"Unabashedly Pro-Union" --Mike Antonucci of the EIA.
I'm a teacher and I'm involved in my union. I highlight teacher union happenings all around the United States, including grievances, contract negotiations, elections and strikes. Contact me at drhomeslice (at) hotmail.com
Monday, October 08, 2007
Seneca Valley Teachers
I've been getting a lot of hits about Seneca Valley lately. Stay tuned, more will come later.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I agree that good teachers should get paid more. I also agree that Unions should not protect bad teachers and that teacher performance should be reviewed by a manager outside of the union who has access to reviews from parents. Tenure should not exist PERIOD! I think that any elementary teacher strike in October is foul and outrageous and that SVEA ought to interrupt their summers in June instead of a student's fall. Fire the garbage teachers, eliminate useless specials like music and art, and give more students, assistants, and a lot more money to the good teachers.
Good salary: $55000.00 per year Nice Raise: 4% per year Greedy teachers? Worthless
If Seneca Valley Teachers want North Allegheny Salaries, send them a resume. Holding districts hostage to demand raises for all, regardless of quality is past its prime. I manage 20 people for a large corporation and, with merit based salary increases, about 40% of my population cannot get any raise each year - and they deserve something. Get over the entitlement mentality and earn you income - don't just demand it!
As a RESIDENT of the School District for some 35 years, I am absolutley DISGUSTED with the LACK of INSIGHT and Disingenuous nature of this "current batch" of, shall we say, union members who portray themselves as part of the teaching community. Yes, I believe in unions if they are not OVERBEARINGand MISGUIDED as this one is. So many people have mentioned the fact that these Union Members do not pay any type of Penalty for WALKING OUT. You must pay a price for the time you are OUT. That is why this is a Cakewalk for these Union Members. Where are the replacement workers? Remember that should be the next reminder to these Union members. Replacement workers will help them focus on why they have a job in the first place. I have a child who is a University Professor, you know PHD and all of that. He has told me what a joke this Seneca Valley Education Assn. is. Many, NOT ALL, but Many of these Union Members are COMPLETELY DEAD WOOD. Mr. Adametz was correct. It's really a shame that someone so HONEST has opted to no longer offer his SERVICES to the BOARD as he is sorely needed. Ha, many of we OLD FOLKS Laugh at WHAT Senece Valley considers to be THEIR QUALITY EDUCAITONAL STAFF. WHAT A JOKE!!!!
I keep hearing and reading blogs about merit pay systems for the Seneca Valley teachers. As far as I can tell the school board has not even attempted such a proposal to the teachers. Why? Well probably because merit ay systems are hard to administer and costly. Most attempts in designing a system in the country have failed miserably and or bankrupt the system. Also, how would you design such a system? On PSSA test scores you say? PSSA only tests English and Math which comprises only 20% of the teachers.... how would you fairly evaluate the others?? Sounds like a simple idea, but trust me its frought with difficulties.... but to those of you who are not yet convinced, I say design it, show it to the school board and have them negotiate ito a contract with the teachers. As far as I have seen the school board has not proposed anything in a long time.
I would rather suggest that the Seneca Valley community is not so much interested in merit pay as it is in firing the bottom 1% of teachers. If that's the true issue, the community may be interested to learn that a performance appraisal system is already in place. If a teacher gets two unsatisfactory ratings in a row there is nothing the union can do to save that teachers job. All this hype and gripe about tenure - sheeez!! All tenure does is force the administration to have "just cause". If a teacher gets an unsatisfactory rating, the district must then put a teacher on a performance improvement plan and then if a teacher does not improve - they are removed. Without this system teachers would be at the mecry of one irate parent that was dissatified with their kids grade (we all know parents like this and we all know how forceful and demanding they can be). Anyway - I thank you for taking the time to read this blog and hopefully you may have become more enlightened on a few hot topics in the community!! I would suggest that you may want to redirect your energies to making sure school administrators use systems already in place and not trying to reinvent the wheel. Besides what does any of this have to do with the current contract anyway???
"eliminate useless specials like music and art"- ugh i was agreeing with 'seneca valley parent of a special needs child' until i read that. It pisses me off and im greatly offended by it, as would the couple hundred some students who are currently in 'useless' classes such as band, chorus, and art. Obviously this person is not right in the head or else they would realize that many students are going into those different fields of study in college such as I am. Ignorance is such a tragedy.
