TEACHER said...
I am an elementary teacher at an "inner city" school. I have had 22 students come and go during this past school year. I started with 23, ended with 18, and had only 12 of my original students from the beginning of the year. The teachers were told at the beginning of the year that we would receive a "guide" for teaching reading/language arts. This guide was, in a word ridiculous. Trying to "follow" it was like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs.
I am an elementary teacher at an "inner city" school. I have had 22 students come and go during this past school year. I started with 23, ended with 18, and had only 12 of my original students from the beginning of the year. The teachers were told at the beginning of the year that we would receive a "guide" for teaching reading/language arts. This guide was, in a word ridiculous. Trying to "follow" it was like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs.
I do hold a Master's Degree in Reading and truly couldn't believe this MESS that I was handed. So, I decided to do what was best for my students. I taught Open Court (with fidelity) and Michael Haggerty (daily). My students learned life-long reading strategies and all left my classroom as readers, able to decode most words.
Now, I have a peer who taught at another D150 school. She felt she had to teach the MESS that was handed to her by the district. Having taught with her, I know how hard she works with her students and does not take her responsibility to her students lightly.
She lamented the last week of school to me that almost half of her students could not read, their decoding skills were almost nonexistent, and there were several strategies, ie, letter sounds, that were not even included in the "curriculum" that was to be taught. She said this was by far the worst year she has ever taught, feeling that she had failed her students, yet did what Dr. Lathan et al. told her to do.
I spoke with a past school board member recently who told me that during the interview process Dr. Lathan said she thought Open Court was an excellent reading program. This board member was SHOCKED that Dr. Lathan would take it away considering how she thought it was wonderful that regardless of what school a child was transferred to, they would be teaching the same thing.
So, you see, what you all have been told and what is really happening is different. Our Science curriculum was only 3 years old, the spines on the books barely cracked, when Dr. Lathan thought it a high priority to replace it. At this point, as teachers, we do not know what to use for reading/language arts. The people Dr. Lathan brought with her don't seem to have much of a clue either.
Before you approve her contract for 4 more years, please wait for ISAT, PSAE scores to come out. I believe they ALL are lower than EVER before. So, to extend her contract, give her a bonus, and continue to allow her to BULLY the employees of this district, WAIT. Please wait until next Spring, which would be a logical solution (my thoughts are that no school district is going to be fighting over her).
Thank you for listening. As you know, I am fearful of retaliation so I will just sign myself as....TEACHER.
Thank you for listening. As you know, I am fearful of retaliation so I will just sign myself as....TEACHER.
28 comments:
This is what the community needs to hear. The community is only listening to the propaganda that is being reported by Dr. Lathan and her crew of people. Thank you for writing this letter, Teacher, for all of the students and fellow teachers in District 150. Teachers are tired of being told to teach or follow a certain procedure one way and then find out that those procedures change, sometimes several time in 1 day. There is not continuity in administration or with rules and procedures.
This makes it difficult if not impossible to do our jobs as teachers because the rules change constantly. How does this equal a quality education for our children?
The BOE needs to do their job and act like an employer to Dr. Lathan and not as her best friend. Isn't that a conflict of interest? They have lost any objectivity because too many of them are not listening to what is REALLY going on in the schools.
I hope this letter goes to the Journal Star as well.
What a powerful letter.
Amen. The only way the message can get through to the community and to the board is if many, not just one, teachers document all their complaints and put them in this kind of readable form. Documentation is so very important. The board can't ignore detailed accounts--general complaints do no good.
I would like to hear the BOE and Lathan explain the attendance policy, or lack thereof. During the 2011-2012, I had at least 2O of my middle school students miss 20 days or more. Some of those 20 missed 40, 50 and, believe it or not, more than 60 days of school. All of those students will go on to the next grade except one. This year in particular there have been ZERO expectations for the students. I assume the BOE would know this information and maybe they don't care as long as things 'appear' to be going well. Maybe if they don't discuss it really isn't happening.
I had a student leave the day after I called DCFS. Funny thing, they never enrolled anywhere else. Missed the last month of school and had more than 46 tardies....bet he will go on to the next grade.
