Teachers pay has been frozen for the past 3 years, the district hired 800 teachers last year with one time edufunds! They were warned not to use the money for that purpose because it could not be replaced. That was over 60 million dollars. Now they need to cut 37 million and they are saying they need to let go 800 teachers. This does not add up! The Association needs to stick to their guns and go to arbitration. Teachers will win!

The district already has eight attorneys. This is to defend against all the problems with dumb principals! Ricciardi is a labor attorney who has been around a long time. He specializes in work for management.

What most people don't know is the district used extra federal funds last year to hire about 900 teachers we didn't need. Now they are trying to use those teachers who new they only had maybe one year at most as leverage to cut everyones pay and benifits.

Most teachers appose this, as they have already suffered 3 years of cuts. The district will loose in arbitration, and will waist hundreds of thousancs of dollars on attorneys as they have in the past.

Hey, I have an idea! Let's pay effective teachers well (Period). Lets get past the mantra of more effective etc... Teachers who show up, do a good job, and care about kids are valuable. They should be compensated well. Teachers who further their experiences, earn advanced degrees and such, do so because that is the way the system is set up. They spend countless hours earning those degrees while paying for them and not getting compensated for that time. Regardless of what the research says, that is what the state requires of them. So, they do it! Patrick's data is flawed, because it is strictly numbers driven. It is based on test scores and graduation rates in a specific time frame. There are so many stories of success because at teacher said the right words to a student to motivate them, or helped them help themselves in some way. Those are difficult to quantify, but all you have to do is talk to any kid. They will tell you about their teacher/s and how they were impacted-good or bad!

Where are all these teachers that can teach rooms full of students well, no matter how many! I have not seen them. Why are they not employed as demonstration teachers showing the rest of us how to do it.

Theorists are to often listened to. They talk, buy if asked to come into a classroom of say 40 to 50 students for a month, could they deliver? Patrick Gibbons, maybe you would volunteer for this. It could be a reality show and you could be the star! Put up or shut up!

Students learn when the triad is in tact. A good teacher, a motivated student, and supporting-nurturing parents. One leg is gone and the student has a much poorer chance of success. We need supports for all. This may include penalties for parents who do not control the behavior of their kids.

Really, just let the teachers take it in the shorts! They have all the answers don't they. I'm sure they are making many sacrifices too. Right!

rstanberry,

I'm sure you can go, as long as you have 19 grand per year.

BrianJ,

You have no Idea what you are talking about! So you mean break up the school district into City Districts. We would then have several school boards who must be elected and so forth. The new school districts would would still be among the largest 50 in the nation. Also, The unions have nothing to do with the current structure of districts in Nevada as they are not even true unions (Can't Strike) and membership is only about 10% of the total number of teachers. AS for 50th, we are 50th in public ed. spending. The Meadows School charges over 20K per year per student. Public Ed. spends 5K in Nevada. A bit of a difference don't you think?

FRM, Ok whatever-it doesn't change the fact that the project made no economic sense!

Ok, the interest on 15 million per year at 5% is $750,000. Just how did that investment pencil out? Has anybody heard of ROI return on investment. That is just pure incompetence! Heck, I am just a stupid elementary school teacher and I can figure that out.