FWCS Still Doesn’t Get It
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 4/28/09 @ 6:14 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
First things first, of the 137 teacher positions being cut 88 of them are due to potential changes in the state budget. These changes would force schools to pay for insurance and utilities out of the general fund instead of the capital projects fund. An abrupt move like this is wholly unacceptable and the state legislature should NOT consider it during this session. There are problems with the capital projects fund to be sure but a better solution is needed.
Beyond that, reducing teaching positions is the worst thing FWCS could do right now. There is absolutely no reason FWCS couldn’t hold a referendum to get funding for teaching positions while simultaneously fixing their capital projects funding gap. The problem seems to be Superintendent Wendy Robinson:
Robinson said even a referendum, like the one just passed by Southwest Allen County Schools, would not be feasible, mainly because, as experience showed with the $500 million building plan, she doesn’t think the community would pass it.
“At a time when people don’t have jobs, how am I going to get a referendum passed?”
Sometimes I wonder if she has some hidden angle or if she really is that dense. I mean does she still not get it? The opposition was to wasteful spending on an ill-conceived building project. I, and many other opponents, would whole-heartily support more funding for the general fund given these conditions:
- The additional staff positions were teachers (not assistants/trainers/administrators/etc)
- The new positions were created in elementary schools (preferably 2nd and 3rd grade)
- These new positions would show tangible results before the funding was renewed
If Robinson and her administration spent half as much time marketing this new strategy as they did the building project then the referendum would pass quite easily. The board and the administration need to get their priorities straight before it’s too late…
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22 Responses to “FWCS Still Doesn’t Get It”
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Now I get to put my two cents in. I am a voter in Southwest Allen County. I and my wife supported whole heartedly the SWACS referendum, even in these tough economic times. Why? Because, for our children, we felt that SWACS was giving us quality “education”—”quality education” and we did not want to lose any part of that to bigger classrooms. I live in a neighborhood filled with kids and I guarantee you that every family that has kids going to SWACS schools supported this referendum. To say or imply that the Southwest voters didn’t support it is self-deceived and is a self-serving political statement, period. Do a poll of the Southwest voters, do whatever you want and I guarantee you overwhelming support for the Schools and this referendum. Folks in the Southwest KNOW they have high quality schools and they want to keep them. Teachers are the lifeblood of the schools. Increasing class sizes is awful, awful, to both the Teachers and the students. I am quite sure the voters can figure that one out and I know they did in Southwest Allen County. There would have been and could have been a big protest movement to this referendum—there was plenty of time and notice—and its very clear there was not. Voters are willing to invest in good teachers and common sense energy efficient buildings—we don’t need the Architects version of the latest Taj Mahal either—just common sense buildings—why they can even all look alike (imagine that you imaginative architects out there). The money needs to go to quality teachers. By the way, we don’t need to be giving Superintendents $200K a year salaries, vehicles, and several other perks while we are laying off front line teachers. Its about the kids.
General fund, capital fund, etc, fund, fund and more fund. Years ago school systems had building funds and all sorts of funds. This was great until one system who had a large building fund found it did not need to build any more schools and chose to use the building fund for something else. This was a no-no and the state in order to keep things right took all the money and then gave it back according to each systems needs.
Now the state is saying pensions and insurance is to be paid out of the general fund. I agree with this. These certainly are not capital projects. This brings me to my next point. The funding for schools and their budgets are so convoluted that few can understand them.
In this economy where companies are reducing work forces, cutting back on hours, contributions to 401-k’s, pensions and other benefits, I see no reason why school do not do the same. FWCS is going to base layoffs based on seniority and not ability. How large of a shortfall is FWCS looking at, 3-4%? Why not cut benefits in order to keep all teachers employed.
There seems to be this mentality that education cannot be cut. Maybe if they were actually teaching and the level of education was at least what it was 30 years ago, I might be more supportive, but throwing more money at the problem is not going to solve the problem.
Jim,
I am curious how you feel about today’s news that SWAC is cutting teachers after all?
Jeff-
Wendy’s statement, assuming it’s correct, struck me the same way. Teachers and buildings are different issues and a referendum for money for teachers might well succeed. That’s an expenditure with a payback for students and taxpayers. Remodeled buildings have a payback mainly for the construction industry and the teachers union which were pushing for them. This kind of thinking makes it hard to have a lot of sympathy for the FEWA members getting laid off. But the kids do have my sympathy. Where are the priorities here?
I think Wendy Robinson does have an angle, but I don’t think it’s very well hidden.
I agree with Jeff that far more people would probably support spending to stop the cuts in teaching staff than those who supported the $500 million project. This is no guarantee that it would pass, but why not at least try?
My thinking is that Robinson probably wants things to get worse. She will then use this as an excuse for re-introducing her failed and oversized initiative at some later date.
