Just got done watching the board meeting via the "Stream 'n' Scream". Try it. It provides the opportunity to replay some of the "jargon" and convoluted responses from the Board, Superintendent, and Staff. Excuse the phrase, but more often than not I had to replay comments with "what the hell was THAT!?" going through the back of my mind. Can't these people speak plainly so that we can understand them? Yeah, I know: that's the point.
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Someone with Yvonne Lyons email address please ask the following?
1) What was the ACTUAL numerical for/against vote count of the M.A.P. approval?
2) What is the ACTUAL number of dues paying instructional employees that CTA represents?
3) What is the ACTUAL number of instructional employees that work for the district?
I'm tired of the ratio reports. It hides the true involvement of the membership.
ALL votes should have a minimum participation clause that assumes if someone does NOT vote it is a NO VOTE!
Make an effort to get the ballot to me and on time.
Make me understand the importance of an issue because if you don't: it stops there!
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Who is this guy James Aleesio? AULISIO ! *
Why is he asking questions that CTA should be asking? Why isn't he in Yvonne Lyons position? Why isn't he a teamster? He's cleaning CTA's leadership's clock!
The CandyLand response to his "administrator raise" comment was LAME! How about some facts Ms. Olsen? Even the cub reporter that bears your surname could come up with a better response. Merely saying "that's incorrect" is a side step to the truth. Step up and CORRECT him on record.
Unless you're just "blowin' smoke".
By the way: You may have overlooked my doorstep on your last campaign. I'll look forward to your next visit. It will be a long one. What do you drink?
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I wish April a speedy recovery.
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*Thanks possum.
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16 comments:
April was not at last night's meeting. Where was she? I hope she is not at some indoctrination retreat for new board members.
According to her blog, she threw out her back.
I think attending a meeting on muscle relaxers and pain killers would be a real treat - which is why I'd never be elected. Besides I'd be too inclined to a stream of consciousness reponse mode in such an altered state.
A case of the giggles at the Hamilton-Elia jargon fest would doom me.
What about whatsehername, the Area 7 lady? Why didn't she show up THIS time?
Maybe she needed a break after the 3 day holiday!
The Board was bemoaning the fact that it was hard to get up to speed after the long holiday.
Try 3 hundred minutes! 5 days a week!
They have NO clue.
They will in October.
Where on her blog do you see she injured her back. I do not see anything about that on her blog.
The last comment in the "Irony" post.
There were only four or five teachers at the meeting yesterday. Jim, as usual, did a great job.
The PTSA President spoke from King. She was awesome. We all need to support her as much as we can.
Agreed!
The PTSA can be a vital component when they mobilize. I hope other PTSA presidents follow her lead since they are in the unique position of seeing first hand what this will do to the "T" and the "S" of their organization.
It will be hard for the board members to label them whiners, slackers, or lazy.
I have high standards for a hero. A hero on the school board is the board member who has the nerve to say up front the podium, "I move that the Board establish a permanent place on the Board agenda for Teachers and students." Until a board member has the guts to do that, I see no heroes on the board. lee drury de cesare
A point of clarification, Fred, but the KHS parent who spoke is NOT PTSA president AT KHS--I am guessing she's the PTSA president for the middle school her kids attend.
As far as dates to remember, keep in mind the budget meeting on July 31. Personally--and maybe it's just me--I think it might be a good thing for some teachers to be there. When we watch from home, they don't KNOW we're watching. True that can be a good thing too, but I don't want to let them have the satisfaction of thinking that we've packed up and gone home. I want them to KNOW that we haven't given up and we haven't forgotten. I'm not saying we need a showing at every meeting, but we need to remind them we're still out there. I know there's something to be said for the shock value of showing up again when school starts back, but personally stealth has never been my strong suit.
And by the way, Suzie, that's Jim AULISIO. Maybe your question was rhetorical--everyone who watches/attends meetings knows he speaks every single time. IN fact, he was the FIRST teacher to stand up in front of the Board way back in January. I will always respect him for doing so before there was ever a "movement," when he was pretty much out there on his own.
When we can, let's keep ATTENDING meetings--we don't have to speak--just to let them know how stubborn we are.
Thanks possum. Sorry Jim Aulisio - it won't happen again.
I think a record attendence at the budget meeting is a terrific thing to shoot for.
Hopefully the Board will have the A/C adjusted for the crowd. The summer is starting to warm up.
Thanks, Possum. I appreciate the clarification.
I think we need to see if there are more PTSA members who would like to address the board. Let's ask around when we get back.
Isn't it ironic that the county responsible for record teacher displacements is hosting Florida’s teach-in?
Those teachers of literature who must try to define irony for their students, here is a classic.
