From the Harford County Educators Association:
The Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County has today signed a temporary restraining order against the Harford County Board of Education. It directs the Harford Board to engage in good-faith negotiations with HCEA.
This court action came in response to a petition to the court filed by the Public School Labor Relations Board. (The Labor Board is the legally constituted body that hears and rules on labor disputes between public school employers and employees.)
On March 30, 2012, the Labor Board ordered the Harford Board of Education to return to the bargaining table within five days and bargain in good faith with HCEA regarding teacher salary increases for the 2011-2012 school year.
After the Harford Board of Education refused to comply with that order, the Labor Board filed a petition asking the court to enforce its March 30th order. With the issuing of this Circuit Court order, the Harford Board of Education must now comply with the Labor Board’s earlier order and return to the bargaining table within five days.
This Order was necessary because of the Board of Education’s refusal to comply with its legal obligation. As a result, the Board of Education has spent over $40,000 of taxpayer money, all of which could have been used for the educational program. Instead it has been utilized to circumvent the Board’s very clear statutory obligation to bargain in good faith with the employees of the Harford County Public Schools.
Want to Know Where Harford County has MONEY?
Attend the presentation by Robert Pellicoro a well-respected financial analyst; who show you how Harford County is using your tax dollars.
Monday May 21, 2012
Bel Air High School Media Center 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Following the meeting we will walk over to the Board of Education Building where Pellicoro will share this information with the Board of Education.
Still don’t believe this will amount to anything…
This is what happens when immature adults give the “finger” to legislative bodies…they get hauled back to court. HCPS, way to go. Nice job wasting more taxpayer dollars on private lawyers, wasting your employees’ time, and your already poor credibility.
It’s time for the citizens in this county to recognize how Tomback has destroyed the credibility of HCPS. If they don’t stand up and demand his removal as well as demand that HCPS return to the bargaining table with HCEA, you can expect teachers to no longer provide any services that are not explicitly defined in the current negotiated agreement.
If HCPS does not return to the negotiating table before the courts make them, the Labor Board can and will make a binding decision regarding teacher salary increase without HCPS at the table. I don’t think anyone wants that. But sometimes adults have to be treated like children.
So, how does this work? Does that mean that the board can go back to the bargaining table but give nothing or does it mean that they have to go back and give something since they bargained in bad faith?
From what I have heard the Labor Board cannot force the County or the Board to give money to anyone. Binding decisions are only as good as the money that is made avalible by the county council and the CE.
That is the unions problem, they will have to go through the CE and council to get anything.
When only 10 teachers show up at the county council hearings it doesn’t become a priority to the council.
Oh come on….it doesn’t matter how many teachers show up at those meetings. We will get screwed no matter what.
Get Real,
With your current union you are certainly going to get some indecent act performed upon your person. Figuratively speaking. Does anyone really think that a union that can’t find a way to gracefully accept a bonus offered in December really get their members (pitifully small number that they are, and shrinking) a real raise?
Thanks for that answer. I wasn’t sure if that was the case OR if they could say to the board “you negotiated for x, at the time x was available, Mr. Craig just refused to release x, so the county needs to give the x you agreed to give as raises.”
Either way, there won’t be a happy ending.
Yes but the way I understand it, and I may be wrong, they can reorganize the budget to make them give 1/2x from the HCPS budget.
I am really concerned about the quality of education my kids are receiving. All I ever read is how up in arms this group is or how wronged the other group is. It would be reassuring to see something positive as related to the core of the issue, the students and the what and how they’re learning. All I’m getting from the pieces I’ve read is everyone involved in the Harford County education system is pissed off.
@K…… K you should be. You should be concerned with the fact that at least in the elementary schools, the materials and curriculum used for writing and math fail children. There is no grammar instruction like there used to be before Lynn Owen took over. The writing curriculum is a joke. The Everyday Math program fails children who struggle in math. Spelling is almost completely gone depending on the school. I have been a teacher in this county for 16 years now. I have watched it go downhill in the last 8-9 years. It is sad and disturbing.
Well stated Bel Air Girl. I see it, I’ve worked it, and I’m disgusted by it! Unfortunately, it’s endemic locally, statewide, and nationally. There are some common denominators, in my opinion, that have urged this sickness on. It will take far more interest in this crucial matter than just you and I before the wrongs that have been thrust upon us over the years are righted.
