At your walk-in, have your participants sign the attached STAKEHOLDER LETTER OF SUPPORT and return it to your union rep. The stack of letters will be presented to the board on May 10.
If you cannot attend the walk-in, please sign our online petition.
This letter was submitted via our open letter form. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Dear JCPS.
Dear JCPS,
I am not a teacher. I am not a parent. I’m a former student and a teacher candidate at Eastern Kentucky University. My classmates and I have closely followed the news recently regarding the rubbish that Dr. Donna Hargens and her crew of non-school working advisors have been saying. I am writing this letter on behalf of all teacher candidates at every college in Kentucky, much less America. We WILL NOT be looking for a job in your district once we graduate.
The most disturbing thing about your district is the disconnect that your teachers feel to their support staff. Upon reading on Dear JCPS, talking to teachers in your district and reading the comments from educators and parents on your Facebook I have noticed a trend. You do not support your teachers. You are quick to blame them if at all possible, you are quick to write off a teacher being ASSAULTED in your schools, and you are quick to lie to parents about what is really going on your schools. I’m not sure if you’re scared of Dr. Hargans, scared of parents or scared because you don’t want teachers telling people how horribly they are treated in your district. The problem isn’t the teachers; they are doing their job. The problem is YOU, the central office- the people who think that students can do whatever they want and not get a real punishment for it. It’s time to own up to the madness you have created in your schools. It’s time to reform your district, and time to listen to your teachers.
I was reminded of a story before I wrote this letter, a teacher that is dear to me was struck by a student. Not on accident, this student flat out assaulted this teacher, punched her in the face. To the existent of if it were to happen on the street, the student would have been arrested and charged with assault. This teacher had to explain to her administrators why she didn’t want the student back in class. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You have a discipline problem, STOP DENYING IT. As a student I was bullied, when I finally said something to my administrators they couldn’t even suspend the kid for harassing and bullying me because he was on some sort of plan that apparently bars the school from disciplining students the way he should. IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO QUIT BEING SCARED. Stop being scared of parents and backlash. YOU are the school board, you are supposed to have the backs of your students and teachers. Instead you are scared to do your duties because you don’t want to piss anyone off.
Recently, it has come to light that Dr. Hargens and her crew believe it is for the better if we revise the student code of conduct to make it even more lenient. The backlash is astonishing. Every single post about it has 200+ comments about how infuriating it is to not be able to discipline kids in schools anymore. Have we forgotten about the students who go school and do everything they are expected, and never cause a problem? Are we going to interrupt their learning because we have a belligerent student in the class that the school can’t do anything with because it goes against the code of conduct? Not to mention, it already puts teachers that are fighting to maintain order in their classroom even more against the wall. When did we as a district become so concerned with the money we get by having a student in school every day that we don’t teach discipline? When I was a student was I only worth $118 a day to you? That’s what it’s starting to look like. You aren’t doing the city any favors by teaching kids that there are no repercussion for their actions. Stand up for your teachers, LET THEM TEACH.
All I have to say is, it’s time for reform in your district. You already face a teacher shortage. Why do you think that is? No really, answer that. It’s not because there aren’t teachers looking for a job. It’s because you don’t support your teachers and a teacher would have to be crazy to deal with the things this district makes them go through on a daily basis. FIX YOUR DISTRICT. Your teachers are running out of ways to tell you. Listen to them, they know what is going on in the schools- unlike you. You visit schools and the teachers tell students to be on their best behavior. You don’t see what really goes on in your schools. Go sub a day at any high school, you will see the real JCPS. The JCPS you deny is truly there. FIX YOUR SYSTEM, and maybe you can attract some teachers. If you don’t, good luck because your teachers are looking for the first opportunity to exit stage left. Future educators don’t want to work for a district that doesn’t support their teachers, neither do your teachers. FIX IT.
BR
NOTE: While the author’s identity is protected here, they are not anonymous to Dear JCPS. Any board member wishing to address the concerns shared here can contact our administrators to make a connection.
