HIV scare puts Mo. school in uncertain territory

[jennielynn1970]

The district only uses the church facilities, the teachers are relocated to those spaces teach. And only some of our schools receive state funding. It depends on the poverty level of the community, and the amount of students on free and reduced lunch. Those who qualify get Title 1 funding and have more teacher assistants in the classrooms, smaller class sizes (usually about 15-20 kids vs. 30 per classroom), they have breakfast programs, and ASPIRE, which is state funded afterschool activities. The schools in our district that do not fall into that category are really screwed when it comes to the "extras".

We could get those portable classrooms, they have for other schools, but many times it comes down cost, available space outside of the school (many of schools don't have parking lots, teachers park on the street), and they try to keep what small amount of playground space they have for the kids.

Right after the stock market crashed the other week, a memo went out from our superintendent. They cut almost every possible activity after school you could think of because they lost so much money that they had put into stocks. It sucks. I mean, the kids are losing out, not the administrators. Admin complained about how tight the budget is, and when they asked the superintendent why he didn't turn down his raise (which was about 11% I think), he said no, he deserved that raise. Ummm... kids don't deserve to have activities?? If they wanted to take my raise for the year so that they could fund an activity, seriously, I would be fine with that. I have to pay bills, but I'm still there because I love to teach kids.

Our present superintendent had it put into his contract that EVEN if he left the district (fired or whatever, we've had major issues under his watch), he would still be paid for the rest of his 5 year contract. I still can't believe the school board OK'd that one.

[blue]

The district only uses the church facilities, the teachers are relocated to those spaces teach. And only some of our schools receive state funding. It depends on the poverty level of the community, and the amount of students on free and reduced lunch. Those who qualify get Title 1 funding and have more teacher assistants in the classrooms, smaller class sizes (usually about 15-20 kids vs. 30 per classroom), they have breakfast programs, and ASPIRE, which is state funded afterschool activities. The schools in our district that do not fall into that category are really screwed when it comes to the "extras".

We could get those portable classrooms, they have for other schools, but many times it comes down cost, available space outside of the school (many of schools don't have parking lots, teachers park on the street), and they try to keep what small amount of playground space they have for the kids.

Right after the stock market crashed the other week, a memo went out from our superintendent. They cut almost every possible activity after school you could think of because they lost so much money that they had put into stocks. It sucks. I mean, the kids are losing out, not the administrators. Admin complained about how tight the budget is, and when they asked the superintendent why he didn't turn down his raise (which was about 11% I think), he said no, he deserved that raise. Ummm... kids don't deserve to have activities?? If they wanted to take my raise for the year so that they could fund an activity, seriously, I would be fine with that. I have to pay bills, but I'm still there because I love to teach kids.

Our present superintendent had it put into his contract that EVEN if he left the district (fired or whatever, we've had major issues under his watch), he would still be paid for the rest of his 5 year contract. I still can't believe the school board OK'd that one.

Are you a union member? You can PM me if that is too personal to post.

[jennielynn1970]

LOL. Do I sound like a union member? Why would that be too personal to post? I know there are pluses and minuses to every union. Believe me.

Actually, yes, I am a union member, and I was on the executive committee as well. It just got to be too much to be dealing with, and a lack of interest with the rest of the teachers to get involved. They wanted all the help, wanted to bitch and moan, but never wanted to help out.

We had a picnic at the end of the school year a few years ago. My co-chair and I put it together. It was at a local park, FREE to any union member (we have 1200 teachers in our district, and a 90+% membership in the union), and it was on a 1/2 day of school, so all you had to do was drive about 10 mins. from any school to get there. Burgers on the grill, hotdogs, bbq chicken, all kinds of picnic foods, iced tea and lemonade (BYO). Volleyball courts, basketball.. it was a gorgeous place, and it was for our 35th anniversary as a union.

Out of the 1100+ members, guess how many actually came??

Maybe 100. It was FREE. On a sunny afternoon. On a half day of school, and family members were welcome.

The comments we got were "Why couldn't you bring it to us at our own schools?"

Lazy, freaking, apathetic people. It just ticks me off, even to this day. Can ya tell, lol!