Category: Teacher Shortage

Dear JCPS,

I’m a former Lunch Office Assistant. My first placement was the elementary school where my daughter was a student.

A big chunk of my day was spent in the cafeteria, monitoring the lunchroom, I helped younger students open milk cartons and ketchup packets, I cleaned tables and swept floors, and did my best to kept the cafeteria on schedule. During the mornings and early afternoons I prepared materials for 4th and 5th grade teachers, and assisted the office with various tasks. The copy room had three outdated copiers that jammed daily. Repairs were a constant issue. If all 3 were down, some copies could be made in the office where the newest copier lived.

It wasn’t a fancy job, but it gave our family some additional income. I enjoyed seeing my daughter and her peers every day. I enjoyed the creativity demonstrated by our teachers. I really loved preparing the materials they’d use to teach students various subjects. It was also a very workable schedule and allowed me to pick up my middle schooler at 2:30. (The middle school was closer to us than our resides school by nearly 5 miles but transportation wasn’t provided….another frustrated email entirely). I made $11 per hour and worked roughly 18.5 hours per week.

One day about 2-3 months prior to the end of the ’14-15 school year the principal informed me that the school chose not to fund my position. He said there were other things the school needed. He explained this, along with the overstaff process while I was in the cafeteria cleaning tables after the lunch period. While the plant operator swept floors and nutrition service workers closed up the kitchen and all were in ear shot. I was humiliated.

A few weeks later the office installed a Mack daddy bad-ass copier. I was thrilled because I assumed the office’s old copier could scoot on down to the hall to the copy room and be the New Copier. Except it didn’t. The copy room didn’t have the electrical support for that copier. Who knows where that one ended up? Certainly not in the copy room where a reliable machine could benefit teachers, who would need it more than ever because the person whose job it was to make copies and prepare their materials was overstaffed. It could have helped the instructional assistants who, in addition to their normal duties, were now tasked with cafeteria duty to cover for the newly-eliminated LOA.

Dr. Hargens and the Board’s short-sighted management culture of poor-planning and deferred maintenance is trickling down to every role and copy closet in the district .

Those little part time jobs like mine used to be available at district schools were largely staffed by parents. Parents who are involved. Who might get to work a few minutes early to put in some time in the PTA office or stay a few minutes late to volunteer at an event. Those piddly 18 hours I worked saved 6 dedicated teachers about 2 hours each per week. Those extra dollars every month made our family just a little more financially secure.

But hey! That school figured out a way to save elevens of dollars a week.

Thanks,
Frustrated Parent

Dear Dr. Hargens,

At Tuesday night’s community conversation, I brought to your attention that there were a number of schools that were having problems getting their copiers serviced. At your request, I have compiled a list of schools that we have heard from in just the past few days.

Added since original post:

Dixie Elementary

• All three copiers are down and with no end in sight. This particularly affects special ed and ESL students who have trouble transferring what is written on the board to their blank piece of paper. It’s ridiculous to be a district without copiers. Hope Dr. Hargens and her close friend David Jones Jr. are happy with their ‘savings.’

Trunnell Elementary

• As of yesterday, Friday, September 2nd, we have one working copy machine. The office machine is down, the upstairs copier is down, and one of the downstairs copiers are down. The only working copier jams often and there is a line of people waiting to use it all day long. Once the remaining copier goes, the office won’t be able to make copies of sign out logs, sub sign in sheets, afternoon announcement sheets, weekly parent newsletters, etc. Teachers won’t be able to make copies of assessments or assessment answer sheets, nor all the little booklets made for students who have no reading material at home.

First, some history:

Toni Konz published a list of eliminated job titles:
https://twitter.com/tkonz/status/732656651392720897

http://www.wdrb.com/…/jcps-to-cut-central-office-jobs

 NEW: @JCPSKY says cutting 25 central office jobs will save $1.7 million https://t.co/kKfNgEExOE #JCPS…

In addition, an STC in the district sent us this letter to clear up any confusion: Copiers in Need of Repair Districtwide.

Please also read this letter from a former JCPS lunchroom office assistant: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish.