Our Public Forum on #The3Rs of High-Stakes Testing was held on April 28. It was livestreamed on Twitter via Periscope. We also accepted questions via survey and via Twitter. Our handle is @Dear_JCPS.
Our PowerPoint can be found here: The New 3 R’s.
Links to documents referenced during the forum will be posted here, as well.
KDE Opt Out Forms can be found here.
Dear JCPS,
I am already hearing whispers about a teacher strike. I guess the last one was in the 1970’s. Perhaps Dr Hargens needs to see that we can only be pushed so far. #Deweyhensleywasright
–TJ
This speech was presented to the JCPS Board of Education on April 26, 2016. The video replay can be found here.
Dear JCPS,
My t-shirt says:
We LOVE our teachers
Our school’s the BEST
We are more than a
SCORE on a TEST!
KPREP is May 9-13. Many schools started test prep, boot camps, pull outs, etc. as soon as we returned from spring break. We are already receiving reports of test prep violations, misinformation, and anxiety leading up to the tests. Parents are aware of the national opt out movement and are asking questions about their rights. KDE has provided direction about opting out but there is no information available about how that plays out in JCPS.
Therefore, Dear JCPS and a few partner advocacy groups decided to put on a forum to get those questions answered. It’s this coming Thursday night at the Aeroclub. It’s called the 3R’s of High-Stakes Testing: Parents’ Rights, Responsibilities and Repercussions. We hope you can join us.
On April 11, we sent an invitation and a list of these questions to JCPS. They originally accepted our invite with three names attending.
On April 19, nearly a week after marketing resources had already been expended and wheels were in motion, JCPS suddenly declined citing a recirculated KDE document from a year ago. What changed?
We were informed that the district wants everyone to participate in the assessments so they will not be answering any of our parents questions. Why?
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents posses the “fundamental right” to “direct the upbringing and education of their children.” Furthermore, the Court declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State: those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” In Meyer, the Supreme Court held that the right of parents to raise their children free from unreasonable state interferences is one of the unwritten “liberties” protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (262 U.S. 399).
Many feel the high stakes, standardized tests and test prep that do not guide instruction and instead are used to test and punish have become excessive, and we have a right to this information. So I will ask again.
You say you want more involved parents. Yet we are treated as if we don’t have the capacity to be part of the decisions necessary to educate our own children.
Dear JCPS,
No doubt you are receiving a flood of comments today following yesterday’s work sessions, as are we. I wanted to share with you several concerns/observations that have been posed to our group regarding “project equity” and the code of conduct committees and would appreciate your response.
First, the Project Equity’s Community Advisory Team (CAT) is a misnomer. Only a speck of actual “community” members who are actively engaged in public primary and secondary education (vs. private sector or university) are on the committee. And not a single teacher is part of the employee component, yet JCPS has 6 district-level employees represented. And is there a parent on the committee who is tasked with ensuring the students’ interests are protected over those of the employees? I don’t see one. I’m sorry, but this committee seems to be out of proportion for a group that truly wants to reach an equitable solution for all three groups represented in your graphic during yesterday’s presentation. This feels more like the fox guarding the hen house.
Second, you’ll recall, the original audit from Adam Edelen came with the observation that administrative salaries were too high, not teachers. So I’m not sure how this discussion led to the talking point that teachers are “overpaid.” I’m guessing the committee mix above could have had something to do with it. Our teachers are paid a premium, yes, but overpaid? That’s a leap, made by the wrong people. Our teachers endure a lot more than the average district. Dear JCPS feels that pitching an idea of effectively reducing teacher pay (through no COLA and step) should come AFTER the district addresses some of the “incentives,” discipline issues, low teacher morale and high turnover that have been identified. This is terrible timing! Not to mention, the cost to bring in and train new teachers comes at the expense of our students, especially in priority schools. Has anyone taken that into account? Again, we feel that the make-up of this committee has led to some very short-sighted conclusions, and seems to have missed the point entirely.
