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Hey Dennis, I guess you couldn't resist taking a shot at the union when you said,"NBLA teachers must be selected for their interest, expertise, and commitment to the vision and mission of the NBLA without teachers' union interference."
Haven't you been humbled enough? Don't you remember what happened with the pd meetings?
Maybe Dennis should go away and stay away. Or maybe he would like us to revisit his actions leading to grievances won by the Association against him. Maybe he would like us to revisit the sneaky, self serving actions of the group of self selected teachers and their hand picked ledder by him who sought to circumvent the NBEA contract with their outlandish ideas to hire and fire the teachers for the Leadership Academy; to evaluate their own teachers; to have their own budget; to have a $92,000 hand picked Principal who did not report to the Headmaster at NBHS; to handpick the students they wanted to teach; to have classes of 14 students while the rest of us have classes approaching or exceeding 30 students; to have their own schedule; to have unlimited extra earnings via extra time and summer work. Then, to top it all off, after all of this is said and done, to involve the union. Is it any wonder this was not approved? There are other things to do and other concerns to address more important than spending as much time in grievance hearings as this would have required. Go away and stay away Dennis or we will revisit the letter you sent to teachers asking them not to exercize their right to bid on a position at your elementary school because you liked the person you already had. Or maybe the "mandatory" attendance at professional development meetings, uh, content meetings, uh Director's meetings, uh, monthly meetings, uh,...... Go away and stay away Dennis.
The NBLA proposal, like the road to hell, was no doubt paved with good intentions. But I agree. It was not based in reality. To live in this society, we have to conform to a certain degree. Why should these students who fail or refuse to conform be given special treatment? What message does that send? If a student can’t thrive within the structure of the school, their answer is to remove the structure? Or modify it so that it suits the needs of the child? Is it just me or doesn’t anyone see the massive inequity that this presents amongst our students. Is this fair? The students that walk the line, we don’t worry about, because they’ll be just fine. We don’t even reward them anymore in an effort to not make the lesser successful students feel badly about themselves. So we punish those who conform and we encourage failure by allowing for so many second chances. The real world is not this merciful. Realistically success precipitates survival in society. What are these students going to do when they leave? So many accommodations will not be made for them in the job force. What exactly is it we are setting them up for? We are showing them that the world is a flexible, yielding place and we all know it is not. Give me a break. There are already alternative programs in place like Twilight, Credit Recovery, Night school and even PPT that make it vastly easier to graduate. Most students don’t even take these opportunities. They just drop out. I’m sorry but if you can’t hack one of the above mentioned programs, then you don’t deserve to graduate. It can’t get any easier. What’s the point if it’s just a farce?
What the NBLA wants to accomplish, I think could be done if they were willing to significantly expand the Guidance Dept. Essentially they want to reach out even further and try to save these kids. An admirable intention, but the only way to even attempt that is through individual personal contact. Some of these kids would need to be heavily tracked in and out of school. Attendance is the biggest enemy. Home contact is essential. Guidance counselors are better equipped to do this. They are licensed counselors and many of ours have worked for DSS. Our guidance counselors at the high school are some of the most amazing individuals that I have ever had the honor of working with. They are fantastic people. But their talents are wasted by being spread so very thin. There is no way to catch all the problems of this number of students with such little staff. Many of the issues that our students face stem from the home. They need counseling for those emotional and/or psychological issues that they deal with on a daily basis. Counselors have about 250 students on an average each. If we tripled the guidance staff they would each have less than 100 students each a piece. Ask a guidance counselor how much they could get done if they had say 83 students. I know it’s a crazy idea because there is no room and no money but it is a logical solution. And far more practical than the NBLA, and it wouldn’t cost 10 million. It may be outside the box, but at least it’s still on the planet.
Sometimes good intentions are not enough. In my opinion the NBLA as it was initially proposed was flawed from day one and destined for failure. Since Dennis was in charge he should take full responsibility for it's shortcomings.
Even Portia was not happy with the leadership academy and that says a lot.
This academy was created for "AT RISK" kids. It was presented to the school committee by some of the best and brightest students we have. This year it is going forward with a regular freshman academy schedule. That means Honors classes are included. If the academy wants to do what it says it can then it need have type of student in it that the academy was written for. It also needs to teach curriculum that is needed to graduate. Standards must be met. We need books. We need technology in every classroom not just for a few select individuals.
