And teachers work more with no extra pay. Sad deal all the way around.

Dallas schools not Denton

Heard this morning that with the extra 45 minutes of work, it brings the DISD teacher work day to 8.5 hours, with a 30 minute lunch.

If I was a teacher in any ISD I would have already quit.

How do they close 11 schools and only lay off 177?

Source......link?

Wfaa.com

Not one mention of the superintendent? Why?

hmmmmmmm...Why in the world would DISD have to close 11 schools.....why, why, why........?

just get rid of 1 administrator and save the same amount of money.

i loved the video from the meeting yesterday.

reason #2364 not to live in Dallas.

http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-dallas-isd-board-votes-to-close-11-schools-board-also-extends-teacher-work-day-by-45-minutes-cw33-s-giselle-phelps-reports-20120126,0,3591014.story

I hope they get this shiz settled whether it be dallas or wherever by the time my kiddo finishes up her college for being a teacher in about 18 months so she won`t feel like all her time has been wasted .......Bill

dallas has schools?

whoever figures out the DISD's budget are morons.

I don't get the outrage.

Anything that reduces the harm done to the area's children by the DISD can only be seen as a good thing.

You can all thank Perry for this. He is a big reason for budget cuts. They want all public schools to fail so that we can use vouchers and start funding private schools.

Oh, yes, it's all Perry's fault. It's not the fault of our federal government that won't close the borders and forces us to educate everyone. It's Perry's fault. It's not the fault of the administrators that until recently allowed employees to have a school credit card. It's Perry's fault. It's not the fault of past superintendents like Yvonne Gonzalez that embezzled money. It's Perry's fault. It's not the fact that the economy is in the tank, the housing prices were inflated (due to the federal government forced banks to lend money to people that couldn't pay it back) and so were the property values...and those have come crashing down, as have tax revenues. It's Perry's fault.

well said.

Exactly, well stated LSS. I'm surprised they aren't blaming the teachers on this.

How dare he question Perry The Great!!!!!!

I've never said Perry was great, or that I agree with everything he has done. However, to place the blame for this on Perry is to display one's ignorance.

i see a lot of resemblence between Perry and Bush. they both cant talk for sh1t to an audience...

You make that sound like it's a bad thing.

I always thought that displaying one's ignorance was the purpose of internet forums.

Well, they're not going to touch Hinojosa's $328,237 salary, i'm sure.

When the economy sours and tax revenue falls, public sector jobs must be reduced.
Please teach your children this simple economic fact.

Hear hear, LSS.

Of course not...He's not the superintendent anymore.

Just poking you with a stick.... Just seeing someone defend Perry gives me the creeps...

I would kill to have that workday!!

Well, anybody's going to be better than Hinojosa's predecessor, Mike Moses. He was Lubbock ISD Superintendent for some time, and did a terrible job. Granted, things haven't gotten any better with our district here, except for moving out to the better-managed smaller district in SW Lubbock.

Don't forget Summer is off.

Sorry for the confusion, since i have no idea of what I am talking about and am ignorant. Perry is not directly responsible for this particular closing, but I can tell you that Sh*t rolls down hill from the top. All I am saying is that Perry is not doing anything to help the situation. He is a BIG proponent of the cutting funding for public schools. Agree or not, I can tell you that a lack of funding leads to poor teachers, which leads to things just like this. It is a domino effect. I agree that sometimes cuts have to be made, I just don't agree in cutting education. The department of education has ruined public education, we were number 1 in the world until it was created. I just don't believe cutting schools, bussing them to another school and doubling the sixe of the classroom because no learning is going on. I can tell you this because I am a teacher and have taught in a classroom with 35 kids, it doesn't work. Pery could care less about public schools and you all just wait. If perry gets what he wants in Texas, then your tax dollars will to to funding public and private schools, which will in turn make public schools all but gone in due time. And yes i have a problem with that. An education is a very important thing and our governent is doing everything they can to destroy it.

I can tell you that where we work 98% of teachers work up at the school until 7 or 8 o clock, regardless of what time we are officially out. Most teachers are dedicated way beyond working just an 8 hour work day. But again this is why we have no good teachers wanting to go into the field.

We've given more and more for decades and we still have poor teachers.

What more and more have we given? My district is being cut big time due to no funding from the state.

I worked for GISD and know some teachers...this statement is hilarious. Unless they are volunteering to coach or participate in compensated extra curricular activities then are gone with the wind shortly after the bell rings.

I have nothing against the teaching profession except for the pity parties they throw themselves. It's a job just like any other...well except for the excuses for not producing a quality product that would not be tolerated in the private sector.

That is in YOUR school district! I am talking about mine. We have teachers working and tutoring kids for no extra pay to help them pass these stupid Tests. So laugh all you want but this is the truth here. in what capacity did you work?

It's not that way in Plano either. Drive by any school parking lot after 5 pm and it's empty with the exception of the occasional game at the middle school.

