Still Missing in action
In a post back in December, I provided teacher absentee data for D11. That data included absences for several school years. Listed below is Colorado Springs Education Association leadership absentee data for the first half of the 2006-2007 school year (through the end of December 2006). As I pointed out in my prior posts on teacher absences, the district can consider a student truant if the student misses 10 or more school days in a school year. With that in mind, note how many days some of these labor union leaders were absent in one semester and notice how many are on track to exceed 10 days absent once again in a 170 student contact day school year.
Mark Hampson – No data
Diane Beatty – 3
Nancy Haley – No data
Margie Couper – 8
David Fisk – 7
Katie Friedel – 7
Brian Kachel – 4
Jeff Marshall – 6
Scott Noller – No data
Patsy Oneal – 13
Lori Watson – 14
Tom Watson – 6
Jeanne Williams – 15
A new CSEA president was selected after the felony theft scandal. That person is Kevin Marshall. Kevin was absent from his classroom 10 days in the first semester of the 06-07 school year. He’s already truant and he hasn’t even taken the helm of the labor union yet.
The above labor union leaders were the same people who I listed in my prior post. There have been changes at the top due to the scandal and to new elections.
Former East math teacher Lori Watson frequently posts to criticize me on this blog. In her posts, she tells me that she is fully dedicated to her profession and that I am nothing but a low-life for questioning anything that she does. Note that Lori was absent for 14 days in the first semester alone this past year. If any of her students missed that same number of days in the whole year, D11 could take that student to court for truancy.
At the middle and high school levels, let’s take a look at the numbers of teachers who would be considered truant by D11 policy if they were held to the same standards as their students. This is numbers of teachers per school who were absent 10 or more days in one semester alone this past year. This does not include extended absences for sick days.
The first number is the number of teachers absent for 10 or more days during the first semester. The second number is the total number of teachers employed at that school. For example, 5/25 would mean that 5 teachers were absent for more than 10 days in a school with 20 teachers. The third number is obviously the percent of the teaching staff that was absent for more than 10 days in one semester.
East Middle School: 18/30 60%
Holmes Middles School: 6/36 17%
Irving Middle School: 11/47 23%
Mann Middle School: 5/36 14%
North Middle School: 12/34 31%
Russell Middle School: 5/45 11%
Sabin Middle School: 9/42 21%
West Middle School: 4/30 13%
Jenkins Middle School: 2/48 4%
The D11 board recently voted to close the doors on East Middle School. Lori Watson and others would have us believe that the staff spent the year working hard to save the school and to educate the students. 60% of the teaching staff missed more than 10 days in the first semester alone. What would those statistics have looked like had the staff NOT been giving their all for those kids? Does that really look like a serious educational environment?
As far as high schools, they looked like this:
Coronado: 10/80 12.5%
Doherty: 11/98 11%
Mitchell: 15/83 18%
Palmer: 18/103 17%
Wasson: 18/84 21%
Teachers are public servants and teacher absentee data is a matter of public record. Anyone can request to see the attendance data for any school that they choose.
The teacher absentee issue is a major issue that neither the board nor the administration will attempt to fix. As usual, the labor union stands squarely in the way of any attempt to reduce teacher absences. Not only does it affect the students whose teachers are chronically absent, but it affects the district budget as substitutes are hired by the hundreds each day, but particularly on Mondays and Fridays.
Those who make an effort to pay attention will probably be surprised to find out how many days their children find themselves sitting in front of a substitute teacher each year.
Mark Hampson – No data
Diane Beatty – 3
Nancy Haley – No data
Margie Couper – 8
David Fisk – 7
Katie Friedel – 7
Brian Kachel – 4
Jeff Marshall – 6
Scott Noller – No data
Patsy Oneal – 13
Lori Watson – 14
Tom Watson – 6
Jeanne Williams – 15
A new CSEA president was selected after the felony theft scandal. That person is Kevin Marshall. Kevin was absent from his classroom 10 days in the first semester of the 06-07 school year. He’s already truant and he hasn’t even taken the helm of the labor union yet.
The above labor union leaders were the same people who I listed in my prior post. There have been changes at the top due to the scandal and to new elections.
Former East math teacher Lori Watson frequently posts to criticize me on this blog. In her posts, she tells me that she is fully dedicated to her profession and that I am nothing but a low-life for questioning anything that she does. Note that Lori was absent for 14 days in the first semester alone this past year. If any of her students missed that same number of days in the whole year, D11 could take that student to court for truancy.
At the middle and high school levels, let’s take a look at the numbers of teachers who would be considered truant by D11 policy if they were held to the same standards as their students. This is numbers of teachers per school who were absent 10 or more days in one semester alone this past year. This does not include extended absences for sick days.
The first number is the number of teachers absent for 10 or more days during the first semester. The second number is the total number of teachers employed at that school. For example, 5/25 would mean that 5 teachers were absent for more than 10 days in a school with 20 teachers. The third number is obviously the percent of the teaching staff that was absent for more than 10 days in one semester.
East Middle School: 18/30 60%
Holmes Middles School: 6/36 17%
Irving Middle School: 11/47 23%
Mann Middle School: 5/36 14%
North Middle School: 12/34 31%
Russell Middle School: 5/45 11%
Sabin Middle School: 9/42 21%
West Middle School: 4/30 13%
Jenkins Middle School: 2/48 4%
The D11 board recently voted to close the doors on East Middle School. Lori Watson and others would have us believe that the staff spent the year working hard to save the school and to educate the students. 60% of the teaching staff missed more than 10 days in the first semester alone. What would those statistics have looked like had the staff NOT been giving their all for those kids? Does that really look like a serious educational environment?
As far as high schools, they looked like this:
Coronado: 10/80 12.5%
Doherty: 11/98 11%
Mitchell: 15/83 18%
Palmer: 18/103 17%
Wasson: 18/84 21%
Teachers are public servants and teacher absentee data is a matter of public record. Anyone can request to see the attendance data for any school that they choose.
The teacher absentee issue is a major issue that neither the board nor the administration will attempt to fix. As usual, the labor union stands squarely in the way of any attempt to reduce teacher absences. Not only does it affect the students whose teachers are chronically absent, but it affects the district budget as substitutes are hired by the hundreds each day, but particularly on Mondays and Fridays.
Those who make an effort to pay attention will probably be surprised to find out how many days their children find themselves sitting in front of a substitute teacher each year.
posted by Craig Cox | 10:31 PM
3 Comments:
Craig, I would be interested to know how many of these days coincide with teacher "development" days, in-service, and the plethora of other nonsensical teacher "work" days?
Great stuff keep it up.
Kent
Tell the truth for a change. You've lumped every imaginable type of absence into one neat little package, and label the teacher as being "absent". Teachers are given 11 personal (sick) leave days a year, but they're out of their classrooms on many occasions due to training required by their superiors, either at the building level or by central administration.
What you've done is the same as saying that a businessperson who isn't sitting behind their own desk on a given day is "absent" - even on days when they're traveling to meet clients, for example.
You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Quit trying to mislead people.
I have to give you credit, Anonymous, you consitently have an excuse for everything. You never offer a solution to anything, but you have an excuse for any occasion.
If the only reason that you and so many of your colleagues are absent so often from your classrooms is due to administration requirements, what is your labor union doing to address that issue? What proposals have you made to keep yourself in your classroom more often? If your response is "Nothing," then you would be correct.
Fact of the matter is that the administration is responsible for some training days, but most of those trainings are held during the 11 days that are set aside for teacher training. Your contract prohibits your building administrators from doing any training "after hours," which for you is anything beyond 35-1/2 hours per week. The contract also details every minute of your day, to include administrative uses of teachers. These types of absences are not due to administrators.
Are you really comparing yourselves to businessmen? I thought that you labor union mouthpieces were appalled every time some business comparisons were made. Funny (but sad) how you minimize the importance of having consistent teacher presence in the classrooms. These double-figure absences in one semester are not being caused by the administration, and your labor union, as always, is doing nothing to improve the situation. The reformers tried to address it, but YOUR hand-picked board of Gudvangen and his brilliant colleagues, felt that it was just too hard to deal with that tyoe of issue. Better to sit around and get along than to do anything productive.
I doubt that you are out "meeting new clients" on your time off, Anonymous.
What bothers you the most is that I am "telling the truth." You are used to living in the shadows; the light bothers your type tremendously.
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