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And yet still no vote on the Chiefs job? How much longer can they make this man suffer. UNPAID for a year and they still can't make a decision! Sandusky was tried and put away quicker. Maybe they need to take a CLOSE LOOK at the lawyers at PPS. How much money was spent on trying to get rid of the Chief? How many teachers jobs could have been saved by the amount of money they are throwing at this????? Sounds like a rackett to me.
it is sad to say i notice in each round of LAYOFFS there will be one ADMINISTRATOR or none!! i find that very much interesting in time when they are trying to save MONEY to balance BUDGET folks think about that yet they want to lay off TEACHERS why don't they make some of the ADMINISTRATORS PARTIME like they suggest for TEACHER(S)there needs to be a conversation about that,now you know some ADMINISTRATORS are paid very well enclosing can someone find out the total numbers of ADMINISTRATORS have been laid off since when these FURLOUGHS started we need to know this information meaning going after more people at the BOTTOM instead of the TOP think about it!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Eleanor Chute at her finest once again. The PG doesn't send reporters like Chute and before her, Joe Smydo, to ask questions. They send them to ---if they actually attend meetings at all--to grab the press release and provide a synopsis to readers.
How can a reporter sit there and NOT ask how only 1 administrator can be furloughed? How can she NOT ask how many administrators there are (well over 700), how many people work alongside those administrators (secretaries, assistants, administrators/teachers who are assigned to content areas, etc) and if they are really necessary????
Not Ms.Chute. Not the PG. Not Pittsburgh media.
Simply outrageous. Not one true journalist in this town/
Teacher reductions were specifically a requirement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundarion Grant. PPS has the obligation to raise class sizes to generate funds for the local match.
It is quite disengenuous for the Board or Administration to blame the economy or Corbett administration, especially those who raised a toast to Mark Roosevelt at the Carnegie.
Along with these furloughs, a new hire --REWARDS and RECOGNITION SPECIALIST, Teacher Effectiveness! Really?? What are the qualifications for this? Is there a need?? One thing, most teachers agree on is that the constant rewards for students, instead of consequences is part of the discipline problem. So now we have a person hired to reward employees??? Please remember this new hire when class sizes are huge--and THIS is where your $$ goes?? If anyone can seriously justify this at this time--please explain.
Do the math? You're joking right? Take some of your own advice. Add in the idea that schools are closing. Think about classrooms full of 30-35 kids./ Think about teachers doing six period days. Think about studies proclaiming smaller class sizes and more readily accessible teachers. Do the math? Think about the PPS as a giant Ponzi scheme. Justify the number of people employed by PPS who DON'T work with children on a daily basis. Embrace a definition of education, of teacher, of student, then tell me where administrator comes in. Do the math? You're right, people are fleeing the city schools. This latest idea--to furlough teachers and create chaos--will be the final nail in the coffin. Try to think beyond reading what is in a PR copy piece in the PG before writing.
Take it down a notch. I don't just read PR handouts. With the PPS enrollment around 25,000 and per pupil spending around $18,000-20,000, as a tax payer I say put your big girl panties on and buck up! Just because I don't see things along the same line as you does not mean I'm not entitled to my opinion. What a whiney and bitter site this has evolved into. Why couldn't the students achieve before these lay off? You do the math, how many teachers and how much money does it take to educate a child?
There are too many different commentators and views to draw that type of conclusion about the entire website. There are plenty of productive comments. And, some parents/students/teachers may have good reason for a bitter moment or two.
It would be interesting to see the figures for way way back when PPS had MANY more students, and see the list of Bellefield administrators. I'll bet there were far fewer at the top back then. We have become so top heavy now that you can't even find a personnel chart for each department. They used to post them.
As a teacher, I often forget that "taxpayers" generally see teachers as being overpaid public servants who deserve to be made to seek "real employment." I want to thank the "taxpayer" for what amounts to being the most patently ridiculous set of postings I've seen in quite a while. I enjoy the irony of being told to put "big girl panties" on by someone whose ability to use logic is usually something I'd find in the local bowling alley. I have to think that even children understand that in the education "business", administrators should be first on the firing line...and not individuals who are on the front line. That's lost upon this individual, which leads me to believe that either there is a complete disconnect where intellectual capacity is concerned, an extreme bias towards teachers or that the individual is one of these administrators who is living the high life, earning a salary at "taxpayer" expense and devoid of having to explain just how his job description makes him "safe" from furloughs. What insanity. And "whiney????" Thanks to Questioner, teachers are able to vent a bit. We are talking about the livelihoods of 280 individuals who now will have to hit the unemployment line....because of ethical corruption, nothing more. And you call that "whiney????" I appreciate this site, even when I come across the intellectually constipated and philosophically impotent....like you.
