teachers have had enough

You may remember that the Hillsborough County Superintendent MaryEllen Elia recently changed the workload of high school teachers. Beginning next school year, those teachers will go from 250 or 270 minutes of instruction per day to 300 minutes. There are also rumors of inevitable staff cuts. And the recent news that Elia received a $48,000 bonus on top of her $235,000 base pay. All of this has teachers very concerned, and they are voicing their opinions. Sticks writer and high school teacher Kate gave us her opinion on some of the changes back in January. But even more teachers showed up at a recent board meeting.

Excerpts from a St. Pete Times article – Angry Teachers Confront Board:

A packed boardroom of irate high school teachers showed the Hillsborough School Board on Tuesday night the level of festering discontent over a move to increase their teaching loads next year…

The dozen teachers who signed up to speak outlined their problems with the decision to force all high school teachers to spend 300 minutes in front of classes every day – 30 to 50 minutes more than today’s schedules. For many, this means picking up a sixth class period at the expense of planning time.

By having high school instructors teach 300 minutes – the same as elementary teachers – the district anticipates saving $28-million in new teacher salaries and benefits. Even if they could afford new teachers, officials said they could not find enough qualified teachers to meet the demands of the state’s class size amendment.

Excerpts from a Tampa Tribune article – Hillsborough Teachers Actively Fighting Added Class Time:

Faced with teaching an extra period a day, high school teachers are e-mailing officials and drafting petitions. Angry and frustrated, they are challenging authority.

Teaching six instead of five classes a day is just the flashpoint, teachers and officials agree. The issues:

•Increased requirements and pressure from both federal No Child Left Behind law and state laws, including required remedial classes for struggling students. That makes a seven-period day for all students to maintain elective courses.

•Both honors and struggling students require more personal time, as do responding to parent e-mail and completing paperwork for accountability.

•The class-size amendment, which is supposed to make things better with fewer students in classes, is resulting in an extra class each day and job changes for many.

•Flat enrollments and an expected drop in state revenue sent districts scrambling to reduce costs.

…teachers and some school board members are smarting over being excluded from a process that brought major change to scheduling.

April Griffin, the school district’s newest board member, said Wednesday that she heard about the change in student and teacher scheduling from her son when he told her his school was not going to be on a block schedule next year. That schedule uses longer classes on some days to fit yearlong courses into one semester… Board member Susan Valdes said Thursday that she heard about the change when she started getting e-mail from parents, and member Jennifer Faliero said she found out when people approached her.

On Thursday, Elia admitted communication could have been better but said that more than 100 meetings have been held to explain and address the issue. Despite that, anger and rumors of layoffs persist.

Many of the teachers complaining are high school teachers who now receive extra pay for teaching an extra class, Elia said. Nearly 15 percent of the more than 4,300 high school teachers get that extra pay, she said.

The union has started negotiating with district officials for the next three-year contract that will start with the 2007-08 school year.

There is a lot more of this online.

Hillsborough County School Board
Superintendent MaryEllenElia
Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association (the teacher’s union)

Blogs by Local Teachers:
The Wall
Subversive Teacher
Eskay Espresso
Out in Left Field

Blogs by others interested in the subject:
Lee Drury De Cesare’s Casting-Room Couch – Lee is not a current teacher, but a frequent critic of SDHC and MaryEllen Elia.
School Board member April Griffin’s campaign blog – this blog has nothing since she won the seat, but I think she’d be wise to use it.
The Gradebook – St. Pete Times education blog.