Third, the district is also catching some flak regarding the make-up of its Code of Conduct committee. I’m sure you’re aware of the message circulating (see attached). Other feedback we’ve received is that until there are more alternative school seats, as well as funding and training to support better implementation of restorative practices, further relaxing the code of conduct will do more harm than good. Once again, the cart is before the horse, and it sends the wrong message to the teachers and staff who are entrusted to care for our children. They need to feel valued and supported. These work session discussions have done neither of those things. And this reckless maneuvering continues to undermine our ability to meet our Vision 2020 goals.
Please read this open letter from a teacher. I’ve also attached an image of a private comment shared by a teacher this morning, which echoes teacher sentiments district-wide today.
Parents, community members, teachers, students all need district leaders who will do better than this. We ask that JCPS go back to the drawing board to make sure these decisions are being influenced by committees made up of people who bring balanced and “tuned-in” perspectives, who will work together to find equitable and sustainable solutions, and provide our school board with proposals that are likely to result in the best results — the first time! Our kids’ futures are at stake. We don’t get do-overs.
Thank you,
Gay Adelmann
Dear JCPS
This is the speech delivered by Dear JCPS Student Voice Member Sarah Vincent at the 2/23/16 Board Meeting.
Dear JCPS,
As you all know, next week is the National Shadow a Student Day. I’m here tonight to follow up on the challenge that fellow student Peyton Adelmann presented a month ago. Since we first made this challenge, classmates from across our district have come forward to invite each of you to shadow them. Therefore, each of you has received an invitation from a real student who would like to share their day with you. The invitation contains their contact information to help you connect with your student and make your shadow day as easy as possible.
I am honored to have Ms Duncan already accept my invitation to be my shadow next Monday – to walk the halls with me and see my school through my eyes. We are also honored that Ms Horne and Dr. Willner have already accepted the shadow a student challenge as well. Ms Horne has even signed up to ride the bus!
We hope everyone who has the important responsibility of making decisions that impact our futures understands that our challenges cannot be solved by making decisions by looking at the data alone. You get a better understanding of the “why” behind the data — and the best ways to improve situations — by seeing what really happens in the hallways, in the classrooms and talking to teachers, students and staff.
Thank you for your dedication to the students and for setting aside a day to shadow students. We are excited for this chance to share a glimpse our daily school life. Hopefully, we can both learn something from our day together. And you can use our experience to keep making all our schools into the best that they can be.
Dear JCPS:
I am an educator with more than 13 years experience in public schools. Prior to moving back to my hometown, Louisville, KY, I worked in the metro DC area, specifically in the Alexandria City public schools and then for Fairfax County public schools.
While I can assure you that no large public school district is perfect, JCPS is so far in the opposite direction that I am embarrassed for my hometown. My children attended TC Williams High School in Alexandria, VA…made famous by the fictional movie, “Remember the Titans!” Whatever you want to believe about strides made in desegregation and race relations in Louisville, I can guarantee you that racism exists in JCPS, and an example of that is Wheatley ES, a west end school with an almost completely black student body. It is a school that is essentially segregated. We have a building which is old and in disrepair. We have old, outdated technology, and our library has never been updated, though it has been due for renovation for years. We have a principal who is young and too inexperienced to handle the challenges our school faces, and only 17% of our students are on grade level.
Before you think that the problem lies in sub par teaching, I want to tell you that I have great admiration for my colleagues. They are excellent teachers who fight the good fight daily with little or no support from an administration who does not know what to do to improve the situation. Our students come from severely disadvantaged homes. Many are refugees from war-torn Somalia who suffer from PTSD. Others are children who are crack babies, fetal alcohol syndrome babies, abused, neglected, and malnourished. Many of my students have parents in jail, drug addicted parents, or parents whom they don’t even know. The emotional trauma that these students have already encountered has taken a heavy toll on their ability to focus and learn. They are so consumed with survival that they cannot take on reading, writing and arithmetic.
Due to these unexaggerated realities, the students at Wheatley have severe emotional behavioral disabilities. The most severe students cause constant disruptions that prevent the other students in a class from learning. Teachers find themselves so consumed with keeping kids safe that little teaching and learning takes place. Students are unable to focus and stay on task when they feel so unsafe.
As you know, it is difficult to get parents on board to have their children receive services. It is my understanding that more of Wheatley’s students receive services this year than before thanks to the addition of another counselor to our staff. However, the school environment is unhealthy and non conducive to learning. In fact, at least 7 teachers have quit the school since the beginning of the year. One of our 3 fifth grade classes lost 2 teachers since August due to the behavior of the students. After the second teacher quit, the students were divided up and half were added to one fifth grade class while the others joined a fourth grade class. The result is that in a school which already has unruly student behavior, we now have two classes of nearly 30 students…and these are the worst behaved students in the building!
My principal tells me that no support can be added to the classrooms beyond what we already have due to budget cuts from last year. If JCPS truly wants its students to learn then we need to think outside of the box to get more educators into buildings with severe emotionally challenged students so that the student teacher ratio is much smaller.
However, the way that the superintendent wants to do that…by relocating teachers from east end schools will fail. Those teachers will simply quit, as so many of our staff already have, if forced to contend with the daily abuse we endure from these students.
Last week, after yet another failed class period with fourth graders exhibiting hostile behavior in my class (I am a special areas teacher), I asked one of our counselors why I should not just quit. Every day I feel like I am trying to teach in front of 6 firing squads of angry children. I put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into developing appropriate and engaging lessons with which the students will connect. I am not a novice teacher, but have more than used up my bag of tricks to handle unruly children. These children simply are not ready to learn because they are too consumed with survival.
My only recourse is to write up a behavior referral in Infinite campus and call for an SRT. Unfortunately there are not enough SRTs in my building to handle the continuous need. Behavior referrals are ineffective because in the end a student cannot truly be suspended beyond a certain number of days, and I assure you that the worst behaved children never miss a day of school. Further, writing referrals takes time at my computer, and dealing with behaviors takes both my hands as well as my full concentration. Often, I never get around to writing the referrals…so they go undocumented. By the way, the behaviors I am talking about are not disrespectful language and cursing. That is a daily continuous behavior. I am talking about threats, fights, throwing chairs, screaming, etc.
I apologize that this letter will come across as disorganized and poorly written. However, I want you to understand how truly difficult the environment at Wheatley is. Many teachers are planning to transfer or leave the profession at the end of the year, and the same thing happened last year. The district needs to come in and experience a week in the life at Wheatley. We are in crisis! The teachers who have been here the longest tell me that Wheatley was not always like this, and I would love to see Wheatley be a successful school again.
Please come visit us. But don’t; just pop in and pop out. Walk the halls, stop into special area classes, as well as the grade level classrooms. Talk to parents, teachers and staff members. We need your attention and help!
Thank you!
UPDATE: Dear JCPS received this comment from a teacher in response to this letter:
I have taught in several school systems for a number of years, recently retired, and am now substituting. In my own classroom, I have run a tight ship, that is, expecting that children spend their school hours on task and learning while treating all with kindness and respect. In my current position of substitute, I have the same expectations.
I subbed recently at Wheatley in a special area class, which means I taught 6 home room classes that day. I can tell you that everything the writer of the Wheatley letter says is true. Children came into the classroom and immediately began shouting out disrespectful comments to me and other students, refused to move seats if I asked them to, and a few refused to even sit down and walked or ran around the classroom at will, two jumping upon and running across table tops. Two even left the classroom and began running up and down the hall. When I attempted to stop these behaviors, students, even young children, ignored or shouted at me, refusing to comply. Remember, I have been around the block and have a bag of tricks. They were useless. I was and am appalled at behavior that seems to be acceptable because students get by with it. Teachers have no alternatives but to live with it. Then other students see them get by with it, and begin modeling that behavior. The students in my classes that day who sat ready to learn didn’t have a chance.
Board members and administration need not only to come into the building, but to come in as guest teachers to truly understand how severe this situation is. Students who are this severely disruptive need to be placed in situations where there is an 8:1 or less student:adult ratio, both to get them the help they deserve and to allow the other students to learn. Yes, that is expensive, but the children are why we are here. Wheatley needs and deserves funding to work with these children.
This letter was presented to the board by a Dear JCPS Student during the Jan. 26 Board Meeting.
Dear JCPS,
Many of you know me, but for those who don’t, my name is Peyton Adelmann. I am a senior at The Academy @ Shawnee where I have attended for the last 3 and a half years. As you, the board, are setting up the budget for the school year, I want to urge you to look for yourselves before you vote to make changes. The decisions you make as a board may be too late to affect me directly, but will impact this community that I am so heavily invested in. We are more than just data points on a spreadsheet. We are students with great achievements and difficult struggles. But you cannot really grasp what my classmates and I need by just looking at a spreadsheet or by visiting a school and being led around by the adults. You need to come and spend a day in our shoes as a student; ride the buses with us, sit in our classes, eat our lunches. See what we see, and learn what we learn. Not as a Board member on a tour led around the building. But as a student, led by students. You need to live what we live every day. Only then will you really be able to make the best decisions for our futures.
From February 29 – March 4, 2016 is the national Shadow a Student Challenge. We’re asking board members and school leaders to clear calendars, silence walkie-talkies, throw on sneakers, and immerse yourselves in student life for a day. Join the community of educators who are committed to rethinking the student experience — starting by walking in the shoes of a student. We want you to follow us from the first to last bell; we’d even welcome you to ride along on the bus with us.
Each of you has a student who will be contacting you to invite you to shadow them for the day. See you at the bus stop.
This letter was read to JCPS Board Members during the Jan. 26 Board Meeting.
Dear JCPS,
According to the district’s 2015-2016 budget proposal, teacher absenteeism and turnover is a costly expense to the district. As we all know, the schools with the highest need of experienced teachers are also the hardest hit by teacher turnover. According to a policy brief created for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, “The consequences of high teacher turnover are particularly dire for our nation’s low-performing, high-poverty schools…The problem is not finding enough teachers to do the job- the problem is keeping them in our schools.” JCPS does not conduct exit surveys and has no tangible explanation for the flight of teachers from our struggling schools or the district as a whole. Please allow us to share some of the top reasons why teachers leave the profession.
Richard Ingersoll, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has studied teacher retention for years. During a recent interview with NPR, he said, “One of the reasons teachers quit is that they feel they have no say in decisions that ultimately affect their teaching,” Additionally, most of the turnover is driven by demoralizing school conditions, student misbehavior and lack of discipline. The district’s recent adoption of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an example of the district making a sweeping change without input from teachers. This expensive program has an enormous impact at the classroom level, yet teachers were not involved in the process. To add insult to injury, Dear JCPS has heard from many teachers who say that PBIS is not working and that student misbehavior is worse than ever. Here are some comments from teachers in the district.
“I dread 6th period every day. It’s a daily fight to get students to put their cell phones away, stay in their seats, stay awake, and do their work. It gets worse every year. We are expected to make huge improvements with students who are increasingly unmotivated and unprepared, all while being told we aren’t doing enough.” – Anonymous JCPS teacher without tenure
“I used to enjoy coming to work every day, but the last few years I have dreaded it. I have a fear of being constantly watched, not being good enough, and being judged in a critical way. I can’t be perfect all the time. It’s like being in prison.” – Anonymous JCPS veteran teacher with over 20 years experience.
Teachers across the district are unhappy. We are scrutinized at every level, told what to teach, forced to give assessments that don’t make sense, and expected to teach in increasingly unproductive learning environments. We do not feel supported, and we do not feel valued. Absences increase when teachers can’t bear the thought of struggling through another day of verbal and sometimes physical abuse. Teachers leave the profession when they can’t take the pressure of being pulled in contradictory directions by those who are supposed to support us.
Low morale is costing the district money in teacher absenteeism and high turnover. Unfortunately, the highest cost is being paid by our students who need stability, continuity and community. Especially in struggling schools, these things are even more critical for students who need consistent relationships with adults they trust. Teachers want to teach because we care about kids. We implore the district to start including us in the decisions that ultimately affect our classrooms and our students.