My question is how can an article in the Journal Star talk about the complete FAILURE of the bus schedules at the beginning of the year which left children stranded at bus stops across the city. I am pretty sure the superintendent is charge of the buses as well. There was NO mention of her FAILURE in this area of her job. We have already repeatedly pointed out the lack of books, the lack of qualified PD instructors, the lack of policies regarding....well, just about everything, and now a complete lact of understanding regarding how to get our students to school.
They are seriously going to consider renewing this contract?!? Teachers MUST be held accountable for children who come to the classroom as products of their upbringing (something the teacher has NO control over) and the teachers receive a pink slip. Lathan, who has complete control over all these different areas she FAILED in and she receives a contract extension and a BONUS?!?!?
There are no words for the senselessness of our BOE. NONE....
Don't even get me started on the waste of time the "professional developments" were. Seriously, filling out a survey is PD? Listening to PBIS(not working) information? Have reading coach (joke) talk about a book she has not even read? Spending 3 PD's talking about books that WE, the teacher's read? How is this making ME a better teacher? I am disgusted that my union president allowed the administration to WASTE our time. You want a REAL professional development? How about working with other grade levels for the purposes of articulation? NEVER HAS HAPPENED. Oh, at some schools, their pd's consist of working with their grade level teachers or working alone in their rooms....how is this professional development? WASTE, WASTE, WASTE, of my valuable time. Not that 2 and a half hours hasn't already been added to my week..
Yes, the pjstar is talking about the complete failure of the bus system, and they are hiring for next year. Interesting, teacher jobs aren't even posted for next year, either.
What about students who have outstanding fines (such as charged lunches and lost books) being allowed to walk graduation and receive final report cards?
Did I miss a District 150 personnel change? James Barrett is mentioned in the PJS article as the director of transportation. What happened to Mendoza?
Sharon: I think he is another N.C. transplant!
I noticed that Mr. Mendoza seems to have disappeared as well. When did that happen? Did he take the fall for the bus debacle?
I apologize...I put this in the wrong comment box.
Isn't he the man who stayed home on a snowy day and got fired, or quit?
It was Budzban who resigned over not showing up for work, not Mendoza.
Emerge, is anyone going to "liveblog", the board meeting tonight?
Apparently not. Is there really any doubt that the BOE will continue this circus?
Of course Lathan wants a contract extension. She wants it now, before the ISAT scores are made public. We will end up buying her out like the last carpetbagging snake, Royster...
There was little blog about. The contract details are a bit hazy. She is getting a 2 1/2% raise to $203,000 but no one mentioned whether or not she would get an additional 2 1/2% raise each year. Tonight they gave her a $5000 bonus; she will get the other $5000 dependent on the scores when they "come" in. I think the scores have already been available to districts--just not made public. Also, I hear they are low (all rumor)--so will she get the $5,000 or not.
First of all, I totally disagree with evaluations for teachers and bonuses for superintendents being based on student scores.
So, let me get this straight. A teacher who works her butt off to educate a student who is absent, tardy, does no homework, moves from school to school, has discipline issues, can, under SB7 be fired for not making sure this kid does well on a test-buttttttt, if you're the superintendent, you get a bonus? D150 BOE (boneheads)!
I can't even describe how horrible my year was. I am a primary school teacher in a school that used to be wonderful that now has an idiot for a principal and a reading coach who has no idea how to teach primary reading. Discipline is out of control and teachers are burnt out. I taught the reading exactly the way we were told mostly for fear and had horrible results. The kids were not interested, why, because you can't teach children to read without good literature. The 95% reading passages and reading mastery readings are stupid! Good teachers don't read from a script and allow more than 2 30 second teachable moments. The fact that lathan's contract was renewed, with a bonus, and a raise makes me want to throw up! Especially when the teachers who actually do the work got a 1% pay increase, that was taken by the increase in our insurance. When is enough, enough? We need to revoke our school board, and get rid of lathan before the shit really hits the fan. I used to be proud to work for this district, but now its embarrassing!
