My school corporation, like all school corporations in Indiana, needs to trim the budget due to cuts made at the state level. Unlike many of the other school corporations, my corporation, by which I mean the local school board, seems to have lost touch with the guiding principles that should be followed when making these tough budget decisions, especially the ones resulting in the layoffs of personnel.
In a nutshell, the school board wanted the teachers to take a reduction in pay. The union did not think a reduction of that magnitude was necessary and offered an alternative plan that more than made up for the budget deficit and no teachers would have lost their jobs. The school board said no to the union proposal and decided to eliminate all physical education and art positions.
The point of this is not to discuss the details of negotiations but to wonder how in the hell are these decisions arrived at and how is eliminating physical education and art from schools going to help make things better, either for the students or for the teachers who are looking at losing their jobs. I've been teaching for over thirty years and hardly a day goes by that I don't wonder where the policy makers, regardless of whether it's at the national, state, or local level, come up with some of the craziness they do. In this case, however, this is beyond the normal silliness. It's just plain cruel.
Indiana has a school board association and it has a code of ethics. I would suggest to all school board members everywhere, but especially my school board, to read carefully the code of ethics.
The first and last items are quoted below:
A school board member should honor the high responsibility which his membership demands: By thinking always in terms of "children first."
A school board member should meet his responsibilities to his community: By winning the community's confidence that all is being done in the best interests of school children.
Put the "children first" - pretty darn simple.
4 comments:
Kind of a no-brainer decision. As in, they didn't invest much brain power in it.
Boy Howdy!
i read an little blurb in the post trib that you kv teachers are greedy and don't care about the little darlings this sounds like it comes from someone who expects you to be a baby sitter for her i think the tide is going to come back in and the ones running the show are not gonna like what it brings in with it i think our pres is right we're gonna get that hope and change but it's gonna come at the expense of the incumbents with any luck people are gonna get wise to the fact that these goofs in charge have spent every dime of our money and our kids money and now they are spending our grandkids money i think it was howard beal that said i'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore cuzzin ricky
Maybe an IQ test for all the politicians before the name goes on the ballot along with a passing grade in Economics 101. I'm just glad I'm about at the end of my career. I'll be on easy street with all that money I've amassed from being greedy all these years in the lucrative field of secondary education.
Post a Comment