School Board Approves Principal Transfers, Superintendent’s Recommendations

25 Comments

1. Can someone explain why there is a position for International Faculty Coordinator? Why aren’t we hiring Americans to teach our children?

   • Because the number of teachers is drastically reducing. A friend of mine who handles teacher recruiting said one of the major universities only had 10 students enrolled in education. They have to get teachers from overseas to fill the void. Teachers are getting tired of being disrespected by parents, students and administration. It’s not worth it.

   • Seriously? Last August thete were nearly 11,000 vacancies for teaching positions in NC. In the past 10 years, teachers have lost retirement benefits, tenure, thousands of dollars in future revenues as the pay scale was dismantled. The maximum salary for a teacher with 30 years is $58k. That was the salary for 18 years in 2001 with increases. The current pay scale sits frozen with no pay increase from years 15-24. School operating budgets have been cut so drastically by the state that some districts can’t hire bus drivers. Millions of dollars are being diverted to Charter Schools and vouchers which have divert monies away from schools. 200 positions at the NC Dept of Public Instruction were cut 10 years ago and still remain frozen. Millions of dollars for those educational communities at risk, also sits up there in Raleigh, unused while waiting for a court injunction to unfreeze the money that provides staff development and field services to those districts, out of 115, that are most at risk. Add that to the huge increase in numbers of those who just aged out and/or retired in 2014-15, along with cutting the Teacher Academy, Teaching Fellows program, decreasing numbers graduating with teaching degrees, and many other support services for teachers. And, now that NC is number 1 in business, and the triangle area is listed in the top 10 as best places to live, our population continues to increase exponentially. Trying to keep pace with the growth, expansion, and continuing to build new schools is difficult when the state decreases the funding for public education throughout the state. Hiring overseas personnel as teachers is a quick fix – they can only stay 3 years and have limits with their visa provisions. 9ne thing that is a benefit to NC is the number of Chinese and Spanish immersion programs made possible by hiring these international teachers, especially those from Central and South America, and the Philippines. They fill the biggest voids in the required areas of math, science, foreign language, and special education. The Feds froze all the money to the states which fund the special education mandated. Now the funds have been released. The State funds 76% of the overall education budget, and the Feds account for about 12%, and the rest comes from local money from city and county property taxes.

2. There’s an “international faculty coordinator” because the pay is so low, that they have to extensively recruit foreign teachers just to get warm bodies in the classrooms. It is a shame that state Republicans are fine with this, but that’s reality.

   • Bad news Joyce, this has been going on for some time even under democrats. In fact I recall a governor.. Bev Purdue who literally stole money from teachers claiming budget shortfalls and then promised the teachers they could use comp leave….. my loss was about $350. Sorry, Democrats hands aren’t clean. But, leave it to a Democrat to make this about politics. Rescuers don’t want to put up with the abuse and disrespect anymore…. You got what you wanted.

     • Teachers. Typo.

3. There’s simply no comparison between the Democrats and Republicans Lisa. Perdue did freeze pay…temporarily, but that’s because the Great Recession hit. Then she tried to give teachers raises (belatedly) and was blocked by the new Republican majority. Since then, (13 long years) Republicans have kept veteran teacher pay frozen at year 15 despite yearly surpluses. They took away Master’s pay, took away longevity pay, and took away healthcare for new hires. They also ended yearly STEP pay increases, choosing to condense the pay schedule. Under both Easley and Hunt, NC teachers were paid the national average. We never even come close under Republicans, and the added loss of benefits under their control make it obvious who values public education more. It is about politics as those same republicans suddenly find money when it comes to funding vouchers and tax cuts. 48th in the nation in educational funding speaks volumes. Republicans have been a disaster.

4. Talk to teachers and teachers who have left the profession. Salary is a small part of why we have a shortage. They knew going into it they are constantly underpaid. The number one reason for leaving the job is the lack of discipline, effort and bad behavior students display. Then the fear or ability for administrators to be able to help. Helicopter parents or “ moma bears” as they like to be called enable their sweet little innocent children to get away with it.

   • Oh teachers knew they’d be underpaid. What they didn’t know was that republicans would take away the salary schedule, longevity pay etc. AFTER they had already joined the profession. They knew what they were getting into. They didn’t know that the conditions would change for the worse afterwards. Salary is a huge part of why there’s a shortage, along with the discipline/parents etc.

