The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
It wasn't a sit-in, but a "grade-in" that greeted the School Board at its meeting Tuesday night.
About 100 teachers filled the boardroom and lined the halls, grading papers to show they're overworked.
They said the problem is how the division keeps piling on requirements such as data entry, paperwork and training in new programs and technology. It eats away at time they need for essential tasks, like planning lessons, they said.
"We're frustrated with them adding and adding and never taking anything away," said Karen Mallard, treasurer for the Virginia Beach Education Association, which organized the grade-in.
Other teachers said they routinely stay late at school and bring their papers home. Meanwhile, they said, their pay hasn't been adjusted for that extra work.
"We have the same contracted hours we had 10 years ago, but now 5,000 new tasks," said P.J. Crosby, an eighth-grade math and science teacher at Larkspur Middle School. "Teaching doesn't seem to be the priority anymore."
Superintendent James Merrill said he sympathizes with the teachers and everyone else in the schools who are under stress. But, he said, even in tough times the public has high expectations for schools.
"There is no slack from our customers in what they expect us to do," Merrill said. "Our profession's under tremendous pressure."
Elisabeth Hulette, 757-222-5097, elisabeth.hulette@pilotonline.com
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Poked the Lion
Well I am frustrated and the irony, I don't get paid ANYTHING! Nada-zilch. I am a parent of two kids in VBPS- I get political answers, run around and excuses. All this feedback from a bunch of very educated, professional men/women that when confronted with a simple, straight forward question always seem to talk their way around and I leave feeling like they have done me a favor? Wow- sign me up. I should get a job with the school system, if I acted that way at work I would be fired in a heartbeat and on that note I work two jobs and still find I am excusing myself to address issues in their workplace. Maybe one day Dr. Merrill and his merry band will stop what he's doing to earn money to come sit in my office and I can blow smoke up their caverns. I
Poked the Lion
Well I am frustrated and the irony, I don't get paid ANYTHING! Nada-zilch. I am a parent of two kids in VBPS- I get political answers, run around and excuses. All this feedback from a bunch of very educated, professional men/women that when confronted with a simple, straight forward question always seem to talk their way around and I leave feeling like they have done me a favor? Wow- sign me up. I should get a job with the school system, if I acted that way at work I would be fired in a heartbeat and on that note I work two jobs and still find I am excusing myself to address issues in their workplace. Maybe one day Dr. Merrill and his merry band will stop what he's doing to earn money to come sit in my office and I can blow smoke up their caverns. I
Teachers Please Read Very Important
I'm a Va. Beach Police Officer that has worked in a local high school for a few years. I totally agree that you are harassed, bullied and placed in a hostile work environment.
Carry a tape recorder at all times and record every conversation that you have with your Principal and APS. Yes, it's completely legal in the state of Va. (State Code 19.2-62) Virginia is one of 38 states that is a one party consent state, which means only one person in the conversation has to be aware that they are being recorded...that one person can be the person with the tape recorder.
You work for a bunch of lying politicians (I've experienced this first hand)Get them on tape saying something out of line and take it to your attorney..good luck!
PTSD
.
Chris your comment is so
Chris your comment is so true....I have never seen a group of people lie so much. They put Corporate America to shame!!!! This is an institution that should have the utmost integrity in everything that they do, but they have no integrity at all. James Merrill and the other superintendents operate with pure fear and only fear.
Chris your comment is so
Chris your comment is so true....I have never seen a group of people lie so much. They put Corporate America to shame!!!! This is an institution that should have the utmost integrity in everything that they do, but they have no integrity at all. James Merrill and the other superintendents operate with pure fear and only fear.
2 Can Play the Game....
As I said in an earlier post, the patronizing mantra from school officials back-in-the-day was that the success of your students is what really counts....there's where you, as a teacher, will reap the biggest rewards. And we bought into it.
Those days are over. You can't treat people like the "help," as you emulate the for-profit business model. That pious baloney is offensive.
The overwhelming opinion today is that schools should be run like corporations w/ "customers" & a healthy bottom line($$). That is the antithesis of that warm and fuzzy feeling about the rewards of teaching. If schools should be run like cut-throat corporations, no one should be surprised if teachers want a bigger piece of the pie.
Teachers at the Beach
I knew I shouldn't have gone to the School Board meeting last night. I knew it would be perceived as crying. "Oh, Whoa is me" type of people sitting there. First - I do know the business world. I spent 28 years there. I worked 50-60-70 hours per week. I was salaried. I still work 50-60-70 hours a week teaching. I knew what I was getting into. I still believe I did the right thing - 50% less money but still the right thing. As I see it the board just keeps piling more and more on us. Every new idea that they hear of we must do it. Ahead of the Curve you know. I am at the point now that I spend way to much time shuffling paper and attending useless meetings while my lessons become less effective. We do alot of things - none of it very well.
It's About Mind-Control...It's A Game...
They want you to feel that way...that's how they control your collective power. It's a mind-game and it has been one since Tim Jenney was here...and they are proud of it.
The more you feel beaten down, the better they feel. It is a them-against-us attitude. I mean when an administrator screws up, the "punishment" is to put them back in the classroom...so how much respect can they have for you or your colleagues?
The Abusive Treatment of VB Teachers Is Not a Secret...
The only way the SB/Adm is going to take tchrs seriously is when tchrs take their collective power seriously. There is a lot of power in those classrooms, but in VB too many people have been shamed/brain-washed into thinking that good tchrs aren't political. And that any sign of independent professionalism is not in the best interests of kids. Balderdash.
It is good that you went & yeah that's what they would think...but don't stop showing your strength...b/c they won't stop exercising their's.
For the last 15 or so years, VB has bullied teachers, emotionally and professionally abused them so that teachers act almost like an abused spouse...no self-confidence, afraid to leave, financially dependent, and emotionally/physically exhausted.