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Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

The PP probably means exactly what was written. Stop letting students harm teachers. Harming an adult doesn’t mean the student is suspended as a result.

As a parent, I don't want my kid in a class with someone that has harmed a teacher and I think the majority would agree with me. So if a kid has actually harmed a teacher, why are there no consequences? This is what I don't understand. So for instance, a kid throws something at or hits a teacher intentionally, are you saying that nothing happens and the kid just returns to school the next day?

I didn’t say that, but yes, that happens.

It depends on the case but if there is no marks/injuries I would say that is typically the case, but it really depends on the circumstances.

I had an IA who was injured significantly and afraid to tell admin.....that's not ok.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

The PP probably means exactly what was written. Stop letting students harm teachers. Harming an adult doesn’t mean the student is suspended as a result.

As a parent, I don't want my kid in a class with someone that has harmed a teacher and I think the majority would agree with me. So if a kid has actually harmed a teacher, why are there no consequences? This is what I don't understand. So for instance, a kid throws something at or hits a teacher intentionally, are you saying that nothing happens and the kid just returns to school the next day?

yup....especially if there is an IEP to protect the student.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

You'd be wrong. That's part of the problem. It is nearly impossible to get a kid "kicked out" of their base school, especially if parents don't agree to a change in placement. Teaching is probably the only job on earth where you're expected to welcome someone who hits, bites, kicks, or threatens you back into the classroom the next day with a smile on your face and pretend like nothing happened. And then you get blamed if it happens again.

Yes, some positions should pay more. Anyone arguing against that hasn't worked in one of the critical shortage areas.

Who decided that this is how it is? I don't want kids that hit,kick, or harm anyone in a class with my kid. There is no place for that in a school.

It’s primary the districts (and laws protecting kids with special needs), but I suspect some portion of parents feel this way - specifically the parents of the children causing harm.

If I was teaching and a kid hit me, I would refuse to go back until the kid was not in my class any more. if enough teachers did this, then I suspect something would have to be done.

It’s true that teachers are leaving the profession, but it’s also true that it’s taking several months to find another job. They still need a salary.

Violent kids aren’t in every classroom, but closer to 1-2 per school. They’d either fire the teacher or move the kid to another classroom.

How can we get the school board to adopt a zero tolerance for violence policy? I once talked to someone that taught at an alternative school. It was privately run and there were several of them. I recall her saying that one was in Alexandria and one in Manassas, I don't recall the name but she told me that it was a year round school and that fcps had a contract with them and would send kids there that had challenges and could not function in a typical school.

All of those schools have waitlists, we can’t just send them there and they start the next day. It takes meetings with the FCPS disciplinary committee and lots of documentation. And if they have an IEP, all of that work times 10.

These aren’t quick fix problems.

Those seem like problems that zero tolerance to violence would fix. Suspension until other accommodations are available seems fair enough. If not expulsion and virtual virginia

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

This....people want to pretend it's not but trust those on the inside-it is crumbling.

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Anonymous wrote:Per the employee Facebook group apparently it was someone in HRs bright idea to stick up yard signs “celebrating fully staffed schools”. While they were calculating this brilliant plan that alarms the public and lets them know that some schools aren’t fully staffed, we are still sitting on over 100 open positions. They will probably cancel it once they see the backlash.

Wow - completely tone deaf!

Thank William “Billy” Solomon - the newest “Chief” recruited from Texas. The guy is incompetent and so out of his league.

Many Gatehouse hires are.

Anonymous wrote:Per the employee Facebook group apparently it was someone in HRs bright idea to stick up yard signs “celebrating fully staffed schools”. While they were calculating this brilliant plan that alarms the public and lets them know that some schools aren’t fully staffed, we are still sitting on over 100 open positions. They will probably cancel it once they see the backlash.

I still can't believe this....embarrassing that this was proposed and approved. Now principals will just hire anyone. Who cares will be the attitude due to the pressure put on admin.

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Anonymous wrote:Superintendent send out her email for the week. They got 300 teachers from overseas.

I’m sure that they’ll also become disenfranchised with the American public school system.

These international teachers are in for a shock. A lot of these teachers are coming from places where the teaching style is still low tech and very traditional. Kids in rows, uniforms, lectures, low computer usage. I know that we are going to get great teachers from this but the learning curve is going to be insane.

+1. A lot of them are getting placed at schools that are understaffed either because the student population is very needy and/or the administration is bad. Dealing with that plus trying to make ends meet in this area on a teacher's salary is a rough ride.

This....some schools are so intense in FCPS they won't care if they lose their VISA they will want out.

Here's the thing. Zero tolerance is a bad idea. But so is Zero consequences ever. There's a middle ground. I work with young children and I'm super frustrated with repeatedly being the recipient of physical aggression and threats.
That said, I had one year where a kid hit, kicked or pushed me more than 20 times. Same kid threatened me and other staff and kids with terrible violence more times than I can count and would talk about wanting to die regularly. Imo, he needed inpatient hospitalization. Zero tolerance wouldn't be good for high school kids either. Teenagers are foolish and impulsive. But there does have to be consequences and some things can't happen.

Anonymous wrote:What happens to these kids when they graduate from high school?