5. North Carolina has been led by a Democratic governor for 24 of the last 28 years. For 12 of those years, the state government operated as a Democratic trifecta, meaning the party had control of the executive branch and both chambers of the state legislature.
   Funny. I don’t remember ever getting much of a pay raise during those times and I taught in nc public schools for over 31 years. In fact the choice of insurance coverage went from 6 to 1. Everyone there was a pay increase that increased the insurance cost by almost the exact amount. NO ONE gets into teaching to become rich. We did it to help the community, children and the future. Unfortunately. Teachers get dumped on by everyone; administrators, parents, students, board of ed. It’s not worth it at any price.

   • @ Lisa Lederer. The General Assembly controls the finances, so your comment about the Governors being Democratic in recent years is mostly irrelevant. They don’t set the budget, and that budget has been controlled by republicans since 2012. It is a matter of fact that teachers had yearly Step pay increases prior to the Republicans taking over the General Assembly. How do you not remember that? It is reality that republicans froze veteran teacher pay at year 15, and that pay freeze has remained in effect the entirety of republicans being in office. How do you not remember that? It is a fact that republican pay raises, when they happen, are modest or insignificant, and heavily slanted towards new teachers. It is a fact that state republicans merged the yearly step pay into several brackets so that there wouldn’t be yearly pay increases for every teacher. It is a matter of fact that teachers hit the national average in pay when last Democrats had control of the General Assembly and the Governorship. (under both Easley and Hunt). It is a fact that republicans took away Masters pay and longevity pay, then gave it back and called it a “raise”. It is a matter of fact that teacher pay in NC has dropped far below the national average since republicans have taken over and that the pay falls far behind the rate of inflation. I’ve never seen any republican proposal to hit the national average in pay. They don’t care! I mean, the Senate won’t even agree on a budget this year because the House has the nerve to ask for modest pay increases. Don’t know how you can’t remember any of this, but I’m pretty sure your politics clouds your memory. Democrats have been so-so when it comes to education in this state. Shooting for the national average is fine, but why not exceed it? Republicans on the other hand, have been absolutely abysmal. The’re content with education funding to remain at the bottom of the nation while they shovel money to their priorities. There’s no comparison .

     • Umm, read the entire post. Democrats held all three branches for 12 years. Sorry your attempt to point fingers doesn’t hold up. Your refusal to acknowledge your own parties failures is why I can’t take you seriously.

       • I did read your entire post. You could make an argument that both political parties haven’t been great for public education in this state, but it’s an absolute lie to try and lump them both together. The Republicans have been an absolute disaster and their actions and lack of pay raises speak for themselves. You keep bring up the “12 years” Democrats were in power prior to the Republican takeover in 2011-2012. Not sure what that’s supposed to prove as [ay was higher back then. Back then, we had yearly Step pay increases, pay wasn’t frozen at year 15, we had longevity and Masters pay, and new teachers could get retiree health care. So I know it’s hard for you to admit it, but Republicans took all that away while simultaneously bashing us on their media to try to justify it.

   • “Gov. Mike Easley’s budget proposal, unveiled this week, calls for an 8 percent raise this year — costing $323 million — instead of the anticipated 5 percent. That’s on top of providing 5 percent raises during each of the next two years to bring the state to the national average by 2008-09.” It happened.

6. Don’t remember democrats taking away retiree health care for new hires either.

7. You will notice from 1999-2010 democrat held all three branches. There were no significant pay increase during those years. My entire point is that no teacher goes into the profession for the money. The things that the do go into teaching for, respect, hope, love of children, has been eroded away by weak and ineffective leadership by both parties . You cannot deal factually with political ideologs because they are so blind to the failures of their own.

