Cumberland County students and teachers are stuck wearing facial coverings for the foreseeable future after the local school board chairman cited procedure as a reason not to reconsider their mask mandates.
During an October 22 Board of Education meeting, member Anita Hale asked if the body would ever reconsider its mask mandate. A recording of the board’s videoconference meeting is available on the Cumberland County Board of Education’s Facebook page here.
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The Richmond Public Schools (RPS) leadership team presented initial schedule adjustments for all grade levels to its school board during a meeting Monday night.
The board did not vote to adopt any of the proposed scheduling adjustments.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss a recent article in The Wall Street Journal citing illogical reasons to spend more money to open schools in the fall.
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Chicago’s teachers went on strike in October, suspending instruction for the city’s public school students for 11 days.
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A high school teacher in Jacksonville, Florida, faced criticism and disciplinary action because a transgender student asked him to refer to the student by female pronouns, although the student was born male. The teacher refused.
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A split Hamilton County Commission voted 5-4 Wednesday against a 34-cent increase on property taxes for the school system, and one school board member reacted by saying his dog was disappointed in the outcome. Voting against were Greg Martin, Randy Fairbanks, Chester Bankston, Tim Boyd and Sabrena Smedley (pictured above), according to a story by The Chattanoogan. In favor were Chip Baker, Katherlyn Geter, Warren Mackey and David Sharpe. County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said the rejection means none of the budget will be approved until the schools come back with a new budget leaving out the requested $34 million in new funds, The Chattanoogan said. That will happen after the Hamilton County Department of Education meets again. The county commission has until Aug. 31 to approve the overall budget, according to a story by the Chattanooga Times Free Press. County Mayor Jim Coppinger’s proposed $819 million budget included $443 million for the school district’s general purpose budget, a 5 percent raise for teachers, plus the addition of 14 counselors, 15 social workers, 15 truancy officers, 11 art teachers, 10 special education teachers and 32 special education assistants, the newspaper said. News Channel 9 said teachers were disappointed. Teachers filed…
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We could never set aside enough days in a year, or hours in a week to honor the women that shape and inspire our lives daily.
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Hundreds of Metro Nashville teachers on Monday called out sick for the second day in a row to protest the size of their promised pay increase. WKRN reported that at least 906 teachers were absent Monday. A Metro Nashville Public Schools official told the station that reasons included personal and family illness, professional and personal leave and bereavement. The totals included 86 teachers from McGavock High School, WKRN said. On Friday, a total of 1,093 teachers and over 400 staff members from at least 18 schools were reported to have called out, The Tennessee Star reported. A total of 125 of McGavock’s 141 teachers stayed home Friday. The Nashville Scene reported that Friday’s sick out estimate has since been revised down to 960 teachers and 400 staff. Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley is proposing a 3 percent raise for educators, but that is not setting well with them. Educators, along with the school board, are demanding a 10 percent increase. Monday’s sick out forced the 9th grade college field trip at Hillsboro High School to be canceled. NewsChannel 5 said. One Twitter account that has been involved in the sick outs indicated that educators would return to their classrooms today.…
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More than 1,400 Metro Nashville Public Schools teachers and school staff scoffed at receiving a 3 percent pay raise and called out sick Friday, WKRN said. A total of 1,093 teachers and over 400 staff members from at least 18 schools called out. McGavock High School was one of the hardest hit, with 125 of 141 teachers staying home, WKRN said. Metro Nashville Public Schools denied all the absences were due to the strike. Mayor David Briley proposed a 3 percent raise during his State of Metro speech Tuesday, WKRN said. Teachers had demanded a 10 percent increase. The proposed city budget is $2.33 billion, a 4.55 percent increase over the current year, Nashville Public Radio said. Briley is calling for $101.5 million in new spending, with most going to Metro Schools ($28.2 million), salaries ($23.3 million) and debt service ($44.1 million). Mayoral candidate Carol Swain said in a press release she stands with the 1,400-plus teachers. “MNPS’s sickout is another glaring symptom of a broken system,” Swain said. “As Nashville’s next mayor, I would work with teachers, parents, school board members and other stakeholders to identify and creatively address the broken system where teachers and low-wage employees have become afterthoughts.…
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North Carolina teachers took to the streets Wednesday for the second year in a row with hopes that a more politically balanced legislature will be more willing to meet their demands. Teachers, auxiliary staff and supporters marched in Raleigh with scheduled speakers including Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. When an estimated 20,000 people marched for teachers last year, Republicans held a veto-proof majority in the state House and Senate. The results of November’s election changed that, and now Cooper’s vetoes can stand if Democrats remain united. The House budget released Tuesday includes some of the teachers’ demands: higher pay for veteran teachers and restoration of a salary bump for teachers with masters’ degrees. Teachers in neighboring South Carolina also rallied Wednesday and Oregon teachers plan to gather next week as walkouts that began in West Virginia last spring continue across the country, with many proving successful. In Raleigh, teachers were going to meeting spots Wednesday morning ahead of the march and rally. One group of teachers donning red shirts with the North Carolina state outline walked to the state legislative building Wednesday morning. Among them was a seventh-grade student,…