Irony doesn't even BEGIN to describe it.
Truth be told:
This may be just the thing to show ROSSAC how lame any employment "package" will be when compared to surrounding counties.
If management ignores the signs that they are NOT competitive, then we have more emperical evidence about just how thick the smoke is around "quality teachers".
Those hired at this sham would have "settled". Chances are they won't stick around for long.
This whole thing is beginning to mirror Dilbert.
I spoke with Letitia Stein yesterday. Here's the outcome of that conversation.
I realize this doesn't really belong on this comment chain, but I am wondering if anyone else is concerned about the change of School Board meeting times to THREE pm starting in September. (April Griffin has the link to yesterday's Trib article on her blog.) I see several reasons why this might be a problem, and I have pasted in my letter to the Board expressing these concerns.
I'm interested in what you think.
Dear Board Members,
I am writing in response to your recent decision to change your meeting times from 5 pm to 3 pm. While I sincerely appreciate your efforts to be more accommodating to teachers and members of the general public who might wish to make comments at Board meetings, I nonetheless feel that your present plan contains many problems.
*As you know, many private citizens work until 5 pm. Shifting the time of the meeting to 3 pm would require many of these citizens desiring to address the Board to take several hours off work, as opposed to possibly just leaving a little early as they presently do.
*Middle and high school students and staff being recognized at a Board meeting will now need to miss time at school, which will additionally require said students to fill out School Business forms and miss classes. Thus, the new meeting time ends up requiring more paperwork and potentially inconveniencing schools whose administrators now have to miss possibly the entire afternoon of school in order to arrive at ROSSAC by 3 pm (depending of course on their respective travel times, etc).
*I know you are also aware that secondary schools release at 2:45 or later, and middle schools typically release later still. Many teachers--at all grade levels--work at locations far from ROSSAC and thus will need travel time to get there if they desire to attend a meeting. Thus many teachers would not possibly be able to arrive at a meeting before 4 pm, depending on how far they have to travel.
* While an online speaker's list will certainly facilitate the process, any principal who wants to discourage his/her teachers from attending or even speaking at a Board meeting need only hold a faculty meeting on that day. Indeed, TUESDAY is the typical faculty meeting day for high schools. The current contract says meetings may hold teachers as much as 50 minutes after their workday ends. With the 20 minutes of additional paid time in our work day thus potentially delaying even the beginning of such a meeting, a principal could easily prevent teachers from even leaving their schools until as late as 4 pm. A teacher at a school distant from ROSSAC who then needs an hour of travel time would thus effectively be stopped from speaking at Board meetings. I can tell you that many of my colleagues have already faced harassment and retribution for their work against the 300 min policy. Therefore, moving your meeting time 2 hours earlier makes it EASIER for principals to prevent teachers from attending these meetings.
*Any teacher who earns extra money by working in the Extended Learning Program or teaching night school classes (as I do) will have to miss the entire afternoon's work in order to attend the meeting at all. Thus even attending the meeting at all will cost hardworking teachers extra money. I myself have given up night school time (having made sure in advance that there was a teacher to cover me) in order to attend meetings. Since our night school classes met on Tuesday and Thursday from 3-6 pm, I lost easily $75.00 simply to attend these meetings. I did this on two separate occasions for meetings I felt it was important to attend from the beginning, but on subsequent occasions I simply came to the meeting after night school ended. Under the new schedule, I will not have this option. Under the new schedule, I will literally have to lose income in order to attend a meeting at all, as meetings will now likely be OVER by the time I could get there after my class was over.
For all these reasons and possibly even more that I haven't considered yet, I believe that the new meeting time of 3 pm will actually HINDER the participation and attendance of community members and teachers at School Board meetings. I appreciate your desire to make these meetings more accessible to more people, but the change in schedule does not, for the reasons I have cited, do that at all. In fact, the new time only makes it HARDER for teachers even to attend, never mind speak at, Board meetings. For all these reasons, I seems practical to me to keep the 5 pm meeting time but change the position of speakers within the meeting. If you were to place speakers after recognitions, say, ahead of the discussion of agenda items, you would still be giving ANY speaker wishing to address the Board attention early in the meeting and showing them respect by not making them wait until the very end of a possible long meeting. You would also be maintaining the current opportunity for teachers and private citizens to ATTEND meetings within our very busy schedules, allowing for travel time and the school bell schedules. Maintaining the current meeting time of 5 pm will also make it harder for principals or anyone else to interfere with teachers who might wish to at least attend if not address School Board meetings.
For all these reasons, I ask you to reconsider this decisions and maintain the current meeting start time, increasing community opportunities to address the Board simply by changing the point at which audience participation occurs.
Sincerely,
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