Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

Click here to read:

1) Florida Education Association Chief of Staff Ousted?
2) NEA’s Retention on Retention
3) No Cash Left Behind in Arizona
4) Solidarity Forever?
5) White Hat and Black Humor
6) NEA Spent $9.2 Million Lobbying in 2007
7) Last Week’s Intercepts
8) Quote of the Week

About 30 teachers from McDonogh No. 35 High School in New Orleans staged a sickout as a protest against a change in the school calendar that they believed would result in a loss of pay.

Oops. Turns out they were mistaken. The New Orleans Times-Picayune picks up the story:

“The reduction in the calendar is not resulting in any reduction in pay for
teachers and staff,” [chief financial officer Stan] Smith said. The board voted
to alter the calendar to reflect the number of days teachers are paid after
discovering that the district had mistakenly scheduled four extra days,
officials said. As a result, the teachers’ last day will be May 19 and the
students’ last day will be May 16 — well above the state’s mandated minutes for
instruction, officials said.

Smith said the district e-mailed letters to teachers and
principals Wednesday — the first day back following spring break — alerting
them of the schedule change and that pay wouldn’t be affected. Principals and
administrative staff were also asked to distribute the information, Smith
said.

“A small group of employees at McDonogh 35 failed to receive the
explanation,” according to a board statement to reporters.

In Indiana, the Michigan City Education Association is planning a unique protest of slow contract negotiations in the district:

As a protest, teachers will wear clothing in colors to express their
feelings about issues they say affect not only their working environment but
also students.

On Monday, they will wear blue “because we are sad for our children for not
getting services they need due to large class sizes and the omission of
programs.”

On Tuesday they wear red because “we are seeing red because we are working
without a contract.”

On Wednesday they wear green because “we are envious of (school) districts
that treat their teachers fairly and respect them as professionals.”

On Thursday they wear orange. In the style of a children’s riddle, they
ask, “Orange you glad you’re with a highly qualified teacher today?”

On Friday, they wear black “because we have not received a raise to reflect
a cost-of-living increase.”

Here are a few ideas for the following week:

Monday – Silver and gold “for what we want from the taxpayers.”

Tuesday – Brown “for the citizens who brown-bag it to pay for our benefits.”

Wednesday – Yellow “for the politicians who cave in to our demands.”

Thursday – Pink “for the pink slips against which tenure protects us.”

Friday – Maroon “for the generation of maroons and ignoranimuses we’re turning out.”

Texas middle school principal John Burks is accused of threatening to kill his eighth-grade science teachers if student test scores didn’t improve.

“He said if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers,” said teacher Anita White. “He said ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, ‘You don’t know how ruthless I can be.’”

If true, Mr. Burks is unhinged and shouldn’t be in charge of any school. But the Texas State Teachers Association gets to the root cause.

“It sounds like a case of TAKS tyranny taken to the extreme,” claimed TSTA spokesman Joe Bean, who said teachers and administrators are often punished for disappointing test performance. “Once a principal gets a reputation as not able to get the scores that are required, that principal is virtually unemployable,” he said.

Well, whatever you do, don’t send him to Las Vegas.

Jena High School is in the news again.

I have been able to confirm yesterday’s story (see “Butera Gets the Boot?“) that Michael Butera, former executive director of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, was summarily axed as NEA’s Northeast regional director. He has been replaced on an interim basis by Kathleen Lyons.

Lyons has held a number of positions for NEA and its affiliates, from national communications director to executive director of NEA New York during its merger with New York State United Teachers, and most recently manager of NEA’s UniServ program.

Still no word on the cause of Butera’s abrupt ouster, but the rumor mill is churning.