No -- earlier this summer they were sent "you're very likely to be furloughed later this summer" letters. They wait until now to see how it has shaken out (after retirements, teachers who want to move moving into slots, etc.) and then they vote and actually furlough them. It's a holdover from longer ago, giving people a chance to look for other jobs sooner if they want to.
This is the nail in the coffin. To the person who wants us to buck up and were panties. You are so clueless it is upsurd, you could not walk a day in our shoes.
You are part of the problem, thanks for down grading women in public with your Archie Bunker comment, go read a book.
I am a taxpayer, a parent and have no affiliation with employment at PPS. I would prefer our tax dollars were invested in keeping class sizes down, keeping teachers and social workers and start eliminating the excessive management issue at PPS. It really is absurd. Add in the millions in consulting contracts, idiotic iPad spending and the laundry list of waisted money on failed programs and my head starts to spin.
GO ANON 4:26! You are exactly the parent that teachers are ready to work with because teachers know that teachers, parents, and principals wokred together once to help students achieve
I'm a bit disappointed that Brentley, Shealey and Holley did not attend the Legislative meeting to cast their vote. I don't want to judge because there could have been an emergency, or maybe they were on vacation. But to the public, the perception is that they avoided attending the meeting because they were protesting the furlough of staff. That's all well and good but I would have rather seen them cast a "no" vote instead of being "no shows". We all know that their "no" votes would have been defeated by the "yes" men and women on the Board. I hope this is not the beginning of a bad practice for those three. After all, that is their purpose and the reason why they were elected to the Board - TO VOTE. Not to protest by NOT VOTING.
Has anyone read the board minutes? Not only do they list the furloughed staff but they also list all of the staff (administrative) that were promoted with a salary bump and all of the newly created positions. If the district is that much in debt then where does this new layer of administrators get their money? Oh, from the furloughed staff. No one knows about this because the "news" papers don't report this. Is there a way to get this out? I am sure the citizens of Pgh. would not be happy to hear that their child has 30 students in the class while someone is getting a salary bump.
She gets the loudest cheers around 16:00, sounds like she is slamming PELA. She hits the nail on the head, and remains optimistic while admitting how difficult it is now.
Linda lane must go! She has not helped at all and has not even begun to lead us out of our troubles, in fact she has made it worst. She has created larger class sizes, laying off of teachers and not adminstrators, closing schools, not closing the racial achievement gap, etc etc.
We must start at the top, and clean shop. We need a fresh start.
Like any third world country with a dictator in charge, there is always a group of like minded right behind the leader. Lane must go? Sure. She's a smart gal and knows what is going on but come one, is she going to affect changes at 63 and risk health and pension? No. Lippert, French, Otuwa----far worse and very frightening prospects for superintendent. Whether students, teachers or parents, one would have to have grave concerns about any of these individuals taking the reins, on so many levels.
As for Ms.Ravitch, here was one of the biggest teacher-bashers a few years ago---a huge supporter of Gates initiatives, as well---who somehow had the great enlightenment and has the courage to say that she was wrong.
You would need a few crowbars to pry numerous PPS kool-aid drinkers away from their dogma. To them, teachers are the problem. THE problem.
Bill Gates says so. And he's their sugar daddy.
How do PPS administrators look themselves in the mirror?
"As for Ms.Ravitch, here was one of the biggest teacher-bashers a few years ago---a huge supporter of Gates initiatives, as well---who somehow had the great enlightenment and has the courage to say that she was wrong." ---------------------- I have an enormous amount of respect for her. I can't think of anyone else who is trying to bring attention to this nationwide problem.
Does anyone have any information on the new Math or Reading Coach category? I understand that each school will have one of each and these people will receive $11,000 more a year for this. They will teach part time and coach part time and take the place of the ITL who was only making $2,000 a year, I believe, for his/her services.
Originally, ITL 2's were supposed to receive $11K more per year but the rub was that they were going to perform ITL duties while split between two schools. That is, they would teach the first two periods at school A, do ITL duties and then travel to school B, where they would do the same ITL duties. Mileage/car wear and tear were a part of the additional $11K. I have not heard if this is still the idea---the split between two schools. ITL's are gone only if the school has an ITL 2, and many of us who were ITL's were not interested in teaching, observing our colleagues, getting on the road and then observing more colleagues. To many of us, the additional $11K was not going to be enough to cover all of the expenses--tangible or intangible.
