OMG, Missouri Public Schools

[Sugar Dick]

http://www.kmbc.com/news/26520652/detail.html

Parents Upset About School On MLK Day

ODESSA, Mo. -- Some parents in Odessa said they were upset that the school district chose to make up one of last week's snow days on Monday's Martin Luther King Jr holiday.

The district's small percentage of black students are allowed to have an excused absence, but parents said it's not fair that other students don't have the same option.

"There are others who might want to celebrate Martin Luther King Day," said parent Kim Strickland.

"I just felt that it was not right that just a small bunch, just because they were black kids, they would be excused only," said parent Kiesha Morris.

They said they feel like that holiday's significance is being played down in a district with less than 2 percent black enrollment.

"We certainly mean no disrespect," said Odessa superintendent Bob Brinkley. "We are acknowledging the African-American student population. But there are other days that are holidays, like Veterans Day, where we have school as well."

"I understand the snow day," Morris said. "I understand that it has to be made up. But frankly, I don't think they should have to be at school."

An Odessa kindergarten class studied King's "I Have a Dream" speech in class.

This is the second time in recent years that the Odessa district has held class on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

District officials said they have not yet drawn up next year's schedule, but they said they're considering making the King holiday a school holiday in 2012.

[pike]

Oh dear what a train wreck

[KST8FAN]

https://fox4kc.com/2019/03/05/smithville-students-may-need-to-submit-to-random-drug-testing-to-drive-to-school/

Tom

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[8manpick]

https://fox4kc.com/2019/03/05/smithville-students-may-need-to-submit-to-random-drug-testing-to-drive-to-school/

Tom

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Unamerican.


Also, nice bump.

['taterblast]

Independence MO school district is moving to 4 day weeks. that's stupid, right?

[bucket]

Independence MO school district is moving to 4 day weeks. that's stupid, right?

Mayor Lucas doesn’t like it

['taterblast]

i get that not all jobs are M-F 9-5 but this just seems like it would mess with a lot of working parents who will suddenly have their kids with nothing to do on a weekday.

[Cire]

I think it's because they can't get anyone to work there.

What good are schools if no one is there to teach?

This is going to be a real problem.  I have a lot of family and friends that work in Olathe and freaking Olathe is unable to replace people that are quitting/retiring.  TONS of exemptions being made IE: we'll hire you and you need to get certified within the next 2 years or we will fire you.

People quitting and leaving mid year used be be basically unheard of.  My daughter's middle school (nice area/high achieving school) has had 5 teachers quit, 3 of them didn't even finish the semester, gave 2 weeks and out.

[MakeItRain]

Independence MO school district is moving to 4 day weeks. that's stupid, right?

It's a trend, unfortunately. Schools don't want to do it but are forced to. It's the first time I'm hearing of a district as big as Independence doing it though, it's usually done in rural districts.

[CNS]

Didn’t all of Oklahoma do this two years ago?

['taterblast]

I think it's because they can't get anyone to work there.

are they keeping salaries the same?

[Rage Against the McKee]

I think it's because they can't get anyone to work there.

are they keeping salaries the same?

Pretty much. Not like a school has a lot of options with being able to increase payroll, though. Has to be addressed at the state level.

['taterblast]

I think it's because they can't get anyone to work there.

are they keeping salaries the same?

Pretty much. Not like a school has a lot of options with being able to increase payroll, though. Has to be addressed at the state level.

i just meant they need to be keeping salaries the same, at least, for the decrease in school days to be something that attracts teachers. which is sounds like they are.

[mocat]

has anyone seen where all the weed money will be going? if not to schools than what are we doing here

[OK_Cat]

Didn’t all of Oklahoma do this two years ago?

No. Some rural schools do it but not many.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MakeItRain]

I think it's because they can't get anyone to work there.

are they keeping salaries the same?

Pretty much. Not like a school has a lot of options with being able to increase payroll, though. Has to be addressed at the state level.

i just meant they need to be keeping salaries the same, at least, for the decrease in school days to be something that attracts teachers. which is sounds like they are.

You can measure school time in hours or days, depends on what the state allows their schools to do, in Iowa schools have the option of attending a set number of hours or days. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that most schools that use a 4 day school week, generally have the same amount of class time as those in a 5 day week. The days are longer and there's fewer break days. This is also used to satisfy the inverse, which are schools that don't have the traditional 2.5-3 month summer off. There is such a wide variance now on how schools get to the requisite number of hours that's needed. The four day a week plan isn't as radical when you consider a lot of schools do what's called early out, which is one day of the week, usually Wednesday or Thursday, gets released right at or just after lunch time.

[Cire]

Missouri does days,

Kansas does minutes

[Rage Against the McKee]

Regardless of how the time is measured, schools are not attracting employees. Wages are going to have to increase or we won't have enough teachers.

[CNS]

Regardless of how the time is measured, schools are not attracting employees. Wages are going to have to increase or we won't have enough teachers.

Nah, they will just reduce barriers to entry.

[Cire]

My sister would say that her pay is OK, the issue is the ammount of money that she's had to invest in order to get her current salary.  On top of a bach degree, she has a Masters, cost around 13,000, plus she's taken another 48 credit hours at about 120$ per credit (on the cheap side) to keep getting salary raises.  Schools don't reimburse or subsidize that.  To get to the highest point on the salary schedule you've got to get to 60 hours total.

This day and age and witht he skyrocketing cost of school, I see why kids don't want to do that.

[MakeItRain]

Regardless of how the time is measured, schools are not attracting employees. Wages are going to have to increase or we won't have enough teachers.

Nah, they will just reduce barriers to entry.

Yeah, this has happened before, namely in the early 2000's when districts hired anyone who had a bachelor's degree and wanted a job. I remember when Dallas Public Schools came to the K-State career fair with a checkbook and were giving people $3000 signing bonuses on the spot.

[CNS]

As soon as you can be a teacher with an Associates or some other special certificate from some ITT Tech type place, all that concern goes away.

[Cire]

As soon as you can be a teacher with an Associates or some other special certificate from some ITT Tech type place, all that concern goes away.

I would imagine retention rates would be worse than they already are at that rate.  Letting less educated people be in charge of educating children might give you a larger pool but...

[CNS]

As soon as you can be a teacher with an Associates or some other special certificate from some ITT Tech type place, all that concern goes away.

I would imagine retention rates would be worse than they already are at that rate.  Letting less educated people be in charge of educating children might give you a larger pool but...

I don't think things are getting better.  I don't think public ed is on a trajectory to start getting better.  I may be crazy, but I would imagine this is an idea tossed out for discussion sometime in the next few years. 

[Cire]

I think if teacher Ed programs were heavily subsidized it would make a huge difference.

Forgiveness exists but is hard to qualify for, lots of hoops.

I was hoping the pandemic would have made people realize how important the schools are and taking care of teachers/public servants are but alas


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk