Anonymous
02/19/2023 21:00
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
How this goes unchecked is incomprehensible.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:55
Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Yes- I can personally think of many former school based staff (some good, some really not good) who have disappeared into Syphax. Its a cushy cushy job. It basically combines the benefit of a 'good' govt job with telework, flexible hours, generous leave, paid holidays, and then they were gifted the two week winter break and the one week spring break, plus all the new 'holidays'. It really makes being a 'curriculum specialist' a much much better job than being a classroom teacher.
I don't anymore, but sat on some of the aforementioned committees for several years- the committees are part of the problem here. You have all these advisory committees that need staff support. They push for more and more specialists at syphax. Look at the committee recommendations- they pretty much always have 'add another person' as a recommendation- e.g. we need a specialist to oversee immersion whose only job is to be 'curriculum support' for immersion. So you get a more and more bloated central office, and bigger and bigger classes with unfilled teacher positions.
I don't anymore, but sat on some of the aforementioned committees for several years- the committees are part of the problem here. You have all these advisory committees that need staff support. They push for more and more specialists at syphax. Look at the committee recommendations- they pretty much always have 'add another person' as a recommendation- e.g. we need a specialist to oversee immersion whose only job is to be 'curriculum support' for immersion. So you get a more and more bloated central office, and bigger and bigger classes with unfilled teacher positions.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:28
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What are their holidays? Teacher workdays?
What I saw seemed to be normal federal holidays. Do they get more than that?
It used to be that they had to take leave. Now they don’t so those off days became paid holidays.
Syphax now gets all federal holidays, all winter break, all spring break and all religious days off as paid holidays now. That’s before they touch a day of their regular leave (starting at 14 days plus 1 day per more per year of service).
It’s insane. How the school board slept thru this change is beyond me.
Wait…so they kept accumulating unused leave? A PP mentioned that leave is paid at 50% when people retire. If that is true then Syphax folks will cash in even more than teachers in the end. Insane!
Correct.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:20
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What are their holidays? Teacher workdays?
What I saw seemed to be normal federal holidays. Do they get more than that?
It used to be that they had to take leave. Now they don’t so those off days became paid holidays.
Syphax now gets all federal holidays, all winter break, all spring break and all religious days off as paid holidays now. That’s before they touch a day of their regular leave (starting at 14 days plus 1 day per more per year of service).
It’s insane. How the school board slept thru this change is beyond me.
Wait…so they kept accumulating unused leave? A PP mentioned that leave is paid at 50% when people retire. If that is true then Syphax folks will cash in even more than teachers in the end. Insane!
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:11
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.
+1000
They’re creating more work for us to justify their jobs. I am sure they could function with half the staff they have so we can get more assistants and more people who actually work with kids. They don’t even help when we have a sub shortage crisis which is likely every day!
They continued to WFH starting 2021 school year. I didn't mind going back and actually welcomed it to get back to "normal" but shit.. your top admin staff also not returning? What a terrible look.
+1000
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:09
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.
+1000
They’re creating more work for us to justify their jobs. I am sure they could function with half the staff they have so we can get more assistants and more people who actually work with kids. They don’t even help when we have a sub shortage crisis which is likely every day!
They continued to WFH starting 2021 school year. I didn't mind going back and actually welcomed it to get back to "normal" but shit.. your top admin staff also not returning? What a terrible look.
No one is ever there. You go up there, no one’s there. Lots of out of office replies. It’s ridiculous. As PP stated, this is uncommon for the administrative offices of any school system. In FCPS, if they want to take Spring Break, they’ve got to use leave. And what did it cost us all?!
Anonymous
02/19/2023 20:02
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.
+1000
They’re creating more work for us to justify their jobs. I am sure they could function with half the staff they have so we can get more assistants and more people who actually work with kids. They don’t even help when we have a sub shortage crisis which is likely every day!
They continued to WFH starting 2021 school year. I didn't mind going back and actually welcomed it to get back to "normal" but shit.. your top admin staff also not returning? What a terrible look.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:59
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What are their holidays? Teacher workdays?
What I saw seemed to be normal federal holidays. Do they get more than that?
It used to be that they had to take leave. Now they don’t so those off days became paid holidays.
Syphax now gets all federal holidays, all winter break, all spring break and all religious days off as paid holidays now. That’s before they touch a day of their regular leave (starting at 14 days plus 1 day per more per year of service).
It’s insane. How the school board slept thru this change is beyond me.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:57
Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Do they get to cash in some portion of unused leave at retirement?
Yes. Paid at 50% of value at retirement.
Seriously? Do APS teachers also get this? Fairfax has its own problems with most of the people in our central office basically on the FCPS Welfare Plan but I don't think they have that perk.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:53
Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Someone should send the remarks to arlnow. They’ve been doing better reporting on school and county stories recently.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:38
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They get all the days when teachers are off, (think Diwali, Jewish holidays, etc.) plus 2 week winter break and 1 week spring break, all paid for. Teachers on the other hand, do not get paid during those breaks.
And this is not the norm for employees that accrue leave (as they do). This was new under Duran. Also- someone from central office is obviously on this thread. For every five I’ve met, any teacher does the work of four of them. Syphax is a s—t show, and, yes, teachers in APS are very pissed off about it.
What’s stopping APS teachers from making a change into a role at Syphax?
it's all about connections at Syphax, not your ability.
Because we aren’t all a$$holes. Some of us want to help KIDS, not “reach more children by helping adults.” That really means, I felt stressed and overwhelmed in the classroom so I thought this would be easier (heehee!). If you are asking me, I refused to go because I don’t want to be part of the problem and give already stressed people more work under the guise of “helping.” I don’t lie to myself that easily.
+1
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:36
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Having Syphax to make positive changes, such as reduce their headcount, equalize leave benefits of central office staff and teachers, collect REAL feedback from teachers… etc. are never gonna happen, because why would Syphax ruin their cushy and comfortable life themselves?
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:20
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.
+1000
They’re creating more work for us to justify their jobs. I am sure they could function with half the staff they have so we can get more assistants and more people who actually work with kids. They don’t even help when we have a sub shortage crisis which is likely every day!
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:18
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.[/quote
Less time.
Anonymous
02/19/2023 19:18
Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am an APS teacher. There is NO reason that staff at central office should have this much leave.
Duran gave the extra leave to central office staff during Covid as a nominal benefit to keep people. He made it permanent after that. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. Staff should be working 12 months at central office. That is what they are paid for.
Teachers have been complaining about it for years. Maybe if the community says something central office staff will have to go back to working a full 12 months with only regular holidays and annual leave.
Closing central office during days when teachers are off is not helpful. I used to go take care of paperwork during my off days, or call for information. Now I have to do it during my own work days. And pray that someone picks up the phone!
Nothing is getting done over there. I don’t feel at all supported by them. If they could do their jobs in last time, maybe- but they can’t, and they’re not.