I am sure that ITL 2's will be dropped into gallons of the PPS kool aid. I am hoping that there are some who can resist the sickly sweet "your colleagues are the problem" dosage that they are going to be fed continuously. But, I'm not optimistic. I envision ITL2's to be more kool aid drinkers. Yikes. Oh, and here is a funny note that someone mentioned above. Every school had reading and math coaches assigned to it. As you might imagine, not all of those people opted for or were selected as ITL2's. Not to worry. They were not furloughed. They were not sent back to teach. They were given new titles that align to the Keystone tests which are coming.
Ponzi scheme, you say?
Like Springsteen says, we take care of our own, don't we?
"They were not sent back to teach. They were given new titles that align to the Keystone tests which are coming."
I thought I'd initially heard they'd be sent back to teach?! I can't believe that they aren't teaching -- how can you not put them back in classrooms with the class sizes?
Insanity. The misuse and waste of money is crazy.
Is Corbett going to actually approve the money to create and administer the Keystone tests? I would hope that somehow, someway that money could be used for instruction. Or something else useful.
Some did take teaching jobs...and had seniority- thus people how hadnt taught for "awhile" are back into classrooms while othera are furloughed. And in the fall, when you hear that these teachers arent as good as the furloughed, think about the last time they faced a group of 30+
35 comments:
And yet still no vote on the Chiefs job? How much longer can they make this man suffer. UNPAID for a year and they still can't make a decision! Sandusky was tried and put away quicker. Maybe they need to take a CLOSE LOOK at the lawyers at PPS. How much money was spent on trying to get rid of the Chief? How many teachers jobs could have been saved by the amount of money they are throwing at this????? Sounds like a rackett to me.
it is sad to say i notice in each round of LAYOFFS there will be one ADMINISTRATOR or none!! i find that very much interesting in time when they are trying to save MONEY to balance BUDGET folks think about that yet they want to lay off TEACHERS why don't they make some of the ADMINISTRATORS PARTIME like they suggest for TEACHER(S)there needs to be a conversation about that,now you know some ADMINISTRATORS are paid very well enclosing can someone find out the total numbers of ADMINISTRATORS have been laid off since when these FURLOUGHS started we need to know this information meaning going after more people at the BOTTOM instead of the TOP think about it!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Eleanor Chute at her finest once again. The PG doesn't send reporters like Chute and before her, Joe Smydo, to ask questions. They send them to ---if they actually attend meetings at all--to grab the press release and provide a synopsis to readers.
How can a reporter sit there and NOT ask how only 1 administrator can be furloughed? How can she NOT ask how many administrators there are (well over 700), how many people work alongside those administrators (secretaries, assistants, administrators/teachers who are assigned to content areas, etc) and if they are really necessary????
Not Ms.Chute.
Not the PG.
Not Pittsburgh media.
Simply outrageous. Not one true journalist in this town/
Teacher reductions were specifically a requirement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundarion Grant. PPS has the obligation to raise class sizes to generate funds for the local match.
It is quite disengenuous for the Board or Administration to blame the economy or Corbett administration, especially those who raised a toast to Mark Roosevelt at the Carnegie.
Even the PFT leadership saw the fine print.
How empowering.
Why should they keep these same staffing levels when students and families are fleeing PPS? Schools are closing due to low enrollment! Do the math.
Along with these furloughs, a new hire --REWARDS and RECOGNITION SPECIALIST, Teacher Effectiveness!
Really?? What are the qualifications for this? Is there a need?? One thing, most teachers agree on is that the constant rewards for students, instead of consequences is part of the discipline problem. So now we have a person hired to reward employees??? Please remember this new hire when class sizes are huge--and THIS is where your $$ goes??
If anyone can seriously justify this at this time--please explain.
I'm sure the justification is that "it's grant money."
I think our money might be well spent hiring fewer grant writers -- or getting better grants.
Yes, 12:10, it is important to point out that not only were administrators NOT furloughed, BUT, NEW ADMINISTRATORS WERE HIRED! Amazing!
Do the math? You're joking right? Take some of your own advice. Add in the idea that schools are closing. Think about classrooms full of 30-35 kids./ Think about teachers doing six period days. Think about studies proclaiming smaller class sizes and more readily accessible teachers.
