A pair of their new colleagues charged that Tuesday's election of Jack Ford and Lisa Sobecki will further strengthen the grip of the Toledo Federation of Teachers union over the school system.
Mr. Ford and Ms. Sobecki easily won two seats on the board - defeating five other candidates.
Both of them received support from the Toledo Federation of Teachers, as did current board President Steven Steel when he ran in 2005.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS09/711080352
the Three for Change made the Three for Children, it had always been Five for TFT.
Sandy, there is a difference between teachers and TFT leadership. Supporting the TFT is not necessarily supporting classroom teachers. And besides, classroom teachers are there because we have children to teach. The question is how do you support children.
The TFT leadership is interested in one thing: obtain the highest wages and benefits while maintaining as much control over the bureaucracy that negotiates these wages and benefits.
I recognize and support the role of teachers. However, my first interest is what is best for children.
The board is charged with representing the interests of TPS residents. They do not represent employees - that is the role of their leadership such as the TFT. I expect that the overall interests of this community will be balanced with the resources available to accomplish the mission of educating Toledo children.
... I came across this:
http://www.aaeteachers.org/
Chuck Muth, a rather conservative individual, wrote:
Some things are indisputable. One, the public schools suck. Two, giving the public schools more money won't fix the problem. Three, it should be a fundamental right for parents to choose which school their kids attend. Four, the enemy standing in the way of vastly improving education in America is the teachers union, and it's time to declare war on them.
The problem is, everyone loves teachers.
But if you truly want to save yet another generation of American kids from educational mediocrity, it's time to stop giving teachers themselves a pass for what their union is doing. If they belong to the NEA and pay union dues, they are standing in the way of excellence in education and are contributing to the downfall of the republic. It's just that simple, and it's no longer arguable.
If you're a teacher who wants to belong to a professional organization which provides you with health care, retirement and legal protections without funding the anti-child/anti-education agenda of the teachers union, you need to quit the union and join the Association of American Educators. Click HERE(link is above) for more information.
If not, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
I found this intriguing and would love a teacher's perspective...
are you out there tpsteacher?
has started, concerning a "quality education" for all students. Remember Steve when we came up with that concept even before the Urban Coalition and Three for Change.
That has been almost ten years ago. How
are the status quo group not saying the same thing and why did it take so long? How many children were lost in that intervening time?
Wasn't Cheryl Catlin's rallying cry, "Quality Education, every school, every child"? But now the words come out of the mouth of a Mom on a Mission. Well I for one intend to hold the new board members to what they have said on the campaign trail. No more promises that are not lived up to, I want to see that "radical change." I have seen what radical change looks like.
What I meant to say was:
At least the conversation.....
has started, concerning a "quality education" for all students. Remember Steve when we came up with that concept even before the Urban Coalition and Three for Change?
That has been almost ten years ago. How
are the status quo group now saying the same thing and why did it take so long? How many children were lost in that intervening time?
Wasn't Cheryl Catlin's rallying cry, "Quality Education, Every School, Every Child"? But now the words come out of the mouth of a Mom on a Mission's cheerleader. Well I for one intend to hold the new board members to what they have said on the campaign trail. No more promises that are not lived up to, I want to see that "radical change" and I have seen what radical change looks like.
Teachers unions are not about what is best for the children.
Sandy said,"Election endorsments, I believe, are given to the people who would be most likely willing to work out situations with the interest of both parties at hand."
I don't believe you live in the same city and country as I do or you are extremely naive! That is not the style of the TFT president!
Do you understand supply and demand. There are plenty of teachers available for the teaching spots available in our area. I don't believe TPS has hired many new teachers. During the last round of layoffs they were laying off people with 7-8 years of seniority.
As to quality teachers leaving, it won't happen. Check out the TFT contract and those of surrounding districts for comparison and you will find a provision in the contracts that limit the amount of seniority you can carry to the new district. With TPS you only get credit for 10 years. So if you have taught for 20 years and move to TPS you would get just 10 years. Because of a salary schedule you are now put on the 10 year level which is a significant amount of salary loss. Teachers unions themselves have limited their ability to move from district to district and get the kind of salaries that high performers demand in a professional position.
