Meeting started around 7:45PM. Hensley, Marino and Keller were absent. Mr. Butz presided over the meeting.
Shafer principal, Mr. William Mudlock was there tonight to award The Maureen Crawford Award to Shafer 1st grade teacher Ms. Barbara Maitski. This award is presented by the IU20 to a regular education teacher who utilizes inclusive strategies with special needs students. Last year Ms. Maitski's 1st grade class successfully mainstreamed an autistic support student in the class and she was recognized for her efforts. Ms. Maitski commented that "it was a wonderful opportunity for her and her students".
High School student reps were there to give an update on the student council activities. Currently, Homecoming (Oct 12th) is occupying most of their time in addition to planning for the Ms. Courtney Diacont memorial game (this Sat - 9/29) as well as the class community service project.
Ms. Rischoff's Financial Update included her report from an Act 1 conference and a item from the Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System that showed a return of 23% for the past year. If I heard correctly, due to the high rate of return, the district's contribution for next year was calculated to be approximately 6.2%, as compared to over 7% last year.
Our solicitor introduced a new lawyer (Mr. Gary Brienza) that will be working with the school board/district in the future.
Dr. Lesky stated that very soon, the administration will begin looking at staffing needs, starting with K-8 for the 2009-2010 school year (that's the year the new MS is scheduled to open). They will look at all options (such as what would be required if they decide to offer all day KG) and how those decisions will affect future staffing needs. Another example of programs offered and how that affects subsequent grade staffing levels, was what would happen if they decide to offer an additional language at the MS or expand the offering to 7th and 8th grade? By no means is anything set in stone right now, these are just examples of how program offerings will affect staffing needs.
During community corner, the BES PTA rep stated that she was getting questions/comments from parents that the BES teachers were spending too much time in meetings after school. She was particularly concerned with teachers having too many meetings and not having time to plan, meet/discuss with parents or help kids who may need extra attention/remediation. Dr. Lesky stated that this is a personnel issue and the district is just getting into a schedule and that they were looking at the situation and "certainly going to look at using our teachers effectively". He finished by saying "if it's not working, we'll adjust".
Meeting adjourned around 8:35 PM.
11 comments:
I have heard the same thing from LNES teachers about them having an excess of meetings (after school EVERY day!?) and not having any time to prep, address student concerns, etc. It seems that this is not just a Bushkill or LNES issue. I wonder if the other buildings are having similar issues??
its the same at all elementary schools. 2:15-3:15 meetings every day. School day for elementary teachers is now 7:45-3:15.
what are these meetings about?? Are they a good use of the teachers time after school? My daughters teacher now has "office hours" on Mondays. We can only contact her from 2:15-3:15 on Mondays because that is her scheduled "parent contact" day. If I leave a message on other days of the week, I was told that if it wasn't urgent it may not be returned until the following Monday because she is in meetings every other day. This policy seems new to me. I never experienced communication restrictions like this when my other daughers went to this school.
In my opinion, administration feels elementary teachers have too much time on their hands so they have come up with meetings for them to attend. Again, my own opinion....this is payback from the contract from last year. Not sure if anything has changed at the secondary level.
Elementary Teachers get their prep every day, but it's only 40 minutes. Secondary from what I can figure out gets twice as much! Let's see one subject, twice as much prep, and the others 40 mins for 6 subjects. Doesn't seem equitable to me.
This definitely needs to be addressed. Teachers are overwhelmed because 40 minutes of prep time is not nearly enough for the teachers to plan/organize quality lessons, assess our students growth, carry out IEP's, and communicate effectively with parents. This is also producing a low morale which cannot be helping our children. In addition to all the meeting time, I have also heard that the teachers need to provide a log of time spent (i.e. phone calls made, emails) and this does smell of administration retribution as a result of the sticky contract issues last year. Teachers are professionals and should be treated as such. When they are micromanaged - it helps no one - especially our children.
I agree that meetings just for the sake of having meetings is ridiculous. I was also told that phone calls regarding children at LNES would only be returned on Mondays, unless it was stated that it was an emergency. This is ludicrous! If I leave a message for a teacher on a Tuesday, I would expect to have a response prior to the following Monday. Yes, it is possible to contact every teacher via e-mail, but sometimes you would just prefer to talk "ear to ear." It would be interesting to have a list of what the content of the meetings has been thus far.
I think the whole situation is very unfortunate and yes, the children are the ones who are paying the ultimate price.
I'm not sure why admin might think elementary teachers only need 40 mins to plan for their day. If there are staff out there not doing what they are supposed to do, then address those people.
What a slap in the face to those teachers who have always gone above and beyond and who continue to show up way before 7:45am to plan accordingly and are working late into the night to finish planning, grading and everything else that goes into an elementary education. Good teachers will leave and go where they are respected and that's just too bad.
Maybe if the teacher contract required teachers to work a full 8 hours a day by coming in to work earlier for planning, they would have more time after the school meet/discuss with parents or help kids who may need extra attention/remediation.
At the MS and HS, in most cases, the teachers respond within a day or so to a parent inquiry. Also, teachers are available during activity period and after school as well.
At LNES, my guess is that this is the principal exerting her control over the teachers.
This has been escalating to new levels each year, and has been doing so for some time now since she took over. I don't believe this is retribution for last years contract negotiations, but an example of someone with power trying to get more based on the fact it was happening prior to the dispute.
This could be the reason why so many good teachers have left LNES over the past couple of years.
anonymous 8:55-I disagree with some of your ideas. It's my belief that the principal is being directed by admin to exert control over the teachers. It has escalated this year to the point of scheduling meetings for teachers every day-this is overkill! If I were a teacher, I would be highly offended that admin feels the need to micromanage. After all, the teachers are TEACHERS, not students, of the grade their in, and as such should be treated as professionals. I think the teachers are responsible enough to manage themselves. Prior to this year, teachers were available after school for parent phone calls and parent meetings. These calls and meetings directly benefitted children. Things worked well until this year, so what's changed that they now need to be told what to do? These 'meetings' have directly affected students, parent-teacher time to discuss students, and bottom line, teacher morale (which will also affect students).
I also believe, as previous posts have mentioned, that this is a direct effect from the teacher contract. Good teachers left, I agree, but hold on tight, because the others who are there now will probably get tired of this control soon and start leaving in waves. Is this good for the students? Heck no.
To the School Board/Admin: I say-wake up and do what's right for the children. Stop planning all these meetings that are taking teacher availability away. Look at admin positions and ask yourself, are they all necessary? Do they directly benefit the students? Some positions are questionable at best. My point is that TEACHERS directly affect students and we should do everything possible to create a positive environment(it was there before)....excellent teachers=supportive admin+supportive parents+great kids. We can do this!
Good comment "aparent"! And anonymous 8:55 I will also disagree with you. This ISN"T just a LNES problem ALL Elementary schools have these meetings!
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