On another post, Anonymous wrote:
"Let's get back to the discussion of Anonymous January 27 6:37: "How many counseling positions have been added?". Counselor and social worker positions are being eliminated like never before to the detriment of the students and parents. Peabody still doesn't have a counselor. Langley, Science & Tech, and Obama still don't have a social worker. Everyone admits they are needed, but the PFT ignores the issue and the principals disregard the problem. Meanwhile, the counselors and social workers "actually interact with students and stuff like that" every day all day when principals are nowhere to be found. Everyone comes to the counselor/social worker for practically everything and they are completely overworked and under appreciated."
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18 comments:
Are there any state or federal requirements that each school (or at least each high school) have a social worker and/or counselor?
Anon, I don't know where you are trying to go with this comment, but you have your priorities all wrong.
The district is allocating essential resources to fund key positions, such as a coordinator of afterschool programs (who is paid to work part of her week from home), a coordinator of pathways (who is paid to work part of her week from home), and an athletic reform manager (over and above the athletic director). These are only a few examples, but the Broad playbook at this point is to fully stock the Bellefield cupboard no matter that the children in schools are going hungry.
To help aid in smoothing over the strategy, the district needs a deputy chief of staff to assist in controlling the messages and the $400,000 marketing contract--with the chief of staff's former firm--to produce as many glossy handouts as necessary to reinforce the key messages.
Welcome to Pittsburgh. It stopped being about the kids over five years ago.
The counselor and social workers jobs are not the same and many are being required by their principals to do both jobs. They are two different professional certifications. Many principals are having para professionals do the work of a qualified, certified professional.
High school social workers and counselors have different responsibilities. The roles are different at the high school level. The K-8 schools have one or the other (a social worker or a counselor). They are additionally overburdened by being the testing/assessment coordinator. The testing/assessment coordinator is a job in itself. It is VERY time consuming and social workers/counselors with this responsibility then have no time to work with students and parents.
can they also hire staff to be peer
conuselor that be a good fit in which they can set up time frame maybe when school is out act like a go between mentor(s)also this can help shave cost for a social worker,meaning when things are being eliminated you have to replace it sometimes you have to improvise,goes back to my point PPS needs to do research and fact finding to help fill the GAPS!!!!!
Anon 6:01, a most distubing post.
You'll be able to add vice principals/deans to this list very shortly.
PELA believes that teachers can handle their own problems. By its very nature, PELA are the people who police teachers and do paperwork, plain and simple.
PELA's have no clue what is going on in classroom environments nor do they know how to effectively manage schools.
I am looking forward to their failures.
Did anyone hear the report on the radio yesterday during a discussion of the Penn Hills events? There was a reference to teachers who generate reports on students violating schools rules being deemed less effective. Go back to the focus groups and surveys and parents have been asking for improved discipline and order for so long that somebody thought it a great idea to create an environment where violations are not reported. BTW, how is the PRC working? Any 9th grade parent able to share? The structure of the plan might lead someone to think that PRC teams are prepared and able to operate as counselors and even social workers.
PELAs know what is going on, but it does not help them to addrerss or acknowledge it, is that possible?
The idea of Promise Readiness Corps teachers acting as social workers is ridiculous. Has anyone considered the amount of time and/or paperwork necessary for things like getting a family's heat turned back on, coordinating with CYS, and placing a student in an alternate setting?
PELAs are clueless, unquestioning drones who on average spent little time in the classroom and as such, were all too happy to move on. The concerted effort to get rid of old school principals is just about complete. I used to howl at the stories of their debates with Roosevelt in the early years. Sadly, they have been put out to pasture.
Current principal meetings have the PELAs on one side, nodding their heads and talking board-speak, and the few old school types on the other, providing a fresh whiff of napalm to the ivory tower madness coming down from PPS/IFL/PELA.
Old school teachers are just now getting the same treatment.
Just because their is an excess of PELAs and PRC teachers being paid for extra work time does not mean, necessarily, that anyone in either group is certified to serve as such.
The PA Department of Education has specific requirements for counselors/social workers.
While this is a hard sell to a crowd that believes you can be properly trained to serve as a superintendent in six weekends, I can assure every reader here that I would rather have a qualified individual providing services to my children than one who gets teary-eyed when watching the "Believe" video.
We were told that all VP's will be replaced by Para's. There used to be 100 Vice Principals, now there are 27. Disipline is going to take a back seat. Suspensions count against a Principals bonus and evaluation. We were told it is only going to get worse. A VP stated at a inservice, if they were a teacher in the PPS they would be looking for a new job.
Paranoid, hopeless
The PELAs are also trying to avoid hiring teachers who write a lot of behavioral referrals. The expectation is for teachers to handle their own classroom discipline and not get the principal involved. This is a safety concern for staff and students. It is also a safety concern not having social workers at each building to handle crisis situations (students cutting themselves in the bathrooms; students having breakdowns - all the cases when a student needs to be escorted to UPMC-WPIC by the social worker). It is also a safety concern not having vice principals in each building handling discipline matters. They talk about safety issues, but then make it LESS safe by ignoring teachers who write referrals, not hiring social workers and not hiring vice principals.
There is supposed to be 1 counselor for every 150 students at the high school level. There is supposed to be a Home & School Visitor (the certification for licensed social workers) at each building because the Home & School Visitors are the only adults certified to represent the School District at attend Court hearings. Does someone want to research this with The Department of Education?
I have heard that para-professionals attend Court hearings at some schools. This is wrong and should not occur.
Where is a PDE audit of school districts in all this? Not just here but in all the neighboring communities experiencing trying times. Parents have said directly to administration at meetings "You want to empower teachers? Give the support they need to succeed."
Encouraging recent grads to put in their two cents worth (or three minutes worth) causes them to just shake their heads. They go on to live the shortcomings in their high school educations and work extra hard to compensate. It isn't that they don't care about those coming after them. They just DO NOT believe that their opinions matter or their suggestions will make any difference.
Find a ninth grader and ask a few questions. Some might say they feel that the year is just starting in this second semester. That the first seemed like a review of what they learned prior to the start of ninth grade.
With no more kids in school but a lot of contact with local kids maybe I have a different perspective. Things have got to improve. Kids have to get on board. Give teachers some space so that they can sell students on the value of what they can learn.
The old PDE seemed to defer to whatever MR wanted or said (remember the claim that PPS was in a downward spiral before MR). Maybe things will be different with someone new heading the PDE.
LOL, you kill me, Questioner. Your logic is so milquetoast that it boggles the mind. What...don't you believe what teachers are saying here? And do you really think the new leader is going to turn her back on millions and millions of dollars?
Wake up.
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