Salary Compression at FWCS?
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 2/25/10 @ 12:12 am - Filed Under Uncategorized
I loved this quote from Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Superintendent Wendy Robinson:
Robinson said it’s possible the community didn’t understand the idea of salary compression, a concept she believed was laid out clearly when the board discussed her contract but something that didn’t translate to the other administrators.
District officials have said they’ve been seeing some salary compression between the high school principals and the top administrators, who have more responsibilities, and to keep the higher positions competitive and alluring, it’s necessary to have them pay more.
The top administrators of this district have been failures by any reasonable measure. Yet because a couple of principals are overpaid we have to pay these failures even more? And if we don’t then we’re to believe that these top administrative positions wouldn’t be competitive and alluring? I can’t believe they have the gall to even suggest this when faced with a $15 million budget cut.
Just like looting bankers on Wall Street, the FWCS administration runs the district into the ground all the while demanding more and more of the taxpayers’ money. Here’s a challenge for the board to determine whether or not we need to raise wages to keep the positions “competitive and alluring”:
Go ahead and cut the salaries by 20% and post them as open positions. If 10 or more qualified people apply for any given job then fire the current administrator and hire a new applicant at the reduced rate. If less than 10 qualified applicants apply then go ahead and give them their raise.
Is there ANY doubt what would happen if they did this?
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18 Responses to “Salary Compression at FWCS?”
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If any of them can get a better deal somewhere else, they’re always free to leave. All we’ll need is a press release for the farewell party.
Mayor of Fort Wayne $130,000
Governor of Indiana $95,000
Superintendant of the SECOND largest school corporation in the state of indiana $200,000 plus $30,000 in retirement funding.
Here’s hoping the school board wakes up and cuts the bloated middle management of this albatross school corporation. I doubt it because as we all know “its for the children”
Jeff,
It’s still not too late for you to run for FWCS board. It would be nice to see Evert Mol make another go at it as well. The two of you as a team might generate some interest in the election.
Jeff,
Like the proposal of posting the positions using the actual job market value instead of allowing “supposed” market value continue driving existing resource salaries and taxpayer costs up…
It is easy to see why our schools are in such horrible shape. I really don’t know if FWCS can be fixed. If the district can be fixed we have no more room on the school board for people like GiaQuinta or Corona. GiaQuinta is a narcissus and Corona is clueless. It is a shame one of our newspapers does not print the salary and job title of all FWCS employees. If they did I think there would be an open riot.
Spencer- Give those two board members some credit. They’re smart enough to send their kids to private schools. And they’re still willing to advocate for FWCS even though it wasn’t good enough for their kids.
Maybe instead of firing the principals and others at what ten schools, they should have fired all the administrators and put 75% of those positions up for bid. Let people bid on these jobs, don’t set a salary.
Henry touched on the hypocrisy that is Giaquinta. Is he really so myopic to consider giving raises to administration when the budget is in such rough shape?
I saved his little newspaper article so I could quote him correctly if he even THINKS about running for another office.
In my opinion, his board decisions are not based on what is best for the children of this community, but upon what will further his future political aspirations.
Here is the math:
Incompetent administration + lapdog school board = FWCS
The board refuses to address the problems: Bad management, a bloated bureaucracy, and lack of holding people responsible for their actions.
Last week they had a guy who spent ten years going around the country to see what makes a good teacher that gets good results regardless of the talent they have to work with. The top three things that do not make a hill a beans:
Masters degree
Money spent per student
Income of family.
The common trait that was found in all teachers that performed well was when a teacher found the students had not yet mastered the scheduled lessons for that day, THE TEACHER DEVIATED FROM THE LESSON PLAN and spent more time on the subject matter. Before moving onto the next subject or topic, the teacher made sure the students understood the current material.
The second most common trait was teachers set high goals for the students.
Why are test scores not rising or in some cases falling? Some administrator thought trying something new would work like daily lesson plans that are created by teachers so that administrators can have something to do all day by evaluating on teachers lack of attention to lesson plans.
Ever heat the old saying; if it “ain’t” broke, don’t fix it? Well Washington and the state have taken ever increasing control of what is taught. All that has happened is that costs per student have risen with no increase in retention.
Have a good night.
I just don’t understand the union mentality. Never accept a cut in pay even if it saves the other guy’s job. FWEA sounds like the UAW, the Steelworkers, the ILGW etc. or any other industrial union which has priced itself out of existence. You’d think/hope the people teaching our kids would think differently than an assembly line worker.
