Reply to Kamala Harris & 10-hour school days

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This plan doesn't just extend the day, it seeks to eliminate school breaks (she wants schools to stay open except on federal holidays, weekends, and emergencies).

As a teacher, I would leave the profession if this were the case. If I choose to work over the summer currently, I get paid my regular salary plus an additional 18% of my annual salary on top of that. I would expect to continue receiving that level of pay to work over the summer. I would expect to be paid my per session rate for any extended school day time ($51/hour). To pay one teacher for one day for those three extra hours would be over $150. Where is this money going to come from? Teachers already work from home over breaks, weekends, and into the evenings. When are we expected to get this work done if we are getting home at 7 pm? I wouldn't work outside those hours, and it is the students who would suffer (lessons hastily planned, resources pulled together instead of self-created, etc). I would certainly not be writing IEPs at home or working on data.

The BS about teachers not being forced to work unless they "volunteer" is ridiculous. Every nontenured teacher would be forced into this or they would find themselves targeted. We are voluntold to do different "extras" all the time as it is.

I would need to make at least twice my current salary to work this kind of schedule and complete my current duties. It would likely still not be worth it.[/quote]

MCPS has already implemented a full year school calendar in several low-income schools.  And they are not paying the teachers fairly.  There was much debate about this, but there simply isn’t enough money.  Now the teachers are stuck working the extra days, and if they have kids, most of their own kids are still on the old calendar.  It’s insanity.[/quote]

I won't do it. I'm very good at what I do and I love teaching but I am barely well-paid enough for the 190 or 195 or whatever number of days it is now at 7.5 hours a day.  Extend the day or add more days and I'll leave the profession.  It isn't that I need the money so much or I care about the hours as it is that pay indicates respect to me, and to devalue what I do even more … I won't take it.

We talk about this a lot at lunch.  The other teachers at my school who have been there at least 5+ years are pretty much in agreement with me.  If half of us leave it will put a tremendous burden on our principal and school system.  We have long-term subs in core content positions as it is.  Think about what would happen if the language arts and math teachers start to leave in droves.  Yikes.

I don't mean to impugn the job our principal and others are doing at recruiting.  I believe that they are doing the right things and reaching out in the right ways.  Apparently the problem isn't that there aren't applicants, it is because the applicants are not people even the most desperate principals would want to hire.  The scuttlebutt in our school is that it is the same people applying for the same positions yet they are the same people who can't answer basic content questions let alone describe how they would teach the content.  Every once in a while someone rises to the top, a trailing spouse or a mid-year teaching school grad, but those are few and far between.

It is a difficult issue and I don't know what the answers are.  I only know that I am not willing to become a glorified babysitter to solve other parents' childcare problems.[/quote]

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