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School Board fires superintendent
The Duval County School Board has scheduled a special Tuesday meeting to discuss Superintendent Joseph Wise's contract, which extends through Oct. 31, 2009. Four of seven votes are needed to terminate his employment. Wise has been superintendent since November 2005.
Tia Mitchell's video blog that summarizes today's meeting and the events leading up to it has now been posted. To watch it click here.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Tia, thanks for the updates today. While many are critical of teachers tracking this event and commenting on it, it was helpful to have some grasp of what was going on which will have such a huge and direct impact on so many of us. It also felt good, frankly, to finally be able to share feelings and thoughts that were not "wise" to share in the past. Keep up the good work and don't forget to help us see some hope for the future.
I am a teacher and a parent in DCPS. I have to say good riddance to the man. I get paid 40k a year. I work 70-80 hours a week. That averages to about eleven dollars an hour. Don't get me wrong. Years ago I would have fallen over myself for that. But that doesn't even make a dent now. Then I have to buy my own supplies for the classroom because there is no money left in the budget to even make copies. My child has to take packages of copy paper to class so that the teacher can take it home and make copies on her own machine at home. I understand that providing for your child and his/her education should be #1 in your priorities and it is for me, but this has gotten way out of control. All of this so that he can make 275k a year and give me more paperwork to fill out, more students in my class, more reason to fear for my job if my kids don't make the grade no matter where they were when I got them, and no help because the ESE situation has been so messed up because of his mismanagement.
I am in a school that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 15 years. Because of this the last superintendent was planning for growth. Wise did not. I have now gone an entire 9 weeks without the tools that I need to teach these kids (teacher's editions for 2 of the main subjects) and yet his Cluster Cronies walk into my room and tell me that I am not where I should be in those subjects because they have given me a manual on what I should teach, when I should teach it, and how to teach it. I point out that I do not have the materials that I need to do this and I am told that there is no money and I will just have to "make do."
Why can't he take that bonus of his that WE earned for him and use it to buy these things we need?
His ideas looked good- on paper. But the only numbers we ever saw were the numbers that he and his "friends" approved to be shown to us. I never knew that it was this bad until a couple of weeks ago and I work for him! What about those parents who don't? What do they not know about?
I know that this is the same age-old argument that teachers have been making for years. The difference is he CHOSE to put us in this situation. He mismanaged funds so that the bottom of the totem pole saw nothing. Then he micromanaged us to death and wonders why he can't keep decent teachers here.
My last comment is to the School Board: investigate the next one. Please don't make the same mistake twice.
2 comments:
Tia, thanks for the updates today. While many are critical of teachers tracking this event and commenting on it, it was helpful to have some grasp of what was going on which will have such a huge and direct impact on so many of us. It also felt good, frankly, to finally be able to share feelings and thoughts that were not "wise" to share in the past. Keep up the good work and don't forget to help us see some hope for the future.
I am a teacher and a parent in DCPS. I have to say good riddance to the man. I get paid 40k a year. I work 70-80 hours a week. That averages to about eleven dollars an hour. Don't get me wrong. Years ago I would have fallen over myself for that. But that doesn't even make a dent now. Then I have to buy my own supplies for the classroom because there is no money left in the budget to even make copies. My child has to take packages of copy paper to class so that the teacher can take it home and make copies on her own machine at home. I understand that providing for your child and his/her education should be #1 in your priorities and it is for me, but this has gotten way out of control. All of this so that he can make 275k a year and give me more paperwork to fill out, more students in my class, more reason to fear for my job if my kids don't make the grade no matter where they were when I got them, and no help because the ESE situation has been so messed up because of his mismanagement.
I am in a school that has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 15 years. Because of this the last superintendent was planning for growth. Wise did not. I have now gone an entire 9 weeks without the tools that I need to teach these kids (teacher's editions for 2 of the main subjects) and yet his Cluster Cronies walk into my room and tell me that I am not where I should be in those subjects because they have given me a manual on what I should teach, when I should teach it, and how to teach it. I point out that I do not have the materials that I need to do this and I am told that there is no money and I will just have to "make do."
Why can't he take that bonus of his that WE earned for him and use it to buy these things we need?
His ideas looked good- on paper. But the only numbers we ever saw were the numbers that he and his "friends" approved to be shown to us. I never knew that it was this bad until a couple of weeks ago and I work for him! What about those parents who don't? What do they not know about?
I know that this is the same age-old argument that teachers have been making for years. The difference is he CHOSE to put us in this situation. He mismanaged funds so that the bottom of the totem pole saw nothing. Then he micromanaged us to death and wonders why he can't keep decent teachers here.
My last comment is to the School Board: investigate the next one. Please don't make the same mistake twice.
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