And i have never thrown a pity party for myself and have never heard anyone up here do the same. And i can tell you that our teachers are held accountable, we had one fired last week in the middle of the year and if our scores are right, we are let go. I am thankful for my job because I know there are many without jobs, but I can tell you that the average pay and lack of discipline, which the state has put laws in place that hurts us in that capacity, and the lack of funding and very large clasrooms, i can see why there aren't good teachers.

Again that may be but there are tons of 8-5 jobs where people leave right at 5 o'clock. And the way teachers are treated in some instances and putting up with some students all day i can't blame them for wanting to go home when it is time to go home.

Back to the topic, from what I understand DISD (which autocorrects to Disdain) closed those schools because they were under capacity and were old buildings that were costly to maintain. I thought that seemed like a smart decision, but I am not affected by the closures and admit not knowing the finer details and am not caught up in the emotions of it all.

i would love to have a 3 month vacation.

How much would DISD save by cutting all sports? The primary job of a school is to teach Johnny to read. Closing schools and teachers should be the last choice after those.

11 million cut by closing the under capacity schools, with 13 million more left to cut

why don't you ask the NCAA how they would feel about that. ha

"I believe the children are our future"

-Randy Watson

Greetings LSS:
I have been in confinement for a while, but we had a bet about perry losing the campaign, i won. The bet was what would be in your signature for a week or two.
You can enter "perry sux" & I will consider us even

Mama told me this morning she has 75 more teaching days left and she will have 30 years in at Memphis City Schools.

She has to keep tellin me each day, so I dont forget that I will have to put up with her all day after that.

I can tell you this as well, and this coming from a coach, if your school is underperforming that badly, then i would absolutely cut athletics because education is the reason why we are there. And until the student performed well in the classroom there would beno extracurricular unless it was academic related. Now i dont have a problem with the salary a sup makes because they are basically the ceo of a school district. Now in this case if the sup is doing their job then get ridof them but running a school district is hard work and they deserve a good salary.

Maybe we need a governor that believes in schools. He took 3 mil from the schools in Wichita Falls which meant getting rid of many many teachers and then gave them 2 mil to build a walking track. How cool is that?

He also wants to "borrow" from trs and use it to fund otherthings, that is money i have earned. But never mind that.

My property value has fallen around 8% since 2008. I pay school taxes based on the value of my property. Under “Robin Hood” my school taxes go to the State of Texas for “fairness” redistribution. The State of Texas sends back some money to my local school district after funding someone else’s district from a portion. So my property taxes have decreased, less tax revenue goes to the State, after “Robin Hood” less comes back and this results in fewer teachers employed.

Fortunately for the public sector Obama sent borrowed money to the States to defer the public sector job losses a few years. Unfortunately the bailout ran out and the public sector is feeling what the private sector experienced.

I know it sucks but tens of thousands of private sector jobs could have been saved if people would have paid more for products and services in the private sector…but they didn’t and they won’t. The "public sector" can was kicked down the road and you are where the private sector was three years ago. Best of luck. I pay enough taxes already.

I am not disagreeing with you. I dont agree with robin hood either. But 50% ofour funding comes from the state and we have a high tax base. But without that state funding we will sink all the same. Another problem is the lotto. Very little of it is used for the purpose it was intended. They use that money for lots of other things. That is another government problem. If they used it for what it was intended for that would help tremendously.

The girlfriend is going into teaching. She's not been able to get a job, so she's doing her Masters in history education while subbing. I'd always hoped she might go do something that paid a bit better, but she's decided what she wants to do. I guess it beats all the weeping when she was trying to figure out a career path.

Tell her to notget frustrated. Teaching is a noble profession and it is worth all the trouble if if you only touch the life of one kid. It is tough most days but a very fulfilling job.

Rattle that chain a bit and see what happens.

Nope. She hits pitches that only dogs and those within 3 feet can hear. I can't move away that fast.

I don't buy the lack of funding argument.

There is enough money there, but there is no will to

a) Teach
b) Learn
c) Winnow out those who refuse to do either, as appropriate.


There are so many extraneous demands on a teacher's day that the number of minutes teaching fundamental core curriculum would shock most of you.

I see no reason why those not wishing to learn should be in the school. If your purpose there is to disrupt and keep others from learning...get the he77 out.

When parents are not involved in their child's education, and encourage them to learn, there is no pile of money high enough to get the job done.

Teachers need to be encouraged to actually teach, not politic. Far too administrators are motivated by one thing only...parents who do not complain. He77, if more teachers were doing their jobs there would be a lot more complaints. When parents are calling in complaining that their kids have to do homework...the teachers are teaching.

Tell her she should do math or science instead and she won't have trouble finding a job.

