Check out the March 6 entry from the Times Union:
Item: Consider creating four new staff positions: information and accountability chief officer, director of high school acceleration programs, supervisor of district athletics and a hearing officer.
What it means: The information and accountability officer would oversee all academic program research, assessment and evaluations, with a salary range of $108,000 to $162,000 a year.
The salary range for each of the two supervisor positions is $49,111 to $89,528. Jon Fox is retiring from the athletic director job, and district is changing to a district-level supervisor/administrative position overseeing all athletic directors in the district. The current hearing officer is a school-based assistant principal, and the district is changing the job to a district-level supervisor position. Both positions would be paid for with money already budgeted.
The salary range for high school acceleration programs director has not been determined.
This is fairly typical of school board agendas. They inform the public how taxpayer dollars are being spent and for what purpose.
Read what's next on the agenda:
Item: Consider suspending without pay three teachers for misconduct or unprofessionalism in unrelated incidents.
What it means: *Teacher A*, a first-grade teacher at Whitehouse Elementary School, faces a 30-day suspension. She is accused of sending an email containing racial stereotypes to the entire staff of her school.
*Teacher B*, a Wolfson High School social studies teacher, faces a 15-day suspension. He is accused of telling dirty jokes in class and talking about his sex life with students.
*Teacher C*, a second-grade teacher at Highlands Elementary School, faces a 15-day suspension. He is accused of dragging a resistant student to the school’s clinic in January.
(*The teachers' names are listed in the Times-Union article. We have not compounded the error by reprinting their names. You may access their names via the link. )
When did personnel matters become public record? When did accusations become actual findings of FACT? I've been told by bloggers and others watching education in Florida that there is a war on teachers, and after reading this public flogging of teachers in the Times-Union, before they were actually "convicted" of an alleged crime against children or bad judgment, I believe there is an effort to point out how "bad" teachers are in the public schools.
I'd love to hear the teachers' side of the story. I have been on the receiving end of bad teachers; so have my children. But to publish these accusations before they have been investigated shows an incredible bias against the teachers and should cease. Any disgruntled parent, student, or an adult with an agenda can make an accusation. It doesn't mean that the accusation is true. If these accusations are true, then the teachers should face some disciplinary action. As it is now, they are publicly named and presumed guilty until proven innocent.
Did you read about the TFA teacher who was wrongly accused of abusing a child (he sent him to the office) and was sued for $2 Million? It was a set up by the mother. By printing these allegations against these teachers without finding of fact, this looks like a set up by the Duval County School Board against teachers.
This is an atrocious practice by the Duval County School Board and the Times-Union. It clearly shows the education reform agenda of Jeb Bush and the school choicers. Point the finger at accused teachers, publicly broadcast the accusation and lead the public to assume public education teachers are unprofessional. The only good teachers, apparently, are those in charters or those teachers children can access through the voucher system. This is shameful.