All Schools

• Copy repair folks were eliminated. They learned this from a letter signed by Dr. Hargens. Some of them were rehired as “field service techs,” thinking that they could address widespread issues. Did Dr. Hargens not realize what she was signing? What did district execs who made these decisions think would happen with chronic copier issues? Is this simply an effort to force teachers to try to find digital solutions to broken copiers? What about parents who do not have reliable technology at home?
• Please note that many elementary students do not use textbooks for lessons. (This is not due to teacher’s choice.)For example, our math resources are online.Or, some require worksheets to supplement a text, such as Social Studies Alive . We are not just using copiers for “busywork”.
• My understanding is that if your laminator stops working, the school is responsible for scheduling and paying for a service call from the company who makes the laminator. It’s ridiculous. Lamination helps protect displays, manipulatives, and center activities which are often hand made or bought with personal money! Obviously the people making these decisions haven’t put any thought into the instructional impact of their “money saving” choices!
• All work in our building. But aren’t they required to provide teaching materials by contract? I would think grievable …..
• Agreed! This should not be your responsibility and it should not be any teachers responsibility to have to travel and pay even more to have the basic resources we need for our students!
• And this (picture) is supposed to be the “back-up plan” for bigger jobs for teachers.
• My belief is that JCTA should insist that the CBA be followed to the letter. If not followed and not grieved, JCPS could argue that a specific provision of the contract has been waived by common practice.

Atherton

• We had no copiers at all the first two weeks of school. I took my syllabi to Kinkos. We have one copier out of four that pretty consistently copies front and back and staples. The others jam non-stop. Our STC came in this afternoon while I was using the good one and was trying to fool with the other one. Keeping this thread in mind, I asked him if he was now in charge of copiers and he laughed and said somebody had to try and keep them running. We have one color printer in the library, but we have to email our librarian and ask her to print whatever and she usually says it’s too much ink and asks us to send it to Gheens instead.
• This definitely seems like a working condition issue. I try to use class sets and a document cam/projector as much as possible, but paper and copies are just a necessity.

Barrett Middle School

• We were informed Friday that we will no longer have a laminator-because JCPS will no longer service them.
• Not only pay out of pocket but drive across town to Gheens for the privilege

Breckinridge Franklin Elementary

• Our entire teaching staff is operating with one working copier.
• And our highly used laminator is broken.

Chancey

• In regards to our copy machine situation at my school, we have 4 that are currently working, however have been told they will not be fixed or replaced if they break. Our only color copier is about to die and it will not be replaced.
• We were told that once one of our copiers quit working it wouldn’t be replaced. The same with 2 others.

Coral Ridge Elementary 

• We had only one machine working up until last week too. Seems like they weren’t working more than they were…can’t wait to see what the situation is like this year.
• Copiers are still going to be serviced by IT. Laminators, VCRs, tube TVs, and duplicators are not. IT is looking for vendor to service Laminators. STCs are NOT responsible for fixing any of these items.
• Got out of faculty meeting a few minutes early, so went to make copies in an attempt to differentiate work for some of my learners…all 3 in our workroom are out right now
• ..no white paper for a while either…smh.
• Someone needs to put in a HEAT ticket.
  • oh I’m sure they have, but how long will that take now that the trained repair people are gone??
  • And I quote, “We are working as fast as we can to answer the hundreds of work orders ……” maybe 2-3 weeks! That’s how long it took for warranty to come out and fix a computer that I cancelled the ticket 2 weeks before…..!
• From the head of IT…..
  Last Friday in the weekly principal email the following was sent out from operations. Nowhere does it say that STCs are now responsible for Laminator, Duplicator, VCR or TV repair. And nowhere does it say that JCPS no longer repairs copiers. We will continue to repair copiers and are working hard to reduce our backlog on copier tickets.
• STCs are not responsible. They are still servicing copiers but they cut their staff so they can’t keep up with tickets like they used to. That’s the problem.
• They are still servicing but they cut the staff so they can’t keep up with all the tickets.
• Our principal also mentioned that JCPS will no longer service laminators. Apparently they are considered “outdated technology”.
  • so what do we replace lamination with?? there simply is no replacement!
  • I have no idea. She mentioned it Friday afternoon. Laminators along with tvs and VCRs (which I agree are both outdated). I’m not sure what replaces the laminator.
  • Glad I have my own laminator…though I can’t do anything other than regular page size, and as XXX reminded me, pay for out of my own pocket.

