School layoffs (Howe, Mart: insurance, home builder, unemployment)

[ged_782]

Originally Posted by Dopo

SCUISD can get away with that because there's almost no crime in that area.
But try doing that in the inner city to see what happens

AHISD is one of the very few area school districts that have never had a police force.

Of course, one could argue that AHISD is a small and generally affluent area that sees little criminal activity under the watchful eye of the AHPD, but it's worth noting that four of AHISD's six campuses are inside San Antonio City Limits, where policing of those campuses would fall under the jurisdiction of SAPD.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by Dopo

how about "keep the best teachers and layoff the mediocre teachers"
I guess that would happen in a perfect World.

A seniority system doesn't work that way.

Laying off older workers en masse tends to lead to age-discrimination lawsuits. The settlements on those could erase much of the savings.

But I can also think of a couple of teachers my kids had who acted like they had already retired.

[TrapperL]

Good point you brought up mamatotex. I wonder just how many folks in the private sector are paid to go political rallys? NISD does it all the time. Whenever the powers decide they need an army to go out on the streets to enlist support for their position, they have "meetings". They're counting on those that aren't smart enough to figure out what's really going on to support them. "Dr" Folks is a politician and as such is good at rallying the troops. But he's also well known for not telling the straight up truth- ask that question in Oklahoma.

In regards to the buildings, I've been in construction for 50 years and the President of the local industry organization, Pioneer Family to the Greater SA Home Builders, have a degree in architecture, and a couple of others. It's not only feasible to have modular schools, some of the smaller, less funded school districts have been using them for years. The site plan is not all that complex and yes, most any building can be adapted to any site. Ask any hotel builder, restaurant builder, HEB, Costco, Walmart,......how many would you like that use modular plans. A school is no different than any other building. You'll have classrooms, library, rest rooms, cafeteria, gym, auditorium, just like any other school. The size is determined by the amount of classrooms required for that school. All you have to do is the base plan in modular form and put it together. Any second year CAD student could do this in a few months and probably would never require any other modifications for future schools. It's a lot easier to do than to say. And have you noticed, NISD does not build on lots, they build on acreage which allows a ton of room for any drainage issues, placement of buildings, topo, etc. It's an incredibly easy thing to build that the taxpayer is getting hammered for.

[kevcrawford]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Good point you brought up mamatotex. I wonder just how many folks in the private sector are paid to go political rallys? NISD does it all the time. Whenever the powers decide they need an army to go out on the streets to enlist support for their position, they have "meetings". They're counting on those that aren't smart enough to figure out what's really going on to support them. "Dr" Folks is a politician and as such is good at rallying the troops. But he's also well known for not telling the straight up truth- ask that question in Oklahoma.

In regards to the buildings, I've been in construction for 50 years and the President of the local industry organization, Pioneer Family to the Greater SA Home Builders, have a degree in architecture, and a couple of others. It's not only feasible to have modular schools, some of the smaller, less funded school districts have been using them for years. The site plan is not all that complex and yes, most any building can be adapted to any site. Ask any hotel builder, restaurant builder, HEB, Costco, Walmart,......how many would you like that use modular plans. A school is no different than any other building. You'll have classrooms, library, rest rooms, cafeteria, gym, auditorium, just like any other school. The size is determined by the amount of classrooms required for that school. All you have to do is the base plan in modular form and put it together. Any second year CAD student could do this in a few months and probably would never require any other modifications for future schools. It's a lot easier to do than to say. And have you noticed, NISD does not build on lots, they build on acreage which allows a ton of room for any drainage issues, placement of buildings, topo, etc. It's an incredibly easy thing to build that the taxpayer is getting hammered for.

Agreed. I'm not sure why we feel that students need to go to school in the Taj Mahal. Should it be nice? Sure. Do you need state of the art everything? Goodness no. I went to Churchill many moons ago when the school was a fraction in size of what it is now, but I bet the student population hasn't grown that much. I just don't see a need for some of the overbuilding that goes on.

The kids aren't going to be any smarter because the school is nicer. Good teachers will teach well regardless of their environment. Smart kids will work hard regardless of their environment. Stupid kids will not get smarter because they have a palace to go attend school at.

You can build a very nice building with good amenities for a fraction of what they're doing now.

[L210]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Good point you brought up mamatotex. I wonder just how many folks in the private sector are paid to go political rallys? NISD does it all the time. Whenever the powers decide they need an army to go out on the streets to enlist support for their position, they have "meetings". They're counting on those that aren't smart enough to figure out what's really going on to support them. "Dr" Folks is a politician and as such is good at rallying the troops. But he's also well known for not telling the straight up truth- ask that question in Oklahoma.

In regards to the buildings, I've been in construction for 50 years and the President of the local industry organization, Pioneer Family to the Greater SA Home Builders, have a degree in architecture, and a couple of others. It's not only feasible to have modular schools, some of the smaller, less funded school districts have been using them for years. The site plan is not all that complex and yes, most any building can be adapted to any site. Ask any hotel builder, restaurant builder, HEB, Costco, Walmart,......how many would you like that use modular plans. A school is no different than any other building. You'll have classrooms, library, rest rooms, cafeteria, gym, auditorium, just like any other school. The size is determined by the amount of classrooms required for that school. All you have to do is the base plan in modular form and put it together. Any second year CAD student could do this in a few months and probably would never require any other modifications for future schools. It's a lot easier to do than to say. And have you noticed, NISD does not build on lots, they build on acreage which allows a ton of room for any drainage issues, placement of buildings, topo, etc. It's an incredibly easy thing to build that the taxpayer is getting hammered for.

Private companies hire lobbyists. It's a good paying job.

[zhugeliang1]

Laying off older workers en masse tends to lead to age-discrimination lawsuits. The settlements on those could erase much of the savings.

But I can also think of a couple of teachers my kids had who acted like they had already retired

I was talking to some high school students in NEISD and they were talking about this English teacher who has been teaching there 20 plus years and none of them like this teacher at all. I was going to say maybe that teacher will get laid off but realized that won't happen. Likely that probationaries will get laid off instead. I guess probationaries would get unemployment benefits in case of lay offs.

[LovingSAT]

Originally Posted by zhugeliang1

I was talking to some high school students in NEISD and they were talking about this English teacher who has been teaching there 20 plus years and none of them like this teacher at all. I was going to say maybe that teacher will get laid off but realized that won't happen. Likely that probationaries will get laid off instead. I guess probationaries would get unemployment benefits in case of lay offs.

I wonder how unemployment benefits work? I thought no teachers could get unemployment.

[mamatotex97]

one of our teachers looked into that and we were told we could but it would be a reduced rate so hardly enough to compensate.

The bad thing is a teacher who has only been there a year or two wont even have much in TRS

[zhugeliang1]

This link says generally teachers who are laid off can apply for unemployment:

http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/bnfts/school-layoffs.pdf

[LindaGrace]

Why would they not be able to collect unemployment?