Fort Worth ISD says that they may need to implement layoffs. In my mind, taking actions like this speaks to a near certainty. Assuming the layoffs do materialize they will basically be dependent on seniority.
There are just so many problems with the school district that I have no idea where to start. Kids can’t get tutoring if they don’t count for the schools overall state scores. Food is handed out with such ease that the kids often go home with canned food. It’s not just free breakfast, lunch, and even dinner; but they actually have food items these children can take home. So there are many families which probably greatly rely on the school system for food in the homes. Teachers are left to provide items which they cannot be reimbursed for, and their tax deductibility is insufficient.
Does anyone understand that FWISD’s superintendent Melody Johnson is the highest second highest paid in the state? Why is that? This isn’t Houston, or Dallas, or San Antonio? Certainly everyone must understand that the layers of administration in education are egregious. Why punish the teachers?
The teachers are the infantry, the grunts, the squad level muscle. And it won’t just be teachers, they will surely start will housekeeping and security; the privates. I say instead of firing the enlisted soldiers, lets start with cutting the salaries of the officers. General Johnson should be the first to take a cut. Then I want to see some Colonels and Majors take the hit if need be.
That is the prudent step in this situation.
I am so tired of people complaining about the Barnett Shale that created a hundred thousand jobs and tons of revenue. If you want a cause this is it. People should be demanding resignations over this. People should be standing in front of ISD administrative offices demanding answers. This is an issue that Moncrief has serious influence over. The public should be pressuring the city over these issues.
March 13th, 2009 at
As the External Communications Coordinator for the Fort Worth ISD, I wanted to make sure you had the most up-to-date, accurate information about this subject.
The Board of Education has declared a financial exigency. That declaration activated other requirements including updating a Contract Termination Policy. That policy sets forth the steps needed to be taken in the event that employment contracts must be canceled.
The Fort Worth ISD, as do most Texas school districts, faces a substantial budget shortfall because of the way districts are allowed to generate revenue. Our Superintendent, Melody Johnson, has been working very hard with state and local leaders, including Mayor Moncrief, to have the Legislature re-look at how education is funded in Texas. After months of hard work, there is now the opportunity for lawmakers to amend previous law. If changes are made, it would go a long way toward closing budget deficits.
In a letter to all employees being sent today (March 13), Dr. Johnson explains the difficult, but necessary procedure of passing the Contract Policy. In part that letter reads:
“We are all feeling the negative impact of this economy, and public education is no exception. Families are being forced to modify their lifestyles, businesses are tightening their belts and school districts must do the same….If we have to eliminate jobs, we will try to do so through attrition, and then we will do all we can to assist affected employees in finding new assignments.”
Trustees of the Board of Education have already said publically that everything possible would be done to negate or minimize the affect on the classroom, if such a policy must be implemented at all. Just as importantly the Board wanted the entire process to be transparent to both employees and the general public.
Finally, it should be noted that, according to the Texas Association of Schools Boards, the FWISD superintendent is not the highest paid in Texas. In fact, she donated all of her recent salary increase to a scholarship fund for FWISD students.
March 13th, 2009 at
Last year teachers received a considerable reduction in their annual salary increase. As long as this is happening, Johnson shouldn’t have accepted a salary increase at all.
At this point, facing layoffs, it would speak volumes for her to accept a salary reduction in the mean time. It would build good faith within the community, be great PR while laying off teachers, and is just generally prudent as a leadership decision. She could set a precedent that would almost demand others around the country follow suit.
We don’t need anymore public officials calling for shared sacrifices while feeding off of the system. Given the appraisal value of her home, I figure she could accept a 50% reduction in salary to about $160,000. This would put her home value at about 3 times her salary, she could live just fine while asking teachers for an anemic stance, make a statement, and truly lead from the front. Johnson has a real chance here to position herself well; and she should use it.
She does say in her letter today that “Central office budgets will be the first to be impacted”. But these are people’s incomes we are talking about. So maybe central office incomes should be the first to be impacted. After all, there are laws limiting teacher to student ratios.
All of this still doesn’t even address the very serious issues we have in the system at the classroom level.