   • Why are you making things up? Is your party loyalty so deep that you can’t admit what’s a matter of public record? ” The average raise from 1997 To 2000 Excellent Schools Act
     • Average salary increases for each year was 7.5%.
     • Increases ranged from 3% to 14% each year
     2000 Masters certificates raised from 6% to 10%
     1999-2000: Teachers received a 1% cost of living adjustment (COLA) + 2% career growth + a $125 compensation bonus, resulting in an overall increase of 4% – 11%.
     2000-01: Teachers received a 2.2% COLA + 2% career growth + a $500 compensation bonus, with increases ranging from 2.5% to 13.8%.
     2001-02: Teachers received a $625 raise, equating to a 1% – 6.92% increase (with an average of 2.86%).
     2002-03: There was no COLA, but increases ranged from 0% to 5.85% (with an average of 1.84%).
     2003-04: Teachers received a $550 one-time bonus, resulting in increases between 1.42% and 5.86% (with an average of 1.81%).
     2004-05: Teachers received either a $1,000 raise or a 2.5% across-the-board increase, whichever was greater. Increases ranged from 1.41% to 5.9% (with an average of 2.5%).
     2005-06: Teachers received either an $850 raise or a 2% across-the-board increase, whichever was greater. This resulted in increases from 1.77% to 6.27% (with an average of 2.24%).
     2006-07: Teachers received a 5.5% across-the-board increase, with raises ranging from 6.45% to 14.05% (and an 8.23% average).
     2007-08: Teachers received a 4% across-the-board increase, with increases ranging from 4.05% to 9.53% (and a 5% average).
     2008-09: Teachers received either an $1,100 raise or a 2.74% across-the-board increase, whichever was greater. Increases ranged from 2.39% to 6.63% (with an average of 3%).

     • Umm I am an independent NOT a Republican, I think for myself. I have not and do not deny that republicans have not been a friend of teachers…but neither have democrats. They all use them as political pawns in their game of deception. You act as if a democrat controlled state was so beneficial for teachers and it wasn’t, I know because I was in the classroom teaching. They all use only reason democrats pretend to support teachers is to get nea money so the leadership can donate it to democrat politicians. In 30 years I have never seen any actual improvement for teachers. If anything it has gotten continually worse; in pay, working conditions, autonomy, support. Your “blame game” doesn’t work. As I’ve said in multiple posts, no one goes into teaching for the money. This is my final response as your blatant hypocrisy and denial only shows your level of uninformed.

       • You’re still falsely trying to conflate both parties as equally being at fault, to the point where you lied about Democrats not giving significant raises. Your claim isn’t supported by the evidence. Sadly, I’ve seen other teachers do the same, try to downplay what the Republicans have done by trying to claim that both parties are the same. That’s an absolute lie.

     • And yet, the state ranking for teacher pay was STILL at the bottom.

   • Your claims simply aren’t true. when you claim “there was no significant pay increases”. An 8% raise in 2006-2007 is pretty significant. So is the 5% raise in 2007-2008. They also did all this without freezing veteran teacher pay or taking away longevity pay, Master;s pay, the yearly step increases, or retiree healthcare for new hires. the Democrats have never been great for fully funding education, but under Republicans, it’s been far worse, by any metric. There’s no comparison.

   • Teachers may not go into the profession for the money. But they need to pay their bills like anybody else, and their expensive college degree must be paid off as well. What you keep ignoring is that the salary schedule for teachers was changed by the Republicans after the fact. Veteran teacher like myself no longer get yearly step pay increases like I used to. Give me what was promised when I entered the profession back in the early 2000s. When they do offer meager raises, it’s always slanted to help new teachers. The teacher shortage you brought up is because of these actions and it isn’t both parties fault. It isn’t. You simply don’t want to admit it. I have no problem in calling Democrats out, and their support of public education in this state has never been great. But they aren’t the ones trying to make us become another Mississippi, nor did they take away pay that was promised. They aren’t the ones content to let NC teacher pay lag at the bottom of the nation, especially for veteran teachers.

8. @Joyce Junior great reply with facts to back up your statements. So many people will speak on topics but never are able to pull the receipts like you did. All this information is public record. I am not a teacher but worked in the school system managing the transportation department since 2003 and I have seen the big differences in how we received pay raises and tiny bonuses to compensate higher co pays and cost of coverage, them taking away retirement Health Benefits to people hired after 2010. The mismanagement of living wages . After working in 7 different counties across the state of NC I have seen how politics plays a part in how local funds are manipulated to benefit those whose interests align with certain parties. It’s a cycle and our kids are suffering. It’s a crying shame!!

9. Time out you two….can we at least agree our educations system in NC is broken. It doesn’t matter WHO is responsible it just needs to be rectified…part of the problem is that there are too many chiefs at the home office with whopping salaries with stupid titles and not enough Indians to actually teach….and parents need to learn little Johnny is NOT the angel you think he is….I hope they have cameras in each classroom to show the parents little Johnny is not the special little angel they think he is…..also our kids are not the academic wonders we think they are…US students are falling behind other countries in academics because we are too busy teaching DEI and other nonsense…

10. Thank you for your clear explanations.

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