ACPS Arts, Music, PE, and Specialists teaching at more than one school

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/02/alexandria-encore-teachers-multiple-schools/

ACPS will assign under utilized specialist teachers (arts, music, physical education, special needs) to more than one school.

Judging by the supposed pushback and teachers speaking out and that it made Washington Post, the dissent is only and predictably from Del Ray (Cora Kelly and Maury/Brooks), against the more populated but poorer, less powerful, under staffed West End.

[Anonymous]

This is a reality in many school systems. It should be minimized as much as possible, though, and springing this on staff at the last minute is inexcusable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a reality in many school systems. It should be minimized as much as possible, though, and springing this on staff at the last minute is inexcusable.

Yes, APS does this. Another option is being part-time. I’ve known a few teachers who loved working across schools, others who didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/02/alexandria-encore-teachers-multiple-schools/

ACPS will assign under utilized specialist teachers (arts, music, physical education, special needs) to more than one school.

Judging by the supposed pushback and teachers speaking out and that it made Washington Post, the dissent is only and predictably from Del Ray (Cora Kelly and Maury/Brooks), against the more populated but poorer, less powerful, under staffed West End.

Time for them to experience what the West End schools get and to experience what they overwhelmingly voted for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/02/alexandria-encore-teachers-multiple-schools/

ACPS will assign under utilized specialist teachers (arts, music, physical education, special needs) to more than one school.

Judging by the supposed pushback and teachers speaking out and that it made Washington Post, the dissent is only and predictably from Del Ray (Cora Kelly and Maury/Brooks), against the more populated but poorer, less powerful, under staffed West End.

Time for them to experience what the West End schools get and to experience what they overwhelmingly voted for.

What schools will it affect? I'm assuming the bigger schools in the west end will still need a full time encore person??? Or are they trying to make it affect everyone in an equally bad way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/02/alexandria-encore-teachers-multiple-schools/

ACPS will assign under utilized specialist teachers (arts, music, physical education, special needs) to more than one school.

Judging by the supposed pushback and teachers speaking out and that it made Washington Post, the dissent is only and predictably from Del Ray (Cora Kelly and Maury/Brooks), against the more populated but poorer, less powerful, under staffed West End.

Time for them to experience what the West End schools get and to experience what they overwhelmingly voted for.

What schools will it affect? I'm assuming the bigger schools in the west end will still need a full time encore person??? Or are they trying to make it affect everyone in an equally bad way?

I assume schools with lower enrollment will be split while schools with higher enrollment will maintain their 1.0 FTE status

[Anonymous]

We're at a small, east end elementary, although not one of the named ones, and I can't imagine our school without our full-time Encore teachers. They basically make the school. In addition to their own classes, the Encore teachers have been subbing during the substitute shortage, and have been the only constant during my 5th grader's experience. They've been there the whole time, including through the pandemic. None of the classroom teachers K-4th remain, which is probably why my kids feel closest to the Encore teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a reality in many school systems. It should be minimized as much as possible, though, and springing this on staff at the last minute is inexcusable.

It is being announced at the beginning of Summer in response to projected staffing for the Fall. That’s hardly last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/06/02/alexandria-encore-teachers-multiple-schools/

ACPS will assign under utilized specialist teachers (arts, music, physical education, special needs) to more than one school.

Judging by the supposed pushback and teachers speaking out and that it made Washington Post, the dissent is only and predictably from Del Ray (Cora Kelly and Maury/Brooks), against the more populated but poorer, less powerful, under staffed West End.

Time for them to experience what the West End schools get and to experience what they overwhelmingly voted for.

What schools will it affect? I'm assuming the bigger schools in the west end will still need a full time encore person??? Or are they trying to make it affect everyone in an equally bad way?

Judging by the responses on record, it sounds like the problem is schools on the West End are understaffed and those basically in Del Ray are overstaffed.

The fact is it’s cheaper on the West End, more families, and those are the schools that are or were growing.

Del Ray is aging, so the needs 10-20 years ago aren’t the same as today.