Teacher
This election has educated me about political machines. I already understood the problems with public apathy and delusions. However, I was lacking in how elections are wholly managed from the standpoint of a governing political party.
What happened Tuesday was that the actors were changed, but the same play will continue. The same lines will be said in the same scenes, just using different people ... and we're just going to see the same conclusion and the fall of the curtain. This entire thing works for the playwrights since the audience tends to be mollified when different actors appear on the stage.
Whether they realized it or not, on Tuesday, Toledo voters decided that they wanted the TPS to collapse in a paroxysm of financial mismanagement and failing schools.
The unions for the teachers and administrators are ALREADY enough representation for their interests. By placing such heavily pro-union people on the board, there is now a solid 3-2 or 4-1 majority for all matters of union interest. We can count on a rapid succession of levy demands, and all that revenue will be swallowed up by the teachers and administrators -- who apparently think that being paid $48K average (for teachers) and around $90K average (for administrators) is just not enough money for a much beleaguered and depressed Toledo.
1. What is the best high school band in the area?
And
2. Can we get them to go to board meetings just to play the "Imperial March" from Star Wars when Ford enters the room?
MikeyA
For all the concern for the children, there sure is a lot of bitching about the union.
do you mean the old cases or the new ones coming up. I know of three off hand (old ones), one involving parents, one involving an advocate, one involving a teacher. None of these have been settled and the attorney fees will continue.
It's not only parents who are suing TPS, it is advocates, teachers and parents.
So what I see is that people may not vote for change in the School Board dynamics and the three TFT endorsed board members, what does happen is people vote with their feet by sending and taking students to Charter, Private, Ed Choice and home schools and by suing the district for equity and justice and quality educations for all children.
The TFT is in control and out there so expect more lawsuits and more students leaving the district and more people leaving Toledo. I kind of remember you saying that you were planning on leaving soon.
from a district like TPS if I had the opportunity, so I don't blame you for leaving Toledo.
I believe at the board meeting Mr. Ford brought up the lawsuits, probably because it was getting ready to be in the newspaper about the family at the EduCenter.
TPS has a few lawsuits to settle and there will probably be more on the horizon because the three TFT board members are probably going to get stupid with their "power."
One thing about this election..... it is plain as the nose on all of our faces that the TFT is in charge.
you were so busy calling me a racist among other things, that the stuff Sandy was saying, like she was leaving when her husband graduated, just went right over your head!
Too bad. She got away with a lot.
Of course Jack Ford was going to get elected - his name is highly recognizable, for better or worse, and so many of the voters didn't have that familiarity with other candidates. Not too dissimilar to the folks who get elected in congress, and despite being horrible still keep getting elected, term-after-term. The hard part is breaking in.
Without quality teachers, we do not have a quality education system. Therefore, I am for supporting the teachers.
I would hope those that have educated themselves as teachers, are in the field of education, for what is best for children. They had spend years educating themselves for a reason, to teach our children.
Union leadership, such as TFT are representing a large number of employees. Just as we are advocates for students, they are advocates for teachers. Election endorsments, I believe, are given to the people who would be most likely willing to work out situations with the interest of both parties at hand.
I understand your concerns. However, I feel we need to respect and provide a reasonable salary and benefits to our teachers, to have a quality education for our students. Otherwise, TPS is not going to hire quality teachers. Rather they will draw new and unexperienced teachers, who have no where else to go (not that newly graduate teachers are bad, but I recognize competence in my special education and regular education teachers, I prefer competence).
In all, changes are going to occur and TPS is moving foreward. I hope everyone can respectfully work together and provide a quality education to all TPS students.........that is what this is all about.
TPS teachers get $32K starting, $48K average, and max out around $60K. The administrators pull in $90K, plus. You'd have to have your head examined if you think that those salaries (for 9 months of work!) are not adequate compensation for a college grad. For the Toledo area, those salaries are in fact GOOD. The teachers are WELL compensated.
