I'll post in more detail later, but here's a quick rundown of today's school board meeting.
The school board voted to lay off eight employees who help oversee the construction program. It's the first of what's expected to be several layoffs in that area.
Staff recommended delaying a decision on East Wake High's small schools until December 2010 or January 2011 to allow audits to be conducted. No decision was made by the board.
The board continued to debate whether to apply for a federal grant that would allow it to expand the number of high-poverty schools that could offer merit pay. Staff warned it could lead to funding and equity issues.
Comments
I love how they are worried
Wed, 06/03/2009 - 12:03 — jenmanI love how they are worried about equity issues among teachers when there are HUGE equity issues in academic opportunities for students.
You don't see the bigger
Wed, 06/03/2009 - 14:36 — NWRaleighMomYou don't see the bigger picture, Jen. We are better than Detroit!
It's hard to be better than Detroit
Fri, 06/05/2009 - 11:53 — FalcOnly a top notch school system could outperform the one here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhUDKfiggY
continued to debate
Tue, 06/02/2009 - 21:00 — loriacThe board continued to debate whether to apply for a federal grant that would allow it to expand the number of high-poverty schools that could offer merit pay. Staff warned it could lead to funding and equity issues.
More proof of the BOE's total inability to manage their way out of a paper bag. If there's money, go get it!
Look out teachers and TA's
Tue, 06/02/2009 - 20:28 — g88ky07you're next!
Subtle shift
Tue, 06/02/2009 - 18:48 — Bob_Sconce"Equity" is one of those educrat weasel words, like "Healthy Schools" which only has whatever meaning the administration pours into it at the moment. Not to be confused with the word "equality," which is fairly well understood, "equity" is typically used to talk about some loose idea of fairness among students. Here, however, the administration is using it to talk about that idea among TEACHERS. That's an important shift because it implies that the administration thinks that teachers all deserve the same amount. That's an awful idea.
Of course all teachers don't deserve the same pay, even teachers with the same amount of experience. Some teachers are just better at their jobs than others, and the district should pay them more in order to hold onto them. Others, well, should be encouraged to find different work.
In this case, it's even more absurd: this is money that is otherwise unavailable to the school district. Its choice is (a) give some teachers more and keep others as-is, or (b) keep all of them as-is. If the district can make some better off while making nobody worse off, then it ought to do so.