Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 19:27     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The teachers I know love Dr. Duran.


I did… but now I really question things. All of these new central office admin jobs, the extra two weeks of paid vacation he gave them all, the fact that lots of things are falling apart. Equity grading. Equity doesn’t mean I give a kid a 50% for an assignment they didn’t do. What is that nonsense?


Not extra two weeks, extra three weeks (2 weeks winter break, 1 week spring break) plus all religious holidays on top of Federal holidays.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 19:26     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:The teachers I know love Dr. Duran.


Lol, nice try central office staff.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 18:03     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:The teachers I know love Dr. Duran.


I did… but now I really question things. All of these new central office admin jobs, the extra two weeks of paid vacation he gave them all, the fact that lots of things are falling apart. Equity grading. Equity doesn’t mean I give a kid a 50% for an assignment they didn’t do. What is that nonsense?
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 17:22     Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
I do love that. He has been some thing other than a PE teacher straight to administrator. He has other things going for him too, but that is a really big one.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 17:13     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
The teachers I know love Dr. Duran.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 16:13     Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Agree! Lots of school districts have that policy that central admin must sub. Some are even requiring once a week.


APS teachers have been saying this for years. They did implement this to placate everyone for about a week or two last year, and then it faded away.


The fact that it was implemented to placate people rather than to make sure they are useful says so very much about APS administration.

I felt sorry for Dr. Duran taking the reins during such a difficult time, but the longer he goes on, the more exasperated I get. Grow a spine and support the teachers, dude.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 13:32     Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:Agree! Lots of school districts have that policy that central admin must sub. Some are even requiring once a week.


APS teachers have been saying this for years. They did implement this to placate everyone for about a week or two last year, and then it faded away.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 10:32     Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Agree! Lots of school districts have that policy that central admin must sub. Some are even requiring once a week.
Anonymous
Post 02/21/2023 09:32     Subject: APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why so many chiefs? What was wrong with the previous system? Under other administrations there didn’t use to be so many central office people. They all fit in one small building by the planetarium. As a tax payer, I am paying attention and am glad teachers are speaking up.


There are also lots of retired APS people working on contract...back at APS.


What counts as "APS people"? Former APS teachers now working as subs, great. Former Syphax staff now back at Syphax, continuing to be useless? No thanks.

Every Syphax employee should be required to put in a certain number of days as a sub, assuming they qualify. (Someone with no college education would not.)
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 22:00     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:I don't bedgrudge the principals the winter and spring break off, although I question the amount of leave with these paid holidays. I DO bedgrudge the HR department and the 'planning and learning' department the dramatic leave increase.


Mind you, APS now calls HR “Talent Acquisition.”
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 20:14     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:I don't bedgrudge the principals the winter and spring break off, although I question the amount of leave with these paid holidays. I DO bedgrudge the HR department and the 'planning and learning' department the dramatic leave increase.


How much do the HR and planning type jobs pay?
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 18:46     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.


School board should conduct a survey to ask teachers what they think of Syphax, if they actually care about teachers who are at the front line.


Syphax= Ivory Tower... the majority of Syphax people (look for the Rothy's) haven't been inside a school building in years, long before covid. Teachers are sick of them and all the trumped up busy work they throw at teachers in the schools. They certainly didn't come back to work when the rest of us did; Syphax is like a ghost town with a lot of them "working from home" and calling it in. The fact that they are given paid leave is sickening considering what is happening in understaffed, over capacity classrooms filled with highly stressed, needy students. Can't wait to be done with all of them. I hope they are reading this and get a clue how much they are despised.
Signed, longtime APS teacher


This is all 100 percent true. I’m a teacher who goes to Syphax 1-2 times a month for meetings. It’s literally a ghost town, especially on Fridays. I’ve also spoken to a few central office staff members who have outright said they were working at home for an afternoon. APS has come out many months ago and stated that working from home was no longer a thing, but it’s clearly being done under the radar. I know the Syphax staff members aren’t in school buildings, because I’m in a school building, and always have been and never see them. I don’t necessary fault the employees, but rather the system that’s created this inequity. School based staff do not think highly of most central office staff and can validate that the more staff members added centrally, the more work school based staff have put on them (with little to no benefit for students). Something needs to change and I’m very happy this is becoming a public discussion.


Yes. The teacher that spoke up is so brave. There seems to be no oversight of my central office people at all. They don’t read or respond to emails. Not mine, anyway. They’re never there. They call meetings they don’t show up to. Some of them are making really good money. They are grossly disorganized. The staff there should be cut by 2/3. And maybe they actually do something over there to support me supporting students in learning. I feel burdened by them.
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 18:40     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
Anonymous wrote:What about school principals? Are they paid on 12-month salaries with all this vacation or contracts like teachers?


They get this extra time, but that doesn’t bother me as much. They actually work.
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 18:03     Subject: Re:APS 12-month employees at central office get 31 paid holidays plus 14-40+ days of leave
I don't bedgrudge the principals the winter and spring break off, although I question the amount of leave with these paid holidays. I DO bedgrudge the HR department and the 'planning and learning' department the dramatic leave increase.
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2023 16:57     Subject: Re: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:
Anonymous wrote:What about school principals? Are they paid on 12-month salaries with all this vacation or contracts like teachers?


Yes, 12 month employees that are school-based include principals, Assistant principals and Instructional Technology Coordinators (ITC). There’s no reason why an ITC needs to be 12 month, seems excessive. Assistant principals could probably be 11 month easily, like neighboring Alexandria.


That seems strange to me. What are principals doing at work during the time when teachers are off (like summer)?


A lot of principals take their accrued leave for trips in the summer, but their work is mostly around planning and preparing and I guess hiring? Assistant principals are the building administrators for few schools that host summer school, so principals have it pretty easy.


How dare they take a break during summer? With such an easy job they shouldn’t be allowed to take a vacation at all, or have families, or raise kids, let alone get sick!


I think this also describes how many DCUM posters feel about teachers



Yes, this! I find it admirable for principals to wait for summer to use their accrued leave so they aren’t away from their building during normal operating days.