Excuse me? Now we're being accused of being untruthful?
One of the joys of owning your own blog is you get to moderate comments - meaning you get to decide whether or not a comment is going to appear. Well, the blog committee just rejected its first comment. But we WILL respond to some of it, since it would be hypocritical to complain about censorship by the District (regarding its blocking our blog from its server), and then turn around and censor someone who clearly disagrees with us.
In response to the post and comments about the artificial turf project at YHS:
"The board asking for bids does not mean that they are going through with the football field project." Well, yes it does.
"Where did we get the information that the high school principal donated $10,000 a year to this project?" That rumor, posted in the comments section, didn't come from the blog committee. But you need to know that Mr. Cavanagh OFFERED to donate $10,000 from discretionary account at the February 20 board meeting.
"This board was not elected to do the bidding of the teachers." Yup, we'll agree with you there. But they WERE elected to do the bidding of the electorate, which expects an employer to treat its employees well, to compensate them fairly for the work they do, and to ensure they have the facilities, supplies, and other important resources to do the work they do.
"They were elected to do the bidding of the students." No, they weren't.
"Who should be the priority here? Students or teachers?" We won't argue with the concept that students should be a priority. But we're not talking about writing checks to students, we're talking about providing students with experienced, educated, talented teachers. Now that our salary schedule has us at the BOTTOM of our comparison districts at all 6 major benchmarks, attracting those teachers is next-to-impossible. Keeping them is also hard - once Redlands makes its hiring decisions, you'll see some pretty key staff members at one school disappear. It's not official yet, but they're GONE.
"Let's start being truthful and things will get better." We think you're talking to the wrong folks. Send that comment over to the District.
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5 comments:
Golly, Bernie offered to donate $10,000 in discretionary monies to the field - AFTER HE HAS BEEN TELLING DEPARTMENTS THAT HE DOESN'T HAVE THE MONEY TO REINSTATE THEIR BUDGETS!?? Somebody's been taking the Colbert Report way too seriously. Truthiness is catching on at YHS!Classrooms or Astroturf??? Guess we know that academics will continue to take a back seat to athletics!
NEW YHS SLOGAN IDEA:
"YHS, Where Underperforming Salary meet a Distinguished School".
Next year, you can stop by and look at our new artificial turf and track through the locked gates!
Do the board members (or the author of the deleted comment) think the teachers supported them so that they could turn around and make us the lowest paid in the area? Why would we have done that? The board was elected to do the bidding of the students? LOL So the 15 year old or maybe even the 7 year old gets to decide how to spend the district's $72 million budget? OK, I'll put my classes right on that. Can't stop laughing at that one. Someone needs to know that words have specific meanings; be careful how you use them.
At a recent meeting at Yucaipa High, Mr. Cavanagh shared a timeline for construction of our Standards-Based track and field, which included a start date immediately following the Fourth of July celebration. Further discussion included the fact that next year's football season had only one home game during the month of September, so the field would be ready for play by the October games. Does this sound like a tentative plan to you? Methinks that this is a done deal! I'm sure that this will help our students achieve great things in the classroom :-(
I can't state strongly enough how much I appreciate a forum for the beleaguered teachers of this district to gather together and share thoughts with each other.
I can't state strongly enough how much I appreciate the freedom to state my opinion in a forum where even those who erroneously dissent are given the respect of a response (something not afforded us by our employers).
I can't state strongly enough how heartbroken it makes me feel that I feel pushed into making decisions that pit the needs of my family against those of my long term employment.
How long can I choose my employer before my own children? I'm not sure, but the days are becoming numbered. I will not tax the well-being of my own family for the priviledge (????) of sinking my life's breath and work into a district that respects me so little.
Not gonna happen folks...not gonna happen.
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