Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At my kids ES school that had ~500-550 students, there were 3-5 students in the whole school that had one to one aides. Each grade had at least one Aide that was attached to the special education students who were more mainstreamed. My younger DC grade was unusual in that there were so many students in special ed, in sixth grade they had three aides and three special education teachers, in addition to the three GE/AAP teachers. It was a very unusual co-hort. .

Why on earth are there so many SPED kids now?

It was a blip. The grades before and after had enough for one aide and one special ed teacher and they had more kids. We were trying to figure out why our kids had such a high prevalence, but in the end it seems to be a statisical blip/cluster that happens every so often. When they got the MS, their grade (combined with the other 5 or so schools) was not so "out there". As I said, It was a very unusual co-hort.

There is no way you would know how many kids in a class an aide was covering *unless you were a teacher who had seen a child's IEP*. There are children with IEPs who need 1:1 support sometimes or in certain situations. A child could have ADHD or emotional problems or health problems that you don't know about and the aide could be there to help several children as needed.

My last K class (2 years ago), I had 30 kids. One had Downs and needed a lot of help with daily acitivities (was not toilet trained, could not feed himself). The aide seemed like she was just for him but there were also 3 other children with IEPs in that class who she was "covering". One of these children needed a lot of support and ended up transferring to a special school. The aide was stretched very thin. This is just one example.

Anonymous wrote:
At my kids ES school that had ~500-550 students, there were 3-5 students in the whole school that had one to one aides. Each grade had at least one Aide that was attached to the special education students who were more mainstreamed. My younger DC grade was unusual in that there were so many students in special ed, in sixth grade they had three aides and three special education teachers, in addition to the three GE/AAP teachers. It was a very unusual co-hort. .

Why on earth are there so many SPED kids now?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely rare for a child to have a one to one aide in FCPS in general/mainstream
classes.
Their position is a child who needs that
much support needs to be in a smaller, special Ed
only class. the special Ed aides in elementary general Ed classes are
almost always supporting at least 3-4 students. I don't know
how common it is for students in the special Ed only classes
to have a 1:1 aide but I'm sure the more impaired do need that much support.

I'm not saying it is right or wrong but my DD's grade has at least 2 kids that have 1:1 aides.

At my kids ES school that had ~500-550 students, there were 3-5 students in the whole school that had one to one aides. Each grade had at least one Aide that was attached to the special education students who were more mainstreamed. My younger DC grade was unusual in that there were so may students in special ed, in sixth grade they had three aides and three special education teachers, in addition to the three GE/AAP teachers. It was a very unusual co-hort. .

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely rare for a child to have a one to one aide in FCPS in general/mainstream
classes.
Their position is a child who needs that
much support needs to be in a smaller, special Ed
only class. the special Ed aides in elementary general Ed classes are
almost always supporting at least 3-4 students. I don't know
how common it is for students in the special Ed only classes
to have a 1:1 aide but I'm sure the more impaired do need that much support.

I'm not saying it is right or wrong but my DD's grade has at least 2 kids that have 1:1 aides.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to basics. Sports, music, PE, AAP, all frills must go. Agree about keeping the counselors. Property taxes should be raised.

Says the person who has never set foot in a school. Children would be miserable losing many of their physical and creative outlets that also have great inherent value in their own right. Teachers would never have a break, and would burn out quickly. As a parent, I would be furious if my children's education did not include the arts, and physical education. And for those who suggest, those subjects are self-pay, are we really suggesting that only the rich kids deserve to have these vital subjects be part of their education? All children deserve a well rounded education.

If these other subject are so vital why do these degree render crap pay? If you want to learn about drama or painting fluffy clouds you should pay for it out of pocket. Things like English, Math, History, Science are the things that are important and should be everyone's focus. I would also push for more of STEM focus because that is what the future holds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PE teachers are not paid more than physics and calculus teachers. They are on the same scale. The coaching jobs add extra pay because they are just that...extra jobs.

Yes, but coaching or not, physics and calculus teachers should make more than PE teachers

Why exactly should physics and calculus teachers make more than PE teachers?

Many, many people possess the skills to teach a PE class.

Quite frankly, if they let the kids have that extra 90-120 minutes of recess each week, they would probably get just as much benefit as they do from PE class.

Very few people possess the skills to teach physics or calculus.

