Popular Posts

Sunday, February 16, 2014

A Letter To The Editor: WCBOE

Joe, 

The WCBOE is planning on giving the teachers several Professional Development days on next years school calendar. These days will be on Wednesdays instead of tacked on to a weekend like a Friday or Monday. Could you please post this and ask your readers to contact the Board of Education Members to vote against next years school calendar. The vote will be held at their scheduled meeting on Tuesday February 11, 2014.

The Wicomico County Board of Education is voting on moving the professional development days from Friday- where we can perhaps get a long weekend in with our families, to Wednesdays.

I'm here to make it as easy as cut and paste:

1) Open your mailer

2) and then cut and past the emails.

rowilley@wcboe.org, dfitzger@wcboe.org, mblye@wcboe.org, tachase@wcboe.org, ldodd@wcboe.org,celmore@wcboe.org, khudson@wcboe.org

3) Cut and paste the following (Or make up your own)

To the Wicomico County Board of Education;

• Mr. Ron Willey, Board President,
• Mr. Donald Fitzgerald, Vice President,
• Mr. Marvin Blye, Board Member,
• Dr. Tyrone Chase, Board Member,
• Mr. Larry Dodd, Board Member,
• Dr. Carolyn Elmore, Board Member,
• Ms. Kim Hudson, Board Member,

I am against moving professional development days from Friday or Monday to Wednesday.

Thank You,

4) Hit "SEND"

If you don't do it, don't complain when it happens next year.

33 comments:

  1. As I see it, these days are wasted by 83% of teachers. They are supposed to be professional development days, instead, they are just becoming long weekends for the teachers and an extra burden on families needing to find day care/sitters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope, not against it. Too many days off for teachers to have their long weekends. Live with it teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Teachers and their entitlement mentality - they get tenured and think they are above criticism, have political firewalls built in the Marxist State now they want 7 long weekends to go with their 180 day work year. For the product they turnout they ought to be doing 30 days Community Service a year - as punishment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awwww. Why not just take them away, shorten the school year, and maybe (gasp) teach.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have the teacher's professional days in the summer. That would give some wiggle room when there are snow days to make up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous said...
    As I see it, these days are wasted by 83% of teachers. They are supposed to be professional development days, instead, they are just becoming long weekends for the teachers and an extra burden on families needing to find day care/sitters.

    February 10, 2014 at 1:18 PM

    Hey numnutz, the families have to find day care/sitters on Wednesdays also. So if the professional day is moved to Friday or Monday the families would have an nice extended weekend with their families that live out of town. They may even be able to take a mini vacation to Williamsburg or even Ocean City. Either way the teachers have Professional Days that were negotiated in their contracts so they need to be done on a Friday. The Wednesday choice for a professional day is to punish teachers who take off on the Friday's instead of doing "professional development." Don't punish the teachers at the expense of children and their parents.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a typical union worker.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dump puplic education....at least that bows to the Department of Education.... let us teach our kids what they need to know with our own money....why do we advicate our power to D.C.??????

    ReplyDelete
  9. 2:04 AKA nutlezz, you must be a tenured teacher, because you missed the entire point.
    jes sayin

    ReplyDelete
  10. You guys have it all wrong. I once had it wrong as well. I have a family member who is a teacher. I know what she makes. I used to criticize her about making what she makes and still having summers off. We used to have some heated arguments. But then I began to pay attention to the amount of time she spend grading papers, making lesson plans, going to the store to buy supplies for her students - using her own money (mostly because the parents of most of the students won't get off of their a$$e$ to go to the store themselves and get their own kids school supplies), staying after school to meet with the parents of students who are doing poorly, PTA, and any number of things. I tallied it up and realized that on average these teachers are working about 2400 hours a year - even with the summer off. Most others work 2080 hours a year (unless you're self employed like me). Either way, with the base salary what it is, that equates to about $16.00 an hour....WITH a 4 year college degree. The people who will vote on this schedule are most likely aware of the above conditions...most of us are not. I wasn't. A lot of people making these comments are ignorant as to what really goes on. I was. Sometimes things aren't as they appear. Before we bitch and complain we should make it our business to educate ourselves with the facts.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Why teach? So folks like you might learn to spell and perhaps even become literate.

    ReplyDelete
  12. When are you all going to wake up and push hard for school VOUCHERS... it's the only way get rid of a useless bloated Board of Education and its progressive agenda

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dear 3:42
    When you add her health benefits for her and her family,and pension in, that comes out to almost double the $16 / hour you state. Not bad at all if you ask me!

    ReplyDelete
  14. How about we get rid of professional days to begin with? When I have to do training to retain my certification or further my education I either do it on my own time or take a vacation day. Besides, don't teachers get a couple months off during the summer during which these "professional" things could be handled?

    ReplyDelete
  15. 3:42 apparently slept through math class. An average teacher works 190 days per year, 180 teaching and 5 days each before sessions start and after. If they work 2,400 hundred hours in 190 days that means they put in 12.63 hours each and every day. I think not.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This post is obviously planted by someone who wants it to appear that teachers actually have the option to NOT report for professional days...

    or

    it is posted by an actual teacher who is an idiot and a big part of the reason why teachers take so much crap.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Go to the Board's website and see the updated Draft Calendar. Professional days are equally dispersed on different days throughout the year now. That seems fair to all.

    Also, Christmas is now a 2 week break like this year and most counties and Easter break has been shortened by 2 days from the first proposal.

    Sounds to me that the Board is listening.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 5:05: Twelve hours is pretty much the norm for this Reading and Language arts teacher. I leave home at 7 in the morning, work through lunch to tutor the kids that don't get it, have meetings all afternoon during my "planning" time, plan on my own time after school, pull into my driveway around 6 pm, and grade papers at night when I should spend time with my family. Very few teachers leave at 3 like you think, and for those of you who say, "oh but you have summers off," I won't mention working through snow days, changing plans to ensure the kids still get what they need, grading projects on Saturdays, meeting with parents at night because that's the only time they can meet, or phone calls after hours to accommodate parents that work. AMERICA stop villifying teachers! We're doing our best to teach the future of our country even when all you seem to want to do is point fingers at us and how awful we are. Let's work together for the good of our future already!

    ReplyDelete
  19. OK 6:02PM "let's work together for the good of our future already", do these professional things on your own time or during your summer break, not during the school year when you should be teaching.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Golly gee whiz, 6:02, if it's that bad why did you take the job in the first place? Or why don't you switch careers? That's what most intelligent people would do. I mean, is there a law keeping you there? Are there chains around your ankles?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous said...
    You guys have it all wrong. I once had it wrong as well. I have a family member who is a teacher. I know what she makes. I used to criticize her about making what she makes and still having summers off. We used to have some heated arguments. But then I began to pay attention to the amount of time she spend grading papers, making lesson plans, going to the store to buy supplies for her students - using her own money (mostly because the parents of most of the students won't get off of their a$$e$ to go to the store themselves and get their own kids school supplies), staying after school to meet with the parents of students who are doing poorly, PTA, and any number of things. I tallied it up and realized that on average these teachers are working about 2400 hours a year - even with the summer off. Most others work 2080 hours a year (unless you're self employed like me). Either way, with the base salary what it is, that equates to about $16.00 an hour....WITH a 4 year college degree. The people who will vote on this schedule are most likely aware of the above conditions...most of us are not. I wasn't. A lot of people making these comments are ignorant as to what really goes on. I was. Sometimes things aren't as they appear. Before we bitch and complain we should make it our business to educate ourselves with the facts.

    February 10, 2014 at 3:42 PM

    This person is a Wicomico County Board of Education employee trying to make you feel sorry for them.

    Get rid of the negotiated professional days period! They can take them during the Summer.

    We also need to go back to starting school the day after Labor Day.

    ReplyDelete
  22. 6:02 didn't sound like they were complaining but rather doing what a teacher does, attempting to educate you on what the reality is as it relates the job duties and time involved in being a teacher. So many people in this area place such little value on education and it is pretty evident by the posts. If you dislike teachers, administration and the schools, why don't you home school your lil darlings and hope that they can get a GED and minimum wage job.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous said...
    Nope, not against it. Too many days off for teachers to have their long weekends. Live with it teachers.

    February 10, 2014 at 1:21 PM

    It's not about the teachers it's about the students and the families Dumbo!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous said...
    Dump puplic education....at least that bows to the Department of Education.... let us teach our kids what they need to know with our own money....why do we advicate our power to D.C.??????

    February 10, 2014 at 3:01 PM

    Because we get federal funding to run the schools and pay the teachers.

    By the way what is puplic and advicate?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous said...
    This post is obviously planted by someone who wants it to appear that teachers actually have the option to NOT report for professional days...

    or

    it is posted by an actual teacher who is an idiot and a big part of the reason why teachers take so much crap.

    February 10, 2014 at 5:30 PM

    No it was posted by a family who has 2 kids in the public school system who find it ridiculous that the Board wants to punish teachers by having PD's on Wednesdays instead of weekends when in reality they are punishing children and their families.

    Sounds to me that you don't have a child in the school system so you don't have a say. Now go crawl back under your rock.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Golly Gee Whiz, 6:02, if it's as easy as you think, why don't you do it?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Not having a child in the school system is not a reason not to have a voice. Most of the people who pay the bills (taxes) for WCBOE do not have children in the system and many with children in the system pay little or no taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous said...
    Go to the Board's website and see the updated Draft Calendar. Professional days are equally dispersed on different days throughout the year now. That seems fair to all.

    Also, Christmas is now a 2 week break like this year and most counties and Easter break has been shortened by 2 days from the first proposal.

    Sounds to me that the Board is listening.

    February 10, 2014 at 6:01 PM

    Um no Dumb Dumb this calendar hasn't changed much. There are still 2 Wednesdays that are scheduled for professional days and they are September 24 and October 29. We don't want any Professional Days on Wednesdays at all.

    This comment by Anon 6:01 PM is obviously a paid school board employee who want to punish the teachers at the expense of students. The Board of Education members need to vote no to this calendar.

    One thing for sure is we have proof that the BOE employees in the Central Office keep track by reading your blog Joe.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Every person that owns property in county has a say whether they have kids in the school system or not. It out tax dollars that provide much of the money. Some people my not have started families your, other may have kids that have graduated or failed out, but we all pay and are stakeholders. I am fed up with the nonsense and the county and have even consoled my accountant about donating a 5 acre waterfront property to a charity or the U of M system. If it goes the U of M, no more property taxes get collected from it.

    ReplyDelete
  30. 7:15 PM, and just who are you to call someone Dumbo? That's real nice and shows just how much tolerance you have for others opinions.

    ReplyDelete
  31. jealous jealous pity pity when will you all get a life. i love my job teaching. i get off all summer to work on my tan and work about three days a week during school year with my professional days and fog mornings and a couple flakes on the street.but somebody has to put up with the crap from your kids.thank you to all of us hard working teachers.. oh i forget i have off all weekends too

    ReplyDelete
  32. If they're that important, move them to Saturdays.

    ReplyDelete
  33. 7;53, while you're consoling your accountant, why not take some remedial English from a teacher!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.