The cost for registering for the four-day event, which began Sunday and lasts through Wednesday, was $14,310, and the website for the Model Schools Conference indicates that amount does not include the cost of lodging. If the Joplin contingent stays at the Gaylord, where prices start at $179 a night, the cost for the junket, not including food is likely somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000.
The registration fees for the 27 were included in the list of bills approved by the R-8 Board of Education during its June 25 meeting.
The Model School Conference is sponsored by the International Center for Leadership in Education and is advertised as "Doing More with Less: Common Core, Next Generation Assessments, Teacher Evaluations."
The advertising for the event indicates that it is "not just a conference, it is a four-day, intensive professional learning event."
This is at least the third straight year, Joplin has sent a contingent to the conference. Last year, a group from the school district was included among the presenters.
The presenters include the chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education Willard Daggett, who is described on the event website as having "inspired audiences worldwide and helped hundreds of school systems and districts to move toward more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. Bill has consulted with education ministries in several countries, and collaborated with CCSSO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Governors Association, U.S. Department of Education, USA Today, and NASA."
Other speakers include more representatives of the International Center and an official from the U. S. Department of Education.
During the past two years, Joplin administrators and TLCs have implemented the "rigor, relevance, and relationships" framework that is pushed by Daggett, who is featured in the accompanying video, and the International Center.
7 comments:
R8 started sending staff to the Model Schools Conference when the TARP funds became available. That's also when the TLC jobs were created. Most, if not all, of that money went to nonteaching jobs and trips. The cost is unbelievable, but it's where future principals are found and made.
The question now is, how are they paying for those jobs and the trips since the TARP money is gone? Before the tornado the district was so cash strapped that staff were no longer allowed luxuries like refrigerators, microwaves, desk lamps, and electric pencil sharpeners. Something like twelve-thirteen teaching jobs were eliminated. Now there are more nonteaching jobs than ever. The TLCs are still with the district, along with five Career Path people, 21st Century coaches, and so many others that the MODOT Building is packed with offices. There are now four full-time people in Angie's office alone.
If things were improving, it might be justified. But things are only getting worse. Scores are down in many areas and have been for several years. Teachers left in droves. Morale is at an all time low. Accreditation is slipping away, and funding is low. Yet the money is spent left and right on nonessentials such as this trip. So, R8, where is it coming from? An inquiring audience wants to know. And we're looking for the answers.
Looking at DESE data, it appears that Joplin teachers earn far less than the state average yet have more students per teacher than the state average. Their scores and graduation rates are lower than the state average, also. And this is how they fix the problem?
How's that approach working for you,
Joplin?
Does anyone else see the irony in Joplin R8 sending 27 nonteaching personnel to a very expensive conference with a theme of doing more with less?
What a joke, alright.
This must be an example of what the board meant when it set a goal of not being involved in the daily operations of the district. If you pay no attention to what the administration is doing, then you don't have to deal with the mess they make. That does make life much easier for the board. It makes it harder for everyone else, but no one much cares about what the underlings think. If they did, they'd make sure everyone got to take the satisfaction survey and that the results were made available to all stakeholders.
More of the same.
The people who go on these trips also get a very generous allotment for food. It's a very expensive trip. And you have to factor in that Angie and her closest friends, and maybe CJ, for anyone knows, flies directly in and out of Joplin instead of with everyone else. I hope they pick up the difference, but how would anyone know. It's difficult to tell where the public's money goes with these people.
I wonder what would happen if they put all of the nonessential staff back in the classroom, cut back on the heavy load of administrators, stopped traveling so much, and put that money into teacher salaries so they could get the best out there, into more teachers, and into better supplies and equipment. It isn't very trendy but it does make sense, so it will never happen in Joplin.
I wonder why I have heard no complaints about Joplin, with its relatively small population, is building a school that cost $100,000,000 - that's $100,000,000. And they are surplusing two-year-old equipment and furnishing.
How many schools in Southwest Missouri could be built or remodeled for this amount of money? $100,000,000.
The other side of that coin is whether or not that school will get finished if the district's leaders keep wasting money on frivolous expenditures. I won't donate more than I already have in taxes or any other way.
The furnishings just must go. They won't match the German designs. Surely, everyone can understand that.
This whole district is such a disaster that it will be years climbing back out of the hole that poor administration, not a tornado, dug. And that can only happen when there is a change of leadership and a school board bold enough to take action. So don't look for any changes any time soon.
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