You’re right, Everyday Math is quite possibly one of the worst math curriculums ever. Cecil County used it, and look what happened over there.
Teaching grammar in isolation is not effective. Teaching spelling is not effective except to reinforce phonics clues. The materials for writing in Middle School work. Uneven application of Everyday Math and a lack of substantial rigorous homework to reinforce skills are at the root of the math problem. That said, we have the education system which is afforded by the county support. Better funded school system have more innovative materials and curriculum.
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. You do not teach elementary school. It is entirely different from teaching middle school.
I have taught Elementary school. As much as it is different, it is the same. Things in elementary must be much more structured and routined but it still is teaching. While we may disagree, I do know what I am talking about. I think there is excessive pressure on elementary teachers. I empathize but I do understand first hand what they go through.
Is there anything you haven’t done Burbey…or that you THINK you haven’t done? How long did you teach elementary school? Was it your student teaching experience? And teaching elementary school 10 years ago is MUCH different than teaching it now. Teaching ANYTHING 10 years ago is different than teaching it now. You either don’t care, or don’t realize (knowing how arrogant you are, I’m guessing the former)how much of a tool you sound like…and what a bad reputation you give teachers. People on here…that aren’t teachers, aren’t related to teachers and have no clue what really goes on in a public school setting…take your word for gospel. Because you SOUND like you know what you’re talking about. The fact is, Everyday Math as a curriculum is the problem…not the application of it. I can see this as a parent of a child being taught the curriculum and as a former teacher. Not to mention the parent/teacher conferences and general conversations I’ve had over the years with teacher friends who see firsthand how it fails students. You show me where in true “everyday math”, these methods are used. If you showed the lattice method or partial quotients to a NASA mathematician, I promise you the majority of them wouldn’t know what it is…because it’s not used in real day to day math. There’s nothing wrong with the way we were taught as kids…except that some “academic” had to come up with a money making curriculum that suckers like HCPS bought into. And I learned to spell in school…and it did more than “reinforce phonic clues”…it actually taught me to spell words correctly. Not stretch spell…so I look like an idiot in 6th grade because I can’t spell a darn thing correctly. The majority of people don’t even like you in your own building. You’re a pompous, arrogant windbag of a weasel who just can’t shut his pie hole. Now go ahead…respond with some benevolent quotation of literature or some statistics you learned while obtaining your 30 beyond…I need the tp for my bathroom.
For Math see this: http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Math_Standards/12752_exec_pssm.pdf
For Grammar Instruction see this: http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/teaching-grammar-composition.html
We were also taught that Columbus discovered America and that the Plains Indians were savages. They way were taught when we were kids was inherently biased and discriminatory. It had little or no grounding in brain science or cognitive theory. It was based on the idea of regurgitation not understanding or analysis.
Burbey, you still didn’t answer how long you taught in elementary school and where. I think it was your student teaching experience and you’re passing it off as teaching.
I taught elementary in Baltimroe City for three years and was very successful. Beleive me when I say I know what it means to teach elementary. I often think about my kids and wonder how they are doing but I would never go back. Teaching elementary is exhausting.
Ryan, how long have you been a teacher? Your first sentence reflects a major part of the problem with education today. “Such and such DOESN’T work!” I’ve got a newsflash for you–Yes, it does. It works remarkably well AND it bombs, entirely depending on the student. I’ve had students (usually the math and engineering minded kids) who thrived on direct grammar instruction. It provided a set of rules and structure for building language. Other kids (English-minded kids mostly) HATED grammar. They could write fairly well without learning the structure, so they hated the extra work.
Honestly, I think the real reason so many English teachers talk about how isolated grammar instruction supposedly doesn’t work is that they didn’t particularly like grammar (and I’ve met more than a few who didn’t even KNOW the grammatical terms) and they see their “best students” thriving without it.
Grammar is essentially classification if it is taught in isolation. Children learn grammar through interaction with language. It is as simple as that. Comparative analysis teaches grammar better to all students. It has little to do with their ability. With so little time to teach all that must be taught, isolated grammar instruction is a waste of time. I have taught grades 2-8. Children will develop an understanding of grammar only through application. My time teaching has nothing to do with it. It is accepted pedagogy, grounded in linguistic research and theory.
