Thursday, July 24, 2008

JCTA is "a bunch of Assholes." Oh wait... I deserve 83 more chances to take that back.

Toni's story today would be laugh-out-loud funny if it wasn't so indicative of just how low the JCTA has sunk in its effort to defend - what one can only hope are - the district's worst teachers.

How many times is it OK for a teacher to threaten to bring a gun to school?

JCTA says they need a 12-week chance to improve.

How many student-teacher sleepovers are OK?

JCTA says 12-weeks worth....so...84 I suppose.

Suppose a foreign teacher's visa expires?

JCTA says it doesn't matter.

Suppose a teacher is drunk at school? ...and then got a second chance by completing a treatment program - which he then failed to complete. How many chances should he get?

JCTA says he's "still entitled to that 12-week period of time to correct his deficiencies."

Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth! Excellent.


This from Toni Konz at the C-J:

JCPS tells why it let 18 teachers go
Suit contends employees didn't get chance to correct problems

One teacher allegedly threatened to bring a gun to school.

Another is accused of taking students shopping and having students spend the night in her home, and is under investigation by the school district and state for rewriting student portfolios.

A third was absent without leave for a month, and a fourth called her students "a bunch of assholes."

They are among 18 teachers suing Jefferson County Public Schools to get their jobs back, saying they weren't given a chance to correct their deficiencies.

Records filed in Jefferson Circuit Court by the district show that 17 teachers, who were on one-year contracts, received poor performance evaluations for the 2007-08 school year, and 14 had documented disciplinary problems, with some resulting in written reprimands and suspensions.

One teacher's contract was not renewed because his work visa expired.

But Everett Hoffman, an attorney representing the teachers as part of the lawsuit that was filed in May by the Jefferson County Teachers Association, said some were never reprimanded or disciplined for the instances cited in their dismissals. And he said many of those teachers had received glowing job evaluations in previous years...

...According to documents filed by the district in court, 14 of the 18 teachers had significant misconduct or disciplinary problems, in addition to having received a poor evaluation for the 2007-08 year.

Only three teachers -- Valerie Jefferson, Clarence Harvey and Deborah Owen -- had no misconduct or disciplinary notes in their employee files. The fourth teacher, Peter Cossid, had an expired work visa and has since moved back to the Philippines.

The other teachers' files included incidents ranging from excessive tardiness and absenteeism to berating students and permitting students to skip class. Other allegations are more serious...

...The union is arguing that if the 18 teachers are not rehired, they will suffer irreparable harm.

"Some of these teachers have medical conditions; some are taking care of family members; some are single mothers or single parents; some could lose their homes if they do not get their jobs back," Hoffman said.

Gorman said this type of job loss doesn't rise to the level of irreparable harm. He argued it's the students who are facing irreparable harm, on the "verge of getting back 18 teachers ... who don't have very good performance and documented misconduct issues."

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