A Teacher Speaks Out Against the Greed
Someone shared this letter with us after the teacher went on TV while at the Capitol and showed her teacher contract to prove that other teachers were giving out their net pay, not their gross pay, when interviewing with reporters. She is outspoken against what she sees as greed and corruption in the
education system. The takeaway is that even teachers admit that they work five hours a day and less than 180 days per year and that they are well paid for a part time job.
Do the math, 180 days a year times the five hours they actually teach class, is 900 hours. $56,000 per year and another $10,000 in paid retirement and insurance is $66,000 per year or $73.00 per hour
"I am attaching a copy of my teaching contract. Some of my fellow teachers are saying on Facebook that I had to have permission from the school board to give out that information. That is not true. it is all public information and I have First Amendment rights. I knew I would stir them up, but almost $56,000 a year with benefits is very good pay for Oklahoma and especially for Congressional District 2 and Adair County when you look at median household income and per capita income.
Here is a big part of the problem in education. When most people talk about their child or grandchild's teacher, they think of a classroom teacher; or a math, science, or English teacher. But that isn't all the people that are considered teachers. We have too many people classified as "teachers"who never teach!And administrators are also classified as teachers! I have included the entire email below that includes the page you have on certified people.
If you look below, there is an email that my superintendent sent to the entire district regarding whether or not we would have to make up a snow day on March 30th. Near the bottom you will see a list of employees on the certified teacher salary schedule, I have highlighted them in blue and yellow.
Look at the people who are NOT teachers, yet who are classified as teachers! These people don't have students in class! Yet every one of them will get a raise if teachers get a raise! This is ridiculous!!! The growth of staff is much higher than the growth of students! Monday when Russell and I were at the capitol, one person asked me what a homeless liaison does. They were not aware of the McKinney-Vento act that gives federal money to schools if they can identify a student as homeless. They may be living with grandparents, or have sub-standard housing, or other qualifying actions. As far as I know the school does not have to PROVE that, just get a student to say that. But our district pays a certified salary to someone to be a homeless liaison.
We have several retired teachers who are back getting paid $15,000 a year and never have students. Our superintendent Lisa Presley is retiring in May. She created herself a job called BOE/Federal Programs Assistant and even recommended herself for the position and the board hired her to come back next school year at a salary of $15,000 which is the maximum a retired teacher can make from a school. That can be verified at this link.
The board does similar approving of items that have already occurred almost monthly. You can look on almost every board agenda and find similar items from previous dates. That is against the law! I brought that to the attention of our former district attorney in the past and he would not act on it. No telling how many other districts are violating the law in the same manner.
I don't like the proposed bill that puts teachers into 3 different categories and ignores these other positions. In my opinion there should be a certification/designation as classroom teacher and a different designation for people who do not have classes teaching students. And they should not be considered teachers unless they are teaching a full load of classes. That could be prorated (for example, we have 6 class periods a day with one plan period of the 6. So really we teach 5 periods a day. If they teach one period they would be 20% a teacher, two periods, 40%, etc. up to 5 periods a day 100%. The same formula could be used for schools that had 7 periods a day or block scheduling).
I hope some of this information is useful to you and will show you what is really going on in education. I do have 25 years experience and this is my 26th, and last, year to teach. I am retiring at the end of this school year, but not because of what people are saying. I had planned this for a good while. And it will be really hard for them to retaliate against me when I only have 38 more days of school left!
Thank you so much!
Teresa Turner
From: Lisa Presley
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2018 12:33 PM
To: District
Cc: Lisa Presley
Subject: 2017-18 School Calendar
District:
As you know, the district missed school days on January 4-5, 2018 due to the flooding at Heritage. These days missed have been considered snow days for the school district. The district has to consider the implication of missing these days regarding students, certified staff and support staff among which were all shared with the District Calendar Committee in February and the TPS School Board at the February board meeting. To complicate matters further, the district has multiple work calendars for the various classifications of employees, and has a component of the TEA Negotiated agreement that indicates the following:
#6. P. 13 of the TEA Negotiated Agreement: The contractual year will be no more than 178 days, which shall be designated for instruction and professional development and may be designated for parent-teacher conferences as recommended by the Calendar Committee and approved by the Board of Education. Upon the closure of the school for inclement weather or other reasons, members of the bargaining unit will only be required to make up days missed to meet accreditation purposes. (July 2017).
