My wife is a retired CF teacher. Lost of stories - never sure which is correct. Apparently, this is specific to the High School which has been non-performing for about 7 years. The supt. has a couple of options that she was considering. This one would fire/layoff all teachers at the high school with a rehire of about 50%. They would all have to go thru an interview process. Lots of questions/rumors about the elimination of seniority, tenure, no bumping, etc. Supposedly, a key element is for the teachers to work extra hours. Supt has offered to pay $30/hour and they have requested $90.
I hear there is a rally being organized for next week. They are trying to get all districts to be involved and include retired teachers.
As I said, there are lots of stories - but - hard to tell what is real, fiction, posturing, etc from both sides.
A friend's husband teaches at the CF MS, plus I have a pro-teacher bias to begin with, but I think this move by Gist is one of the biggest piles of excrement I have ever seen. Blame the teachers for things they have absolutely no control over? You could move every single teacher from Barrington and E. Greenwich into CF and it would make very little difference. The problems there are horrible and have to do with severe poverty and hopelessness and lack of parent involvement and immigration/language issues. These kids move around and don't stay in one school for long. They're hungry. How can they be taught effectively under those circumstances?
Heaven preserve us from these "reformers" egged on by people who do not understand teaching at all. I may have voted for Obama, but I will tell you this: I've never been a fan of Arne Duncan.
[quote="Wendy" Heaven preserve us from these "reformers" egged on by people who do not understand teaching at all. I may have voted for Obama, but I will tell you this: I've never been a fan of Arne Duncan.[/quote]
IMO, you are correct in being suspicious of Arne Duncan. I am not an educator, but I think this country is going in the wrong direction on school reform. The federal "Race to the Top" program may make a bad situation worse.
Recently, California passed legislation that has the potential to divide communities by putting far too much power in the hands of parents. If under-performing schools do not show improvement, the law would allow parents to petition for change. This "parent trigger" could include firing teachers and administrators, closing schools, employing management firms, becoming a charter school etc.
I didn't vote for Obama. But I did have hope the majority who did elect him were correct and I was wrong.
Am I the only one who thinks Obama is making the same mistake he did last year when he got involved in the Cambridge controversy? Should he be picking sides regarding Central Falls High School?
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Central Falls has fired all of it's teachers?!