According to Indiana statistics, SACS and FWCS are spending about $11K per student … but SACS test results are 25 points higher in English and 20 points higher in Math. I can understand why SACS would support a referendum but FWCS would not.
It should be pointed out that voters with school age children are going to get out the vote for higher taxes while older folks on retirement or kids in college are not interested in higher per pupil spending.
The dirty little secret is that public schools beget more bureaucracy which dumbs down incentives for efficiencies and drives up costs unnecessarily. if we need more teachers, pay for them with reduced administrative and non-teaching overhead.
I have maintained that busing and racial diversity are no longer required objectives now that Brown vs Board of Education has been overturned by the current SCOTUS. Let’s park some of the school buses and let the kids ride the underused City-Link buses.
Maybe it is the engineer in me, but I keep coming back to the root cause behind the problem with schools in general.
Number one is they do not accrual the costs for either buildings, maintenance, pensions, etc. This makes it more difficult to pay for years down the road.
Number two is why do people think paying teachers more money will do anything. What will teachers do differently that they are not doing now? Will more money somehow entice them to be more innovative, present the material differently, use more materials?
Number 3 is why do people think class sizes between 18 and 33 have any influence on test scores? Class size has been thrown around as the cure all for test scores and it has never delivered. Break down the teachers instructional time and how much is individual time and how much is delivering information to the class as a whole. We can take this to the extreme implemented at Harding High School in 1973 with independent study. 22 periods to a day (less delivery to the class) and more one on one time with the student. The program failed big time. Test scores plummeted.
Poorly funded schools with high class room sizes do better then some of the best funded lowest class size schools. There just is no correlation that small class size produced better test scores.
I think the solution is to reduce the administrators by 50% and use that money to fund teachers needed to teach courses that are needed. I would also increase class room size.
I would eliminate many of the nearly duplicate courses found in high schools and combine then into one course thereby utilizing economy of size. Carroll high School has 46 courses where there is only one class. 20 courses had 9 students, 51 courses had 15 students. 124 classes had more than 30 students while 187 classes had 25 students.
I think its time to evaluate costs and not rush to increase costs in the name of “education.”
“I think the solution is to reduce the administrators by 50% and use that money to fund teachers needed to teach courses that are needed.”
Great idea.
Take it a step farther. For every $1 of teacher salary cut the administration cuts $1 of bureaucra…. errrr … administrative salary.
The root challenge for FWCS could be attributed to student behavior as the district does suspend of expel every 31 students out of 100, see below.
This would bolster the need for additional teachers and not cutting positions. Again, the smaller the class size, the greater a chance for student engagement and success.
http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/snapcorp.cfm?corp=0235
(FWCS ranks 11th in student suspensions and expulsions.)
Sorry, bad link, check here for fact check:
http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/TRENDS/top102.cfm?corp=0235
“The root challenge for FWCS could be attributed to student behavior as the district does suspend of expel every 31 students out of 100, see below.
This would bolster the need for additional teachers and not cutting positions. Again, the smaller the class size, the greater a chance for student engagement and success.”
How long were the suspensions? There is no distinction between suspension and expulsion. To me, they are different. If they were expulsions, then why with the disruptive students gone, did not the test scores increase? The information races questions, but answers none and no conclusion can be made from it.
Why is the suspension/expulsion rate so high? Is it due to distractions, disuptive students, poor teachers, too long a class period (generally anything more than 50 minutes is useless without a break).
How about this link for number of round trip miles for buses. This would indicate the number of miles that students are on buses. Keep in mind that elementary schools which are more numerous would have shorter drives since they are dispersed more while high schools being fewer and spread out more would have greater miles. FWCS has an average of 20,887 miles driven or at 35mph, a total of 597 hours. Assuming three trips (elementary, middle and high school) we are looking at 199 hours on a bus during a school year, slightly more for high school and less for elementary. Does a bus average 35 mph picking up students, no, probably closer to 20 mph which will nearly double the time. Most likely high school students spend up to one hour each way.
http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/TRENDS/top10.cfm
Gadfly,
They tried using city buses to transport kids to school in Chicago. But federal law requires that all school buses be yellow. Also, somebody will likely pitch a fit about kids and sex offenders riding on the same bus.
“If they were expulsions, then why with the disruptive students gone, did not the test scores increase?”
Probably, if the suspension/expulsion was in effect during the time the test was taken, that student was probably just given a zero, thus lowering the average score - slightly.
It would be interesting to know how much class time was wasted dealing with the suspended/expelled students before they were actually removed. My guess would be more days of class disruption than of actual suspension. Plus the offender gets street cred.