Do the math?
Think about the PPS as a giant Ponzi scheme. Justify the number of people employed by PPS who DON'T work with children on a daily basis. Embrace a definition of education, of teacher, of student, then tell me where administrator comes in.
Do the math?
You're right, people are fleeing the city schools. This latest idea--to furlough teachers and create chaos--will be the final nail in the coffin.
Try to think beyond reading what is in a PR copy piece in the PG before writing.
Take it down a notch. I don't just read PR handouts. With the PPS enrollment around 25,000 and per pupil spending around $18,000-20,000, as a tax payer I say put your big girl panties on and buck up! Just because I don't see things along the same line as you does not mean I'm not entitled to my opinion. What a whiney and bitter site this has evolved into. Why couldn't the students achieve before these lay off? You do the math, how many teachers and how much money does it take to educate a child?
There are too many different commentators and views to draw that type of conclusion about the entire website. There are plenty of productive comments. And, some parents/students/teachers may have good reason for a bitter moment or two.
It would be interesting to see the figures for way way back when PPS had MANY more students, and see the list of Bellefield administrators. I'll bet there were far fewer at the top back then. We have become so top heavy now that you can't even find a personnel chart for each department. They used to post them.
"GUESTIONER", along with parents/students/teachers, how about including taxpayers?
As a teacher, I often forget that "taxpayers" generally see teachers as being overpaid public servants who deserve to be made to seek "real employment." I want to thank the "taxpayer" for what amounts to being the most patently ridiculous set of postings I've seen in quite a while.
I enjoy the irony of being told to put "big girl panties" on by someone whose ability to use logic is usually something I'd find in the local bowling alley.
I have to think that even children understand that in the education "business", administrators should be first on the firing line...and not individuals who are on the front line. That's lost upon this individual, which leads me to believe that either there is a complete disconnect where intellectual capacity is concerned, an extreme bias towards teachers or that the individual is one of these administrators who is living the high life, earning a salary at "taxpayer" expense and devoid of having to explain just how his job description makes him "safe" from furloughs.
What insanity.
And "whiney????" Thanks to Questioner, teachers are able to vent a bit. We are talking about the livelihoods of 280 individuals who now will have to hit the unemployment line....because of ethical corruption, nothing more.
And you call that "whiney????"
I appreciate this site, even when I come across the intellectually constipated and philosophically impotent....like you.
Is this group of teachers/employees in addition to the group that was furloughed earlier this summer?
No -- earlier this summer they were sent "you're very likely to be furloughed later this summer" letters. They wait until now to see how it has shaken out (after retirements, teachers who want to move moving into slots, etc.) and then they vote and actually furlough them. It's a holdover from longer ago, giving people a chance to look for other jobs sooner if they want to.
This is the nail in the coffin. To the person who wants us to buck up and were panties. You are so clueless it is upsurd, you could not walk a day in our shoes.
You are part of the problem, thanks for down grading women in public with your Archie Bunker comment, go read a book.
Danny Green
How many Administrators does it take to run a School district? To teach a Child? Opinions are like but holes everyone has them, but facts are facts
I am a taxpayer, a parent and have no affiliation with employment at PPS. I would prefer our tax dollars were invested in keeping class sizes down, keeping teachers and social workers and start eliminating the excessive management issue at PPS. It really is absurd. Add in the millions in consulting contracts, idiotic iPad spending and the laundry list of waisted money on failed programs and my head starts to spin.
GO ANON 4:26! You are exactly the parent that teachers are ready to work with because teachers know that teachers, parents, and principals wokred together once to help students achieve
I'm a bit disappointed that Brentley, Shealey and Holley did not attend the Legislative meeting to cast their vote. I don't want to judge because there could have been an emergency, or maybe they were on vacation. But to the public, the perception is that they avoided attending the meeting because they were protesting the furlough of staff. That's all well and good but I would have rather seen them cast a "no" vote instead of being "no shows". We all know that their "no" votes would have been defeated by the "yes" men and women on the Board. I hope this is not the beginning of a bad practice for those three. After all, that is their purpose and the reason why they were elected to the Board - TO VOTE. Not to protest by NOT VOTING.
At least two of these absent board members were on vacation.