Because the district determines time in class by School Hours, the district would not need to make up days to meet accreditation purposes. If there are no additional school closures, March 30 will remain a Snow Day which means that there would be no school. Also, the last day of school will remain the same on May 17. Certified teaching staff will not work on March 30.
As I mentioned above, the district must consider all groups affected by a school closing so here is where it gets complicated. Because hourly wage support staff missed time on January 4-5, the district is providing the opportunity to make up this time missed on the following dates: Snow Day March 30 and on Parent Teacher Conferences April 12 from 4-7 PM and on April 13 from 8-11 AM. This time will make up the two days missed in January.
Some professional development is being planned for one or more of those days for support employees and supervisors or principals will communicate the duties that will be included on those dates for support employees.
This is an opportunity for hourly wage employees to make up time that would otherwise be docked from their pay. This is a gesture made in good faith. Support employees that need to take leave on March 30 and/or April 12 from 4-7 PM and April 13 from 8-11 AM will need to request leave.
Some support and administrative staff are scheduled to work on March 30. Please review your work calendars to familiarize yourselves with required work days or consult with your supervisor. Below is a comprehensive list of employees and whether they work on March 30 and/or April 12 from 4-7 PM and April 13 from 8-11 AM
Support employees that will work on March 30 and April 12 from 4-7 PM and April 13 from 8-11 AM to make up for missing work on January 4-5
Bi-Lingual InterpreterBus DriversBus Monitor (Glenda Hamilton only)CN ManagersCN secretariesCN cooks and food service workersGuard Shack AttendantLPNsParaprofessionalsPAC Asst. House ManagerElementary Attendance/ReceptionistElementary Office ManagersTMS Office ManagerTMS Counselor SecretaryTMS Attendance/ReceptionistHS ReceptionistHS Asst. Counselor SecretaryHS Attendance/ReceptionistAlt Ed Secretary
Employees scheduled to work on March 30(refer to work calendars) and on April 12-13 PT Conferences
Asst. PrincipalsTHS office managerTHS registrarTransportation SecretaryAthletic Dept ManagerCN Warehouse SpecialistBOE ReceptionistAnnex receptionistEnrollment ClerkMigrant Recruiter & ELL Community LiaisonCurriculum/PD/Special Services SecretaryCN SecretaryDistrict SecretaryJROTC AssistantSuperintendentExecutive DirectorsAdmin Specialist and ManagersAthletic DirectorCN DirectorSpecial Programs CoordinatorAsst. Transportation DirectorPrincipalsAlt Ed DirectorCustodiansGrounds/MaintenanceMechanicsInstallation/Service TechMaintenance SecretaryDirector of Maint., Grounds, and Transportation
Employees NOT scheduled to work on March 30. These employees fall under the TEA Negotiated Agreement employees on the certified teacher salary schedule. Work during PT Conferences April 12-13.
TeachersCounselorsLibrariansRNLiteracy CoachTech Instruction CoachMath CoachSpeech PathologistHomeless LiaisonStudent AdvocateAttendance OfficerAthletic TrainerSafe and Drug Free Schools CoordinatorCommunity Prevention Specialist
If you are a support employee and have questions about your duties or professional development on March 30 and during PT Conferences on April 12-13, or about leave, please contact your direct supervisor. Professional development planned activities will be announced soon.
If you are any other employee classification, please do the same. Hopefully this isn't as clear as mud but has clarified the remainder of the school calendar. Circumstances state-wide and potential loss of time in school in March could throw a wrench in this whole plan!
Again, thank you all for what you do for our kids! This email is a good illustration that it Takes a Village!
Lisa M. Presley
Superintendent
Tahlequah Public Schools
