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Apr 29, 2011

School Districts Play The Lay Off Then Re-Hire Game Again

Since last year, many school districts including Fort Bend ISD and Houston ISD have laid off hundreds if not thousands of teachers only to create job openings weeks later to rehire some of them back or to hire new people in old positions that teachers were forced out of. In the article below we can see this happening in Houston ISD and is about to happen again, for the second year in a row, in Fort Bend ISD. This absurd strategy of getting rid of too many classroom jobs, laying off very few if any administrative jobs and then rehiring to fill some of the positions they gave up weeks before is mind boggling. While school administrations may have found a loophole to get rid of bad teachers, they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. 

Apr 26, 2011

Why Do Plans like the Teacher Retirement System work? And Who Wants It Gone?

Bill to Undermine Guaranteed TRS Pension Benefits on Committee Agenda Tuesday

Texas AFT will testify in vehement opposition tomorrow to a bill in the House Pension Committee that would put an end to the defined-benefit TRS pension system for all those hired after August 2012. The bill, HB 2506 by Rep. Warren Chisum, Republican of Pampa, would mandate that newly hired school employees enter a defined-contribution plan instead. Chisum’s bill is the latest version of a bad idea pushed by zealots of the far right without success for more than a decade.

Why Do Plans like the Teacher Retirement System work?

Apr 24, 2011

Fort Bend ISD students rally for their teachers after layoffs

Fort Bend ISD students rally for their teachers after layoffs 

KHOU Channel 11 - Students in Fort Bend ISD took to the streets Wednesday afternoon demanding that "no teacher be left behind" because of budget cuts.
The district has already eliminated about 300 teacher positions. 

Fort Bend Holds Rally to Encourage School Funding

You can vote at ANY of the following locations during early voting:
Willowridge High School, Ft. Bend Admin Building, & Sugar Land Methodist Church,
Hightower High School, Mo. City Comm. Center, Aliana Clubhouse,
Lost Creek Park, First Colony Conf. Center, & Sugar Land City Hall 

Apr 23, 2011

Dallas ISD Opens Website to Deal With Historic Budget Cuts

Dallas ISD Opens Website to Deal With Historic Budget Cuts
The website is Dallas Friends of Public Education or DFPE.

DISD is facing historic budget cuts, perhaps as much as $260 million, or 20% of the district’s entire budget. Consistent with our mission, DFPE will be advocating strongly to protect students from these deep cuts. That means finding ways to cut administrative overhead rather than classroom teachers and supplies. We want to identify every administrative budget that should be cut – everything from the outright wasteful to the "nice but something we can live without" – before classroom budgets are cut. To do this, we need your help. We need the help of the public, parents, taxpayers and the many veteran DISD teachers and staff who know which administrative functions are necessary and which are not.

Apr 22, 2011

Fort Bend ISD Changes Policy of Denying Conference Periods During TAKS

Teachers in Texas have a right to 450 minutes of planning and conference time every ten days.  However, many school districts think it is OK to take away that right when TAKS testing comes along.  That policy violates teachers' rights.  The Texas Education Agency reportedly indicated that teachers should be offered that planning an preparation time even during TAKS.

Apr 20, 2011

Don't Be Fooled By Texas "Mandate Relief" Bills - They Hurt Teachers, Classrooms and Students

Assault on the Classroom Comes to Texas House and Senate, Disguised as “Mandate Relief”

HB 400 and SB 12, two bills that would provide school districts with “mandate relief” at the expense of students and teachers, are coming to the floor of the House and Senate. But don't be fooled by the names, they are both wolves in sheep's clothing.  HB 400 by Rep. Rob Eissler, Republican of The Woodlands, will be on the House floor for a vote on Thursday. SB 12, by Republican Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano, is on the Senate calendar and eligible for a vote as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, April 20.

If there's one message that the Texas working public should send to Congress, it's vote no on SB 12.

Apr 19, 2011

Teacher Says Students are the Reason Why Legislators Should Change Their Tune

A teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School has begun his own protest against Washington state's destructive budget cuts to education.  It is making waves on the website and the Facebook page.  And back home, as more students and teachers get involved in the divisive politics of Texas, surely Austin must soon understand that everyone who is listening is also a voter.

http://www.160reasons.org/Home.html
http://www.facebook.com/160Reasons?sk=wall#!/160Reasons
There are about 160 reasons why I urge you to demand from your legislators that they immediately stop a horrific injustice that they’re about to inflict on public education and the kids of our state. Those 160 reasons are the students I see in my classroom every day at Mountlake Terrace High School.

But those are my 160 reasons. In fact, there are more than one million reasons — each and every one of the students across our state. So, I invite you to share your reasons for fighting for our public schools.