You know the answer. If anything, doing away with discipline and consequences for bad behavior has made the outcome worse.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

You'd be wrong. That's part of the problem. It is nearly impossible to get a kid "kicked out" of their base school, especially if parents don't agree to a change in placement. Teaching is probably the only job on earth where you're expected to welcome someone who hits, bites, kicks, or threatens you back into the classroom the next day with a smile on your face and pretend like nothing happened. And then you get blamed if it happens again.

Yes, some positions should pay more. Anyone arguing against that hasn't worked in one of the critical shortage areas.

Who decided that this is how it is? I don't want kids that hit,kick, or harm anyone in a class with my kid. There is no place for that in a school.

It’s primary the districts (and laws protecting kids with special needs), but I suspect some portion of parents feel this way - specifically the parents of the children causing harm.

If I was teaching and a kid hit me, I would refuse to go back until the kid was not in my class any more. if enough teachers did this, then I suspect something would have to be done.

It’s true that teachers are leaving the profession, but it’s also true that it’s taking several months to find another job. They still need a salary.

Violent kids aren’t in every classroom, but closer to 1-2 per school. They’d either fire the teacher or move the kid to another classroom.

How can we get the school board to adopt a zero tolerance for violence policy? I once talked to someone that taught at an alternative school. It was privately run and there were several of them. I recall her saying that one was in Alexandria and one in Manassas, I don't recall the name but she told me that it was a year round school and that fcps had a contract with them and would send kids there that had challenges and could not function in a typical school.

Several of the schools like this can no longer contract with FCPS because most allow occasional use of seclusion (for example, moving a violent student into a safe padded room). FCPS is no longer allowed to do this or contract with any private school that does this.

Anonymous wrote:What happens to these kids when they graduate from high school?

Become a long-term burden on their parents?
Work an hourly job somewhere, moving to a new job every 6-9 months because they get work on teams?
Stay single or enter into multiple tumultuous marriages? Have kids that are disappointed in them as parents?
Go to prison?

Maybe a combo of the above….

What happens to these kids when they graduate from high school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

No, kids are not kicked out for harming teachers almost ever. It would have to be incredibly severe, such as breaking an arm or a stabbing to be kicked out. But a kid punching staff won't get them kicked out. Spitting in staff members' faces might be a visit to the office, nothing more. Hitting and kicking staff? Nothing.

Oh my. I would never go back. No paycheck is worth that level of indignation. There are always options.

Also, if my kid was even ever rude to a teacher or said something inappropriate, they would have some serious consequences at home. I can't even imagine bodily harm to someone else, let alone a teacher.

One year, I had a student destroy my classroom approximately a dozen times. One day, after breaking a chair when throwing at my IA, the mom came for pick-up and I overheard her say that they could go to McDonalds because he had a “hard day.” Did either the student or mom apologize to the IA? No.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

No, kids are not kicked out for harming teachers almost ever. It would have to be incredibly severe, such as breaking an arm or a stabbing to be kicked out. But a kid punching staff won't get them kicked out. Spitting in staff members' faces might be a visit to the office, nothing more. Hitting and kicking staff? Nothing.

Oh my. I would never go back. No paycheck is worth that level of indignation. There are always options.

Also, if my kid was even ever rude to a teacher or said something inappropriate, they would have some serious consequences at home. I can't even imagine bodily harm to someone else, let alone a teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It'll go to day to day subs. If none are available, they'll pull ESL teachers, music, art,PE, etc and rotate them on a daily basis.

Ridiculous. Who is to blame for this?

That’s not an easy question to answer: districts, school boards, parents, kids… literally everyone. The educational system is falling apart.

Every single district in the region has openings. I doubt there is a school district in the state that is fully staffed and starting without subs, maybe one of those tiny mountain towns way out west but every district is seeing problems.

Why is no one doing anything about it? Remember when they were low on bus drivers and upped their wages and gave them bonuses? Why not teachers?

$$

See the McDaniel thread re: meals tax

They should be creative and come up with perks for teachers. Perhaps try to attract new teachers to the area by expanding the workforce housing or first time homeowner program to give preference to teachers to get new affordable homes in Fairfax county ?

While I appreciate the sentiment, it will take far, far more than small incentives like that to fix the teacher shortage. Two big things have to happen. One, schools have to STOP letting students harm teachers. Two, teachers in shortage areas need a 25-50% pay increase. Now, I'm a teacher and here's where unions will be a problem. Many teachers believe all teachers should be paid the same. So, paying some teachers more will likely never happen. I'm certified special Ed, and would consider teaching in a sped room for a 75-100% increase in pay. Otherwise, no. But I suspect many teachers would take an open sped position for 25-50% more

What do you mean? I would think harming a teacher would get a kid kicked out of school and sent to an alternate school or worse based on the severity? I certainly would never work somewhere where I did not feel safe.

No, kids are not kicked out for harming teachers almost ever. It would have to be incredibly severe, such as breaking an arm or a stabbing to be kicked out. But a kid punching staff won't get them kicked out. Spitting in staff members' faces might be a visit to the office, nothing more. Hitting and kicking staff? Nothing.

Oh my. I would never go back. No paycheck is worth that level of indignation. There are always options.