Middletown Forum : Spend $175,000 on technology

Spend $175,000 on technology : Above article dated February 18, 1911...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:42:25 +0000

Author: Vivian Moon
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 1:42pm

Above article dated February 18,1911 Middletown News Signal

Just think..they went to school in a building without carpet and air conditionand still managed to get an education.

Spend $175,000 on technology :

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:27:41 +0000

Author: Vivian Moon
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 1:27pm

Spend $175,000 on technology : processor, I concur on the use...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:09:18 +0000

Author: acclaro
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 1:09pm

processor, I concur on the use of vouchers and also the year round system. However, teachers would undoubtedly want to be paid for the extra time, based upon the basis of the current compensation arrangement.

I read this week in the Journal the award was given for the 'what if' Facebook LIKES for a Franklin student studying at MUM, whom had the idea that a centralized homework (I don't think Middletown school district gives homework), with volunteers from the regional universities, parents, adults, etc., would be beneficial. That concept netted her $1,000.

Well, if it materializes, I advocate Ed Richter, Rick McCrabb, and other Journal News writers, should attend, or perhaps get some tutorial, the next MMF bus trip, from an English major, or at least one with some command of the English language.

Both made blatant and horrific errors in the paper recently; McCrabb today, Richter- yesterday.

In McCrabb's piece, he wrote a quote about the tragedy of the 17 year old young man who was killed crossing the 4 lane highway intersecting Dixie Highway and Roosevelt, as an 'assume' young man. He meant 'awesome.'

Peer Richter wrote an article yesterday about the tax credits for Mike Robinette and Grassroots Ohio as a 'principle', as opposed to noun 'principal'. Both should be embarrassed and offer stark contradiction to education, proof reading, and discipline of using a simple spell check before print. One assumes neither graduated from Northwestern University School of Journalism.

Lets hope both can take advantage of the tutorial program advanced by the MUM student- they need it.

The Journal espouses how many more local articles they pen in comparison to the coverage the Cincinnati paper gives Butler County. Unfortunately, the Journal also has many needless errors in print that accompany the same re-written articles.

It doesn't reflect positively in Middletown nor the region, when the local beat writers can't spell, nor check their work before submission IMO.
_______________________________________________________________

'A NJ teacher was reassigned for poor spelling.

When Teague found out it was real, he shared the photo on Facebook.

"How can we expect our children to learn how to spell when the administration can't?" Teague wrote. "We must be held to a higher standard.”

“We can’t assume because it’s an urban district — inner-city — that things like this can be swept over," he told the CBS affiliate. "If it were a suburban neighborhood, parents would be outraged."

Spend $175,000 on technology : Year round may help but I think...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:00:56 +0000

Author: processor
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 12:00pm

Year round may help but I think it's the system that's not necessarily geared toward student achievement. We have some great teachers, but also have some that are not willing or able to change and aren't effective. If you really want to improve the system, give each student a voucher for the average cost of education in Ohio, my guess around $15,000, that they can use to go to any school they want. You'd see a lot of private schools open that would be geared toward student achievement and the public schools would need to compete to maintain their students. Provided every school would be measured the same and held to the same standard and each school's performance was published, this would jump start a rebirth of education in Ohio. This model helped New Orleans, Detroit, Milwaukee and many other areas quickly improve their education systems.

Spend $175,000 on technology : Because of the low test scores...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:14:48 +0000

Author: Vivian Moon
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 11:14am

Because of the lowtest scores I now believe that the US needs to strongly consider a year round education system.

Spend $175,000 on technology : chmoore1,Gotta agree with Acclaro...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:31:25 +0000

Author: processor
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 10:31am

chmoore1,
Gotta agree with Acclaro and Vet on this one. There is no one in the private sector that gets, every year, 10 weeks of vacation. There is no one in the private sector that gets a step increase every year. There is no one in the private sector that gets a raise just because they complete a degree. Raises are all based on performance and the profitability of the company. In the old days when people in education didn't earn what people in the private sector did this, and the generous pension and medical benefits, made some sense. It was compensation for being under paid during their career. Now that they make as much, if not more, than those in the private sector the old pay model doesn't make sense to me any more. Hopefully raises will eventually be tied to teacher and administrator performance as measured by student achievement.

Spend $175,000 on technology : Honestly, the micro-economic breakdown...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:11:30 +0000

Author: acclaro
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 9:11am

Honestly, the micro-economic breakdown reveals the absurdity of the union contracts. By the way, there are countless MBA's at Costco making 50,000, working 75 hr work weeks, no overtime. There are JD's working for 12.50/ hr as paralegals. And to think administrators hit 100,000 and >, simply because of the mindset, a teacher works a 10 month cycle, so an administrator working 12 months, should receive the added salary pay of another 35,000, or about six figures. The state, local, and federal public school system, is broken. Your analysis illuminates the fact, when such absurdities of added pay are considered.

Spend $175,000 on technology : ch, don't wish to belabor...

