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Post by 950nancy on Feb 12, 2019 0:12:25 GMT
Denver Public Schools went on strike today. One news station covered the strike and showed a band class where the principal or maybe AP was teaching the class and all seemed well. However, all over Facebook students have been sharing their videos of the hallways and there seems to be more of a surly pep rally mentality amongst the students. Lots of students shouting, dancing, and crowding going on in the hallways.
If your child has ever been in a school that was on strike, what age were they, did you send them, and how long were they without teachers? If you did send them, were you worried about their safety? I am thinking about how many hours teachers in our district spent on school safety and what to do in case of an emergency like guns, fires, fights etc.
While I don't feel extremely sorry for the admin building staff, I do feel for the principals and other staff who are manning the schools with in some cases a 400/500:1 ratio. Allegedly the DPS has a 7:1 ratio of students to admin, so I am wondering why there aren't more adults in the kids' videos. Passing periods were the time teachers were expected to have their bodies out in the hallways.
Our district never had a strike, so I am really just curious.
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Post by freecharlie on Feb 12, 2019 0:18:59 GMT
Go DCTA!!!
In this case, as long as my kids felt safe, I would send them to school. Since both play sports, they would have to be there to play.
I'm pretty sure the band class thing was a photo op.
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Post by birdy on Feb 12, 2019 0:43:41 GMT
The next town over had a strike for several weeks. The teachers were rightly striking for several reasons. The district tried to bring subs in... many subs wouldn't cross the line and those that did were not favorably looked upon by the teachers. A lot of parents started keeping their kids home. It was a mess. I was a sub, but in a different district. Had I been asked to come in, I wouldn't have either!
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Post by freecharlie on Feb 12, 2019 1:05:57 GMT
Also in the case of DPS, sending the kids to school is actually a good thing for the teachers. As you know, funding in Colorado is based on Oct 1 count. That means it doesn't hurt the district if the kids stay home. It helps because there are less kids to have to control
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LeaP
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,939
Location: Los Angeles, CA where 405 meets 101
Jun 26, 2014 23:17:22 GMT
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Post by LeaP on Feb 12, 2019 1:37:51 GMT
We just got through the teacher strike here in Los Angeles. By the end of the strike only 17% of the kids were attending school for the whole district of 500,000 students. LAUSD was losing a boatload of money, more than what they were saving in teacher salaries. Every single day of the strike I took at least one of my kids to the picket line. Los Angeles is a union town and there was a lot of solidarity with the teachers. They were striking for smaller classes among other things. There were other parents and children on the picket line. Our solidarity meant a lot to the teachers. It was also somewhat educational for the kids.
ETA: Many people didn't send their kids to school because it was raining and there are many schools without large indoor areas. Most cafeterias are open air outdoor areas. Some parents felt it would be unsafe to send the kids, some felt it was a waste of time and some felt solidarity.
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Post by kels99 on Feb 12, 2019 1:43:30 GMT
Schools are closed here when teachers strike (which has only happened once in my district in the last 40 years). In general, band kids are pretty good kids, so that would have been a good place for a photo op.
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Post by Sorrel on Feb 12, 2019 1:56:13 GMT
I walked the picket line here in Denver today. My middle school daughter and stepson, and my high school daughter all went to school today. Their days were all totally useless. They were rounded up and sat in the auditorium and did mostly nothing. I picked my high school daughter up at lunch and she picketed with me at the capitol. Nothing crazy happened but no one learned anything.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 12, 2019 2:01:59 GMT
I walked the picket line here in Denver today. My middle school daughter and stepson, and my high school daughter all went to school today. Their days were all totally useless. They were rounded up and sat in the auditorium and did mostly nothing. I picked my high school daughter up at lunch and she picketed with me at the capitol. Nothing crazy happened but no one learned anything. I do wonder if it makes it easier on admin if people keep their kids home, but at the same time, I worry about safety. I didn't hear of anything happening, but as time goes on, restless kids do stupid things. Did subs cross the picket line?
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Post by Rainy_Day_Woman on Feb 12, 2019 2:04:55 GMT
When teachers strike here, students don't go to school. I wouldn't think it safe or productive to do otherwise. Our schools don't have enough non-teaching staff to come close to managing a school full of kids.
They haven't gone on strike while my daughter has been in school, but they went on strike often while I was in school. It was almost 2 months while I was in high school.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 12, 2019 2:15:36 GMT
When teachers strike here, students don't go to school. I wouldn't think it safe or productive to do otherwise. Our schools don't have enough non-teaching staff to come close to managing a school full of kids. They haven't gone on strike while my daughter has been in school, but they went on strike often while I was in school. It was almost 2 months while I was in high school. Did you have to make up that time? That is almost a full quarter.
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Post by Sorrel on Feb 12, 2019 2:24:07 GMT
I walked the picket line here in Denver today. My middle school daughter and stepson, and my high school daughter all went to school today. Their days were all totally useless. They were rounded up and sat in the auditorium and did mostly nothing. I picked my high school daughter up at lunch and she picketed with me at the capitol. Nothing crazy happened but no one learned anything. I do wonder if it makes it easier on admin if people keep their kids home, but at the same time, I worry about safety. I didn't hear of anything happening, but as time goes on, restless kids do stupid things. Did subs cross the picket line? Some subs did cross the picket, but lots didn’t. My daughter’s sub read a magazine. I did tell them both if they felt unsafe to just leave. They will probably go in tomorrow morning and see how it goes. It does make it easier on admin if they stay home, but it’s always balancing with safety.
