Republican leaders who continue to keep funding of education low in Nevada. We've kept the "No New Taxes" thing around for awhile now and we still have the highest unemployment; maybe we should pay a bit more to get schools that people want and our community can be proud of. There is nothing more to cut and we just need more money, plain and simple!
One of the many things good teachers do for their students is prepare them for the future by embedding their learning paths with stimulating, challenging and satisfying learning opportunities.
When MIT and Harvard are offering FREE online courses for anyone with a computer, as they will begin doing this Fall, expect Billions of people to hook up. The Weapons of Mass Instruction are here
http://www.examiner.com/article/building...
Good teachers in good schools prepare their learners by providing them the basics to enable the learner to go forward on their chosen paths. But this can only occur if loving parents provide the child with the essential mental apparatus to learn. Kids naturally want to learn, but when their home-life is non-productive or worse, then kids arrive at school without reading skills, without any sense of numerals and without any desire to engage themselves.
All the free Harvard and MIT online platforms are meaningless. Can we blame teachers for this failure of culture to cultivate, or is it just parents who don't parent, don't nurture and don't provide the environment for learning. What kind of world can we expect when neglect is the rule?
tbvegas,
The numbers you cite are bogus for several reasons. The teachers don't just show up at school and teach and that's it.
Teaching, an art form which obviously is NOT anything you have ever experienced, requires preparation, personalized instruction, in-depth assessment, cooperation and planning.
The real numbers are like this: Teachers put in 8 hours a day in school, usually around 7:30 to around 4:00 with a half-hour lunch break. Then they put in 2 -5 hours a night doing preparation, grading, emailing parents, phoning parents, etc. Most teachers work an average of 50 - 60 hours per week for roughly 40 weeks.
But here's the big thing you seem to overlook: All these overtime hours are done not for a salary - they DON'T get paid for doing their job well! they only get paid for doing their job. Teachers CHOOSE to do it well by putting in those hours making sure little Johnnie has his stuff right. And when it's obvious that Suzie has stuff all wrong, it's more time spent on remediating her grasp by personalizing instruction for Suzie. The time spent in the detailed preparation, in the formative and summative assessments and in the delivery is at least 10 hours a day. Then there are planning sessions, parent meetings, communication with parents guardians, parole officers, counselors, other faculty, club meetings and school activities for another fun way to shoot your evenings and weekends with unpaid overtime that is expected and often demanded.
We have not yet touched on the continuing education requirements, but we're already at roughly 2400 hours a year, in 9 and a half months!
If the picture you portray is the way it is, that teaching is a half time job with no stress and all play, tell me why the district has to even advertise positions. People would be lining up outside the door if it were as effortless as you suggest.
tbvegas
Another realm where you demonstrate a rather unrealistic understanding is this logic(?) that half-time times 2 equals full time equivalent.
$70k is the same as $140k because the $70k is half time. Now that you see it is NOT half time, let's explore your rationalization for doubling the amount paid. (BTW, most teachers don't make anywhere near that amount; they start at under $40k, FYI)
As a contractor I do my thing and make $500 for a service that takes me 4 hours. I go home. In your scheme of things, I make $1000 because there are at least 8 hours a day when I could work, right?? ...wrong. Let's go over that again. I actually earn my $500 in 4 hours, so you say I make $1000. Let's see now. I earn $500, but you say it's $1000 because IN YOUR MIND, I could have earned another $500 in another 4 hours.
Not only does your method of assessing the hourly input which teachers put forth in performing their multiple roles FAIL to account for anything near what they actually do, but your failed understanding of how time and money work seems to be lacking any realism.
Again, if teaching were a cake walk, why do over 50% of them walk away in less than 5 years after spending 4 to 8 years training to become certified and roughly $100,000 to $250,000 for their degrees?
The picture you describe of teachers, their tasks and their pay rate bears little veracity or fidelity of the facts. Just so you know.
When I began a teaching career 43 years ago, my take-home pay was about $319.78 a month for full time (2400 hours a year in 40 weeks) for a gross annual salary of about $5k, including coaching, ski club and Accreditation Committee. Gold was selling for $35 an ounce when I taught my first classes as a certified teacher. Today gold is $1650 or so for the same ounce. But do you think a teacher makes 47 times what I made back in the day?? lmao
@Dan Connell,
If all parents do for their kids what you do for yours, then teaching would be an absolute joy because good kids come from loving families.
http://www.examiner.com/article/what-mak...
From middle school through high school, most teachers have a child in a class of roughly 30 kids for roughly 55 minutes a day for roughly 38 weeks for a total of roughly 10000 minutes. These are shared with 30 kids and let's say half the time is devoted to individual attention in guided practice activities, independent practice discussions, inter-personal communication and one-on-one time shared among the 30 kids. That gives us 5000 minutes roughly for 30 kids to share, or an annual teacher contact period of less than 180 minutes. 3 hours per year per kiddo.
The point is that teachers have some responsibility and little opportunity to do as much as parents. This is why there is a better way, and it's advantages are huge. here's why...
http://www.examiner.com/article/building...