I truly believe in what goes around comes around. Lathan and her"friends" will eventually reap what they have sown. An the school board....idiots..for lack of a better word should be required to pay for her buy out when that happens. Aren't they supposed to listen to their constituents? I belive that on 2 of the polls that more than 80% of the respondents wanted to discontinue her contract. Of course if Butlers nose wasn't brown before it sure is NOW....The board obviously doesn't care...have ANY of them been out to a school or even talked to an employee to see what their opinion is? Do they really care? Don't think so.
It is completely heartbreaking that neither the board nor Lathan care about our students. We teachers have made list after list of ALL the things which she has been in charge of that were completely screwed up. They just don't care.
If the BOE doesn't want to listen to the teachers, the very least they could do is actually go into a school and spend some time there. Wouldn't seeing the real deal versus listening to a resume-padding superintendent make more sense before extending her contract???
If the ultimate losers weren't the students of Peoria, I would just throw up my hands and let the whole mess play out without running my mouth about it. We ALL know how this is going to end. Our schools are in complete shambles, a large number of excellent administrators and teachers are gone (forced out or have left), she is gone (probably with some buy-out money in her pocket), her cronies are following along behind her as she plays her pipe, and we are left to clean this whole mess up.
God be with us these next few years. We are going to need You.
Reading the last few comments...and feeling embarrassed for teachers...
I have now decided that regardless of the good done, I will not donate even a single canned good to the South Side Mission as long as the Rev Butler is employed there. There are plenty of other respectable charities.
Why are you embarrassed for the teachers? Most of us do our jobs and do them to the best of our ability despite having no recourse. I didn't have a lot of the discipline issues that some of the teachers had this year but I did have attendance issues. One of my students missed 30+ times second semester and more than 50 days overall and she was promoted. We get told we need to "work with them to make their grades better." Please explain to me how I can make little Sally's grades better when she's gone at least once if not twice a week.
Don't get me started on giving at least 50% credit for "100% effort" and expectations/decisions can be changed on the fly with the staff being told at the same time as the students over the intercom at the end of the day. I like my job and don't do it for the money but as a teacher that not only works in this district but lives in and is a taxpayer in this district, the BOE made a terrible decision.
You know, you can somewhat forgive the ignorant people who think the teachers whine too much and say we need to either do our job or go.
I mean, what do they know? It isn't their job to find out what our job is. They can go off and do their jobs and send their kids to the "good" schools, be involved in their children's lives, and know their kid isn't going to be shot sleeping in his bed or hit by a chair thrown at him in his first grade classroom; their daughter won't be assaulted in the upstairs bathroom at school; no one is going to be screaming the f word on the playground and the parent who is hosting the birthday party will actually be sober when they come to the office with the cupcakes. What does that parent care about what happens down in the south end or over there in the east bluff? I mean, c'mon. Schools aren't that bad, right?!?
HOWEVER, the board of education should make it a part of their "job" to find out what is REALLY going on in these classrooms. We teachers have asked time and time and time again for them to actually visit the schools. Come see our reality. Better yet, I have a novel idea. How about actually believing what your teachers are telling you. It is not just me, not just her or just him, it was 400+ at the board meeting a few weeks ago letting the board members know this simple fact---THERE ARE MAJOR AND MANY PROBLEMS WITH YOUR SUPERINTENDENT!!! And yet, they chose to ignore ALL of us once again. They ignored us when we showed our support for Smith, Coleman, Curtin, and Cox. They ignored us each time they were closing schools.
I am sad to say that each and every one of these decisions made by the board of education have had a NEGATIVE impact on the students of Peoria.
BOARD: If your goal is to cause as much hardship as possible in the lives of hundreds of Peorian students, congratulations---with tonight's vote you can shout loudly:
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
I just sit here and read this mess with tears. We (teachers) have put it out there for our community to please listen to us. No one listens. We need a board turn around. No one listens. Taxpapyers are paying a lot of money for garbage, No one listens. Now what? What do we do now? No one is listening to us. I am sickened and saddened by such disconnect of teachers and community. I blame the media. They are sugar coating Lathan and demorlizing teachers. It's business as usual, but something bad is going to happen and I see it going down soon. Good people are fleeing both as educators and community members. District 150 will fall. Maybe then someone will listen, but it will be too little too late. So sad.
A Very Frightened Teacher of District 150
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