Fri, 19 Dec 2014 06:31:41 +0000

Author: VietVet
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 19 2014 at 6:31am

ch, don't wish to belabor this point on salary positions. I will stay with my argument that a teacher is paid a salary for the whole year and they are ON THE JOB for 9 months out of the year, with most not doing diddly squat the other 3 months....IE, they don't work a full year to earn their salary for a FULL YEAR. A normal job would require a person to work a full 12 months of the year to earn the full amount of their salary. You can offer all the math you wish, but the bottom line here is that they are paid a salary that would represent a full year of work anywhere else but in the world of academics. NO ONE gets three months off of work in the world I've been living in for the past 45+ years. (and still keeps their job) 6 weeks is usually the max at companies nowadays and you have to be there 20+ years to get that.

ch:

"One last observation: in your theory, since a teacher is paid year round, that means that they should be "on-call" all summer (since they are paid "for not working")."

Ahh c'mon ch!!! We both know that a teacher isn't "on call" all summer. On call for what? Hell, I've got two teachers as neighbors and they are home most days in the summer doing what they want to do, drawing that FULL YEAR'S SALARY while NOT GOING TO WORK for three months.

We haven't mentioned this as yet but......

How about those step increases between the regular yearly salary increases they get that pad their paycheck? How about the courses they complete that also increase their pay? How about the pay if they go from a bachelors degree to a masters? Get paid more for that don't they?Step increases don't happen in the private sector. Getting a masters MAY NOT increase the pay either but may make one more able to be selected for a higher position in the private sector. IF we are going to get a raise at all, it will happen once a year and then it may be 1-3% if we are lucky nowadays. And the raise is based on merit for that year, not contract negotiations as to pay in the future. Companies are getting more stingy about rewarding their people as time goes by. They tend to hoard the money and not share it with the people who actually helped them make it.

As a side note, I'll tell you how bad it's getting as to company cheapness nowadays....

In the past, my former employers have given their employees a Christmas basket, some coupons to dine out with the family over the holidays or, perhaps, given a coupon to provide a ham dinner at Christmas to show their appreciation for a job well done. MY EMPLOYER, this year, just sent everyone a card that told all of us that they appreciated the job we did for them this past year. Attached to the card was a paper picture of a Christmas tree bulb with the company logo and a suggestion that we remove the paper bulb and hang it on our tree this year. That is how cheap companies are getting in today's working world. Workers are irrelevant to the higher ups in the working environment of today and they make it quite obvious to all that we don't matter. Glad I will retire in 3-4 more years. I feel sorry for the young workers who are now forced to work for companies who choose to offer an unappreciative environment. Didn't use to be that way long ago.

We shall agree to disagree on how we both look at the same situation.

Spend $175,000 on technology : Honestly, acclaro and vet. You...

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 23:15:10 +0000

Author: chmoore1
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 18 2014 at 11:15pm

Honestly, acclaro and vet. You are both more intelligent than this 9 month pay vs. 12 month pay. The teacher in my illustration, and the article, had her 10 month "teacher pay" spread out over 12 months. Anything that is done during "summer" is extended time, or extra duty. Look at the board docs on Middletown's web site. They approve all sorts of "extra time" with a separate pay schedule. It's not rocket science. They are two separate situations. The same with "field trips" for bus drivers----it's extra time, extra pay---has nothing to do with the driver's regular schedule/regular pay. Also, Vet, without looking up the contract pay (on Board Docs/Middletown City Schools web site) the teachers' contract spells out how much a teacher makes with (EXAMPLE)Master's degree plus x number of years. Let's say it works out to $33.33/hour. ($48,000 divided by 1440 hours = $33.33/hr.) Normally, a typical work year for 12 months is 2080 hours. If a Supervisor is making $33.33/hr. for 2080 hours, he will earn $69,326.40 per year. Now, let's compare professions that require Master's degrees, which the teaching profession does. MBAs, MAs, MSs. all make considerably more money. One last observation: in your theory, since a teacher is paid year round, that means that they should be "on-call" all summer (since they are paid "for not working"). Therefore, $48,000 divided by 2080 (or more, if they are forced to work overtime) hours equals $23.08 per hour. Quite a bargain for someone with a Master's degree. Your humble bud, just 1chmoore.

Spend $175,000 on technology : chmoore1:"Food service employees,...

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:19:12 +0000

Author: VietVet
Subject: 5920
Posted: Dec 18 2014 at 8:19pm

chmoore1:

"Food service employees, and bus drivers have this option also. Do you claim that they (food service and bus drivers) draw a "full salary" for the whole year?"

I'm not sure about bus drivers. One lives across the street from me. He comes and goes depending on the need for his services to take athletic teams to events as well as band events (usually in the evening hours). I would imagine he drives a route during the school day also, dunno. He did tell me his pay is around $13/hr and I would guess he is paid only while driving and not considered a salary situation in his case. Perhaps a bus driver draws a full salary if they bus the kids to summer events as well as the regular school year.

Food service may draw a full salary if they work the job in a non-school related situation when school in not in session. Perhaps they work exclusively at the schools for the 9 months and then work in the private sector perhaps at a cafeteria or stocking vending machines at a factory the other 3 months. Dunno.