Note the hierarchical teaching staff reductions which are likely to follow. Remaining union membership and their leaders with narrower (contract) agendas have apparently decided to gutlessly just go along with it. So much for “bold initiatives. Yet, “extraordinary measures during extraordinary times…” I should think members of the larger community, particularly those families with children enrolled in the public school (that is, those who even care), would much prefer to not worsen student/teacher ratios. What does all this portend as a vector of trends to come in our community? How does imposing higher attrition rates upon more recently hired teachers enhance prospects for retaining recent and soon-to-be graduates who have been seeking teaching certifications within their respective fields at local colleges and universities? If there were ever a time to negotiate a general salary reduction program in order to preserve lower teacher/student ratios, to conserve financial resources, to retain a developing pool of qualified teaching professionals, and to avoid yet higher unemployment in the community with its accompanying further decimation of the tax base, then surely that time is now.
Michael- You expressed it much more elquently than I did. What I hear from many teachers is that having invested in a degree (or two) and obtained a teaching certificate, they have an expectation of lifetime job security with steady salary increases. When I got a (masters) degree in Chemical Engineering, it never occured to me that I was entitled to anything except what I earned once I went into industry. Maybe those were the expectations and the reality in the teaching profession forty years ago. Maybe teachers think nothing has changed in forty years.
I just want to know if Superintendant Robinson’s sister is still employed with FWCS and, if so, how this might effect her position? Brief history: The sister was hired at the alternative high school but she openly stated she didn’t like kids. I was a teacher there and observed her nastiness of students and adults. I’m just curious.
Michael Brennan-Perez, there is not much statistical support for student/teacher ratio affecting learning. Until you reach above 35 to 40 students, it has little affect.
What does affect student/teacher ratios are specialized classes such at farm economics, business economics and begining economics and similar courses where there should be just one course. After looking at Carroll High Schools listed classes, half the classes offered have student/teacher ratios of less than 15. The classes with the highest ratios are general core classes.
Is the ISTEP a general core test or specialized test?
William,
Your comments are always thoughtful and constructive, so I would defer to your knowledge on statistical support concerning the demonstrated impact of student/teacher ratios on learning. I would be curious, however, as to the nature of the metrics used to define “learning” among the populations studied. Anecdotally from acquaintances in the teaching profession, quality of English language instruction suffers with higher numbers in the classroom due to the nature of the subject (perhaps English should be brought under the heading of “specialized class”). Generally, increased classroom population size means reduced length or frequency of assessments of individual composition skills. It varies inversely, in other words, with class size. Resort to objective-answer-only testing in English, at least in this component of the subject, is not practical. As far as your observation regarding class sizes at Carroll High School is concerned, it would seem to reinforce the argument for more learning (at least, perhaps, according to specific standardized measurements) as being at least partially commensurate with reduced class size. As far as I know, both Carroll and Homestead have consistently outperformed all FWCS high schools in SAT results. To be sure, there are other factors in play here besides class size, so correct me if the inference is wrong. My experience is that ISTEP is considered a general core test.
The real answer to student learning is not in the number of students in a classroom, but the behavior displayed in the classroom. While I was a substitute within FWCS, I had the daily encounter of students who slapped by hands, when I tried to take their IPODs away, death threats from students who did not like me teaching, racist comments from students who did not want a white teacher, elementary students who used the words “bitch and cunt” like they were going out of style, and so much more. The problem was the administration BLAMED the TEACHER, it was the teacher’s fault if the student cussed you out. Like really, an educator, told a child to cuss them out. I saw students who beat each other to a bloody pulp, day-after-day, and their were NO consequences! There was no help for teachers let alone substitutes. Administration questioned why substitutes walked out in the middle of the day!
I was told constantly I was a horrible sub, time after time, because of the behaviors in my classroom.
Funny thing is that I left FWCS, and went to EACS. Even in the schools with the lowest ISTEP scores, the student behavior is quite decent. You have to be incredibly firm, and there are times that you have to have a heavy hand and, even send the child to the office. At the office, they will actually back the teacher, and even the substitute, up. (I was in shock when it happened.) I recently was called a bitch by EACS student. After the dean of students removed her from my room, she got mad at the dean and called him a name. Oops, the student is now suspended. Rarely, did that happen in FWCS. I can count on my hand, how many times bad student behavior was dealt with in a manner that was productive.
MyFWCSExp,
I think your description is typical, although perhaps slightly more extreme, of the behavior issues in the Title 1 schools. There is a major discipline problem at FWCS and it’s perpetuated by the administration and the way their system encourages principles to “cook the books” - more on this in a later post.
I don’t think people fully realize the extent of the behavior problems within the district. It truly is systemic and getting worse.
I have SO much more to write about this topic but it will have to wait for another day. Thank you for providing us some information regarding your experience…