Ryan, it is “accepted pedagogy” to a certain segment of the profession. Don’t be dishonest and try to claim that there is professional consensus on this topic. Further, if you’re going to sit there and cite “linguistic research and theory” then there’s just no hope for you. First of all, for any article you could cite, I could show you a dozen saying the exact opposite. Composition theory (which is where the instruction side of this happens, for the record–not linguistic theory), is a joke in academia precisely because of the fact that it literally subscribes to almost every new idea, “proves” that idea in ridiculously small samples (ie- one class or even a handful of students) and then proclaims it as the only legitimate way to teach.
You speak of comparative grammar based on reading texts. I see you’ve found your way into the world of Ms. Owen. Let me ask you something, Ryan–How many of the texts that you assign use Standard English? I’m assuming it’s a miniscule number, as almost no fiction uses it (intentionally using slang, fragments, etc for style and literary purpose), and HCPS just doesn’t assign enough good non-fiction. Students don’t learn grammar by encountering it. They see broken grammar in everything we assign them, and without a foundation in isolated grammar, they rarely recognize that. One must know what the formal rules/structures are if they ever hope to understand why a professional writer is breaking those rules/structures.
I get that the new “thing” is changing methods that have worked for years in order to follow “Research-driven approaches,” but Ms. Owen and those like her have literally been changing curriculum every time that research claims a new “only right way” to do something.
Here is another news flash for Ryan. As an employer I will not hire people who use poor grammer. Teach them whatever you want to teach them, Ryan, but just know that if they are unwilling or unable to speak and write using correct grammer they don’t work for me.
Here’s news flash for you Alex. Grammar is taught in context of writing. It is not taught in isolation. Every teacher should have specific grammar skills which are addressed with specific assignments.
Most all of the stories I teach are in “standard” English. Although there is no Standard American English. We don’t have an academy like the French. We have regionally accepted rules and practices and discipline accepted rules.
You’re deluding yourself, Ryan. Fiction just isn’t written in Standard American English–something that does exist. What you are referring to isn’t grammar–it’s linguistic code-switching. Once again, you confuse linguistics with composition. Even in linguistics, however, code-switching operates base on the idea that there is a standard, formal dialect beneath all of the regional dialects. In order for students to skillfully and intentionally change the register of their language–spoken or written–they must have a knowledge of that standard.
I get that you are passionate about the topic, Ryan, and I’m not one of those people who just follows you around ripping everything you say, but on this topic, you just don’t know what you’re talking about.
Actually, I think what you are referring to is status vs. non-status language. Every teacher should make there students keenly aware of the need to properly employ formal language which attends to the demands of tne status “accepted” language. However, many texts and I can assure you most of the stories I teach from the HC curriculum are written in “Standard American English”, which does not exist in reality. Now, we could go on and on reasserting our positions or we could accept the commonality.
Also, there is no difference between linguistics and composition. Written language naturally forms from the spoken and written experiences. Code-switching between, status language and informal language is easily taught if it is done intentionally over time. We are saying much of the same things, you know…
Oh, I almost forgot. Code-switich does not in the least imply that there is a “standard” underlying language. Code-switching refers to the natural process or intentional process of building both intentional and unintentional connections between two disparate language systems.
I do know much about linguistics.
Everyday Math is the problem, it couldn’t pass California or Texas’s textbook standards.
My understanding is that Everyday Math works well with above-average to highly successful students. From what I gather, if you are below-average or worse in mathematics, the program leaves you behind.
Is this true?
I have children that are students in HarCo public schools, including one who was taught by Mr Burbey. While I agree that grammar rules must be taught with corresponding lessons on grammar USAGE, the rules must nonetheless be taught! This includes punctuation, parts of speech, sentence structure and verb conjugation, which are simply the building blocks of grammar. When a child is learning math, you do not take them from learning to count to solving complex Calculus problems. You teach them the building blocks. The same must be done with grammar.
I agree. I never said it should not be taught but it should not be taught in the isolated, diagram this sentence, identify the noun manner.
Court-mandated negotiation, but only between HCPS and HCEA? ZZZzzzzzzzz
Call me when someone brings Craig and the Council to the table, voluntarily or involuntarily. Until that happens, the negotiations are just two old biddies feuding.
