But he still makes $243,424. per year! The Sacramento Bee reported that Dr. Ladd "gave up" his pay increase until 2013. The Superintendent for LA Schools has taken a 17% pay cut. I, and the teachers like me, took almost a 10% cut and we are supposed to be happy that Dr. Ladd had a roll back in pay of 4.1%. We have yet to hear about the rest of the cabinet, those are the Assistant Superintendents. We keep hearing that they are saying us money, because all these people are new at their jobs and further down on the pay scale. Yet, this group of District Administrators has had a raise approved for the next five years of 3.5% every year.
And the children of Elk Grove have 5 less days of instruction due to teacher furlough days!
Dr. Ladd did the right thing. The question I ask is, how can a raise of this kind get past the EGUSD School Board? What kind of Board of Education approves a raise of this size at this time? In these times of lay-offs and furloughs, pay cuts and district money woes, how can our elected board members look us in the eye while giving a raise to this group of people? At this point, they can give me a lot of excuses, but the EGUSD Superintendent makes over $200,000. a year. His cabinet members each make 6 figures also. How can that salary increase be justified when the money for school programs is so very tight?
I am sure you have all heard of Larry Powell by now, the Fresno County Schools Superintendent. He has a contract with his district to work until 2015. Fresno retired him and now he will be working for the years remaining on his contract for $31,000. a year. What a leader! What commitment to education! His salary will be put back into the pot for school programs.
EGUSD School Board members decided to cut their pay for last year and for this year. They wanted to appear in sync with the employees of the district. What they didn't do, was consider the backlash that the contracts with top administration would cause. The School Board are elected officials. It is their responsibility to safe guard the funds of EGUSD for the students of EGUSD. It is their responsibility to ensure that instructional time is restored to students before district administration gets a raise!
It's time to elect new School Board members. The people of Elk Grove deserve better management of their school district.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Prison educator
About 11 years ago, I left the prison system to teach in the public school. I started teaching for the State of California with the Department of the Youth Authority in 1992. At this time, CYA was separate from the Department of Corrections. My job was to assess wards in small groups and individually to see if they had learning problems in reading, writing or math. Since the CYA incarcerated wards under the age of 18, they were offered school services as close as possible to what was available near their home. I also wrote their Individual Educational Plans (I.E.P.) before they transferred to their permanent institution.
The last few years I worked for the Youth Authority, I taught at NRCC on the resident side working with students who were juvenile, mentally ill, felony offenders. Since I was trained in working with student deficits, I helped many young men learn to read or to calculate enough to maintain a bank account or budget. Several students I worked with went on to graduate from high school or get their GED.
Teaching in a prison changes you as a teacher and a human being. I gained confidence in my abilities to educate by seeing young men learn who had been discarded by society. I learned not to fear the look of a young man, but his true intention. I also learned true intentions are not easy to spot. As time went on, I had several wards tell me I should be working in the public schools where I could make a difference. I told them I thought I was making a difference with them. Their response was that in many cases, they were lost causes. By the time they got as far as the Youth Authority, they would dapple in crime for the rest of their lives. (Recidivism rates for those incarcerated under the age of 18 bear this out.) "Go teach 7th graders," one ward said. "I would be a different person if I had someone care about my education when I was in 7th grade."
So here I am, teaching 7th and 8th graders for my eleventh year. I must admit those young men I met in the YA were correct, it does make a difference when a person cares about a student's education. We are five weeks into the school year and already I am seeing positive results. I hope its a good year.
The last few years I worked for the Youth Authority, I taught at NRCC on the resident side working with students who were juvenile, mentally ill, felony offenders. Since I was trained in working with student deficits, I helped many young men learn to read or to calculate enough to maintain a bank account or budget. Several students I worked with went on to graduate from high school or get their GED.
Teaching in a prison changes you as a teacher and a human being. I gained confidence in my abilities to educate by seeing young men learn who had been discarded by society. I learned not to fear the look of a young man, but his true intention. I also learned true intentions are not easy to spot. As time went on, I had several wards tell me I should be working in the public schools where I could make a difference. I told them I thought I was making a difference with them. Their response was that in many cases, they were lost causes. By the time they got as far as the Youth Authority, they would dapple in crime for the rest of their lives. (Recidivism rates for those incarcerated under the age of 18 bear this out.) "Go teach 7th graders," one ward said. "I would be a different person if I had someone care about my education when I was in 7th grade."
So here I am, teaching 7th and 8th graders for my eleventh year. I must admit those young men I met in the YA were correct, it does make a difference when a person cares about a student's education. We are five weeks into the school year and already I am seeing positive results. I hope its a good year.
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