Foster Elementary

• all 3 copy machines are down. 2 of those have not been working for at least 2-1/2 weeks. The third one stopped working this week.

Frayser Elementary

• At my school we only have one copy machine that we can actually print to, and that has been out for two weeks I think. The other two copiers have been out as well, very frustrating! We are supposed to have all of these detailed lessons that engage the students and we can’t even get copies printed for them!
• They were finally fixed yesterday, but our only copier with printing capabilities is still acting up

Hawthorne Elementary:

• We have 2 copiers that teachers are allowed to use. They both went down during the first week of school and were not fixed for over a week. Our principal made daily phone calls, but they just did not get fixed. Not a good first impression for parents.

Iroquois

• None of theirs have worked for a while. The attendance clerk’s works and they can get permission from an administrator to use that one, but obviously there is usually quite a line of people wanting to use it.
• No homework or classroom work that can’t be done on the smart boards

JCTMS

• One of the two office copiers are down. Teachers submit their originals with a request and our office staff runs all copies in between all their regular duties. Having only one working copier for the whole building is sure slowing things down.

Johnson Elementary 

• One working machine for more than 60 teachers….several broken in building….ridiculous.
• We had an email from our principal about having a small allowance for copies set up at gheens. I’m not sure when we are supposed to be able to go over there.

Kammerer

• This is why we don’t have a copier?
• All of our teacher copiers are down
• There is this really slow one the office staff allows the teachers to use… The other morning one of the office staff ladies let me use their big fancy one..

Liberty High School

• Only one copier for all teachers.  It has been unable to double side for more than a week.  This means we are using twice as much paper.  There is no alternative when it goes down.
• Office copier also awaiting service.

Luhr Elementary

• ours says call 3552
• That is the district help desk. I first reported to that as well. They said copy repair was “a couple weeks out.”

Maupin Elementary 

• Oh wow! I didn’t realize that! Both of ours have been broken and we haven’t been able to use the one in the office.
• We’ve already had the board called on us for not sending home a hard copy of the class newsletter and weekly spelling words. The lead teacher was trying to send everything electronically. This mother apparently doesn’t have access to email. What exactly are we supposed to do? We wrote a note explaining that we didn’t have working copiers to her after she complained to the school, but she called the board anyway. I wasn’t even aware it was a bigger problem than just our school until this post. So maybe that call was a good thing.
• When asked for a copy of a child’s work-sorry no copy machine. When asked for a copy of anything-sorry-no paper. DO NOT buy any. It’s time we stop and let parents and the community know- Dear mom-sorry I can’t send you a copy of ______. we have no paper or a working copier.

Noe Elementary

• My school got literally the last laminator service….our STC teaches full time, so our Librarian is going to attempt to take care of the copiers and laminator. I believe we have four machines and they are all currently working, though there was a time a couple of weeks ago when they were all down. They are old cantankerous machines.

Ramsey

• Guess my art won’t be getting laminated.
• We have 2 all in one copiers that we print to. One per floor. We have two ricohs that are mass copiers. We have 2 laminators.
• We have 1 stc who teaches tech who is brand new to it this year.
  We are energy efficient therefore not allowed to have our own copiers.
• Mind you most of us are smart enough to unjam it but when it cannot be a work order must be put in.

Rutherford Elementary 

• OMG copier repair guy was at my school once or twice a week. No way a teacher can keep up with this.
• We have three broken in our copy room and we were able to get a copier and rizo repaired but the days are numbered for when they will go out again. We have had one in the room since last year that has a sticker on it stating that it is “beyond economical repair.”
• I am STC at my school. I have no training in copy machines. I am a full time teacher of all K-5 students in my building and can barely keep up with the printers and computers and other duties. Typically the office is the one who is supposed to fix a jam or whatever. Although our office staff is changing so not sure they know either. We just got ours working this past week after having any (including office) working for over a week! They happen to be working at the moment.

Seneca High School

• Duplicators, laminators, and tvs won’t be serviced… That is still a huge impact to many schools. Also they went from 9 people who service the machines to 3 so the wait time is crazy now because their workload is so large.

