The 2014-2015 budget that will be presented to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education Monday night calls for salary increases for teachers, but they probably should not be planning any major purchases in the near future.
Teachers will receive increases of $200 to $300, but will not receive their salary schedule step increases. They will also be required to pay an extra $12 per month for their health insurance, according to the budget.
The raises for the Joplin teachers come a few short days after two other Jasper County school districts, both admittedly in much better financial condition than Joplin, gave larger increases to teachers who are already paid well above those in Joplin.
The June 18 Carthage Press reports that Carthage R-9 faculty will receive three percent pay increases, while the Webb City Sentinel reports that Webb City R-7 teachers, will receive two percent pay increases. Both school districts will also allow teachers to pick up their steps on the salary schedule.
16 comments:
$200 to $300 per what period of time?
The way I see it, this has to be the last straw. Staff will go in the hole at R8, but they are being asked to do more and more. That's crap. We have already been screwed over K-12 for curriculum because it's being led by an inexperienced twit who doesn't know what she's doing, and Paul Barr took the PD money to try and balance the books. Now we are farther behind for next year than even the previous six years of CJ Huff's tenure.
It's time to take a stand, folks. American's High School opening can be a media event, for sure. It can have R8 teachers and staff striking in front of it, and we'll be happy to make sure CNN, et al, are there to witness it and hear what abuses the staff has taken since CJ's tear-filled days after the tornado.
Just to make sure you staff members know how badly you're getting screwed over, just go look at the budget. Bright Futures has been allotted over 600 grand, and these expenses have been allotted to community development:
$105,000 for support staff wages
4,000 for in-district mileage
4,000 to "host community events"
1,800 for staff breakfast meetings
3,928 for a thank-you campaign
3,000 for Eagle stickers
THIS CANNOT STAND! I would highly suggest the board and CJ do a fast rethink by Monday night, or plan to give your boohoo speech to an empty church at the opening meeting. The rest of us will be found in the picket line. It's gone too far. CJ HUFF, TINA SMITH, AND PAUL BARR HAVE HAD BIG RAISES. STAFF GETS THE SHAFT. NO MORE! THEY MUST ALL GO!
That's 200-300 a year, 11:16. Minus your insurance. Add your lack of step and you're in the hole. Yes, CJ just so appreciates his staff.
This is crap. It's inexcusable. I'm going to look for another job. I can't stand it anymore. Stocking shelves is better than R8.
Maybe the district and city leaders can figure out how they're going to run their fancy schools without teachers while they're having their vision meeting today. Gag. Just like Bess is back with another idiotic dream meeting. It seems like R8 might have more pressing problems at the moment than dreaming about something that, like the master plan or R8 raises, is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!
I heard that teachers were told they can't have their teaching materials until Sarah gets her curriculum the way she wants it, but she keeps changing what she wants, so no one can really get it finished in the three days. If that is true, then all of you need to stop what you're doing. Don't do this for free. They're counting on you to do that. They know you will and they are taking advantage of your sense of duty to the students. But this isn't a source of entertainment. This is a profession, and as professionals, you should be paid. Let Sarah explain to the parents in August why there is nothing for the kids to use and why there is no one to teach it, anyway. Or CJ. Or any of the other leeches in that building. Perhaps their highly paid community development staff can handle it. They have more money than the teachers do. Screw this. Go home and have summer. Take a second job that pays. Do anything but work for free for CJ Huff.
I wonder if lack of regard for educators' time explains why there are still somewhere around 16 coaching positions open (and I mean athletics, not the academic variety). I'm sure it does. Go to any district around here and you make much more than at Joplin in everything but administration. They see to it that they are very highly paid. The rest of us just don't count. That has to stop.
Great. After it's all said and done it will be my second year in a row with a pay cut for teaching in Joplin.
If there were to be a teacher strike, and I believe there should be, they would be joined by hundreds of parents and students! Then maybe we would have the media coverage this circus deserves!!
I feel very sorry for the students in Joplin. They have to sit by and watch their best teachers driven from the district by an administration that cares so little about their employees. The R8 teachers are not stupid. They can see that they can go somewhere else and make more money, be given more freedom to actually do the job they are being paid to do, and feel much more appreciated and respected as a professional. What does Joplin offer right now that can't be found in Carthage, Webb City, Springfield, Kansas, Oklahoma, etc...? I would love to see all of the district take some kind of a stand. I know it might not be realistic to expect everyone to put their jobs on the line by striking, but there must be some way to make it crystal clear to administration as well as the entire city of Joplin that the R8 staff has had enough. This is not simply a matter of teachers being upset that they aren't getting a raise. When you see the money the district is wasting, the idea that they can no longer give their teachers a step increase is a slap in the face. Frankly, they could keep that money if they would also be willing to greatly cut administration salary, eliminate the learning coach positions, stop taking all classroom control away from the teachers, eliminate the worthless data collection and obsession with statistics, and start making teachers feel like the work they do and the skills they bring to the classroom are worthwhile and meaningful.
It is illegal for teachers to strike in the state of Missouri.
R8 likes to freeze teachers on the salary scale. Years ago, they redid the salary scale so teachers wouldn't get as much of a raise.
There is such an attitude from the people at the administration building that others are beneath them. That in itself is just insulting. They treat all support staff like "the help" that should be coming in and out the back door and the teachers are treated like the dumb relatives that you have to put up with.
R8-land is an ugly place to be.
I think I feel a major flu outbreak coming on about the last week of August and/or the Grand Opening Day!
Where did the money go? We have to wait six months for the auditor to tell us? The teachers' fund is depleted? The reserves? Is it gone, or is it hidden under the "foundation," so to speak, for CJ, Paul, and Tina to exploit? Word is that the three of them got huge raises after Besendorfer left. That implies that they split her check. Must be nice.
So, CJ, where's the money? Did you rob my future to pay one of the overdue bills or to provide a comfy living for your community outreach people, who probably haven't raised enough money to pay their own salaries? The community needs to insist that he be removed from office. This can't wait six months.
Just a question since we're talking money. If WGU isn't based on credits but on competencies, how is that going to create an increase in pay for teachers? R8 policy is for credits: BS +16 to Master's to Master's +16. Do you get raises based on competencies? Did anyone at the Board clear this? How do you compensate people who did things the right way--and the hard way-- and actually had to work and learn in their education process? These two approaches are apples and oranges. You cannot compensate them in the same way. If you do, I'd say there should be a class action lawsuit for those of us who did the real work.
I don't recall ever voting for anything that included funding Bright Futures.
Newly hired teachers start at a higher step than current teachers due to the multiple step freezes. New teachers will potentially make more money than existing teachers with the same years of service.
This is not a new situation but it is another slap in the face to loyal teachers who have stayed with the district through thick and thin. Teachers could work 35 years and never reach the top step.
Athletic coaches are another thing. They will negotiate and hire a coach in at whatever step is necessary. So a coach with 30 years in another state will start at the 30th step. But other teaching staff would have started at the 10th step.
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