So what's the complaint? The reality is that they are only issuing complaints due to overblown expectations. These expectations come from being unionized WEENIES.
BTW, I now expect that "deferred raise MOU" to never be paid. It grows by $3M each year that it's not paid. Soon enough it will be too large to ever pay from ANY levy or ANY resource (note that I don't exactly agree with Mr Flagg, but it's all a matter of which year the decision is made, and how deeply cuts have to be made). And the teachers only have THEMSELVES to blame. Their beloved union (which represents them, right?) agreed to the deferral.
So, how does it feel, TPS teachers? You were outsmarted by people who weren't all that smart to begin with. It must feel like being outfoxed by a child.
I have to now think about the possibilities about a state takeover of the TPS. The state is undoubtedly reluctant to do so, given their costs of doing so ... yet continued degradation of Toledo's tax base may force them to consider they will have to pay to bail out the TPS one way or another. It should cost less to perform a takeover --- just less with respect to pipelining more and more money out of Columbus over the coming years!
You can't care about the children and still see the TFT leadership as a problem in providing quality instructional services to Toledo children?
I don't think you can tell us that the TFT has children as their first priority. As to individual teachers, I think most of them do!
My husband is graduating this Spring. We do want to move in the country. I am not running away from TPS, the city life in general.
Several BOE members spoke of the legal fees at last months meeting. This is obviously not cost effective for our district. Perhaps settling is one of my stupid ideas, as some on this site like to say about my ideas.
I GOT AWAY WITH A LOT?????????????????
Are you serious? Like the murder weapon under the kitchen sink.LOL
Come on, this is a debate blog and I post to learn, debate issue and be objective. Wow Twila.........what did I "get away with"? I love how you point the finger and talk so much smack. It is very humorous.......
I don't call people racists, I shove racist down the throats of those that excersize that belief, which is you. It's good to be a bigot.
Sandy I didn't take heed of because I didn't think Lisa was going to win with two more qualified candidates running. I've seen these cheerleader-types before and I took no notice of her.
Then her cheerleading became more rampant and I was becomming sick of reading past her posts.
Then Lisa won and then read that Sandy was bailing out.
Sandy is nothing but a douchebag. I hope the door slams shut on her ass.
I'd say give the TFT everything they want and more. More MOU's, More Taxes, More Money, No Problem! The hardworking TFT needs every dollar they can get and more, more, more!
Just like the UAW, the TFT has lost the confidence of the consumer. Soon there will be more advocates to the leave the TPS system.
The teachers already have a union, a national organization, and state-guaranteed educational certifications. How much more support do they need?
GZ - what don't you agree with me about? The amount of the MOU? The need for a very large levy? If it will ever be paid? I'm not quite sure where the difference comes in. Please enlighten me.
I don't think you can tell us that the TFT has children as their first priority. As to individual teachers, I think most of them do!
I agree. Why would TFT have children as their first priority? They're a labor union.
Sandy, you advocated for Sobecki to the School Board and now you're bailing out after your husband graduates in 6 months?
So you basically, with knowledge that you wouldn't be here, cheerleadered for a worthless roll of toilet paper and then set her loose on the community and are now leaving her to run amok, knowing full well she isn't QUALIFIED to be in the position she is in, because you can't "hang in the big city"?
Yep, it's not just yer ideas that'r stupid.
*click*
Being a "douchebag", at least I am clean!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
I never doubted Lisa winning, as the voters in Toledo like her message too. I have worked (volunteered) with Lisa for years in TPS and realize she is a "team player". She is dedicated to bring positive changes to our district.
May I ask Brian, what have you done?
I realized the other day that this plan is farther reaching than I thought. I realized that the MOU can grow to be so large that it can be said to be "unpayable", since no single source of funds could cover it. That's where I believe we differ.
Sure, more complicated solutions could be tried. A "sub-MOU" could be tried that attempts to satisfy the original MOU by essentially making payments. But at $3M/yr growth of an expense "off the books" in a $360M budget, the item has potential to distort the entire budgeting process.