Apr 18, 2011

Katy ISD Students Make Their Voices Heard All The Way To Austin

Walk outs, demonstrations, You Tube videos, all are becoming part of a growing public protest to Texas budget cuts and overall lack of funding to education that has recently devastated classrooms with massive layoffs and cuts in programs across Texas.  

Katy ISD students are making a valiant effort now to make their voices heard.  Teachers are often hesitant to stand against their own administrations or school boards when their jobs could be on the line.  So they depend on others to do it for them.  In this case, it's the people who are the most affected by public school teachers, their students.   

According to sources from Katy ISD, students who protest are being threatened with disciplinary measures if they continue to do so.  Administration is reportedly threatening to take away student protesters' right to attend PROM, and their right to walk across the stage at graduation.  The students have a motto, "FFT" or "Fight For Teachers".  Katy administration is telling the students that they cannot wear those letters either. 

Their community effort has been dubbed "No Teacher Left Behind" and is accessible on  Facebook.
This letter written by a few determined Katy ISD students was sent out to legislators and senators at the state level.  Their point is clear and their initiative couldn't be more timely.  What follows is KHOU Channel 11's report on the student activists.  

Apr 13, 2011

Is Rick Perry Trying to Divert Federal Money Intended for Education Jobs?

Federal Educator-Jobs Funding Set to Flow Soon—a Test for the Legislature

The recently completed federal budget deal for fiscal 2011 will trigger the release of $830 million for Texas from last summer’s Education Jobs bill. The money was held up by Gov. Rick Perry’s refusal to comply with the Doggett amendment, which Austin Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett put in the Education Jobs bill to make sure the money would be used as intended—as an addition to, rather than a substitute for, state dollars. Doggett’s amendment will be repealed as part of the budget deal when that measure is finally approved, as expected, later this week. Texas AFT President Linda Bridges had this response:
“We agree with Congressman Doggett that the Legislature now faces a telling test. With the imminent repeal of Doggett’s “Save Our Schools” amendment, the question is whether this federal money will be used by state legislators to add to the funding in the Senate Finance Committee’s draft version of the state budget for education. That’s what should happen if this federal funding is used as Congress intended–to save educator jobs.”

Apr 11, 2011

Teaching Jobs Can Be Saved in Texas, Some Schools Fighting Back

Teaching Jobs Can Be Saved in Texas and Some Schools are Fighting Back

Northside ISD School Board Decides To Keep 437 New Probationary Teachers

Just as the Northside ISD School Board was about to go into executive session Tuesday night, Superintendent Dr. John Folks, recommended they not terminate 437 new teachers. "He told them he could find the money elsewhere in the budget," said Pascual Gonzalez, NISD spokesman.

Apr 9, 2011

Classrooms Under Assault in the Texas Legislature

The Texas legislature isn't dealing with the real problem, they're making our current fiscal situation worse.

School boards and administration positions are out of control.  No one is saying that better jobs shouldn't pay better salaries.  But paying over $300,000 for any employee that takes in state, federal and local tax dollars is absurd.  

Apr 8, 2011

Perry's business incentives should go to teachers

My goal is to drive more of every education dollar directly into the classroom with the teachers and students, where it belongs. I would rather spend 1 billion dollars today investing in our future, than losing 13.3 billion dollars annually paying for failed policies of the past.
      —
Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas Comptroller
If businesses thrive, this pays salaries and provides jobs which help the economy.  However true this concept may be, it has often been used to justify pouring money into private businesses while taking billions away from public institutions.  And this is where fiscal responsibility turns into the failed, destructive and utterly senseless trickle down theory.


Apr 7, 2011

From Texas to Pearson to Your Children - Minus A Few Thousand Teachers

Business deals with high stakes testing creators take a half a billion dollars from our state education budget and put it into the hands of ONE private company. Now that's a sweet deal! Teachers create tests all the time. I wonder if Pearson asked them for any help.

Katy ISD Announces Layoffs, Students, Teachers Respond

Not long after the layoffs, students protested against many of their teachers being let go by the Katy administration.  It appears that the sting of losing so many teachers is being felt all over Texas.  The legislature and administration buildings around the state are expecting that Texans will forget the damage that's been done to their schools and their education system.  Not likely.

Texas House Sends Disastrous Two-Year Budget to Senate

Texas AFT Legislative Hotline

Texas House Sends Disastrous Two-Year Budget to Senate (“Thank God for the Senate”)

The Texas House late Sunday night passed a destructive budget proposal that, if enacted, would devastate Texas public education. The nearly party-line vote was 98 to 49, with all but two Republican House members supporting the bill and not a single Democrat voting for it.
House Bill 1 as it left the House last night would cut $8 billion from basic state aid to school districts and chop more than $1 billion in state grants to public schools for programs like full-day pre-kindergarten. For each of the next two school years, HB 1 would leave our public schools on average with some $900 less per pupil than they are receiving in the current school year. To make their budgets balance, school districts could be forced to lay off from 80,000 to 100,000 teachers and other school employees. In the modern era of school finance, going back 60 years, there is no precedent for this sort of man-made disaster.
 

