Comments for Appeals court sides with educator over school board at http://www.theind.com , comment 1 to 15 out of 15 comments http://www.theind.com Tue, 21 May 2013 12:04:34 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24510 What is the cost of pension benefits for the LPSB? How much will a bus driver receive in pension benefits. How much do retired employees pay for health insurance. How much do empoyees contribute to retiree benefits. Why can bus drivers participate in the drop program. Do you need to be a high school graduate to be a bus driver. Layne St. Julien since you seem to know so much, what say you. - the original northsidian Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:46:38 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24431 For the sake of information, Layne is a woman. I don't know the answers to all of your questions, but I may be able to help. LPSS teachers/administrators can be fired but it is a long process (can take up to 18 months if tenured) with much paper work. Most administrators don't want to start the process. Teachers have been fired, but not often. Parents/students can voice the same complaint against the same teacher/administrator for years to no avail. The LPSB central administrators tend to "isolate" the complainers. Lemoine is great at this. LPSS teachers are following a LPSS guide for teaching and are required to cover material chosen by the LPSS. Most of the material appears on standardized tests LPSS students are required to take. Discipline in the schools has changed with the program implemented by Lemoine. I don't know the specifics but I believe most teachers don't like it. I believe it involves a lot of paperwork. I think we discourage many of our great teachers by limiting how and what they teach. On the other hand, we do a great job of protecting bad teachers. Some handicapped students are mainstreamed into classes. The students are provided with aides and interpreters to help them in the classes. In other instances, special classrooms are maintained/developed to accommodate students with disabilities unable to learn in mainstream classrooms. In the period of the late 90s and early 2000 some of our schools had rising scores. Scores started to decline. Recent years have shown some very gradual growth with some schools stagnant. The LPSB/LPSS remains stuck because of the politics within the system. I have never understood why a community filled with bright, educated citizens has not demanded more of public education and the LPSS administration. There are great teachers and great academics in many of our schools. Our problem has always been the petty politics of the LPSS administrators and LPSB. - Pedro Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:00:09 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24396 "Ask any gum't employee, they can tell u the date and time they become eligble to retire!" I know we all say things like this to make our point. Poetic justice as it's called. But is that literally true? Because if someone goes to work in the morning and knows that date certain in their head, that's just sad. Tell me that's not really true, that you're just saying that. Please tell me you're exaggerating... - ragin_cajun Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:37:03 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24383 Ragin: They just want to talk abt maximizing their retiree benefits, drop, rehire, etc. Then ask for more taxes to cover the cost! Ask any gum't employee, they can tell u the date and time they become eligble to retire! You r right it's not abt education. - the original northsidian Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:32:16 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24382 Nothing. Crickets....you were right again Northside. THIS is why public education is crumbling in America right here. It's become nothing more than something for adults to argue about--an ideological football and a cash cow. Nobody really wants to talk about education. - ragin_cajun Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:28:01 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24363 So how bout it Layne? Any knowledge to share with us about the nature of teaching? The state of education? - ragin_cajun Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:16:14 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24318 I think you've got their number, northside. - ragin_cajun Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:46:43 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24313 Ragin-they will never answer your questions. They just want Tax Increases to cover their tracks. They hate questions they can't spin. They probably have no idea what pension costs are. Maybe Layne St. Julien can answer, he seems to be their parrot. - the original northsidian Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:13:40 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24300 "Clearly you do not understand the nature of teaching." I openly admit that I have a lot of questions about education, teaching, and how all of this has changed in the last 30 years. I've asked MANY questions here, and no one has EVER answered any of them. Since you're the latest to throw out something like "you don't understand" to shut down debate, I'll go ahead and ask you this time. What IS the nature of teaching? What is the job like? How much/little control over what is taught, how it's taught, do teachers in public schools have? How much/little control does the State of LA have? What is the biggest obstacle for teachers in the classroom? How do they deal with discipline problems? What is the policy with handicapped students right now? Are they just mainstreamed, and if so, does that mean that every teacher in a public school has to be prepared and ready to teach a class with a handicapped, learning disabled, or developmentally challenged student? If so, this was not always the case, so when did it change, and why? What is LPSS' reason for poor performance in Lafayette schools? Is LPSS REALLY performing poorly? Perhaps it's not. How has LPSS performance varied over the years? Better or worse over time? And who/where does the teachers' union negotiate salaries for teachers--Baton Rouge or in Lafayette directly with LPSS? Does that even go on in La.? What is the process for LPSS to fire bad teachers? Do teachers have "a contract"? What is their pension? How much of LPSS' budget is pension contributions? Do we have a Wisconsin/Ohio type budget timebomb ticking away that hasn't been made public, yet? Most other states do, how did Lafayette and Louisiana escape that? - ragin_cajun Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:16:41 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24298 >Some peeps teach and some peeps "WORK ! I often agree with your postings, but not on this issue. Clearly you do not understand the nature of teaching. And no, I am not a teacher. - Farrow Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:49:26 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24289 I stand corrected. So let me re-phrase the question. Why do some school employees get contracts that are proscribed in length by law? Why can't all school employees work as long as they do a good job, and get fired whenever their employer can show cause....you know, like the rest of us work. Why do we need a contract, with terms prescribed by state law, for what amounts to little more than a mid-level manager, or an experienced clerical worker? Because now, if the employee does a sub-par job, or we find a better person for the job, we have to GO TO COURT to make a change, or we CAN'T make a change because there's a contract. Maybe we decide that this particular employee is a crappy manager/principal/administrator, but we love her in the classroom. Can't move her back to teaching because she has a contract for two years? This is the kind of government inflexibility that makes change difficult. And, I'm sure we can all agree, that (along with hope) change is a good thing, right? - ragin_cajun Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:26:44 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24283 by Layne St.Julien "employees of businesses frequently sign employment contracts also." ----------------- True but so rare to be statistically insignificant. In general, contracts are most common, at least in Louisiana, in the school system. - James Melancon Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:31:45 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24277 1) the contract in question is not a teacher's contract -- it's an administrator's contract. 2) employees of businesses frequently sign employment contracts also. And just as with employees of businesses, school employees CAN be fired if they do a poor job. This case has gone to court because the sides are disagreeing about whether the firing was justified -- and this happens with private businesses and their employees, too. - Layne St.Julien Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:18:44 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24272 Because "TEACHERS can only teach they cannot do..... work like you and I. Some peeps teach and some peeps "WORK ! - NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:48:41 +0100 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/9303-appeals-court-sides-with-educator-over-school-board#comment-24271 Why do teachers get contracts that are proscribed in length by law? Why can't teachers work as long as they dona good job, and get fired whenever their employer can show cause....you know, like the rest of us work. - ragin_cajun Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:07:11 +0100