Has anyone read the board minutes? Not only do they list the furloughed staff but they also list all of the staff (administrative) that were promoted with a salary bump and all of the newly created positions. If the district is that much in debt then where does this new layer of administrators get their money? Oh, from the furloughed staff. No one knows about this because the "news" papers don't report this. Is there a way to get this out? I am sure the citizens of Pgh. would not be happy to hear that their child has 30 students in the class while someone is getting a salary bump.
10:24 can you post the link and page # if not included in the link, to the list of furloughed staff and admin promotions?
Go to pghboe.net; Go to Board minutes and scroll down to July 25th.
look at JULY 26 12:10--above REWARD specialist?? reward me with a furloughed colleague hired back so my class size isnt 35-- what a joke!
Watch Diane Ravitch speech at the American federation of teachers in Detroit.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/30/1115093/-Do-yourself-a-favor-take-24-37-and-listen-to-Diane-Ravitch
She gets the loudest cheers around 16:00, sounds like she is slamming PELA. She hits the nail on the head, and remains optimistic while admitting how difficult it is now.
Linda lane must go! She has not helped at all and has not even begun to lead us out of our troubles, in fact she has made it worst. She has created larger class sizes, laying off of teachers and not adminstrators, closing schools, not closing the racial achievement gap, etc etc.
We must start at the top, and clean shop. We need a fresh start.
Like any third world country with a dictator in charge, there is always a group of like minded right behind the leader. Lane must go? Sure. She's a smart gal and knows what is going on but come one, is she going to affect changes at 63 and risk health and pension? No.
Lippert, French, Otuwa----far worse and very frightening prospects for superintendent. Whether students, teachers or parents, one would have to have grave concerns about any of these individuals taking the reins, on so many levels.
As for Ms.Ravitch, here was one of the biggest teacher-bashers a few years ago---a huge supporter of Gates initiatives, as well---who somehow had the great enlightenment and has the courage to say that she was wrong.
You would need a few crowbars to pry numerous PPS kool-aid drinkers away from their dogma. To them, teachers are the problem. THE problem.
Bill Gates says so. And he's their sugar daddy.
How do PPS administrators look themselves in the mirror?
"As for Ms.Ravitch, here was one of the biggest teacher-bashers a few years ago---a huge supporter of Gates initiatives, as well---who somehow had the great enlightenment and has the courage to say that she was wrong."
----------------------
I have an enormous amount of respect for her. I can't think of anyone else who is trying to bring attention to this nationwide problem.
Does anyone have any information on the new Math or Reading Coach category? I understand that each school will have one of each and these people will receive $11,000 more a year for this. They will teach part time and coach part time and take the place of the ITL who was only making $2,000 a year, I believe, for his/her services.
Originally, ITL 2's were supposed to receive $11K more per year but the rub was that they were going to perform ITL duties while split between two schools.
That is, they would teach the first two periods at school A, do ITL duties and then travel to school B, where they would do the same ITL duties.
Mileage/car wear and tear were a part of the additional $11K.
I have not heard if this is still the idea---the split between two schools. ITL's are gone only if the school has an ITL 2, and many of us who were ITL's were not interested in teaching, observing our colleagues, getting on the road and then observing more colleagues. To many of us, the additional $11K was not going to be enough to cover all of the expenses--tangible or intangible.
I am sure that ITL 2's will be dropped into gallons of the PPS kool aid. I am hoping that there are some who can resist the sickly sweet "your colleagues are the problem" dosage that they are going to be fed continuously.
But, I'm not optimistic.
I envision ITL2's to be more kool aid drinkers.
Yikes.
Oh, and here is a funny note that someone mentioned above. Every school had reading and math coaches assigned to it. As you might imagine, not all of those people opted for or were selected as ITL2's.
Not to worry.
They were not furloughed.
They were not sent back to teach.
They were given new titles that align to the Keystone tests which are coming.
Ponzi scheme, you say?
Like Springsteen says, we take care of our own, don't we?
"They were not sent back to teach.
They were given new titles that align to the Keystone tests which are coming."
I thought I'd initially heard they'd be sent back to teach?! I can't believe that they aren't teaching -- how can you not put them back in classrooms with the class sizes?
Insanity. The misuse and waste of money is crazy.
Is Corbett going to actually approve the money to create and administer the Keystone tests? I would hope that somehow, someway that money could be used for instruction. Or something else useful.
Some did take teaching jobs...and had seniority- thus people how hadnt taught for "awhile" are back into classrooms while othera are furloughed. And in the fall, when you hear that these teachers arent as good as the furloughed, think about the last time they faced a group of 30+
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