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A group of about 50 people gathered outside the Tennessee Capitol Tuesday to protest Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) plan. The 50 teachers, parents and other advocates voiced concerns about Lee’s support of education savings accounts, WBBJ said. Many of the teachers wore sunglasses “to show that they feared retribution if identified in the small crowd,” the station said. This small protest came days after 200 gathered at a GOP event in Knoxville, where Lee attended, the station said. An organization identifying itself as Tennessee Strong sent the press an email Tuesday morning announcing the rally. The group said one participant was State Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-TN-55), a candidate for mayor of Metro Nashville. The email said: Please join parents, teachers, clergy leaders, public representatives, including state rep John Ray Clemmons, and Tennessee Strong, a grassroots statewide coalition of parents as we announce a statewide call to action in response to Gov Lee’s proposal for vouchers, which ultimately divests public education funds from already vulnerable populations. Please join us at Beth Harwell Plaza in Nashville, TN, TODAY at noon to learn more about the potential impact of vouchers on Tennessee education as well as the call to action. It is super important for…
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Knox County Schools are spending $170,000 out of their $928,677 in-service budget on “cultural competency” training for teachers even as the Williamson County School System uses increased expenditures to tell white teachers they are over-privileged. Knox County’s Fiscal Year 2019 expense is in the KCS General Purpose School Fund, under “Disparities in Education Outcomes.” The “In-Service/Staff Development – Schools,” is located under the “Other Expenses” line. The note for the $170,000 line item specifies, “Cultural Competency training.” The school budget details are here. Another note on the page, E-6, says, “The Disparities in Education Outcomes programs is a district initiative aimed at eliminated education disparities. The FTEs contained in this program are Restorative Interventionists. Also included in this program are resources for Cultural Competency training and supplies needed to support the program.” The overall Disparities in Education Outcomes budget for FY 2019 is $1,533,099. Knox County Schools’ general fund budget for 2019 was $484.5 million, an increase of $13.4 million from the previous year, according to the FY 2019 Knox County budget. The overall in-service training budget for FY 2019 is $928,677, a 4.2 percent decrease from the previous year total of $918,635. In 2016, a school board task force…
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It would be awesome if every educator had a positive and supportive working environment where they could thrive personally and professionally, and where they were free to exercise their expertise and explore the full limits of their talents.
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“Chaos” is one word used by a teacher to describe student behavior in Metro Nashville Schools during a shocking town hall discussion hosted by Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5. A story about the town hall discussion is available here. “There’s no accountability for the students,” one teacher said. Metro Nashville Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Joseph is trying to reduce the number of students who receive suspensions. His policy, especially aimed at minorities, is blamed. Retired teacher Karen Gordon told Williams one of her former students was one of the youths who was arrested in connection to the murder of musician Kyle Yorlets. The district does not respect teachers’ opinions and does not give them resources to handle troubled students, they said. One shared how her principal laughed over her receiving a death threat. Joseph has generated his own controversy. The Tennessee Star reported last May that his playing explicit rap music during a principals meeting led to a civil rights complaint by a female school board member because the song “Blow the Whistle” degrades women. The Star also reported on a NewsChannel 5 story last August that Joseph ducked a reporter’s questions about alleged sexual harassment and coverups in the…
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Denver teachers went on strike Monday after failing to reach a deal with administrators on pay. The school district said schools will remain open during the strike and will be staffed by administrators and substitute teachers. However, the district has canceled classes for 5,000 preschool children because it doesn’t have the staff to take care of them. Teachers started picketing before the start of the school day and students crossed through the picket lines on their way to class in some locations. At a press conference Monday morning, union leaders expressed frustration at failed talks to reach a deal over the weekend. Union president Henry Roman said teachers were committed to reaching a deal but said that both sides needed a cooling off period. Another negotiation session is expected Tuesday. “They need us. They need our labor, they need our minds, they need our talents to really make it happen,” lead union negotiator Rob Gould said. The main sticking points in the talks over a contract governing Denver’s incentive pay system, which started over a year ago, are lowering bonuses to put more money in teachers’ base pay and how to allow teachers to advance in pay based on education…
