Get back to work!

watts · Posted: 16 Dec 2002 04:06 PM Post subject:

I think EVERYONE posting on this topic agrees that raises and such should be based on results. Somehow though, this topic splintered off to talk about money and the sentiment I'm geting is that some or most of the Calexico teachers don't deserve what they take home. Well let's talk about money: After a quick conversation with Tina from the Calexico Unified School District I found out that starting teachers with no experience and a bachelors degree are paid $32,969.00 for a 185 day contract at 6.25 hours a day. Now this sounds like a deal, right? On the books it looks like you are making $28.51. But how many people actually believe that teachers only work 6.25 hours a day? Even bad teachers work more than that.

Someone before had mentioned how a person's job is to do their job- whatever it takes. While I completely agree with this, I don't think putting in the occasional extra hour or two compares with the amount of extra work that the teacher knows that he/she is going to have to do.

Another point that was brought up was this fleeing of good teachers (although I think some bad teachers flee as well to find more fruitful pastures) from the Valley to make more money. Starting teachers make more or less the same amount of money plus or minus $2,500 throughtout the state. The concept of Cost-of-Living doesn't really apply then to teachers because a teacher living in San Francisco does not make twice the amount of money that a teacher in Calexico does. So it really isn't a "smart" way to compare it.

But after reading everyone's comments regarding this topic I digressed and re-read the article that started it all. I was only able to read the portion of the article that was posted because the link took me to a different article but nowhere in the portion I read did it say anything about the teachers striking because they wanted more money. They were staging this sick-out because the board was dicking them around and not signing them to a contract and a pay raise that was already agreed to the year before.

While I don't condone this sort of strategy, it worked apparently because negotiations have ceased and an agreement has been reached. The results will be made public shortly and the teachers have their contract. Working these types of jobs without the worry of having to be laid off (unless you deserve it) is the least that any person could ask for.

verbal · Posted: 16 Dec 2002 08:35 PM Post subject:

Teachers got a 4.1% raise.

Plus, all the retro pay.

Just remember teachers are asked to teach (their job) with little support from their administrations and from almost no help from parents and the community. Reading to your kids goes a long ways.

Just to let you know I heard there was kid that got accepeted to both Harvard and MIT.

spic-ole · Posted: 16 Dec 2002 08:54 PM Post subject:

Mars · Posted: 17 Dec 2002 08:00 AM Post subject:

Is this calexico teachers fault, or up untill the college level to students final get to be responsible for their own actions?

chainsmokinmonkey · Posted: 17 Dec 2002 11:12 PM Post subject:

watts · Posted: 18 Dec 2002 10:36 AM Post subject:

It is unfair to blame the teacher for the student not succeeding once he/she is in college. Anyone who has gone off to college (or any other place for that matter) knows how hard it is to adapt to a totally different environment.

Teachers, among others, can only show you the door and it is up to you to open it (I stole that form Morpheus). Ultimately the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the student.

chainsmokinmonkey · Posted: 18 Dec 2002 03:02 PM Post subject:

watts · Posted: 18 Dec 2002 03:28 PM Post subject:

I think moving from Calexico to Cambridge is a big enough shock to have to deal with. It could have been for academic, social, or climate reasons that this student ended up back in the valley but his/her teachers obviously did something right for this kid to get accepted into MIT. However, responsibility and credit on getting in, exceeding (or surviving), and finishing college lie only with the student. If this kid got in with the help of his educators then he also must have had the tools to succeed but for whatever reason this student ended up back in the Valley. Fortunately this doesn't happen to every student.

spic-ole · Posted: 18 Dec 2002 03:42 PM Post subject:

watts · Posted: 18 Dec 2002 04:08 PM Post subject: