FCPS SUB SHORTAGE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So that means that in October 2016 there were 21,828 needed sub jobs in FCPS!!
While I'm sure it's problematic to have any of the sub jobs go unfilled I think the real story here is why there is 21,828 jobs to start with!

Well...FCPS has 209 schools. In the month of October, there were 19 school days.

So, 21828subs/19 days is approximately 1148 subs/day in the county. 1148 subs/209 schools is approximately 5-6 subs per school. Totally reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

No, most parents didn't want early release Monday gone. Garza didn't want to deal with calling snow days and teachers wanted more planning time. There was no real survey or public hearing of any merit that said parents wanted this change. Can we get rid of early Mondays or at least move planning till after kids get out of school? The change costs more for the county, it doesn't provide any real learning experience for children, it causes our teacher salaries to look like they are below market. There are more problems created than solutions.

[Anonymous]

Teachers already plan after school.....for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

No, most parents didn't want early release Monday gone. Garza didn't want to deal with calling snow days and teachers wanted more planning time. There was no real survey or public hearing of any merit that said parents wanted this change. Can we get rid of early Mondays or at least move planning till after kids get out of school? The change costs more for the county, it doesn't provide any real learning experience for children, it causes our teacher salaries to look like they are below market. There are more problems created than solutions.

No one has any idea about this, so stop making statements like the bolded one. If you read my post I said "many." There's a difference. Just pull up the threads on this topic here on DCUM and you'll find pages of posts from parents who wanted early-release Mondays gone. And you'll find posts from parents who enjoyed that time with their children on Mondays.

In terms of moving plannings/trainings to after school, that could happen for some things, but how enforceable is it? A teacher who has to get her own kids from childcare isn't going to stay later to plan, even if it means getting paid a little more. And what about schools that dismiss at 4:10pm? The only way to make that happen is to changed the work day hours and provide increased compensation across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers already plan after school.....for free.

Yes, of course they do. The planning that happens during school is about bringing the entire team together, often with a specialist like a reading teacher. When the entire team comes together, the level of instruction goes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

No, most parents didn't want early release Monday gone. Garza didn't want to deal with calling snow days and teachers wanted more planning time. There was no real survey or public hearing of any merit that said parents wanted this change. Can we get rid of early Mondays or at least move planning till after kids get out of school? The change costs more for the county, it doesn't provide any real learning experience for children, it causes our teacher salaries to look like they are below market. There are more problems created than solutions.

No one has any idea about this, so stop making statements like the bolded one. If you read my post I said "many." There's a difference. Just pull up the threads on this topic here on DCUM and you'll find pages of posts from parents who wanted early-release Mondays gone. And you'll find posts from parents who enjoyed that time with their children on Mondays.

In terms of moving plannings/trainings to after school, that could happen for some things, but how enforceable is it? A teacher who has to get her own kids from childcare isn't going to stay later to plan, even if it means getting paid a little more. And what about schools that dismiss at 4:10pm? The only way to make that happen is to changed the work day hours and provide increased compensation across the board.

Most teachers need aftercare unless their child is in the same school. Teachers operate the same as any other working parent. What did they do during early release Mondays? That seemed for work for decades.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course they do. The planning that happens during school is about bringing the entire team together, often with a specialist like a reading teacher. When the entire team comes together, the level of instruction goes up.

Written by a specialist or administrator. Certainly not written by a classroom teacher. As a teacher, I learned more from sharing with teammates than the specialists. I'm pretty sure most teachers would agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers already plan after school.....for free.

Yes, of course they do. The planning that happens during school is about bringing the entire team together, often with a specialist like a reading teacher. When the entire team comes together, the level of instruction goes up.

That happens during CLTs. We have one once a week.

As far as needing a sub for training during the school day, I have not had one so far this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

No, most parents didn't want early release Monday gone. Garza didn't want to deal with calling snow days and teachers wanted more planning time. There was no real survey or public hearing of any merit that said parents wanted this change. Can we get rid of early Mondays or at least move planning till after kids get out of school? The change costs more for the county, it doesn't provide any real learning experience for children, it causes our teacher salaries to look like they are below market. There are more problems created than solutions.

No one has any idea about this, so stop making statements like the bolded one. If you read my post I said "many." There's a difference. Just pull up the threads on this topic here on DCUM and you'll find pages of posts from parents who wanted early-release Mondays gone. And you'll find posts from parents who enjoyed that time with their children on Mondays.

In terms of moving plannings/trainings to after school, that could happen for some things, but how enforceable is it? A teacher who has to get her own kids from childcare isn't going to stay later to plan, even if it means getting paid a little more. And what about schools that dismiss at 4:10pm? The only way to make that happen is to changed the work day hours and provide increased compensation across the board.

Most teachers need aftercare unless their child is in the same school. Teachers operate the same as any other working parent. What did they do during early release Mondays? That seemed for work for decades.

I have more planning time now to get things done that I need to accomplish than I ever had with early release Mondays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, of course they do. The planning that happens during school is about bringing the entire team together, often with a specialist like a reading teacher. When the entire team comes together, the level of instruction goes up.

Written by a specialist or administrator. Certainly not written by a classroom teacher. As a teacher, I learned more from sharing with teammates than the specialists. I'm pretty sure most teachers would agree.

Sorry you haven't had the same experience I've had as a 5th grade teacher. Our reading specialist is excellent and our WHOLE team shares ideas and learns how to be better at what we're doing with her right there. Of course we learn a lot from each other, but we learn even more when she is there. And I'm pretty sure most teachers at my school would agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's going on:
With the loss of early out Mondays at the elementary schools, we have to use sub days for in-house trainings, larger scale planning,etc. In the past, we might have taken one of those Monday afternoons for a team to meet and study/analyze the standards so that everyone was on the same page about how to teach. With those Mondays gone, our principal will hire a sub for a day for 2 teams, and those 2 teams each get a half day

Staff now has 5 personal days. When we were not getting step increases, one way to offset the demoralizing effect was to increase employees number of personal days from 3 to 5.

Many parents wanted that early out Monday gone. Great. They got it. But the need for teachers to meet and plan did not go away. That now has to happen during the school day and requires subs.

Many folks don't want to pay the taxes for the schools. Okay, fine. The result has been that FCPS has been below market for its teacher salaries. Things like increased personal days cost the county nothing on paper, but we're now seeing the impact with increased needs for subs.

Bottom line: everything has a price.

No, most parents didn't want early release Monday gone. Garza didn't want to deal with calling snow days and teachers wanted more planning time. There was no real survey or public hearing of any merit that said parents wanted this change. Can we get rid of early Mondays or at least move planning till after kids get out of school? The change costs more for the county, it doesn't provide any real learning experience for children, it causes our teacher salaries to look like they are below market. There are more problems created than solutions.

They don't just look below market, they are.