DHMS Theater Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is drama being scaled back due to budgetary issues? Middle schools have added sports over the past five years, so I hope they are not cutting back in the arts.

All the APS middle schools have theaters, so it would be a shame for them to not be utilized as designed, for student productions.

No, the teacher is on leave. It’s not cut but they don’t have someone to run it right now

FMLA is only 12 weeks. The teacher shouldn't be for the whole school year. If the theatre teacher is out now hopefully they will be back and there can still be a spring production.

Last year the band teacher was out in the fall. That meant there was no fall or winter concert and no jazz band in the fall. Things were back to normal in the spring once the band teacher had returned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They share the teacher with Gunston. She is on personal leave. No word on when she’s back. I found her to be a lazy teacher

Lazy? She ran two completely different shows at two different schools with all the after school effort that involved. On top of teaching classes and getting kids into the theatre program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posts like this make me so sad when APS leadership is focused on scoring political wins against the administration rather than actual school management. It’s a real shame that middle schoolers in Arlington don’t have access to theater programs and no foreign language until 7th grade.

What a red herring. The teacher is on leave and the schools hands are tied. This has nothing to do with our administration being focused on eliminating the existence of 1% of the population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They share the teacher with Gunston. She is on personal leave. No word on when she’s back. I found her to be a lazy teacher

Lazy? She ran two completely different shows at two different schools with all the after school effort that involved. On top of teaching classes and getting kids into the theatre program.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

There’s a stipend for directing the play

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

It’s not just about the time though, it’s a very specialized position. I’m a sub. No way would know where to start with a production at the level that APS parents expect. FWIW, I sub to make extra cash for vacations. I have no formal training. I’m not alone in that. A sub is not a true replacement for a teacher, especially for these specialized positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

There’s a stipend for directing the play

It’s not that generous. The stipends for most after school activities are low

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

There’s a stipend for directing the play

It’s not that generous. The stipends for most after school activities are low

It’s around $3,500

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

There’s a stipend for directing the play

It’s not that generous. The stipends for most after school activities are low

It’s around $3,500

Over the course of an entire year and the hundreds of hours put into theatre productions, $3500 is not that generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is messed up is APS not being transparent about this at all.

How’s that?

Teacher is out on leave. They can replace as the position is protected legally.

What more do you want to know?

What are you talking about they get subs and keep offering classes when teachers are out on FMLA.

A sub who can run an entire theatrical/musical production ? No.

My kids are at a different school but are really into theatre so I know how many long after school hours the theatre teacher puts in. I doubt she's compensated for all that time. There's no way a low paid sub would ever do that. Why would they?

There’s a stipend for directing the play

It’s not that generous. The stipends for most after school activities are low

It’s around $3,500

Over the course of an entire year and the hundreds of hours put into theatre productions, $3500 is not that generous.

If you have young children, $3500 would not even pay for the extra childcare you would need to run these activities.

[Anonymous]

Substitutes cannot work outside of contracted/scheduled hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They share the teacher with Gunston. She is on personal leave. No word on when she’s back. I found her to be a lazy teacher

Lazy? She ran two completely different shows at two different schools with all the after school effort that involved. On top of teaching classes and getting kids into the theatre program.

How did this work though?

At Swanson the show rehearses daily after school beginning in January and the show is in May. They can only keep them until the late buses in middle school so rehearsal time is pretty short and they tend to go much longer in timeframe over months than a high school production.

Does she do one in the fall and one the spring? What teacher would be willing to do this? It is so much work for them.

[Anonymous]

Again, no teacher should be out for the whole year. That's not how leave works. There should be able to be a fall or spring production.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, no teacher should be out for the whole year. That's not how leave works. There should be able to be a fall or spring production.

Says you?