Thread: All of you, everyone single one, YOUR FIRED, RI entire school staff

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/02/24...tire-school%2F

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Decision to Fire Entire School Staff
by Amy Hatch (Subscribe to Amy Hatch's posts) Feb 24th 2010 2:03PM

Categories: Teens & tweens, In The News, Education

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Superintendent Frances Gallo followed through on her controversial plan to fire all the teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island Feb. 23, after the district and the teachers union failed to come to an agreement about how to fix the failing school -- and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan lauded the decision.




The Central Falls school board backed Gallo up and voted 5 to 2 in favor of her plan to clean house, the Providence Journal reports. Effective at the end of this school year, all 93 Central Falls staff members will be terminated, including classroom teachers, reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals.

According to the Journal, somewhere between 600 and 700 people -- many of them staunch union members -- came out to support the teachers, but to no avail. According to the Journal, George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, told the rally crowd: "This is immoral, illegal, unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful and disrespectful. What is happening here tonight is the wrong thing ... and we're not going to put up with it."

His words, the paper reports, were received with shouts of approval from supporters.

Despite this public display of solidarity, heavyweights at the national level showed their own support for Gallo's plan and the board's approval. According to the Journal, Duncan says he "applauded" them for "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids."

Those kids may not agree, according to New England Cable News. The Web site reports that teachers and students stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the board meeting, many of them weeping as trustees read aloud all the names of all 93 staff members. Some wore the school colors, the Journal reports.

"It's not motivating me to come to school anymore," student Kelyn Salazar tells NECN, through tears. "It's not going to change any student's mind of learning."

How did it come to this? Secretary Duncan is requiring all states to identify the lowest 5 percent of their schools and correct them by one of four methods: school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation which requires a longer school day, among other changes; or "turnaround" which requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired in the fall.

Gallo first proposed the "transformation" method to address the problems at Central Falls, and asked teachers to do the following: Add 25 minutes to the school day, provide tutoring before and after school, eat lunch with students once a week, submit to more rigorous evaluations, attend weekly after-school planning sessions with fellow teachers and participate in two weeks of training during the summer break.

According to the Journal, Gallo and the union initially were on the same page. However, Gallo said she could only pay the teachers for some of those proposed extra duties and that's when talks broke down.

And so, Gallo opted for "turnaround."

Central Falls is a small town -- just one square mile -- but according to NECN it is one of the poorest in the state, and the statistics for its high school are grim, indeed: Only 7 percent of the students are proficient in math standards and 52 percent drop out before graduation.

"We don't take lightly that our scores are low. Everyone acknowledges that we have work to do," Central Falls Teachers' Union President Jane Sessums tells NECN.

The teachers who lost their jobs are allowed to reapply, but no more than 50 percent can be rehired under Gallo's plan. They may also apply for jobs elsewhere in the district.

B.K. Nordan, one of two board members who voted against firing all the teachers, nonetheless delivered stinging criticism of the school's staff, the Journal reports.

"I don't believe this is a worker's rights issue. I believe it's a children's rights issue," Nordan said. "... By every statistical measure I've seen, we are not doing a good enough job for our students ... The rhetoric that these are poor students, ESL students, you can imagine the home lives ... this is exactly why we need you to step up, regardless of the pay, regardless of the time involved. This city needs it more than anybody. I demand of you that you demand more of yourself and those around you."