HCPS is the only one who can amend their budget at this point.
They can amend it…but unfortunately, it doesn’t mean King David has fo fund it.
I was refering to the 2011-2012 budget which craig has zero say over at this point!
Right…but even if HCEA “wins” in these re-negotiations, the funding would have to come from somewhere…and there’s no way King David is going to fund money for teacher raises and steps…even if they were already negotiated and promised.
King David does not have a say. In theory the school budget is funded like this. They submit a detialed request with line items and ask for X. The County Council and Exec give them X-32 Million. The BOE can organize that amount in any manner they want at any time they want with a few exceptions. The county council and exec can’t do squate about it at that point!
In regards to the Everyday Math program, the HCPS will tell you that teachers selected this math program. That is not the truth. Teachers reviewed the program, shared that it was not their choice, and it was chosen. The Math Supervisor will not entertain questions or concerns about this program. The good news is that after sixth grade, EDM is gone.
I support not to renew this superintendent’s contract. He has brought the morale of this educational organization to the lowest levels I have seen in twenty plus years. The climate in the school system is toxic and not good for students at any level of education. I miss the days of kind individuals that lead our schools like Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Halsey, Dr. Roberty. Those gentlemen would speak with parents in the school and parking lots and find out what was happening in the schools and if we had concerns. Those were the great days in HCPS!
Now we have quality teachers on Plans of Assistance for little or no reason. I know of a teacher that must submit weekly plans and doesn’t even receive feedback on her efforts in order to improve. Another teacher was told to provide ways to improve her teaching. AFter providing some suggestions, those suggestions were thrown back at her as evidence that she is not a successful teacher. The target is always moving out there….parents that is why teachers are fed up and worn out.
Dismayed,
You are correct…the current state of HCPS is toxic…and it all began with the dictatorship of Jackie Haas. That is when teachers became afraid to say anything for fear of retribution and that environment has continued to this day.
That’s why we have a union. Call HCEA.
HCEA is useless…what have they done for teachers lately?
How about preventing you from being placed in a mandatory generic program?
How about filing multiple actions to get them money to which you are entitled?
How about being the only union to stand up to the county executive and protect you bargaining rights?
First of all, they don’t do anything for me…I got out of teaching years ago. And come on…”filing multiple actions to get them money to which you are entitled?” Really??? They wouldn’t have had to file multiple actions if Dandy Randy would’ve just taken the money like every other union in the county in the first place. And as for “being the only union to stand up to the county executive and protect you bargaining rights?” And what exactly have the accomplished with that??? Have you guys seen one penny of the raise or steps they negotiated? Sure, they sort of won with the Labor Relations Board, but it’s an empty victory…because the county is never going to fund any pay raises.
Well, if you retired…we still saved your drug coverage. As to the rest…time will tell…
Nope…didn’t retire…I got out of teaching and went into the private sector. Tired of teaching no longer being about the kids and instead, being all about the political bs we all read about on the dagger daily. Yes…there is a lot of political bs in the private sector too…but you expect that going in. When I went into teaching, I never dreamed it would get as bad as it did…the last thing most administrators and central office staff care about is kids…they care about protecting their own six figure jobs.
Dismayed you are correct. I was one of those teachers who sat on the math curriculum committee and for 2 long weeks listened to and evaluated curriculum from different publishing companies. The team, which consisted of all teachers, chose Mc Graw Hill as the appropriate curriculum for elementary schools. The committee went home, and a few weeks later we were told that Sarah Morris had chosen Everyday Math. Our thoughts and input obviously did not matter.
We need folks that are on plans to contact HCEA.
Everyone knows that Sarah Morris loved EDM and tried forever to get it in the county. Teacher input is a joke.
They get teacher input so they can say “We have asked our teachers for input” or “we sought input from our teachers”. THAT’S IT. They get input so they can tell everyone they got it.
Then they do whatever the H they want to do. When they claim “we received input from teachers” everyone thinks that means they USED the input in making the decision, and then they blame the teachers for the stupid decisions, which is the real reason they get input from the teachers in the first place. They can say they got it, let everyone assume they based decisions on it, do whatever they want, then let the teachers take the blame.
It’s a beautiful system, really.