• I’m really at a loss:( I’m in the library and now knowing they don’t service laminators or duplicators is a huge problem! We just started a copy center and I’m terrified that this will hit us hard️our stc is a full time teacher so there’s no way he can fix those machines. Even if he had time he doesn’t have the training.

Shacklette Elementary

• Teachers have access to 2 copiers.
• They are old. They jam. Don’t copy correctly. Always require service. Service takes forever.
• When both copiers are down (which happens all the time). We are not allowed to use the office copier that is brand new and high tech. Teachers go to stores to pay for copies or print duplicate copies of what they need on their home printers,  which is very time consuming and costly. Ink is expensive!

Shawnee High School

• We have two broken copiers and also computers that are still waiting to be imaged with flight software. In this high-tech day and age, the STC needs to be a full time, dedicated position.
• Just went to Shawnee copiers out
• Now I know why our copiers aren’t working! We also don’t even have anyone who is willing to fill the STC position within the building…
• It needs to be a full time job.

Southern High School

• Not only down a copier, but all copy paper is on back order…had to buy my own…again…and again…and again

Wellington Elementary

• We have one working copier for our whole school.

Western Middle

• Oh great, our laminator just died. Guess we won’t be getting a new one
• Oh my goodness, we had ONE copier working for two weeks, and that one was in the office. TWO WEEKS. Office staff was scared to death that that one would die. STCs are not equipped or taught to do serious work on them. My clerk and I can un-jam and clean and simple stuff, but we’re not trained to break them down, or know when to order parts and so on.

Westport Middle

• This new plan for copier repair is terrible.
• Westport has over 1200 students and over 70 teachers sharing 1 copy machine that works. We have 4 more that are all broken. 1 more might be operational but it is unavailable during the day because it is in a conference room.

15^th District PTA

• All I know is that the copier for the 15th District PTA went out this week. I’m not a copy repair tech, but I played one this week. After a call to the district help desk and the knowledge that copier repair was “a couple weeks out” I watched a YouTube Video.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We will continue to update this list should we continue to hear from other schools.

Thank you,
Gay Adelmann

Note: If your school is having copier issues and you are having trouble getting them serviced, please send an email to moderator@dearjcps.com.

Also, this list was compiled at Dr. Hargens’ request. If anyone who submitted comments receives even the slightest bit of negative consequences from doing so, please let me know.

To Dear JCPS,

I’m an STC at a JCPS school and I prefer to remain anonymous but I would like to clarify the STC and copier issue:

At a recent STC meeting we were told that due to department cuts, Technology Support Services would no longer be servicing VCRs, CRT TVs, duplicators (different than copiers) or laminators. We were told an email would be sent to our principals on Friday. This is the content of the email:

Operations Division

From Michael Raisor, Chief Operations Officer

·         INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY — DISCONTINUED SERVICES

Information Technology constantly reviews its technology services repertoire in an effort to improve the service to its customers. We have added some new services in the recent past, but we have also identified certain services that have to be discontinued in order to keep up with changes in new, cutting-edge technology. Effective September 1, 2016, we will no longer service the following non-IT/outmoded equipment.

1) Laminators (this includes refilling laminators)
2) Duplicators
3) Televisions with CRT
4) VCRs

STCs were not given responsibility for servicing these items. It was mentioned that they are working on a bid for people to repair laminators (the one at my school and the one at my wife’s school are currently not working). They will also be sending out a video on the proper way to refill a laminator.

I just wanted to suggest the story not be about STCs or Technology Support Services. It looks like these cuts come from the top (I heard they cut the copier repair guys from 8 to 1). JCPS is once again putting the cost of doing the things necessary to teach on the schools and the teachers. They know the dedicated teachers will go to Kinkos for copies and Gheens for laminating (at $1 a foot). And they know these teachers will pay for this out of their own pocket because it’s become too difficult to get reimbursed (laminating at Gheens can be billed to the school with principal permission).

I hope this clears up the issue. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,
Anonymous STC

Dear JCPS brought this concern to Dr. Hargens and Ms. Porter at last night’s community conversation. At Dr. Hargens’ request, we are collecting a list of schools that have copier repair needs to send to her. Please email your comments, which will be kept anonymous, to moderator@dearjcps.com.