If the purpose of our schools is, first and foremost, to educate our youth in the good old three R's, shouldn't those who teach the most challenging of the core subjects be the ones who are paid the most?

I think it would be interesting to see how many people do not have the skills to teach a PE class. It's not as easy as it apparently looks. And while some kids might benefit from extra recess, there's a lot they would miss out on without well run PE classes. I know a lot of people around here think physical fitness is not important, but with longer life expectancies, physical fitness may end up being more important to us on a daily basis than calculus!

And no, I don't think we should pay teachers differently according to their subject area. Pay scales vary with level of education and years of experience, which makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PE teachers are not paid more than physics and calculus teachers. They are on the same scale. The coaching jobs add extra pay because they are just that...extra jobs.

Yes, but coaching or not, physics and calculus teachers should make more than PE teachers

Why exactly should physics and calculus teachers make more than PE teachers?

Many, many people possess the skills to teach a PE class.

Quite frankly, if they let the kids have that extra 90-120 minutes of recess each week, they would probably get just as much benefit as they do from PE class.

Very few people possess the skills to teach physics or calculus.

If the purpose of our schools is, first and foremost, to educate our youth in the good old three R's, shouldn't those who teach the most challenging of the core subjects be the ones who are paid the most?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PE teachers are not paid more than physics and calculus teachers. They are on the same scale. The coaching jobs add extra pay because they are just that...extra jobs.

Yes, but coaching or not, physics and calculus teachers should make more than PE teachers

Why exactly should physics and calculus teachers make more than PE teachers?

It is extremely rare for a child to have a one to one aide in FCPS in general/mainstream
classes.
Their position is a child who needs that
much support needs to be in a smaller, special Ed
only class. the special Ed aides in elementary general Ed classes are
almost always supporting at least 3-4 students. I don't know
how common it is for students in the special Ed only classes
to have a 1:1 aide but I'm sure the more impaired do need that much support.

Coaching jobs are in addition to regular teaching jobs and are not limited to PE teachers. Physics and calculus teachers are welcome to take coaching jobs. At one school in our area, the Latin teacher is the girls basketball coach.

Anonymous wrote:PE teachers are not paid more than physics and calculus teachers. They are on the same scale. The coaching jobs add extra pay because they are just that...extra jobs.

Yes, but coaching or not, physics and calculus teachers should make more than PE teachers

PE teachers are not paid more than physics and calculus teachers. They are on the same scale. The coaching jobs add extra pay because they are just that...extra jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

PE teachers are paid tens of thousands of dollars more than physics and calculus teachers.

I assume the difference in pay is because of coaching?

Could you provide a link to this information, please?

And are you saying that individual PE teachers are making tens of thousands of dollars more than individual physics and calculus teachers? Or are you saying that all the salaries of all the PE teachers added up total tens of thousands of dollars more than the added up salaries of physics and calculus teachers? It would be interesting to see the figures for the salaries referred to here.

Anyone know of a source for this information?

Sorry. It should have said "thousands" NOT "tens of thousands". My bad! It is all available online.

http://www.fcps.edu/hr/salary/salaryscales.shtml

The HS head football coach is the highest paid coach, earning more money than all of the other sports' coaches. I find it interesting that the next three highest paid coaches are all for girls sports and that the assistant football coach makes more than the basketball, soccer and other sports head coaches. Why are they paying so much more for football coaches?

I think the elephant in the room is how much the school district is putting out for the one on one aides for special needs students who are mainstreamed. While on one hand I understand the importance of providing kids with the least restrictive learning environment, I also can't help but think that having one on one aides for mainstream students must be a financial burden for the district. When you add in taxes and benefits paid by the employer, even the lowest paid aids are an enormous cost for providing benefit for only one student.

We have lived in other states where they have more of a one aide to three-five students for the inclusion kids, and they were all immersed in mostly the same classes so the aide was shared.

Does fcps have this option?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to basics. Sports, music, PE, AAP, all frills must go. Agree about keeping the counselors. Property taxes should be raised.

Says the person who has never set foot in a school. Children would be miserable losing many of their physical and creative outlets that also have great inherent value in their own right. Teachers would never have a break, and would burn out quickly. As a parent, I would be furious if my children's education did not include the arts, and physical education. And for those who suggest, those subjects are self-pay, are we really suggesting that only the rich kids deserve to have these vital subjects be part of their education? All children deserve a well rounded education.

+1,000,000!