I am not an expert on school funding, but I think you may be a little wrong here. It is my understanding that a "rich" district can pay a certain amount of excess to a technology cooperative that is for the benefit of various districts including "poor" districts. The districts usually enter into contracts concerning this set up. If a "rich" district does not enter into this agreements then they have to pay money to the state for disbursement.

Thank you. I love to teach, but I want the students to do their part. After 21 years, we have reached an area that disturbs me. They want us to teach students who really do not want to learn and then if they do not learn, its our fault. What I mean by learn is they do not want to put in the time to study on their own. They assume if they turn in something that resembles homework, they should receive an "A."

Pilot, I appreciate what you wrote due to it being accurate. I will be the first to admit I enjoy my summers off and the other breaks. I will continue to put in the extra time just like any other employee in any profession that cares about what they do. My one complaint is how top heavy most districts are. You can't tell me you need an asst. to the asst. to the asst. who has a secretary doing all the work.

Sorry for the soapbox sermon, but I enjoy my job and will do whatever it takes to ensure students who want to learn, have that opportunity.

The whole school funding debacle is redistribution at it's finest. As I said...I pay enough, you probably do too.

"The state’s practice of collecting portions of property tax revenue from wealthier districts and redistributing it to poorer ones, also known as “recapture,” was a rallying cry for districts challenging the school finance system in a lawsuit that made its way through the courts from 2001 to 2005.

Though Robin Hood has been a political flash point since its inception in 1993, it has now become settled law."

<snip>

"The Austin district still sends more to the state through Robin Hood than any other. In 2011 those payments will amount to $111 million — more than three times what the second-highest-contributing district, Plano, in Collin County, will give up."

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-educat...-texas-schools/

Roller....there are several teachers in my family.

My sister is hanging it up after this year. She is retiring early not because she does not still enjoy working with the kids, but because all of the extraneous BS that she must put up with. Her new principal is insane. My sister is certified as a principal and gave up the assistant principal position to get away from the gal they have in there as principal now.

Indiana where she teaches has gone to a teacher rating system that is designed to encourage politics over everything. A teacher's evaluation has little to do with their actual ability to impart knowledge.

At age 61, she has had enough. My nephew and his wife both hold masters degrees in education and both are exploring other career opportunities.

Yes. I agree with this. I have some teachers in my family and no they are not in any union.

You are correct, it has gone political. Just like or political system, very top heavy and the lowest person on the totem pole doing all the work and catching all the BS.

I know one district that has gone the opposite direction because of their new supt. Crowley has an old supt. that came out of retirement to help and has done an amazing job. Started at the top and worked down instead of the reverse like most of the districts in the metroplex. If you start trimming from the top, you start balancing the budget much quicker.

In WFISD if a teacher wants an electrical appliance in her room she or he must pay for the electricity to run said appliance.

That doesn't surprise me. Like I said, SOME districts are able to enter in to agreements with poorer districts in a tech coop for the benefit of all the districts in the agreement. I have primarily represented small to mid-sized districts who can benefit from such coops. Not sure if the big ones can effectively.

Can't they draw unemployment and make about the same?

I know how you all feel, Memphis City Schools are in the red by $75 Mil, cause the former mayor ( King Willie ) put it somewhere and now they cant get the money they need, the current SUP just got a raise to 1.5 mil a year, so now they are going to combine Memphis City Schools with Shelby County Schools. They are talking about laying off over 200 teachers, and closing 15 schools buildings.

Mama has been teaching here for 30 years now and she said that the last 5 have been the worse cause of Money and NO Child Left Behind BS. Yes she is a Math teacher and she could find a job anywhere, and yes it takes a very special person to be a teacher. I could have never done it without burying a few over the years.

It's kinda like blaming everything but the rain on Obama

Remind me who Obama blamed again just the other day...It's been three years, and yet it's still Bush's fault.

I, and many like me, only blame Obama for everything under the sun as a way to point out how ludicrous it is to blame everything on Bush. I will always do my best to place the blame squarely where it belongs, until someone tries to blame Bush for something that was not his fault, then it's time to break out "It's Obama's fault!!!" Liberals did it to us for eight years, and are still doing it three years later.

Over here in Sachse which is part of Garland, the teachers are racing out of the classroom when the bell rings. I have gone back in the school 10 mims after pickimg up my son to get some makeup papers only to find the classroom locked and almost everyone gone.

My wife is a teacher and I can guarantee you that teachers are gone within half an hour of the bell ringing in her district, at the absolute latest, which means the parking lot it all but empty at 4:30.

It was the same way when I was in high school 10-15 years ago. Teachers were gone quick.

Teacher salary isn't the issue here either. My wife makes very good money to never work overtime and get a 3 month summer break, 2 weeks at Christmas and a week at Thanksgiving and Spring break. The worst part of the teaching profession nowadays is dealing with idiotic parents.

TRS retirement is quite nice.

that and being handcuffed by policy that prevents teacher's from maintaining control of their classes.

You're right, that too.

We would all be better off if that happened.