Monday, January 23, 2012

"Standing ovation" for teacher's perspective at Sumter meeting

Early feedback from tonight's Sumter Board of Trustees meeting reports that Jackie Hicks, president of the SCEA, carried the perspective of Sumter's classroom professionals to the table, a perspective that earned applause and a standing ovation from approximately 200 parents, educators and others. Writes one commenter tonight,

THANK YOU JACKIE HICKS for coming to our board meeting to say what we can't. The applause and STANDING OVATION tells you all you need to know about what's happening. Please stick with us through this, I think it takes a teacher to understand what teachers suffer. I don't know many of us who can afford to represent ourselves and risk losing our job. Thank you to the SCEA for representing us all.

But it's also clear that many more speakers like Hicks are necessary to continue bringing attention to educators' concerns.

Only one speaker on the public participation list spoke in favor of "Sweet 16," the complex new teacher evaluation instrument. Others reportedly drew attention to expenses on the district's credit card, including one "at a truck stop in Manning on New Year's Eve." Though the questions were raised, no answers were offered in response.

And one parent delivered copies of the educators' comments left at Educating South Carolina's blog posts on "Sweet 16" for board members.

Still, there's no indication that the board will respond publicly to what it heard. If the Sumter Item reports on the event, it'll be recapped here.

In the meantime, feel free to post your own feedback to what was said and heard, what you'd like the board to take into consideration, and what action you hope to see the board take.

UPDATE:

I attended tonight and was amazed at the indifference given to obviously conerned parents - who, I might add, showed the patience and restraint of Saints. When we leave this earth, our lasting legacy will be the children we raise and leave to run this country. Granted, education MUST start in the home, but educators see, interact with, and mentor our children when we cannot. How can they gain parental assistance if they cannot even gain the respect or trust of the administration? Dishonest, unethical, and narcisitic attitudes will not solve our problems. We collectively must forge on to win the day. National attention (Oh, say Bill O'reilly) might be able to cut through the spin zone to make an impartial observation. Here, however, I believe that will be hard to do.

20 comments:

  1. I would like to state that parents need to keep this momentum going. Contact your board reps until you receive answers. THEY ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC...despite what they may think.

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  2. The Sumter school district has great teachers. I would like to keep them! Please keep showing the teachers how much they are appreciated. I have proudly kept my kids in public schools and feel they have been given a stellar education. I would like to be able to continue to say the same in the future!

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  3. After attending last night's meeting and reading Mr. Bynum's comments in The Item this morning, I can only shake my head. No surprises here. "The onslaught of public participation, he said appeared to be an effort to incite those fearful of the unknown." Later in the article he states that the teacher association should have set up a meeting with him beforehand. Then further states AGAIN that the "That piece tonight was choreographed to incite people that have a fear of the unknown, although Sweet 16 should be known to everybody and comfortable by now...in my opinion if they were serious about their concerns for the district they would have scheduled a meeting with me and my cabinet. The goal was to use a public forum to help increase membership." First of all, I was not there because of the fear of the unknown. My fear is very well known and established through the accounts of daily life at school told by my own children. Mr. Bynum, DON'T YOU CALL MY KIDS LIARS! Second, his repeated remarks about setting up meetings with him beforehand and/or meetings with him and his cabinet that would not be public forums...that,in my opinion, validates exactly what we are hearing from the teachers....that they are NOT TO CONTACT THE SCHOOL BOARD! We as parents are the public and the school board and Mr. Bynum and his CABINET serve the public taxpayers. DO NOT TRY TO SQUELCH COMMMUNICATION THAT WE DESERVE TO HEAR! This is not about a Fortune 500 company with a private board of officers! HOW DARE YOU??????????? This is about our children! I hope everyone reading The Item article can read between the lines and see what he is really saying. And one last thing....Who is the EVERYBODY that should know and be comfortable with Sweet 16 by now???? Surely he is not referring to the parents/taxpayers because it is news to us! We need people to contact the school board and stand firm behind our teachers. Our kids are liars and our teachers ARE NOT LIARS! WE NEED TO BE INCITED AND EXCITED!!!!