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by Daniel Buck During a moment of small group discussion in a professional development session, a teacher near me gave his opinion: Look, I’ve learned a few things in my time here, and that’s to only do these sorts of things on the days the administration comes in to watch. In most school buildings, there smolders an animosity of which most people aren’t aware between teachers and administrators. It shows up in staff meetings. It’s heard in teachers’ lounge gossip. “If only they trusted us and gave us the freedom to do our jobs as we saw fit,” goes the refrain of frustrated teachers. This tension, while a problem in itself, is indicative of a larger issue. There is a handful of different ways to teach that are based on different educational theories; public schools, not committed to any particular theory, mandate a poor mixture of them all onto their teachers. Private schools, a different option where the curriculum may be more aligned to individual beliefs, contain only 10 percent of school enrollment, leaving most teachers to teach a hodgepodge curriculum with which they don’t agree. It’s a matter, then, of hampered choice. The Problem A quick overview of…
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by Tim Pearce Public education employees such as teachers and janitors are quitting jobs in record numbers, an uncommon trend in a profession that often rewards longevity, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many industries in the past year have seen a historically high rate of workers quitting. A tight labor market and sluggish wage growth are making job transfers less risky and long-term unemployment less likely for most Americans. People working in the public education sector are still less likely to quit their jobs than the average worker across all industries. Roughly 0.8 percent of public educators quit in the first 10 months of 2018 versus a rate of 2.4 percent across the American workforce in 2018, WSJ reported Friday. The rate of people quitting public education positions has nearly doubled since 2009, however, when jobs in the steady field were prized in the unsteady labor market rocked by a recession. The current rate of quitting is also at its highest since the Department of Labor began tracking the stat in 2001. A December EdChoice survey indicated public educators may be growing more unsatisfied with their jobs and careers. “During the recession, education was a safe place to be,”…
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by Troy Worden A basic knowledge of civics and belief in American exceptionalism are in startling decline among younger Americans, a new report suggests. About half of those surveyed under age 38 said they view the United States as a “sexist” or “racist” nation. More than 4 out of 10 Americans under 21 said the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama, had a “bigger impact” on America than its first president, George Washington. The Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, a nonprofit that provides civics education and resources to K-12 students, released these and other surprising findings Tuesday in its first annual “State of American Patriotism Report.”The report, based on a survey of 1,078 Americans conducted by the market research and data analytics firm YouGov, found that 49 percent believe the U.S. is “racist” while 50 percent believe the country is “sexist.” “We suspected that we would find decreasing numbers of Americans well-versed in our nation’s most important principles and young people less patriotic than the generations that came before,” said Nick Adams, founder of the organization and a White House surrogate, “but we were totally unprepared for what our national survey reveals: an epidemic of anti-Americanism.”The report also found that 46…
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Tennessee Education Commissioner Dr. Candice McQueen will leave her post in January for the top position at a national nonprofit that addresses teaching, The Tennessean said. McQueen’s departure to become CEO of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, focused on aiding in training, attracting and supporting teachers, means she will not stay on with Gov.-elect Bill Lee. McQueen became Tennessee’s education commissioner in January 2015 after leading Lipscomb University’s College of Education. She replaced Kevin Huffman, who served for four years under Gov. Bill Haslam. In a Department of Education blog post, McQueen pointed to some of hers and the department’s accomplishments: This year, our students again set record highs: new high ACT score (20.2) coupled with a new high participation rate (97%); more students took AP exams and more students earned a 3 or higher – giving them credit for college; and high school graduates maintained our record graduation rate (89.1%). For the first time in years, we saw growth in students’ literacy skills in the early grades – pointing to some initial successes with our Read to be Ready work – and again students enrolled in our Read to be Ready summer camps showed statistically significant growth.” She also…
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by Jonathan Butcher Teacher unions and progressive special-interest groups cried foul earlier this year when the White House suggested that federal directives on school safety could be rescinded. But if a recent hearing held by the Federal Commission on School Safety is any indication, state and local policymakers don’t need Washington to micromanage student discipline policies. These state and community leaders’ testimonies indicate they are acting on their own to try and make students and schools safer. In 2014, the Obama administration’s departments of Education and Justice issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to public schools that contained specific instructions on how schools should deal with school safety and student discipline. The letter says schools should limit student engagement with law enforcement and says suspensions and expulsions (exclusionary discipline) should only be used as a last resort. The agencies also said school personnel should sign a memorandum of agreement with local law enforcement indicating that all involved will try to limit exclusionary discipline. The letter has attracted public attention after the tragic events of Feb. 14 in Broward County, Florida. The gunman that took the lives of 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had been subject to disciplinary rules that mirror…
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Professional Educators of Tennessee raised the issue on Testing, with a hard-hitting editorial called the Trouble with Testing. Professional Educators of Tennessee did NOT support the use of that data on teacher evaluations, nor did they sign a support letter on the original grant submission., which the Tennessee Education Association did.
