Heavy Hitters!

Teacher sick days down; sub costs up

With a new bonus policy in place, Kanawha County teachers have taken 1,141 fewer sick days of school than they had by the same time last year.

School board members say it's still too early to say if their new employee attendance policy is working.

The policy, which will give bonuses to employees who use three or fewer sick days a year, was intended to help the county cut down on rising substitute teacher costs.

But county administrators say those costs are up so far this year.

Between late August and November, the most recent time period for which statistics are available, the county spent more than $591,000 on substitutes.

That's up from $404,000 during the same time last year and $469,000 during the first quarter of the 2005-06 school year.

Carol Hamric, human resources director for the county, said there are several reasons why substitute costs have continued to rise even as teacher absences decline.

Substitute wages have increased in line with overall teacher pay, and teachers are attending an increasing number of training sessions, she said.

Training days do not count against teachers as absences, but substitutes still are needed in the classrooms on those days, she said.

Through November of this year, teachers took 4,200 sick days, down from 5,341 during the same time last year and 5,658 the year before.

For all school staff, including teachers, counselors, administrators and therapists, absences fell to 4,633, down from 6,022 last year and 6,472 during the first quarter of 2005-06.

Service employees, including custodians, aides, cooks and bus drivers, have missed 4,330 days so far, down from 5,660 last year and 5,277 the year before.

Personnel who work in the county's central office - upper-level administrators such as the superintendent and assistant superintendents - took 619 sick days, a decrease from 900 last year and 898 the year before.

The financial incentives for not using sick days apply to all county school employees.

MORE....

http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/200801240377

HAHAHAHA! WE ARE SCREWED! WE'RE OUTTA CONTROL AND NOBODY CAN STOP IT! MIGHT AS WELL KISS YOUR A$$ GOODBYE! HAHAHA! :lol:

HA! The only way to fix this system is to dismantle it and start over.

That's the idea dawg. Criticize every aspect of it (or run it into the ground on purpose - like FEMA) so that private industry can therefore take over.

why does private industry scare you so much? I ask becuase you mention it on every school system topic. Actually I didnt say it should be private industry, ever. You are a little paranoid on this issue. Sometimes people criticise things because they SUCK, really bad.

School vouchers and charter schools are the answer.

But....at least you can send your kid "out of district" now if you want them to go to a different H.S. Thank goodness for that in my area!

I am sure they will come out of tv and repeal that bonus program since its not doing its intended purpose. (you know SAVE money)!!!!!! This was a hidden pay raise and we are stuck with it. I am just waiting for my child to come home from school and tell me how awful it will be if people don't vote for the excess levy.

Every flaming month at least 4-5 teachers PER SCHOOL have to go to a training MANDATED by the wonderful program TeachFirst in order to receive the mandated directions to pass on to their Professional Learning Communities (grade levels/subject departments/etc) and how to press "play" on the super-exciting videos we are all subjected to on those 2 hr. early out for student days.

Also - EVERY first year teacher (there are 104 new teachers in KC this year) MUST attend several days throughout the year of training to complete the First Year Teacher program. This program is actually mandated by the state. I *think* that if KCS allowed their teachers to attend the state program then the state would pay for the substitutes, but KCS decided to create their own program and therefore pay for their own substitutes.

The county shoots itself in the foot several ways to friday on most issues. This is just one example.

From what I understand that any substitute money a school has left over - they get to keep. So - how is the attendance incentive plan supposed to save the county money again???

THANK YOU!


"Teach First" is the dirtiest little secret to come along in years! First, WE PAY A MILLION DOLLARS FOR THIS STUPID PROGRAM, and the company trainers then train some local teachers to teach the program to all the other teachers.

IN OTHER WORDS... Your child's teacher MUST LEAVE HER CLASSROOM TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH OTHER TEACHERS! That's where the substitutes are brought-in and you KNOW what happens when a class has substitutes! ( Not to mention all the MONEY that costs us! )


ALSO, in many schools the teaching teachers are hand picked by the Principal (his-her pals) and other teachers (often better teachers) are left out.

The teacher who left your child's classroom to learn how to teach this stupid program THEN GETS PAID TO TEACH IT TO OTHER TEACHERS!


This program stinks to high heaven any way you look at it, and it's costing us a BUNDLE!

I can't decide which stinks more --- the pulling out of teachers from their classroom to learn how to teach teachers or the part that the "leader" in Kanawha County of this program is a "retired" assistant superintendent who helped bring in the program to the county to begin with.

Something stinky was going on at Elizabeth Street when that agreement was made.

SCHOOL BOARD'S HIRING OF A COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST


So the board of education has hired a communication specialist to inform the public of goings on.

I thought that Duerring was supposed to be that.... he can talk.

I've actually heard him.

And he makes more than the governor.

Something is way wrong with this picture.

This is how bureaucracies operate. Next the communications specialist will require a secretary, then an assistant, then a secretary for the assistant and so on.

Most of us are children of the sixties, do we not remember how to call attention to these things? Or, have we just gotten too lazy to make signs and walk in a circle chanting?