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  4. I also attended the meeting last night and was VERY disappointed by Mr. Bynum's remarks in the Item article. He seems to have a HUGE broom that he is going to try to sweep everything under the rug with, but, I believe we have got enough people really listening and acting to not let him do that. He and his board (and two women from Atl) have got to be held accountable to the taxpayers of this county!

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  5. We as parents need to keep a stellar front. We need to support our teachers, and the administration at each of our perspective schools. The Board on the other hand needs to remember ,they are elected by the people in the community and they can easlily be replaced at election time. As parents of children in Sumter School district, they have an obligation to keep us informed and Mr. Bynum, being new in our area should Know By Now, we will keep growing in numbers, fighting for our children and teachers and really do not care one bit about him, his "Cabinet" or anyone else in the so called higher ranks of the district. He really should be ashamed to even speak or show his face to us or teachers after bring in 2 people from Atlanta and paying them 6 figure salaries when our teachers cannot get what they need. I wonder if people know that the State level gave money to each district for step raisers for time in the job and for supply check but our district held this money. I guess they needed it too pay the salary of someone that does influence the classroom one bit at all. Parents, keep up the fight!

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  6. Did anyone else notice that The Item mentioned there being 110 people in attendance? I wonder if they actually counted. There had to be WELL over that amount!

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  7. Earliest feedback from attendees estimated more than 200.

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  8. Thank you Educating South Carolina, SCEA, PSTA, and Informed Concerned Parents of Sumter County for being a voice for the students and teachers of Sumter School District. Thank you for seeing through the "spin." Hold on, there will certainly be more spin to come. It's already started, as quoted from the Item, "Quite a few things were untrue and had no factual basis, especially the finances pieces and the SWEET 16 not being researched," Bynum said. "I'm sure every parent and every teacher knows if a student doesn't understand it the first time, you reteach it. What extra research is required? ... Teachers should be doing all those (16 items) already. If they weren't our children were not getting the full benefit of their education experience." There are wonderful teachers in Sumter. Teachers who had already been implementing the teaching practice outlined in Sweet 16. The problem with Sweet 16 is that teachers are expected to do all 16 of the points of Sweet 16 for every lesson. By the time the teacher jumps through the "hoops" outlined in Sweet 16, there has been very little actual teaching or learning and it's time for closure. For example, one element of Sweet 16 is groups. Classes must be divided into groups. Each group member must have a defined role in the group. Well, teachers in Sumter have been doing cooperative learning for decades, but it doesn't work for every single lesson. Another example is homework. Teachers have been instructed to give homework, EVERY SINGLE DAY! The homework must be differentiated, meaning that not everyone in the class has the same homework. To prove that we are a standards driven, the standards must be posted. An essential question must be posted. Then there is the objective of the lesson........ The teacher must go over this information with the students each day. That sucks up a lot of time. The students don't need to know the standard and indicator. They simply need to know something like, "Today, you are going to learn how to add fractions." These people fled the scandal ridden Atlanta School System. They don't seem to be aware of the fact that we might be hovering around average, but we are average without cheating to be average. There was enough work to get done with consolidation issues without adding more fuel to the fire by adding the extra burden of a made up evaluation/audit system. Yes, Mr. Bynum, the elements of Sweet 16 are best practices that are research based. The problem is that you simply don't do every single thing in every single lesson. That is not best practices.

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  9. Mr. Bynum's comment to the Item about inciting "fear of the unknown" is insulting to me as a teacher and should be offensive to parents, as well. The implication is that we aren't open to change or aren't intelligent enough to understand his initiatives. All of Mr. Bynam's comments about last night's meeting ought to give readers of The Item a taste of what we've been experiencing: the notion that everyone else is wrong about everything. Could that many teachers and parents, as well as two professional organizations, actually be wrong and have no valid concerns? If there were just a few disgruntled teachers and parents, Mr. Bynum and the school board could assume that with time things would settle down. That is not going to happen. Several hundred hard-working, dedicated, intelligent teachers and growing numbers of parents do understand what the new "cabinet" is doing, and we believe it's wrong. A good leader is always willing to admit mistakes and try to make them right. A strong leader is also willing to listen and re-evaluate based on what he hears from his people. School Board members, are you going to listen to three people from a broken school district in Atlanta who are wreaking havoc on our schools, or are you going to listen to the throngs of your constituents who are pleading for you to do the right thing, even if it means admitting you made a mistake?

