BLYTHE, Calif – This past January the Palo Verde USD Board of Trustees wisely
tabled a motion to approve a Memorandum of Understanding already signed by Supt.
Dr. Yul Whitney and Board President Robin Wellman agreeing to comply with the
Race to the Top initiative. That federal initiative was shot down by the states
of Texas and New York as it had too many “claws” digging into the schools in
return for scant monies. California, on the other hand, was one of the states
actually rejected by the Department of Education as too many individual school
districts refused to submit the required MOU.
Now
the Palo Verde High School is placing the “new” School Improvement Grant up for
approval this next Tuesday that has the same ominous features. As Dr. Norm Guith
stated at the last Board meeting, “The feds give you money for three years but
the “claws” remain embedded forever.”
What are these requirements? (1) Test scores have to be a significant portion of
a teacher’s evaluation, (2) financial “incentives” are given for those whose
test scores rise above and beyond, (3) and those who can’t get scores to rise
are shown the door.
So
what’s the problem?
The SIG grant only applies to the High School. Teachers in K-8 are not
involved and, as such, there would have to be a two-tiered contract for both
folks.
Those teachers who are out of the math and language arts arenas – such as
Home Economics, PE, Art, Music, Agriculture, Special Ed., Computers,
Vocational Sciences, etc, whose curriculums are not subject to testing are
“out of the loop” as far as evaluations and incentives go.
The projected $2,000,000 does not replace what teachers have already given
up – such as the loss of income due to furlough days, the slashing of
extra-duty and coaching assignments, increased costs of benefits as well as
the “sweeping” of certain categorical funds.
Knowing full well how certain scurrilous Superintendants think, teachers who
are at the top of the salary schedule with 22 years and a Master’s degree
will no doubt be assigned LEP, Special Ed., Migrant and other “hard to
teach” students in an effort to get rid of them and, thus, afford to get two
“rookie” educators for the price of one.
The $50,000 allotted for incentives in the SIG grant isn’t being made
available to the K-8 teachers and can be seen as unfair.
Any Memorandum of Understanding that is negotiated with this grant has to be
ratified not just by the High School teachers but by the entire membership
of PVTA. Considering the harsh feelings coming from the imposition of the
Standards-Based Report Cards on the elementary folks, it could be a hard
sell.
School politics and favoritism can come into play as those liked by the
Principal can be assigned the AVID or API courses.
It would replace MBWA (Management by Walking Around). As Instructional
Leaders, administrators are expected to check in to all classrooms to make
sure the benchmarks are being respected. The SIG grant would allow them to
remain ensconced in their sumptuous offices.
If a teacher is unpopular or too strict with the students, they can sink
him/her by intentionally botching the exams so as to get that person fired.
In this way, the grant appears to rescind tenure – violating both the
current contract and Educational Codes.
This Federal grant also oversteps the rights of the State of California to
dictate curriculum. There is no constitutional provision allowing the Feds
to determine how schools should be run. The Department of Education is only
derived from the phrase “to promote the common welfare” as stated in the
Preamble to the Constitution.
Locally, this is just the latest of a number of “Top-Down” impositions on
the educational folks. A contract was let out to a grant-writer eight days
prior to the teachers even being informed that such an idea was in the
works. A hurried staff informational meeting was held only hours prior to
the Board meeting approving this “carrot and stick” proposal. That evening,
PVTA President Willie Krebbers informed the Board that “We Abstain” as these
front-line troops in the war against ignorance were “ambushed” from the
direction of the administration.
According to the Consolidated Application also being approved at the next
Board Meeting, the High School is only in Year One of Program Improvement.
There are no requirements for transformation until Year Three. The SIG Grant
states that the District as a whole is in Year Three but that fact hardly
makes for allowance for the High School to gain eligibility.
All teachers’ evaluations are expected to be completed and signed before
the “drop dead” date of March 15th every year. The testing results aren’t
known until August of the same year. It would be less than fair for a
teacher, possibly in the midst of a great teaching year, to be evaluated on
last year’s lousy classes.
This grant is up for adoption as well as the Consolidated Application and next
year’s Budget at the next Board meeting on June 22nd. All three are available
for public scrutiny by clicking
HERE.
An
informed public is necessary for any form of improvement in local school
government. Be sure to attend.