Take a peak at this instructional program in just one tiny area of one tiny class and you'll see what good instructional achievements can do for a learner who is MOTIVATED...
http://chompchomp.com/
@Skeptical, give me a break...so you'd rather waste money having the government babysit these kids, instead of having them do something productive? You must not know anyone that teaches in these schools. People like you are a part of the problem.
@ airweare (Joe Lamy) -
Thanks for the links, I'll take a look-see.
regards,
...dan...
Joe, how many classes a day do you teach?
Darth,
I only train folks in energy stuff these days besides doing energy audits. A full-blown Home Performance energy audit with Energy Star takes this geezer about 4 hours. Training contractors to use blower door guided information about air-sealing a house, preparing an attic for full retrofits, encapsulating floors/crawl spaces, duct sealing and household makeovers takes a month or so depending on the background and drive of the contractors.
Here's about attics... http://www.examiner.com/article/3-traits...
Here's about LED and ceilings, the one most critical surface whose integrity is paramount in home performance... http://www.examiner.com/article/3-ways-l...
and here are a few general things about what else I find valuable
http://www.examiner.com/article/energy-c...
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-gree...
http://www.examiner.com/article/why-the-...
So to answer your question, I work most all day but as an independent contractor providing understanding in what seems to me something that will end up benefiting generations to come, but especially those who have the desire to make a difference and a drive to learn how comfort and home performance can be delivered.
My teaching career continues, but in a field far removed from the schoolhouse.
In my spare time, i am working with a small group who wants to make a movie of my recent Ecology book for kids to get the big picture - June Hog Salmon. They were 5 or 6 feet long, weighed 100+ pounds and we wiped them out with dams on the Columbia River. It's a comedy, a history and a tragedy.
Before 1940, June was the only month a kid could WALK across that mile wide river and not even get WET! Rumor has it that Robin Williams (Mork) has a copy and plans to take it to PIXAR... Maybe soon I'll be signing a movie deal...
NEGATIVE raises as in negative COL. We've deflated our economy and it's past time to DEFLATE COMPENSATION.
Here's a novel idea - get rid of the paper pushers aka 'administrators'... who have absolutely nothing to do with educating the kids. At the very least cut their pay in half as they're still being paid MORE than they're worth at half the price.
REPORT CARD FOR CCSD TEACHERS ENDING FISCAL YEAR 2012
Self-preservation at the expense of others-A+
Remaining calm under stress-F
Role modeling endorsing irrational behavior-A+
English teaching skills-D-
Utilization of slang, curse words, and half peace finger signals-A+
Math teaching skills w/o use of electronic devices-D+
Encouragement of finger / toe exercises in math development-B+
Science teaching skills-F
Demonstrates the mixing of explosive personality traits-B+
Demonstrates crafty techniques in shifting blame-A+
Superintendent Jones: Teachers, I know you were promised by contract an apple from the tree. However, as you can see there are no apples available for me to give you from this tree.
Teachers: Yes, there are a few apples on the tree. I can see them. I want them. I deserve them. Give it to me gosh darn it!!!
Superintendent Jones: Those few remaining apples have already been allocated to the apple pickers. They need to stay hydrated in performing their duties.
Teachers: I don't care!!! You give me an apple from that tree or I'll hold my breath, demonstrate, and not teach the children of this school as I have in my past!!!
Superintendent Jones: Okay, your wish is granted.
Best of luck to you Joe, I hope it's fruitful for you. I enjoy your comments.
hugapug: Why does K-12 in Nevada cost $1,000 per student per year more than Arizona. Arizona gets graduates who can read and write. Why are we pouring money down a black hole?
Sorry BChap, but your fictional exchange between Superintendant Jones and the Teachers would be far more accurate if it read like this:
Superintendent Jones: Teachers, I know you were promised by contract an apple from the tree. However, as you can see there are no apples available for me to give you from this tree.
Teachers: Yes, there are a few apples on the tree. I can see them. I want them. I deserve them. Give it to me gosh darn it!!!
Superintendent Jones: Those few remaining apples have already been allocated to pay my salary and that of my fellow administrators and to buy shiny new toys.
Teachers: But that's unreasonable, you're choosing to buy shiny new toys and pay administrator salaries rather than honor your contract with the teachers?
Superintendent Jones: Okay, we'll keep the shiuny new toys, fire the teachers, and spend a ton of additional money on PR to try and spin the situation to make you look like the bad guys here.
This is a link to Transparent Nevada website for the CCSD 2011 salaries and benefits. The list goes over 800 pages with 50 names per page. The first page with teachers name's appearing is page 37. That is 1800 names on page 1-36 before teachers pay shows up. The first page total over 8.5 MILLION in salaries and benefits. The first 50 names DON'T include a single teacher. The first 5 names on the list:
Dwight Jones, Superintendent, $396,202.83
Carl Huffman, General Counsel, $ 202,933.71
Edward Goldman, Associate Superintendent, $191,766.71
Jeffery Wieler, Chief Financial Officer, $189,877.63
Kathyrn Haldeman, Community Relations, Associate Superintendent, $180,492.63
Total for the top 5 $1,160,773.93
You can judge for yourself where the money goes and where the priority is.
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/cl......