Thursday, April 26, 2012

Board seeks alternative to seniority for teacher furloughs

From the Tribune:

http://triblive.com/home/1162728-74/teachers-district-million-furlough-seniority-board-lane-teacher-pittsburgh-union

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is another way to circumvent the PFT contract. The sad part is that the union will probably go along with it. Why even have a union and pay dues? And Weiss' comment about changes can be made - what will be changed next? Sad. Bellefield just wants to place who they want and where they want to. They want complete control.

john q. said...

Let's talk a moment about integrity. Each boardmember is entitled to his/her vote. It is however, surprising that not one abstained due to a conflict. A conflict that would result from having a family member employed in any teaching position in the district, a newer teacher or a senior teacher or anything in between would have prevented anyone wishing to remain fair to abstain. Is it arrogance? If not, then what is it?

Anonymous said...

New topic please{
http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philadelphia-School-District-announces-its-dissolution-.html?ref=facebook.com

Philadelphia Schools dissolving

Anonymous said...

This is the best decision the district has had in a long time. If teachers are not willing to be evaluated on student growth, and their personal performance, they are in the wrong profession. At no age or amount of tenor should teachers not be accountable for achieving excellence for their student

Anonymous said...

Not all teachers are currently evaluated on student growth because the method of evaluating in some disciplines has not been designed. Too many variables in evaluating kids currently exists and better design is needed to be fair to all teachers.

Anonymous said...

This isn't about teachers not being willing...., it's about a binding CONTRACT that both parties signed.

Questioner said...

To those who favor abolishing seniority systems- Should universities like Pitt have tenure systems (essentially protecting seniority)?

What about fire and police departments- the younger recruits might be more energetic- is there any setting that should use the seniority system?

Anonymous said...

If the seniority system is taken away then we should immediately file suit to opt out of the union and be able to keep ALL of our union dues. Aside from seniority what does the union even do?

Anonymous said...

Here we go. The machine is moving. Do not put the union above such a strategy. With the upcoming election the union is afraid of TFC Slate. This could be a ploy to get the young teacher vote if they think the union would consider scrapping seniority. The union will say anything to stay in power. If young teachers think there is any chance the union would change the rules they will vote for Nina. Do not be naive.

Anonymous said...

Union Busting at its Finest. And when was Sheally ever concern about Faison teachers or teachers in Homewood period. IF she was do you think they would have had all those younger inexpeience teachers there in the first place.

This is about allowing pps to keep there friends and favorites over the others who have paid there dues and weather the storm. This is a horrible day in pittsburgh public school history, and will lead to the demise of Linda Lane. Mess with our Unions you mess with Pgh History and what we stand for.

Anonymous said...

New Post or it fits in here

http://triblive.com/news/education/1079688-74/district-teachers-pay-scale-schools-districts-state-pittsburgh-teacher-average

Anonymous said...

If all children in a classroom came in equal, with similar backgrounds and with nearly identical abilities and talents, well then, fine, go for it -- keep teachers based solely on test scores (though they'd better be some pretty good tests).

But what about a teacher who is "highly effective" at raising PSSA scores but "ineffective" at "curriculum based assessment" scores on the same material? Or the reverse situation with a teacher whose kids do well on the CBAs getting bad marks for PSSAs?

Which are those teachers, good or bad? Are they better or worse than teachers who have average scores on both?

How do you prevent a class or a set of classes in HS from being weighted against a teacher? Don't like a teacher? Give them the kids least likely to do well -- or the highest scoring kids who are unlikely to "show improvement." When you're already topping out the scale, it's hard to go up any, but easy to go down.

There are too many variables and questions that are not accounted for currently in any VAM measures to use that for firing/retention decisions.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the link to the article -- while $130,000 sounds so very dramatic in the article, note where it says "over 19 years."

That's $6842 extra a year over that time span.

How many teachers in Fox Chapel do you think would leave and come teach in the city for an extra $6842 a year?

You probably wouldn't need even one hand to count them.

Anonymous said...

I think the Union should consider agreeing to it, if the district would agree to allow the teachers in a building to remove by a majority vote to remove a principal out the building and allow the union to vote to furlough one for one an ineffective administrators.

So if they want to furlough a teacher, then the Union gets to select to furlough and adminstrator. Seems fair to me, one for one.