March 14th, 2009 at
Austin, since you asked, I have to admit I think you’re a little hard on the district. I don’t have the kind of inside information you’re talking about regarding food going home with the students, etc., though I do agree that it’s a bad idea to give free lunch to just about everybody, not primarily because of the entitlement mentality you’re complaining of but because the hot lunches are less healthy for the kids than a standard sack lunch, as I understand it, which most parents could provide. That said, I think there are plenty of parents in FWISD who because of personal problems, financial crunch, drugs, or just being a jerk, who might not currently be able and willing to get their kids a decent lunch, and it’s on humanitarian grounds that the lunches are offered. It is too bad that the free lunch has become almost general. so much for the old saw, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” but this is a national, not regional, situation.
Meaamwhile, I quietly report that my mother went to some meeting or other of the type she’s wont to — older women trying to do good in the community by organizing committees and action groups and lobbying local government officials to do stuff — and she told me that the real spending ability of FWISD is down about 8% over the last several years, this is because of a insufficient tax system to support our schools, which she tied to the lack of income taxes in Texas. Now I pass this on only as hearsay. but it just goes to show that when there’s a problem such as a fiscal crisis, everyone seems to blame it on the stuff they were already irritated about anyway.
Sonja
March 16th, 2009 at
Texas has some of the highest property taxes in the nation. Our auto registration taxes are higher than most, and our corporate taxes are as well. We make up for income tax in other areas.
I agree that at some point, unfortunately, we have a duty to feed the kids; but the entitlement state has gone to far. These kids can literally get breakfast and lunch. If they are enrolled in after school programs they can get dinner also. On top of that they are given food items to take home so frequently that their parents expect it.
What we have created is a de facto welfare state via the school systems. It is wrong. And unfortunately it originates in homes that give little thought to the financial effects of procreation.
I absolutely stand by the idea that Johnson has a real opportunity here in creating her own legacy by taking a hit on a personal level. She could be paraded through national media in doing so. She could force a decision upon all superintendents to follow suit. You are correct that the issues are market driven, and not from her leadership directly. Again though, leadership is best shown from the front, and I couldn’t think of a better way to display that. We don’t need bureaucrats as badly as we need teachers. In my mind the administrative levels of ISD’s are nothing more than bureaucrats that perpetuate the status quo.
Californians just completed a “Pink” Friday in protest of the pink slips that will be given to 26500 teachers this year.
The state of the public school system is so dismal it just completely blows my mind. They are entirely void of logic, largely in an attempt to conform to state and federal law. If the public school system in the United States were traded on the open market there is no doubt that it would be completely bankrupt by now.
So for now we lay off teachers, administrators keep their jobs and their incomes, we continue to promote a system so laden with welfare programs it can’t bear its own burden, and request further funding from the feds.
March 16th, 2009 at
The reason that our property taxes are so high is almost certainly that we have no income tax in Texas. The reason we have no income tax in Texas is anybody’s guess, but I have my suspicions it’s because in no place that I’ve ever lived before … California Arizona Oregon Canada and Italy … is a government so clearly set up to benefit the wealthy taxpayer. The tax laws, the insurance laws, the education structure, yeah, it’s all set up to the advantage of the top 10% of earners.
I’ve lived in a Welfare State (Canada) and Texas is no welfare state. And it’s not getting closer to being one either.
Probably there could be administrative improvements in the system. Probably there could be all kinds of improvements in the system. I’m not sure criticising people is a good way of improving the situation, Austin, I just wonder: what would you do if you were superintendant that would help students in the classroom?
Personally, I’ve though of starting a campaign to bring back bag lunches, but I’m not sure where to start.
finally, I would say one thing about “having children that they can’t afford.” I am keenly aware that the rich in this country don’t have as many children as the poor do. I think that’s a mark in favor of the poor. Someday, when we are old, only the children of poor people are apparently going to be around to work to pay for Social Security and keep our country running once we’re dead. That being the case, I think we should do everything we can to get them a good education. Giving them extra food they don’t need is not the answer, but answers are what we need, not negative reflections on the status quo.
March 18th, 2009 at
[...] is ticked off at FWISD, which seems to be thinking of making some layoffs, and has his own suggestions for how the [...]