The Superintendent has the support of the state Education Commisssioner, who said she had to choose 1 of 4 reform plans. Both believe they can do this under state and federal law, though of course the union will fight.(The idiots want more money while making $72-78K/year?!?) You go, girls!!!
projo.com
More:
But, the superintendent said in a phone interview Wednesday, she is determined to fix the high school’s deep-rooted problems and she is not going to waver from doing everything that must be done to meet the needs of the 800 students there. For the first time, Gallo knows she can get it done because state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has mandated the overhaul, giving Gallo federal and state authority to transform the school.
“We have a graduation rate of 48 percent. I have 19-year-olds in classes with 14-year-olds. It’s the middle of the school year and 50 percent of the students at the high school are failing all of their classes,” Gallo said. “We need these changes so we can move from where we are to where we need to be for the health and safety of the whole state. We have to meet these students where they are, bring these students up and lift the bar.”
While there is no meeting scheduled yet, both Gallo and Central Falls Teachers Union President Jane Sessums said Wednesday that they expect to sit down before the Friday deadline.
Sessums said that many teachers are supportive of the changes Gallo is pushing for, but want more details about what she hopes to achieve.
Gallo says that firing the teachers is not her first choice but she turned to that option after talks with union leaders reached an impasse.
Video
Money was a sticking point. The superintendent said she could not pay teachers for all the extra work she expected of them.
Gallo said she offered to pay teachers $30 an hour for two additional weeks of training in the summer. Gallo also said she would try to find grant money to pay teachers for 90 minutes a week of after-school planning time, also at $30 an hour.
But she says she has no extra money to pay for other changes she is pushing for, including lengthening the instructional day by 25 minutes, so teachers work 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. instead of 7:50 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. She wants teachers to formalize a rotating tutoring schedule, so a teacher is available to help students for an hour before or after school, and she wants teachers to have lunch with students one day a week.
“Right now, they have no duties,” Gallo said. “But I don’t want them to see lunch as a duty. I want them to establish true relationships with not a few students, but all students.”
The average teacher’s salary at the high school ranges between $72,000 and $78,000 a year, because most are at the district’s top step, Gallo said.
Union officials have been pushing for $90 per hour and want the district to pay for more of the additional responsibilities.
“There’s a difference between doing outside-of-school work like going to a workshop on a voluntary basis … and compelling teachers to work,” said Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, which represents Central Falls.
If the teachers sign off on the superintendent’s plan, the district would be opting for the “transformational model,” one of four options Gist said Gallo could use to fix the high school, one of the poorest and lowest-performing in the state. This model requires replacing the principal, a step Gallo has already taken, and that teachers agree to substantial changes, including a longer school day.
The other options are:
•Closing the school;
•Inviting a charter school or management organization to run the school; or
•Replacing the principal and firing all the teachers, rehiring no more than 50 percent, referred to as the “turnaround model.”
This “turnaround model” is the one Gallo says she will use if the teachers don’t agree to the transformation plan.
Trustee Chairwoman Anna Cano-Morales said the board supports Gallo.
“The trustees are willing to support Superintendent Gallo in her plans, whatever they are,” Cano-Morales said. “We are all in this together. We would love the cooperation of the union, and we are very supportive of the transformation model. I think it’s the best model for Central Falls. It preserves all of the good work and great teachers and innovation — all of the gains we just saw on the latest round of the state tests. It preserves all that, and builds on it.”
Gallo said she has to know by Friday whether the district will pursue the transformation or turnaround model. Next week is February vacation and Gallo must submit her reform plan to the commissioner. If the district is going to send termination notices to all the high school teachers, the teachers need to be notified by Feb. 22, the day before the next trustee meeting, Gallo said.
“I really do support my teachers and I think many of them are willing to make these changes,” Gallo said. “When I meet with the union leadership, all I hear about are the adult needs, even though I am trying to concentrate on student needs … I’ve heard too many times that the students can’t learn, that they don’t care. Well, they can learn and they do care. They care tremendously about their education, about their teachers.”
projo.com |