5 comments:
I agree that good teachers should get paid more. I also agree that Unions should not protect bad teachers and that teacher performance should be reviewed by a manager outside of the union who has access to reviews from parents. Tenure should not exist PERIOD! I think that any elementary teacher strike in October is foul and outrageous and that SVEA ought to interrupt their summers in June instead of a student's fall. Fire the garbage teachers, eliminate useless specials like music and art, and give more students, assistants, and a lot more money to the good teachers.
Good salary: $55000.00 per year
Nice Raise: 4% per year
Greedy teachers? Worthless
If Seneca Valley Teachers want North Allegheny Salaries, send them a resume. Holding districts hostage to demand raises for all, regardless of quality is past its prime. I manage 20 people for a large corporation and, with merit based salary increases, about 40% of my population cannot get any raise each year - and they deserve something. Get over the entitlement mentality and earn you income - don't just demand it!
As a RESIDENT of the School District for some 35 years, I am absolutley DISGUSTED with the LACK of INSIGHT and Disingenuous nature of this "current batch" of, shall we say, union members who portray themselves as part of the teaching community. Yes, I believe in unions if they are not OVERBEARINGand MISGUIDED as this one is. So many people have mentioned the fact that these Union Members do not pay any type of Penalty for WALKING OUT. You must pay a price for the time you are OUT. That is why this is a Cakewalk for these Union Members. Where are the replacement workers? Remember that should be the next reminder to these Union members. Replacement workers will help them focus on why they have a job in the first place. I have a child who is a University Professor, you know PHD and all of that. He has told me what a joke this Seneca Valley Education Assn. is. Many, NOT ALL, but Many of these Union Members are COMPLETELY DEAD WOOD. Mr. Adametz was correct. It's really a shame that someone so HONEST has opted to no longer offer his SERVICES to the BOARD as he is sorely needed. Ha, many of we OLD FOLKS Laugh at WHAT Senece Valley considers to be THEIR QUALITY EDUCAITONAL STAFF. WHAT A JOKE!!!!
Seneca Valley Community Misdirected
I keep hearing and reading blogs about merit pay systems for the Seneca Valley teachers. As far as I can tell the school board has not even attempted such a proposal to the teachers. Why? Well probably because merit ay systems are hard to administer and costly. Most attempts in designing a system in the country have failed miserably and or bankrupt the system. Also, how would you design such a system? On PSSA test scores you say? PSSA only tests English and Math which comprises only 20% of the teachers.... how would you fairly evaluate the others?? Sounds like a simple idea, but trust me its frought with difficulties.... but to those of you who are not yet convinced, I say design it, show it to the school board and have them negotiate ito a contract with the teachers. As far as I have seen the school board has not proposed anything in a long time.
I would rather suggest that the Seneca Valley community is not so much interested in merit pay as it is in firing the bottom 1% of teachers. If that's the true issue, the community may be interested to learn that a performance appraisal system is already in place. If a teacher gets two unsatisfactory ratings in a row there is nothing the union can do to save that teachers job. All this hype and gripe about tenure - sheeez!! All tenure does is force the administration to have "just cause". If a teacher gets an unsatisfactory rating, the district must then put a teacher on a performance improvement plan and then if a teacher does not improve - they are removed. Without this system teachers would be at the mecry of one irate parent that was dissatified with their kids grade (we all know parents like this and we all know how forceful and demanding they can be).
Anyway - I thank you for taking the time to read this blog and hopefully you may have become more enlightened on a few hot topics in the community!! I would suggest that you may want to redirect your energies to making sure school administrators use systems already in place and not trying to reinvent the wheel. Besides what does any of this have to do with the current contract anyway???
"eliminate useless specials like music and art"- ugh i was agreeing with 'seneca valley parent of a special needs child' until i read that. It pisses me off and im greatly offended by it, as would the couple hundred some students who are currently in 'useless' classes such as band, chorus, and art. Obviously this person is not right in the head or else they would realize that many students are going into those different fields of study in college such as I am.
Ignorance is such a tragedy.
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