DCPS Central Services Budget Cuts

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Y'all suck. You're talking about real people. I know a few of the folks in Central that have been cut. Their positions are valuable and they are doing meaningful work. The issue is not that cuts need to be made, it is which cuts. And to be honest, there are some Divisions and Offices at Central that provide very little service. And the same can be said for some positions at some schools which have bloated budgets, too. DCPS schools have an incredible amount of resources compared to the rest of the nation... and for what? Where's the data showing that any of it is working?

I’m sorry they are losing their jobs. But if they would like to stay employed in DC, they can certainly apply for a teaching position.

This is factually inaccurate. The issue is cutting the administrative support for already struggling teachers. The schools will be very hurt by the Central Offices cut. It is the wrong move.

Our teachers constantly complain that they get no admin support from DCPS Central. Leave requests never approved. Paychecks that are wrong or don't come.

So...definitely a good thing that there will be less.

Well it is already zero support. So it'll still be zero. Basically no difference.

This is not true. I’m sorry not all divisions have been doing their job. I know many hardworking central services staff who bend over backwards to support teachers. They take calls at all hours of the day, respond to emails immediately, are flexible to support in person when asked, sub in challenging classes, etc. Of course, those people were cut from the budget.

Who and what? I've taught in DCPS over a decade and don't know anyone at the schools I've worked at who have ever had support from CO

Another teacher here - the lack of support from Central is insane. They only make our jobs harder. It would be great to have competent organization that developed a consistent curriculum, provided useful development and worked to solve complicated issues like ESOL, Special Education and lack of accountability for students. Being able to turn in late work until the last day does so much lasting damage to our students. Not to mention exhaust the teachers.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:More money for actual instruction. Why do we have central office when my kid hasn ‘t had a science teacher all year?

Your kid hasn’t had a teacher because being a teacher is ridiculously hard and almost no one wants to do it. Not having a central office team doesn’t change that.

Being a teacher is a lot less hard in a classroom of 22 students than in a classroom of 28 students.

I disagree. The only difference I truly noticed was when my class size got down to 15, and that was only because none of those students had behavior issues. Take a look at self-contained classes for example. Some have less than 8 students and it’s HARD. All it takes is one student, one parent, or one administrator to make your life miserable.

While the last sentence is true - it is so much easier to have a difficult student the smaller your class is. Try teaching a class of 35 with a handful of them. Tearing hair out...