SBISD laying off 350 staff (low income, real estate, loan)

[westsideteacher]

Originally Posted by Texascrude

I have plenty of friends who would have preferred to spend their last 4 or 5 years in public schools learning a trade. In fact, as soon as they graduated they signed up for one of the private "learn to become an AC Tech" type schools and started their lives off tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and several years older.

There's no reason to be forcing pre-calc down the throats of people who are just waiting to graduate so they can move on with their lives.

I agree. There are many students who would benefit from vocational training. There's plenty of money to be made by welders, plumbers, autobody workers, etc.

[westsideteacher]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

My recommendations for the 2011-2013 budgets are:

1. Reduce admin headcount to 1 per school (1 principal....no assistant principals). Examine district admin offices for non-essential headcount & eliminate. These are high paying positions anc can generally save 2-3 teacher salaries per position.

Perhaps one admin per thousand students is more livable. One counselor per 500 students, maybe.

[crone]

Originally Posted by westsideteacher

Perhaps one admin per thousand students is more livable. One counselor per 500 students, maybe.

What is a reasonable number of staff? My local high school has 3500 students. We have 1 principal and 11 assistant principals. They each have a secretary.
There is 1 lead counselor, 12 assistant counselors, 5 special education counselors, 1 diagnostician and 3 secretaries. Is the usual or excessive?

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by crone

What is a reasonable number of staff? My local high school has 3500 students. We have 1 principal and 11 assistant principals. They each have a secretary.
There is 1 lead counselor, 12 assistant counselors, 5 special education counselors, 1 diagnostician and 3 secretaries. Is the usual or excessive?

My local high school has half the population of yours, about 1600-1700.

1 principal & 2 assistant principals.
2 secretaries
4 counselors - about 400 students of varying grades for each
1-2 admins in counseling

Not sure how many special Ed staff.

Your local school's administration looks "bloated" to me.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

IMO teachers are grossly underpaid. Watching my kids SBISD teachers do their job is exhausting. These are some of the hardest working, smart, caring people I've ever met.

IMO, 45-50k is an insulting salary. I'd vote to pay them much more & pay more taxes to cover it.

Keep in mind they have great benefits, good retirements, only work about 75% of the year, and have the easiest degree program known to man. Not to bash on their training, but if you can't make it through an education degree Darwin is going to be calling your name soon.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by crone

What is a reasonable number of staff? My local high school has 3500 students. We have 1 principal and 11 assistant principals. They each have a secretary.
There is 1 lead counselor, 12 assistant counselors, 5 special education counselors, 1 diagnostician and 3 secretaries. Is the usual or excessive?

Sounds like an FBISD school to me.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by Texascrude

The range varies, but most states spend in the neighborhood of $7,000 per student per year. And while I agree that the comment you responded to was short sighted, people do need to realize that not everyone needs a 12 year general education.

I have plenty of friends who would have preferred to spend their last 4 or 5 years in public schools learning a trade. In fact, as soon as they graduated they signed up for one of the private "learn to become an AC Tech" type schools and started their lives off tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and several years older.

There's no reason to be forcing pre-calc down the throats of people who are just waiting to graduate so they can move on with their lives.

We really ned to adopt France's education system. What we have now obviously isn't working.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by Scarface713

We really ned to adopt France's education system. What we have now obviously isn't working.

Ours isn't working, but I haven't seen anything that would suggest that France's is the gold standard either. What we need to do is to get parents back into the game -- teachers can only do so much.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

IMO teachers are grossly underpaid. Watching my kids SBISD teachers do their job is exhausting. These are some of the hardest working, smart, caring people I've ever met.

IMO, 45-50k is an insulting salary. I'd vote to pay them much more & pay more taxes to cover it.

Agreed. The only well paid teachers are college professors.

[TheEconomist]

So, basically it seems like we need to get rid of the disciplinary problem students and divert the vocational education crowd into vocational education. And, stop building sports stadiums that would make Caligula blush. So, why don't we do this?