Churchill HS -Does it have 12 more years of being a good school? (Marshall: apartment, house)

[Austinite101]

As a high school student myself, I can tell you that these cuts really do hurt when you get down to it. I've had a few classes now (post-cuts) with 45+ students! Great teachers fired in mass! Entire classes chucked out the window! I can go on and on. But for you to say these cuts are overblown tells me that your logic is seriously misconstrued.

[TexasRedneck]

As a taxpayer I have a feeling that some of those cuts needed to be made. Just because a class is popular doesn't mean that it contributes to the core educational needs.

[Austinite101]

Those "popular" classes you speak of are core classes. You cannot graduate from a Texas high school without them. It's this ideology that contributes to the fact that our public schools are among the very worst in the country.

[TexasRedneck]

With all due respect.....my wife recently retired from teaching - so I have a pretty good idea as to what some of the issues are. By cutting back on classes, the schools try to make it appear that they're "cutting to the bone" to get parents to raise hob with the politicians. To actually cut a core class, they'd lose accredidation, which means the TEA would take over the school - so that simply isn't going to happen....but they'll make it LOOK that way.
The average school tax on the homes on our street is $3200/year. There are 10 homes that have children in them - 12 that don't. The 10 homes have about 25 kids total - do the math.....and that doesn't include the business property taxes being collected.
Now....backdrop the elementary schools. Kids coming out of 6th grade lacking basic penmanship and critical thinking skills...but whizes on a computer. Why? Computer skills don't require 12 years - by the time kids enter high school, technology has already overtaken what they started with. Yes - computers can be great tools, but just as a plumber starts by digging trenches, the kids need to learn basics.
It used to be that calculators weren't allowed in a classroom - today, they're often encouraged. Why? Because it's hard to teach Johnny multiplication tables, etc - but easy to show him how to use a calculator, and the fact that in the middle of nowhere he won't be able to perform basic math functions without a calculator isn't their problem.
It's not only in the schools - it's everywhere. The Army has discontinued teaching map/navigation skills in OCS because "everyone uses GPS". Well, I've got news for 'em - there can well come a day when either the sats are down, or else the gizmo's they're carrying have been damaged/run out of battery power - and there's going to be significant consequences.
When you run numbers in a calculator without basic math skills, you have to assume the results are accurate - I don't. I've have too many times over the years where either numbers were entered wrong or the calculator has messed up, and the results have been in error. Because of my math skills, I KNEW there was a problem, and double-checked things. Without those skills, I would have simply entered the results.

[pobre]

Originally Posted by Cuero

Churchill is not as good as it was in the 80's but it's still one of the better schools. It's impossible to know what a school will be like in 12 years for several reasons but one of the biggest is the rapid growth in NEISD and the northside in general. The school your neighborhood feeds into now may not be the one your kids attend. Sometimes families living within view of a school have their kids bussed elsewhere due to enrollment caps. That happened a lot back in the 80s and its only become more common.

The talk about school funding cuts is way overblown. The schools still have plenty of fat and they can still find the money to fund the pet projects they really want. The crying over budget cuts is just political posturing to obtain more funding. I actually hear this from teachers and folks on the business end of the school districts.

Well, as a "fat" teacher, I respectfully disagree with you (the second paragraph only). We are being asked to do more with less, every single day. Personnel have been cut to the bone. My own salary has actually declined over the past three years. The raise this year brings it back to what it was 2 years ago. We have fewer and fewer assistants, which means they are stretched across the schools. Many don't last even a year, due to the workload and the low salary. And I know more cuts are inevitable.

BTT: Based on the fact that NEISD has just about reached its limits in terms of new schools, the Churchill boundaries should stay somewhat stable.

[TexasRedneck]

Hey Pobre....you notice that while they cut teachers & aides, the admin staff continues to grow?

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

Hey Pobre....you notice that while they cut teachers & aides, the admin staff continues to grow?

Boy, can I ditto that. It amazes me how there is always money for one more assistant to the assistant principal.

[heimerswt]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

Great teachers fired in mass!

During church?!

Oh... I believe you meant en masse.

[pobre]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

Hey Pobre....you notice that while they cut teachers & aides, the admin staff continues to grow?

Not sure about central office, although they did cut down by 1 asst Superintendent. And I do know that many CO positions are being eliminated through attrition. But at the (elementary) level, it used to be 2 AP's if the enrollment was over about 850. Now 1 max, whether you have 550 or 1200 students.

[Cuero]

Originally Posted by pobre

Well, as a "fat" teacher, I respectfully disagree with you (the second paragraph only). We are being asked to do more with less, every single day. Personnel have been cut to the bone. My own salary has actually declined over the past three years. The raise this year brings it back to what it was 2 years ago. We have fewer and fewer assistants, which means they are stretched across the schools. Many don't last even a year, due to the workload and the low salary. And I know more cuts are inevitable.

BTT: Based on the fact that NEISD has just about reached its limits in terms of new schools, the Churchill boundaries should stay somewhat stable.

You jumped to the wrong conclusion. The fat I was referring to is in administrative offices. I sympathize with the teachers. However, don't feel too sorry for yourself because most people are having to make do with less.