Dan doesn't need that job

My husband took a cut in pay to become a teacher. he loves teaching but if kcmsd has it's way he will be forced to reconsider and find other employment. What are they doing to run him off?

1. cutting planning periods nearly in half. 40 min a day that he gets to spend making lesson plans and grading papers will be gone. It takes a lot of work to get that done and it's not fair to add 40 min a day in time he has to spend outside the work day to get it done. If he stays he will be forced to give out less work and the children's education will suffer. If he gives out the same amount of graded work his own family life will suffer. Great choice to have to make.

2. more stupid meetings. School districts love to have meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. They are now instituting unlimited professional development meetings. And they haven't said they will pay any $$ for them. It's forced overtime. Would you work at your job for free whenever they wanted? I don't think so.

My husband got a near perfect score on his praxis. I think he missed 2 questions. That put him in the top 1% of people taking the test. He knows his stuff and loves his job. Rather than deal with the ACTUAL problems the district is attacking teachers like Dan and making them seek other employment. It's worth the $2k penalty for breaking the contract. He took a $10k cut in pay when he took the damn job anyway. He can just go back to being a full time balloon artist and have lots of time with his family. The district loses and mostly his students will lose.


Thanks to Tony for making sure this stays in the news.

Maybe the teachers should strike

Dan spoke with the union rep yesterday and clarified something. It's not that the district wants less planning period time that the teachers used to have, it's that the district wants NO planning period time. Fuck that!

I know how hard my husband works and how much extra time he works outside of the school day. There is no way he can lose that time during the day and still stay sane. It's not an issue of teachers wanting time to laze around, the NEED that time. They have to grade papers, prepare lesson plans, meet with students, call parents. Teachers have no free time. Planning period is also when they go to the bathroom. They can't go during the students passing period because they need to man their class for incoming students. They don't want to leave the little angels alone during the middle of class - so planning period is pretty much it.

If the district wants to get more class time in - FIRE SOME ADMINISTRATORS AND HIRE MORE TEACHERS. If they take away the class time I'm pretty sure my husband will pay the $2k penalty for breaking his contract and seek other employment. Maybe he'll go back to being a full time balloon artist. It paid more anyway.

KCMO school superintendent

I hope that when the KCMSD school board finally picks their new scapegoat they give the guy a chance. I don't think Dr. Martin was wrong when he said it would take 10 years and a whole new administration to fix the problem.

I wrote Dr. Martin yesterday and told him that I wished he would stay on as superintendent. I doubt the position would be offered to him, but one can always hope. I know Dr. Martin from his days at Grandview and he is a man that I like and respect. As our superintendent he was always open, fair and honest. KC schools need something like that. They also need to quit playing politics and engaging in overt nepotism and FIX THE PROBLEM. It's not a quick fix. Just like dieting there is no magic pill, no matter what commercials you see on tv. The board needs to set LONG RANGE GOALS. Then they need to implement them and stick with them.

I have a tiny business and I have set goals. You can't run a business without them. The school district is a business and needs to act like one. Find a CEO who is fair, open & honest like Dr. Martin and then work to make the company a success.

Oh and also...

Don't hand the next super's balls to the board. Dr. Martin could speak out because he's not staying, most of them don't have that luxury. Don't let the board fire him/her - put that question before the voters - even if it calls for a special election.