Also, such an MOU amount -- being so large -- can be simply canceled if the state has to come in and take over the TPS.
I will be here for a couple years while we build our home in the country. My oldest is is Freshman and may stay for him to finish. You do not know me, my family or my personal goals. Therefore, SHUT UP. Yes, I advocated for Lisa and continue to honor her in the goals and dedication she provides to our school district. The same district her and I have children in. Who are you to say she is not qualified? Looks like the citizens in Toledo including, many families with students in TPS, feel she is well qualified.
I will continue to be a cheerleader...........and continue to work with the wonderful people I have meet.
*click* ??????????? Whatever...........
Hmmm...loaded question.
I'v tried to share with my community the difference between a sham and someone truly interested in what is best for the children.
Using public records, various blogs concerning school board meetings and recordings of school board meetings, media reports, other than the Blade, and have deeply investigated with disturbing results.
Lisa Sobecki is not qualified to be on the School Board.
Neither is Jack Ford.
Those are both factual statements, and had you done YOUR research, you'd think along the same lines, had you one functioning brain cell available to flip that light switch up there.
The monies TPS spends on legal fees alone could contribute to the teacher fund. I think they need to give the parents what is needed to have their child educated and save on the legal fee's.. For those advoates, you know what cases I am referring to.
GZ - I apparently have not made myself clear. I agree with you. In fact, I wrote a column in the Toledo Free Press in May 2006 about the retroactive MOU. When I first saw the MOU in August 2004 about 4 months after it was signed, I thought this was a Trojan horse. There was no end to it, it was not tied to the underlying collective bargaining agreement and it was already a good junk of coin at the time.
This community can not afford this liability. I know that employees say they have been promised the money. I also know that there is some question as to the "ethics" in how this obligation came about.
The liability has grown to a point where it would take a large levy. However, such a levy would perpetuate the flight from Toledo and in the long run this is not a cost Toledo can afford.
I'm with you - it can't be paid. Now the question becomes what if anything is a reasonable end to this dilemma.
What facts are you providing? Once again, it is your opinion...........
Thousands of voters in Toledo feel as I do. Do you run a
"job qualification" business?
Once again I ask " what do you do for the children in our community"?
Hey, lets be nice, I have two brain cells.........LOL
The current liability for the MOU is $18 million. It grows by over $3 million every year. If it were paid today, it would require the $18 million plus over $3 million added to the current salary schedule. Therefore the total paid out for the year would be $21 million.
The district is predicting a surplus this year in the $20 million range. However, that is needed to pay for the following year deficit. So by paying the amount out of current funds, the only way to cover the deficit is to layoff employees and close schools or pass a new levy plus renew the existing levy (yep, there are levies expiring in 2008, 09, 10) that would have to in the 7 - 10 mill range and that is just to cover the deficit without funds for new program, text books, employee increases, etc.
Legal fees have averaged over the last 7 years between $400K to $600K per year. Even hiring in house would only eliminate some of the cost. But I doubt that savings on legal bills would help much with this astronomical debt. Should there be savings? Yes! But at best we might save enough to pay the salaries of two teachers.
Well, there can't be a reasonable end. You're better educated on the details than I am. If what your background says is true, and that matches what I only suspect, then the TPS parents should be prepared for a strike. The teachers who strike should be prepared to be replaced (there's no shortage of subs). The taxpayer should be prepared for 3+ yearly votes for school levies (since one failure will compel the now-corrupt Board to put the levy right back on the next ballot).
And the children? They really can't prepare for anything, since we were supposed to prepare them with education, and that's just not being delivered, and will only be undeliverable more in the future.
We have to tell the teachers that they make $48K average and that's as good as it's going to get in a failing city. That MOU can't be paid. Forget about it. Teachers, I'm sorry that your union was stupid or corrupt, but you've all stood behind the Lawrences for too many years. Fighting for your employee rights is one thing, but employees never have the right to prosper if their company and customers are not prospering. The previous Board pulled a fast one on you, and the Lawrences authorized it, and the time is coming for you to admit your failures in that regard. Suck it up; at least most of you still have jobs.