Apr 6, 2011

YouTube video parodies Fort Bend ISD's Superintendent, Budget Decisions

YouTube video parodies Fort Bend ISD's superintendent, criticizes district's budget decisions | abc13.com

The clip is called called "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp (Superintendent)."  It's an arguably humorous public response to a very serious statewide problem.

Many administrator's salaries are higher than those of starting professional athletes as class sizes rise, good teachers get laid off and parents are worried about the quality of their child's education.

No one is saying that better jobs shouldn't pay better salaries.  But paying over $300,000 for any employee that takes in state, federal and local tax dollars is absurd.

By way of comparison, the highest paying salary at Social Security Administration`s office in Houston is paid to the Administrative Law Judge Wc making $158,500 per year, while the lowest paying salary is paid to the Administration Office Support Student Trainee at $26,639 per year.

No regulation on local school boards leads to a shameful waste of taxpayer money.   Right now the Texas state legislature is considering taking away every safeguard that teachers have to protect their jobs.  If the legislature has their way, teachers and other non administration school employees will basically end up with the same contracts as at will employees or as those on probation.  Let's put two and two together.  Almost no oversight on school boards, superintendents and administrative positions, no rights for the middle class worker or the thousands working in public industries, no collective bargaining.  This is Rick Perry's Texas.  This is "fiscal responsibility".


Apr 5, 2011

Fort Bend ISD lays off 68 employees, says more cuts likely to come | abc13.com

Fort Bend ISD lays off 68 employees, says more cuts likely to come | abc13.com

http://www.click2houston.com/news/27430509/detail.html

So far, the real number here is over 400.  Those on probationary contracts had no choice but to leave, and those on term contracts were strongly encouraged to resign.  The district has until April 18, 2011 following the 45 calendar day rule to finish notifying teachers that they will be laid off due to reduction in force.

http://www.fortbendisd.com/finance/budget2011/Salary%20Percentages%20Chart.pdf

The question that many FBISD employees are asking is, "when and how are they cutting administrative positions or salaries".  If the district cuts teachers across the board and is concerned about the impact that will have on students, if Dr. Jenney truly cares about class sizes of forty or more, they should look at every opportunity to reduce the budget before they cut teachers.  This should include the more than fifteen percent of the budget that works on Lexington Avenue.
The school board said it would have preferred not to cut teachers first but they really had no choice because state law mandates that teachers not being retained the following year must know about it with at least 45 days remaining in the current school year. 
Being "forced" into cutting teachers because of the State of Texas' forty five day rule is a sorry excuse to keep from taking responsibility for the damage the majority on the board of trustees and Dr. Jenny are going to do to Fort Bend Independent School District.

Teachers Told They Can't Revoke Their Resignations but Contract Says Otherwise

The issue explained below is in regards to FBISD's Incentive Agreement and resignation agreement given to employees on April 1, 2011 and earlier.  

Please see this previous post for a more detailed explanation. 

...If you signed the resignation form, you still have seven (7) days to revoke it.   

As of today, Fort Bend ISD human resources is telling teachers and employees that they CANNOT revoke their resignation, only their INCENTIVE bonus of 10% of base pay.   

Apr 3, 2011

What If I Choose NOT To Resign? What Can I Do Now?

If an employee chooses not to resign from a school district, now you have a few choices available to you.  But timing is everything!  Some of the answers here apply to all districts in Texas and some are specific to Fort Bend ISD.

You can find out more information from the AFT here: What to do if you receive a Reduction In Force notice...

Apr 2, 2011

You Have The Right To Resign - and to Remain Silent

Teachers and employees who are laid off are given two choices.  They can either resign within seven days or face the worst fate imaginable, a non-renewal of contract.  What difference does it make?  That depends on who you are.

Apr 1, 2011

First Wave of Lay Offs Sweeps Through Fort Bend ISD

The first wave of lay offs swept through Fort Bend ISD today as principals were called into emergency meetings, sent back to their campuses to call teachers in to let them know that they had been laid off.   Most teachers were pulled out of classes, told they were being let go and sent back into the classrooms to go on about their day.  This is just one example of the insensitivity of Fort Bend towards its employees and their respective students.  Yes, tough decisions have to be made, but there is a right way to implement them, and laws have to be followed (that aspect will be discussed later).