Unless, of course, you bend the rules a bit, or shatter them beyond recognition.
The Joplin R-8 superintendent's famous declaration just a few days after the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado that school would start on time has been cited as a major step in the city's recovery. Less than three months later, school did start on time, with students from the schools that were destroyed in the tornado attending makeshift schools in old school buildings, a mall and a warehouse, among other locations.
On March 25, Huff made the same kind of declaration to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education. Despite delays in the ongoing construction at the new Joplin High School/Franklin Tech building, Huff said school would start on time.
Another bold, visionary statement from the man whose leadership, according to his own publicity releases, saved Joplin.
Only one problem. It is just not going to happen.
Huff already acknowledged during a recent meeting with Joplin NEA that school will start about 10 days later than usual- not that it has anything to do with the construction (and the devastating problems that have been encountered through every step of the construction).
The construction was never mentioned. Administration has simply decided to frontload all six of the district's designated professional development days to the beginning of the school year, according to Huff. Students will come back about two weeks later in all district schools, and to make up for the lost educational time, 10 minutes will be added to school days until those missing days are made up.
Oh, one more thing. School will start on time. This is what Huff and his administrative team had planned the whole time.
The calendar will be submitted to the Board of Education during its meeting Monday night. The old board of education, complete with soon to depart Board President Jeff Flowers and Phil Willcoxon will make that decision before newly-elected Debbie Fort and Lynda Banwart are sworn in.
An earlier proposed version of the 2014-2015 calendar had school starting about 10 days earlier.
Huff told the JNEA leaders to make their membership aware that calendars "are not set in stone."
Sometimes you have to shift the calendar slightly so you don't get crossed up on your second miracle.
The teachers are ending this year with two days of forced PD, which is a sour note on which to end any school year, and then they must return to days and days of more of the same, knowing that even though everything they purchase costs more, they are not getting paid more. Are teachers so bad that so much PD is necessary? They used to be successful, at least before the Huff/Besendorfer/TLC regime came into being. Can we assume that if the district adopts this calendar, that it will be unnecessary to remove teachers from classes for PD the rest of the year? The last session had over 90 staff members from around the district pulled from their schools for two days. There were not enough subs in the district (at $75 or more a day) to cover all the teachers who were out. That was the second time, at least, for the year that more teachers were removed than there were subs to cover them, by the way.
ReplyDeleteThe endless PD, if you look at the district's academic scores, is obviously as ineffective as the TLC approach has been. Why not let the teachers determine what they need and help them with that? Despite the belief of district administrators, teachers can think for themselves. The best thing that came from the two days of presentation were words delivered by the presenter from California himself, "Joplin Schools will never improve until trust between teachers and administration is restored." Maybe that was worth the expense, after all. Truer words were never spoken, but unfortunately, trust with this administration cannot be restored.
Hey, I wonder how other parents feel about paying for daycare an extra ten days this summer? I'm not too happy about that. That's a lot of cash for some of us. Maybe not for the Huff family, but it is for real working people.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know why this information was not given to the public prior to a vote by Huff's handpicked board members? That infuriates me. It's like not telling us about the wiring and the other problems around the district.
ReplyDeleteSo much for Huff's stinking transparency. They're about as transparent as mud.
What the heck, R8? If this is just because JHS isn't finished just say so and send the rest of the kids to school. They don't need daycare for those kids. But that's another week or better I have to have it for my grade schoolers, and another week or more they aren't learning.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. Just brilliant.
I cannot wait until the new board is in place. This crap cannot keep happening.
ReplyDeleteThe second miracle will be when this man leaves town.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a silver lining is having the professional development days before students arrive makes send. No substitutes needed and the teachers will be able to teach to their kids in the classroom! I say we do this each year.
ReplyDeleteBeing in the school is fine but I don't like what happened the first time. Yes the kids were physically in the building by opening day but they didn't have any lessons the first three days. Deadlines are great but if they are just symbolic dates and real learning isn't starting then just wait until they ate ready.
Did the six snow days in January really have to do with the weather or were they extra days for the contractors to get East, Soaring Hights and Irving ready for students? I hate that I even have to consider that line of thinking but with this administration it doesn't do well to take things at face value. There is always an ulterior motive!
Today, thanks to school administrators and board members who had a dream, and to the people of the world who made that dream come true, school bells will ring again in Joplin. - randy turner
ReplyDelete6:52: I have already written that if I could take back anything that I wrote, it would be the words that were in this blog and in Spirit of Hope about C. J. Huff and that promise. If that's the best you have to throw at me, then you certainly don't have much ammunition.
ReplyDeleteThis administration does not believe in transparency. They think that they know WAY more than the rest of the world. They don't publish notes for retirements and hiring in the board documents anymore. They aren't really publishing anything more than itemized lists of expenditures. And those have already been pushed through during the work sessions.
ReplyDeleteThe PD might work if they actually let the teachers work with it long enough and have those TLC people actually work in the classrooms with the teachers and their new learning.
One reason for all the PD is state requirements. I wonder how much of it is required and how much is R8 doing to wow the world.
No offense, 5:46 but school is not free daycare.
R8 has a habit of not following the advice of the people they pay big bucks. Even if that person is an expert in his field, they think they're smart enough to make it work 'the Joplin way.'
6:52,
ReplyDeleteMr. Turner isn't the only one who believed Huff and crew. Obviously, Mr. Turner and many of the rest of us know better now.
I feel sorry for all of the bus drivers, cafeteria staff, and teacher's aides. I'm sure the extra 10 minutes per day will make up for their loss in salaries...
ReplyDeleteRandy Turner - what you write in your blog is not "ammunition" - they are YOUR words. I am sure you have written many things in the past that wouldn't accurately reflect your current opinions/beliefs etc...a little whip-lash never killed anyone.
ReplyDeleteIf we are going to have extra days without students, the district should place those days throughout the year on the Fridays before grades are due. Show some common sense and give the teachers time in their classrooms with absolutely NO ADDITIONAL PD, so that they can get caught up on grading and lesson plans and other essential duties. Admin should quit trying to direct every damn minute of every day and trust the teachers to use their time wisely.
ReplyDelete1:56pm welcome to the real world. Please tell me how many employers you know that allow large slots of free time - trusting the employees to be productive and not take advantage of it? Even the best teachers slack off when the kids are gone and there is nothing left to structure the day. And I love the people that are complaining that we won't be spending as much paying the employees. Either you guys biatch that Huff is spending too much or he is being too frugal.
ReplyDelete6:00 here's a novel idea - perhaps the parents could take advantage of the extra 2 weeks and make it a priority to teach your kids something. You seem to place too much responsibility on the school district -
ReplyDelete