Having taught in FWCS, as a sub, weeks - not days - are wasted due to student miss behavior! I find it interesting that as a sub. at Harding, I don’t have nearly the disrespect that is allowed in FWCS. Huh? May I say it’s called leadership! Dr. Brown usually walks around the school during the day, and the students are quite fearful of him.
Tutor,
Hey! You have 143 more hours to work this week. Quit ignoring your kids and wasting time on the blogs.
Work dammit!
Mr. Larsen,
Your questions are valid and succinct. There is a new educational “trend” based on a medical methodology called Rounds. This idea, I believe, would highly benefit a large school system like FWCS. The basic thesis is that if administrators and outside, unbiased focus groups, which are not costly, work together making regular rounds of each school and work collaboratively to establish what is not working for students. It is to establish the “symptoms” providing academic failure, and work together to “prescribe” a different course of action.
I think you may find this idea a nice, progressive measure for FWCS.
http://www.edletter.org/current/index.shtml#instructionalrounds
Charles
Charles Langley “The basic thesis is that if administrators and outside, unbiased focus groups, which are not costly, work together making regular rounds of each school and work collaboratively to establish what is not working for students.”
AS an engineer, I always made daily rounds of the floor to find out what problems there were, get input from those doing the work and see for myself how things were going. I always liked performing the task myself to get an idea of the difficulty.
What you propose is actually no different. Schools have different personalities and because of this delivery of material should be different.
I attempted to go to your link, but it failed. It may be do to my slow dial up modem.
Bill,
This statement is inaccurate. Smaller class sizes (although 18 would be on the high end) have improved test scores. There is data to support this; try googling the SAGE and STAR programs
Brian Smith, resigns from Southwest Allen County Schools just one week after a referendum tax increase. He is headed to Hamiliton Southeastern
School in Indianapolis, Indiana..HSE.
Aboite Township & Fort Wayne residents voters will pay up to an additional .17 cents on ever hundred dollars of what their home is worth to keep up legacy costs for the next seven(7) years!!
Residents would have had a $100 REFUND per property in SWAC Aboite district if the new TAX WAS NOT PASSED. Instead, SWAC taxation on education has now quadrupled.
I looked up sage and star with “class size” and found summaries of these studies, but so far no data. What is interesting to me is that what they call significant improvement is the result of less “bullying”
“A Positive Environment & Lower Class Sizes Can Help Reduce Bullying”
This is a major problem, but “bullies” need to be dealt with not with smaller class size (costly) but with direct discipline. The problem is bullies, not class size.
“Dubbed “the gold standard” by other class size researchers, the STAR project was launched in 1985 and has tracked some 6,500 students in 79 schools since kindergarten. Initially, it found that children who attended kindergarten through third grade in classes with 13-17 pupils did significantly better on tests than children in classes with 22-25 pupils.
Five years later, STAR found that children who’d been in smaller classes continued to outperform others in reading, math, and science, even though they, too, were now in larger classes. By eighth grade, in fact, kids who’d attended the smaller classes in K-3 were at least one full year ahead of their peers academically. This is huge”
Does this means you need smaller class size only for K-3, or are they making the jump to apply it to all grades? The problem with this logic is that test scores were higher decades ago with larger class sized. This is no different than dumbing down of America. I would love to see actual data, which I am still looking for.
“Most impressive are the strides made by minority students. The initial STAR project showed that, while students of all backgrounds benefit from smaller classes, those who gain the most academically are poor, minority, inner-city, and rural children. Now STAR has found that, when class sizes are reduced, the gap that usually exists between black and white students taking college entrance exams is cut by more than half as well. ”
This is another symptom of the problem. The theory is to treat the symptom, not the root cause.
“The STAR project underscores how reckless and misguided such policies are. Vouchers have not been shown to improve student achievement, and they drain precious resources away from the public schools that need them most.”
Now this is a problem. Vouchers allow people to vote with their money, taking it to schools they choose. The public schools are poorly managed with very little ability to fire poor teachers. Again, I question the study now based on bias.
“Right now, the vouchers vs. smaller class sizes debate is being played out in Milwaukee. There, approximately 6,000 children are being educated through a voucher program costing $25 million while 11,000 other children are being educated through SAGE, a statewide program that reduces class size in selected public schools– at roughly half the cost. Tests show that students in the SAGE program outperform their peers using vouchers.”
Vouchers cost $4,166.67 per student versus public schools at half the cost, who are the kidding? Are they saying they can reduce class size and it will cost $2,083.33 per student in the public school?
I guess you could say my curiosity up.
Did anyone else get a chuckle out of reading the post by Tutor? Miss Behavior must be a bad, bad student if she causes “weeks - not days -” to be lost. Or maybe Tutor meant misbehavior, the noun.
Tutor, I hope you’re not considered highly qualified for English!! :)