So it’s perfectly reasonable to have a teacher at Cora Kelly or Brooks to fill in shortfalls in the West End when the district realizes they won’t have certain positions filled. They work for the district, not the school(s).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're at a small, east end elementary, although not one of the named ones, and I can't imagine our school without our full-time Encore teachers. They basically make the school. In addition to their own classes, the Encore teachers have been subbing during the substitute shortage, and have been the only constant during my 5th grader's experience. They've been there the whole time, including through the pandemic. None of the classroom teachers K-4th remain, which is probably why my kids feel closest to the Encore teachers.

That's lovely, but an unaffordable luxury these days. They should not be subbing when there are other schools not able to provide encore classes because they don't have an encore teacher. If classroom teachers are not sticking around, then your school has a bigger problem than encore teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're at a small, east end elementary, although not one of the named ones, and I can't imagine our school without our full-time Encore teachers. They basically make the school. In addition to their own classes, the Encore teachers have been subbing during the substitute shortage, and have been the only constant during my 5th grader's experience. They've been there the whole time, including through the pandemic. None of the classroom teachers K-4th remain, which is probably why my kids feel closest to the Encore teachers.

That's really great for your child's east end school. But that's not what the west end has gotten and so that isn't equitable.

Please stop to consider your privilege.

[Anonymous]

I could be wrong, but I don't think its really about the West End Encore not being staffed. They have teachers for the roles. I think its more about there's not enough kids at some schools to justify a full time encore teacher? We actually have had issues where encore teachers don't have a full schedule and other teachers are not happy about it when it becomes apparent. The encore teachers get annoyed when they are asked to fulfull other type roles, so I wonder if this is playing into it a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a small, east end elementary, although not one of the named ones, and I can't imagine our school without our full-time Encore teachers. They basically make the school. In addition to their own classes, the Encore teachers have been subbing during the substitute shortage, and have been the only constant during my 5th grader's experience. They've been there the whole time, including through the pandemic. None of the classroom teachers K-4th remain, which is probably why my kids feel closest to the Encore teachers.

That's really great for your child's east end school. But that's not what the west end has gotten and so that isn't equitable.

Please stop to consider your privilege.

Why should the PP and her child pay the price for ACPS' falling asleep at the wheel? Why not increase encore staffing at Ferdinand Day, Pol, Adams and other elementary schools? Why erode one school's educational opportunities just to bring it in line with schools that lack adequate resources? This race to the bottom you're endorsing makes no sense. But hey, "equity" and all that jazz...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a small, east end elementary, although not one of the named ones, and I can't imagine our school without our full-time Encore teachers. They basically make the school. In addition to their own classes, the Encore teachers have been subbing during the substitute shortage, and have been the only constant during my 5th grader's experience. They've been there the whole time, including through the pandemic. None of the classroom teachers K-4th remain, which is probably why my kids feel closest to the Encore teachers.

That's really great for your child's east end school. But that's not what the west end has gotten and so that isn't equitable.

Please stop to consider your privilege.

Why should the PP and her child pay the price for ACPS' falling asleep at the wheel? Why not increase encore staffing at Ferdinand Day, Pol, Adams and other elementary schools? Why erode one school's educational opportunities just to bring it in line with schools that lack adequate resources? This race to the bottom you're endorsing makes no sense. But hey, "equity" and all that jazz...

They should pay the price because they support the Alexandria establishment and the push for equity. This is equity in ACPS. They asked for this and it's immoral that they don't have the exact same experience at their east end school as a school in the west end.

The west end PTAs were at School Board meetings this year begging for resources. You don't see that from the privileged east end schools. If these parents were being true to their equity ideals, they would be advocating for the west end schools to get more or better than them. This is the systemic racism and classism that the east side likes to ignore.

The fact remains that ACPS has 54 million dollars from covid that they haven't spent despite previously saying it was all earmarked.

[Anonymous]

I'm just glad that the hundreds of thousands of dollars I've paid in RE taxes, car taxes and BPOL taxes over the past 30 years or so to the People's Republic of Alexandria has been spent so wisely by ACPS. So wisely we've spent another $800K on private schools.