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As teachers and administrators go back to school across the state, they will have a choice in what teacher association in which they want to join. We hope they will join Professional Educators of Tennessee. As an independent, Tennessee -focused professional association, we keep our membership dues low by ensuring that our dues dollars are put to good use meeting the needs of our members here in Tennessee, not supporting a national labor union and a national agenda. In fact, our dues are so reasonable that you can cover the $189 cost simply by taking advantage of our various benefit programs which are clearly valued by educators (teachers & administrators, as well as support personnel) . Contrast that to the roughly $600 plus union members pay for less legal coverage and benefits. Educators are also consumers and should expect quality services at an affordable price. You won’t have to look for the fine-print on our application just to see what you are joining. Many Tennessee educators dislike the concept of forced “unified dues” and are opposed to the militancy of teacher unions’ nationwide. (See NEA and AFT websites for your own comparison). You will find that our organization, Professional Educators of Tennessee is NOT engaged in aggressive political partisanship. We are NOT involved in a…
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If language is everything, we could not, even if we tried, honor the women that shapes and inspires our lives. No matter how much you thank the woman who does it all for her children, once a year is never enough.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. — Thousands of public school teachers and their supporters in red waved signs and marched to the Capitol Monday morning to protest legislative changes to their pensions and education cuts, then filled every marble hallway with shouts of “Vote them out!” and “Enough is enough!”
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By J.C. Bowman and Justin Owen This week is National Employee Freedom Week. From August 20 to 26, we celebrate Americans’ right to work freely of compulsory union representation, as well as every citizen’s right to join a union if he or she believes it is in his or her best interest. However, for Tennessee teachers, that freedom comes with some limits. A simple glance at the half page of fine print on Tennessee’s National Education Association affiliate’s membership application offers troubling music for union members’ ears. First up is the “Hotel California” clause. You can check out of the union anytime you like, but you can rarely leave. In order to withdraw from your union, you must provide written notice of termination to multiple entities prior to September 1 each year (how far in advance the notice can be sent is unclear). Otherwise, you are locked in for an entire year. And the key statement on the application form is revocation will only be acted upon in accordance with the established policy of the union board. That’s right, the union leadership decides if you get out of the union based on their policies, not based on your…
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Health professionals and public health officials promote breastfeeding to improve infant health. Breastfeeding also provides long-term preventative effects for the mother, including an earlier return to pre-pregnancy weight and a reduced risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer and osteoporosis. It is important to note that 82% of public school teachers are female in Tennessee. Women are the predominate sex in our profession. More importantly, most of these women are of child bearing age. So this is an important topic for all stakeholders.
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Our members define our legislative priorities and advocacy efforts, and we make sure our professional learning activities align with our member needs. We invite you to attend Leader U on June 30, 2017, at MTSU.
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Dear Tennessee Star, It really is simple the more members who pay union dues affords greater political clout for that union and feed the union bureaucracy. Most people still have a lot to learn about unions, especially in education. Many have likened unions to being an ATM to left-wing politicians and causes. Too many people vaguely equate the union with that classroom teacher whom they know and respect, not with the hard-as-nails political entity that dictates bad school policy. It makes little sense for teachers to contribute their hard-earned dollars to political and ideological causes they oppose. For example, a teacher union’s goal, of course, is political power, not education. This means of course they funnel union money to politicians who support their agenda. So how do the government unions, whose leaders run to the left of the average worker, get away with spending dues dollars on candidates and causes that so many of its members revile? The answer very simply is because its members let them. In fact, in all elections since 1989, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has given $76,446,797 to Democrats and liberals and just $363,000 to Republicans and conservatives. In other words, less than…
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In today’s climate of high stakes testing, business leaders and politicians continue to demand better results with data driven assessments and test scores. It is important to realize that the classroom is not a factory floor where uniformity and precise precision can be molded into just one final finished product.
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Respecting the authority of teachers is essential to creating an environment conducive to learning, effective instruction in the classroom, and proper administration of our local public schools.
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Teachers are physically, verbally, or emotionally abused in public schools on a regular basis by supervisors, colleagues, parents and students.
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