In my last post I had a couple of interesting comments. Evodna Springer commented:
The Bossier District Attorney's Office has a separate, fully-staffed [taxpayer funded] office dedicated specifically to addressing the issues of early intervention for dropout prevention - the Bossier Truancy Center. Why does the School Board need to hire "graduation coaches, behavior coaches, and response for intervention coordinators", duplicating the services that the D.A.'s office already provides?
She included a link to a Times article that stated that Bossier Schools are adding 3 new coordinating postions:
1. Graduation Coaches
2 Behavior Coaches
3. Response for Intervention Coaches
I know I'm old and that things are quite different now, but I wonder if they really have to be?
When I was in school it was this way.
1. Graduation Coaches - were called teachers
2 Behavior Coaches - were called parents
3. Response for Intervention Coaches - See #2
Does this duplicate the work done by the Truancy center? It would appear to. I believe that every kid should have the opportunity for an education. My question is at what point to we draw the line? Why do we fight to keep high-schoolers attending when they refuse to learn, when their parents refuse to assist, and when they do nothing but create turmoil in the schools?
At what point do we draw the line and use our resources on the kids who are learning?
Yes, I know this is very politically incorrect. So be it.
An extra thanks to the commenter who suggested that I publish the link to the Times article, your suggestion brought on this post.
Food for thought.
I'd like to hear what some of our BP Teachers think about this. Even if commenting anonymously, I'd like to hear from the trenches about whether these positions are really worth the costs.
ReplyDeleteThe real question in my mind is who did they put in these new positions? Are they trained counselors or did they take tenured teachers, move them out of the classrooms where the students that want to get an education were?
ReplyDeleteI've made a request to get the names and previous positions of these graduation coaches & intervention counselors Jim, I will pass it along when I get it.
From my understanding D.C. Machen went to a family reunion and got hit up for some jobs.
ReplyDeletethese jobs are created to give people places to move up to. With the goal of retiring in a position that pays more than where they are so that they can retire at a higher rate of pay. These public sector people see the economy getting bad too and the yare out to get as muc has they can when the getting is good.
ReplyDeleteIf you are wondering how they are paying for this --- call the assessors office and ask how much your taxes have increased since last year. compare 2007 to 2008 and 2009 and 2010. This is not an election year, so they are having a Mardi GRas on our dime.
I bet these jobs pay more than a teacher position and are where people go to sit in a holding pattern until a higher paying job opens up at the central office.
WE ARE GETTING FLEECED!!!! and we deserve it for letting it happen.
I understand that they are adding a gamblers annonomous coordinator position for the new potential school board members as well
ReplyDeleteJim - are you going to be posting the public records on the school board members and the candidates for school board - seems everyone is trumpeting fiscal responsibility - if a member or a candidate for office recently filed bankruptcy - i think that would be valuable information to the voters to determine who should be trusted with the public fisc
ReplyDeleteThe Truancy Center is just where old coaches go when they are tired of the classroom. They don't actually do much other than mail out form letters.
ReplyDeleteThe Graduation Coach, on the other hand, is a sort of mentor to at risk students (aka - see: Counselor); "At risk" student these days means not just those in danger of dropping out of school but those in danger of leaving your school for a better one because your school is too busy teaching down the curriculum to those who want to drop out.
Vicious cycle.
It would be interesting to know how many of the people appointed to these positions are related to someone at the Central office or to a school board member.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting fact would be to know if any of the individuals running for the school board have relatives working for the school board.
For the most part if anyone in the adminstration section of the school board kissed another memeber of the administration it would almost be insest.
ReplyDeleteCoordinator So and So is more than likely the wife of Principal So and So and so on.
Maybe the those cops who lost their incentive and longevity pay and those who are about to lose vacation time, and those who got screwed over so some chick can make the big bucks being a dispatcher should go become graduation coaches.
ReplyDeleteTouche! Education has too long mired itself with the lowest common denominator at the expense of the learners and achievers.
ReplyDeletePublic education is supported by most people. However, public education does not have to equal government run schools.
"At what point do we draw the line and use our resources on the kids who are learning?"
ReplyDeleteas a new-ish teacher, one of the biggest disappointments i've experienced is seeing how disproportionately the resources are distributed between low and high achievers. the system spends hours and hours of time and energy on every willful failure, meanwhile those who want to learn have to do so on their own. in my parish, for instance, we must have at least 8-10 administrators whose sole job is dealing with problem children. meanwhile, we have one teacher for gifted kids, who splits time between all the schools.
wheeler-- find a good private school and send your kids there and then go teach there. your hope in the future will be revived.
ReplyDeletenepotism is all through the parish, everyone is related to someone who is a teacher, secretary, coach,school board employee, principal, vice principal etc etc. Teachers in the "loop" know all
ReplyDeletethe parents, taught most of them, and on and on. Heaven help the students from "bad" families, the sins of the parents, older siblings, grandparents whoever are visited upon the child. If a great teacher truely wants to be in administration, unless they know people, it is very very hard to be moved into an admin position. Since so many in the system went to school here, graduated with just about everyone else, think the same and look the same how will things ever change? There are a few great principals who are not from here, and we are so fortunate to have them. For the remaining great teachers, who really want to stay in student centered positions-what is there? There are few places for teachers not from here to move up into since it is who you know not what you know that seems the priority. Look at all the many teachers have administrative masters;if they loved teaching why don't they have subject matter masters? Because they hate teaching so this is their ticket out. Tenure is great for bad teachers but it doesn't protect good teachers who not only want to teach but want to help make the system better. Open your mouth and disagree with the powers that be and being fired would be a blessing. Instead you are hounded, observed to death, denied anything and everything, spoken to like a dog and suddenly become incompetent and are shunned and isolated. If you still won't go away you find yourself with extra duties, students who have 5-6 pages of behavior infractions but when you have a problem with one of them it is because you have no classroom management skills. The few great ones who work long hours to really be great are told they have poor time management skills because everyone else leaves by 3pm. Emails go out for the chosen ones for prayers or parties. The rest feel like stepchildren;they can be in the hospital, have a seriously ill child and no one even calls. They are afraid to even talk about problems since "talking out of school" is not allowed. You won't find any who would dare talk freely about what is going on. They would be risking thier job. After a couple years of this, great teachers leave. Creating those new positions may allow some good teachers to continue to help students. People need to start really watching and looking around the schools. There are some wonderful teachers here, but it may not be who you think. Popularity, pretty decorated classrooms and student pass rates can be deceiving.