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  10. As a teacher in Sumter it is wonderful to see parents getting involved. We felt like we were out there on our own. Parents need to read this article. The things in the article are happening in Sumter school district.
    http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/how-to-tell-if-your-school-district-is-infected-by-the-broad-virus/

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  11. as a long time educator in Sumter School District I would like to personally thank the parent forum for your support and would like to ask you to please continue the fight to help me and my colleagues

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  12. My children are long gone from the Sumter public schools but I do keep up with what is going on in the district as a concerned citizen of Sumter County. As a Ga. native I do keep tabs with what is going on from the Atlanta Journal Constiution and on what is going on in the public schools in Fulton County and the city of Atlanta. First of all I was astounded that the board chose someone that had been a part of the Atlanta system as the leader for Sumter District. Did they not look any further than what was on his resume. The audacity that teachers are having to buy their own ink for their printers out of their own pockets and these administrators can go on these lavish trips???? Another question is why has the Item just started covering this issue? This should have been in the news many weeks ago. I hope the parents and teachers keep expressing their feelings regarding the Sweet 16 issue and isn't it a shame that we are a country of free speech but teachers can't speak for fear of losing their jobs. It is time to reevaluate this Sumter School District administration. Thank goodness my grandchildren are not being raised in Sumter. Also do you wonder why there are so many private schools in Sumter and more are being created every day.

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  13. Thank you, Sumter Parents. Thank you, Educating South Carolina. Thank you SCA and PSTA! Thank you for for coming out in our support. I am a teacher in Sumter School District. I have not been able to sleep through a night since August........Thank you for listening to us. Sumter School Board..... why didn't you listen from the beginning. You know, Mr. Bynum is right. We didn't want him...... He came from a failing school district and brought people with him from his failing district. Thank you to the two folks on the school board who voted to not hire Mr. Bynum. Now it's time for the other 5 to get on board and get us out of this mess. Cut our losses now....... Look at those credit card bills.......

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    1. Now, if we could get The Item to actually do some investigative reporting.....

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  14. Even more disturbing to me than the lavish trips to California, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, and Orlando that our district leader and "Cabinet" members are enjoying, and charging to the district credit card, are the charges for meals that are obviously for one or two people at Sumter restaurants, and the charges at the Kangaroo gas stations. We're paying Mr. Bynam and his two Atlanta colleagues a LOT of money. Why are we paying for their food and gas? And what else are we paying for? Teachers pay for their own meals, and buy the gas they use to get to and from school. Should taxpayers (and teachers are taxpayers, too) be paying all of Mr. Bynam's expenses as well as giving him a huge salary? I'd also like to know who authorized a credit card with a limit of $50,000. That would pay at least one teacher's salary with a lot left over for printer cartridges and paper. Imagine how many teacher salaries could be paid with the money we're paying Ms. Dixon and Ms. Norman to work in a district that's buldging at the seams with district office personnel. You can be sure the teachers hired in their place wouldn't be spending tax dollars indulging themselves at bars in California or Seattle's Best Coffee in Atlanta. They'd be in the classrooms teaching Sumter's children. I think Sumter would be better served in replacing our board members rather than waiting for them to be voted out. Isn't there something that can be done legally to stop this insanity?

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  15. As elected officials, isn't there a way to use the recall process for getting these people off the board prior to their re-elections? Speaking of re-elections...I know there are 4 areas up for re-election in November? Which members are representing these 4 areas?

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    1. I am fairly certain that Wilson, McGhaney, Addison and Squires are up for re-election. Mrs. Squires did not vote to hire Mr. Bynum. The other three should go!

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    2. Unfortunately, there are only 3 people up for re-election this time......one being Squires. Could someone look into the steps needed to get the other ones out of office before their terms are up?

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  16. As a teacher who has been through Sweet 16, I would be highly Interested to know what the gentleman who spoke of his support of it at the board meeting likes about it. For certainly he, too, has been through it, if he had the audacity to proclaim its merits at a public function such as a board meeting. Give me a break. Anyone who has been through it can tell you what an asinine and arbitrary tool it is. If you happen to read this, O lover of the coaching up tool, how about retiring some of your worn out cliches at the next board meeting in favor of some substantial empirical data about it's positive traits....good luck finding any.

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