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Post by mom on Feb 12, 2019 2:37:43 GMT
I have never experienced a strike in the schools where my boys were at. I would probably send my boys to school though unless it was just complete chaos. Both ran varsity track and cross country and neither would want to miss practice or be ineligible to run. Now, if things were getting out of hand at the school I might re-think sending them. I do think if my kid wanted to participate in the pickets, I would probably let them. I think its important to show kids how to protest correctly.
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Post by Rainy_Day_Woman on Feb 12, 2019 2:49:53 GMT
950nancy I think we only made up a week or two from our exam schedules. It was further compounded by our teachers being work to rule when they came back- for years actually. We didn't have any official clubs or sports teams because the teachers weren't running them. I don't recall if it was the whole five years but when we were applying to university, we were all given letters to submit with our applications explaining why we weren't in extra curriculars so it wouldn't look as poor!
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Post by Merge on Feb 12, 2019 3:52:10 GMT
7:1 ratio admin to students? That's insane. I thought the Houston school district was top-heavy. I'm guessing the majority of those are folks who sit in the district admin building, not school-based admin.
I particularly like the part where they apparently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on two days worth of "lesson plans." Would that every teacher got paid that much for writing lesson plans!
Get those admin in the classroom and let them work for once. If they can't teach a real lesson of their own creation for a few days or weeks, they have no business setting policy or evaluation rubrics for those of us who do it every day.
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LeaP
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,939
Location: Los Angeles, CA where 405 meets 101
Jun 26, 2014 23:17:22 GMT
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Post by LeaP on Feb 12, 2019 4:35:01 GMT
Some subs did cross the picket, but lots didn’t. My daughter’s sub read a magazine. I did tell them both if they felt unsafe to just leave. They will probably go in tomorrow morning and see how it goes. It does make it easier on admin if they stay home, but it’s always balancing with safety. At our school none of the subs crossed the line. From what I hear the teachers have long memories and will not call a sub back if he/she crossed the picket line.
I have say through the whole process I kept thinking of Preet Bharara's tweet. It was inspiring to see so many united in a single purpose.
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Post by freecharlie on Feb 12, 2019 4:38:29 GMT
7:1 ratio admin to students? That's insane. I thought the Houston school district was top-heavy. I'm guessing the majority of those are folks who sit in the district admin building, not school-based admin. "About 300 substitutes have been hired, and about 1,400 central office staffers have been re-assigned to schools" The number of central office staff baffles me. Of course my entire district probably has 500 of less employees, so this is so far out of my realm.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 12, 2019 4:40:53 GMT
7:1 ratio admin to students? That's insane. I thought the Houston school district was top-heavy. I'm guessing the majority of those are folks who sit in the district admin building, not school-based admin. "About 300 substitutes have been hired, and about 1,400 central office staffers have been re-assigned to schools" The number of central office staff baffles me. Of course my entire district probably has 500 of less employees, so this is so far out of my realm. Do you know how many schools were affected today?
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Post by freecharlie on Feb 12, 2019 4:49:29 GMT
"About 300 substitutes have been hired, and about 1,400 central office staffers have been re-assigned to schools" The number of central office staff baffles me. Of course my entire district probably has 500 of less employees, so this is so far out of my realm. Do you know how many schools were affected today? my understanding is that only the ece/preschools were closed. Everything else stayed open. The district won't release attendance numbers until tomorrow
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snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,932
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
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Post by snyder on Feb 12, 2019 4:53:56 GMT
"About 300 substitutes have been hired, and about 1,400 central office staffers have been re-assigned to schools" The number of central office staff baffles me. Of course my entire district probably has 500 of less employees, so this is so far out of my realm. Do you know how many schools were affected today? I read that they expected 1/2 of the teachers to strike and indicated they have 5,300 educators and 160 schools.
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Post by mama2three on Feb 12, 2019 4:54:37 GMT
When teachers strike here, students don't go to school. I wouldn't think it safe or productive to do otherwise. Our schools don't have enough non-teaching staff to come close to managing a school full of kids. They haven't gone on strike while my daughter has been in school, but they went on strike often while I was in school. It was almost 2 months while I was in high school. Did you have to make up that time? That is almost a full quarter. Our school teachers were on strike when my DD was in the second grade, 12 years ago now. Schools were closed for 21 days...one day at a time (people couldn’t easily go away for vacation), and yes, all that time had to be made up. Made for an awful year- to avoid extending the school year into July, the district took away almost all holidays, canceled spring break, reduced winter break to two days (Christmas and New Year’s Day) and moved graduation to end of June. No one was happy.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 12, 2019 4:55:13 GMT
Do you know how many schools were affected today? my understanding is that only the ece/preschools were closed. Everything else stayed open. The district won't release attendance numbers until tomorrow One hundred seventy-nine schools. Eighty-thousand students. That's a lot of kids. Our district has about 9,400 kids.
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