Going back to the Daily Blat of the 17th and its article on the Teachers, Service Workers holding a unity rally in Charleston. Holding this on Sunday is all well and good. Any of the above to do any of this on a School Day while not in their prescribed place of duty should be an immediate firing event.
Have heard again that this is for the either for the kids or the schools. But in reading the article a couple of times the outright demands for still more pay raises and better Health Insurance at the current level or cheaper is the Truth of the matter.
I have stated over and over that a person no matter in or out of Government deserves a fair compensation package. In this case if is or has been only one section be it wages or benefits at a time.
Knowing a bit and I suspect only a bit on the true wages/ benefits these people are receiving via several different methods has and are hiding their true salaries/ benefits packages.
Was speaking to one who had family up in the Northern Counties and one of them has of course a levy up for renewal. There he said it was to in excess of 96% pay increases. As with the one here, it was set up for maintenance/ new facilities. Now as with ours, the new this and that have been repaired or built and the levy is now renewing. Problem is as noted it was NEVER passed as a perpetual pay increase vehicle. Simply put, the levies under this guise of renewal are nothing but frauds on the taxpayers.
He noted driving past schools and seeing the many new large size pickups, SUVs and Vans in the parking lots. Might well show where most if not all of the last raise went?
As noted, this levy in Wood County is 80% for salaries/ benefits and per the new Superintendent, is in the area of an additional $4,100- 4,300 year per recipient. And this is on top of the 5% given to them earlier this year by the State. Who knows the current County amount being paid? And in what category such as the bonus for coming to work every day?
I would suggest a complete listing of EVERY program in place that provides one penny of benefit be it wages or benefits. This to be so as to give a COMPLETE and TOTAL package.
Than, this levy should be adjusted down and probably way down for any legitimate increases?
But the real sad part was the Daily Blat article of the 16th that outlined the new "Scorecard" for the State by Counties. The high graduation rates achievement was no surprise. It is just as is done to so many of the kids each year. Pass them to get rid of them and in the end out the door into the real World without even the basics to succeed. No glory in that Stat folks.
The new scoring system by color code seems to show and is noted as being in the "Yellow" category. "This being partially meets standards" which is about the same as a D+. A few of course do well in some instances, but sadly the trend is against the School Systems.
So will more money improve what seems are substandard teaching? NO, no matter how much money we throw at them, the Teachers can not do a better job for more money when they cannot do the job for the current salary.
It was noted that out of 116 High Schools tested in the 2017- 2018 year, 24 were in the Red for the all important English and Language Arts. There were 81 in the Yellow. For those pesky Math scores which have very little value to the Graduated in the real World, 102 of the 116 were in the Red for not meeting standards.
I have noted driving past many of our Schools and seeing the "School of Excellence" posted so prominently on them. The above article would infer the standards for Excellence are bouncing along the bottom of the ruts in the road of life to come?
And with 61 classified Red and 48 colored Yellow for attendance, it is little wonder that if a Teacher was really one of those who bust their fannies each day, it did little good with no shows so high.
ANY and I repeat ANY child that is passed just to get them out of a grade or worse yet out of the School System should be considered a Class I Felony against that School from the Principles up to their BOE.
Any Student who is so unruly as to endanger the ability and RIGHT of others to learn and do well in the years ahead should be dealt with immediately and effectively even if it means expulsion permanently. Than, on to the parents and what is the issue at home with a child? This is in Truth a complicated process to get parents today to parent. Many have not and can not learn to do so. No excuses for that, it is a fact of life and shows everyday in how the kids behave in School and in the Public Domain.
We have lost two generations to Drugs now and I am afraid the youngest one working their way through the Public System will lose far too many also.
But if we do not do something DRASTIC, West Virginia will continue its downhill slide from just plain disaster to absolute disaster. More money for the Teachers will not fix a single child for the better.
We have went from a grading system A- F to a color coding system. Next will be a "Participation Award" each year for a County just for being there.
We are paying dearly for the Bra Burning and Draft Card Burning that started in the 1960s and those people are now running most of the School Systems. They never learned to Parent and now their progeny are failing as Parents/ role models. I will admit some are trying.
My Mother and my Aunt both were terrible parents to us kids. Most of us have failed in our responsibilities to Society and our families too. I have felt that I was not an example of the TV Fathers/ Mothers I grew up watching on TV? You remember Father Knows Best; Leave it too Beaver and so on. But did they really exist? In some cases yes and still do.
So where are we now? Vote NO on the current levy renewal is it is NOT a true renewal. MAKE the BOE do its job and come up with a new levy for what is really needed not wanted.
Can you folks do it? NO- the result is going to be more millions wasted. The kids will NOT be any better off than before. There is no doubt, that there are now as in my day a lot of good, sincere Teachers in the trenches; just not enough. Merit Raises are still a good idea. 'nuff said.