Those teachers who propose to teach in the leadership academy with innovation failed a huge percentage of their students last year. I'm just wondering why it seems they will be successful with the leadership academy but not within Freshman Academy. Oh By the way, a director that is not certified as such to make $92,000? What's this?
I would have loved to have seen the firestorm this would have caused if they were actually incompetent enough to go through with it in the midst of this massive budget crisis. This was never a practical idea. I agree with one individual who stated that the NBLA proposal was "DOA; Dead on Arrival." 92,000 a year to handle an eventual total of 200 students when the Headmaster gets 106,000 to handle 3,000. Are they joking? Maybe they were going to use that salary to buy a clue. We lost all math and literacy coaches at the elementary level and they thought this was actually still going to happen? If the elementary level received the support it needed we would have less "at risk" students by the time they got to the high school. A 16 year old freshman that possesses a 5th grade reading level should never have been promoted every year in the first place! Studies show that it's already too late to make up the deficit once they hit middle school. It needs to be addressed at the elementary level for these kids to have the best shot possible, otherwise, the achievement gap just gets bigger and chances of success further away. The NBLA seeks to rectify the problem after massive damage has already been done. The plan should be preventative not disaster control. Replacing the levy in Louisiana would’ve been a lot cheaper, than rebuilding the state. And no lives would have been lost. How many students would really be saved from this plan? For 10 million a year, it better be all of them.
Dennis Wynn is not to be independently blamed for the failure of the NBLA to be fully in session. The majority of the blame has to go to the self serving small group of teachers who collaborated to write the self serving proposal. They continually tried to circumvent the union, hiring practices, evaluation practices, funding practices, class size practices, etc. to create their own little kingdom. Their original assignment was to come up with a restructuring plan for NBHS. they came back with a plan that was best for them and used the students as pawns. What does it say when Portis, who had no love for the union, ordered them to go back and to make significant changes and to eventually work within the confines of the present contract?
The Insider has learned that the Leadership Academy exists at NBHS as the second team in the Freshman Academy. There is no autonomy in hiring, evaluation, budget, curriculum, etc. They are expected to follow the same curriculum and to follow the same rules as eveyone else unless changes are negotiated in the next contract, if that happens. There is no administrator assigned to either the FA or the NBLA. The administrative positions were cut and this additional duty of attending common planning time meetings falls on the Housemaster. The Housemasters are now responsible for discipline and educational leadership in grades 9-12 without help as they were in the past, however, times and the kids have changed. Given the amount of time spent on discipline, it will be interesting to see how much time is spent on educational leadership. Given that this is the last year of the contracts for Units A and B, it is assumed that the NBLA will be an item for negotiations. Members should be on the lookout for correspondence from the NBEA leadership for membership on the negotiation teams for Units A and B as well as for suggestions for items to be negotiated for the respective units.
16 comments:
Hey Dennis, I guess you couldn't resist taking a shot at the union when you said,"NBLA teachers must be selected for their interest, expertise, and commitment to the vision and mission of the NBLA without teachers' union interference."
Haven't you been humbled enough? Don't you remember what happened with the pd meetings?
Maybe Dennis should go away and stay away. Or maybe he would like us to revisit his actions leading to grievances won by the Association against him. Maybe he would like us to revisit the sneaky, self serving actions of the group of self selected teachers and their hand picked ledder by him who sought to circumvent the NBEA contract with their outlandish ideas to hire and fire the teachers for the Leadership Academy; to evaluate their own teachers; to have their own budget; to have a
$92,000 hand picked Principal who did not report to the Headmaster at NBHS; to handpick the students they wanted to teach; to have classes of 14 students while the rest of us have classes approaching or exceeding 30 students; to have their own schedule; to have unlimited extra earnings via extra time and summer work. Then, to top it all off, after all of this is said and done, to involve the union. Is it any wonder this was not approved? There are other things to do and other concerns to address more important than spending as much time in grievance hearings as this would have required. Go away and stay away Dennis or we will revisit the letter you sent to teachers asking them not to exercize their right to bid on a position at your elementary school because you liked the person you already had. Or maybe the "mandatory" attendance at professional development meetings, uh, content meetings, uh Director's meetings, uh, monthly meetings, uh,......
Go away and stay away Dennis.
The Leadership Academy proposal was a hypothetical hypothesis which was not based on reality.
The NBLA proposal, like the road to hell, was no doubt paved with good intentions. But I agree. It was not based in reality. To live in this society, we have to conform to a certain degree. Why should these students who fail or refuse to conform be given special treatment? What message does that send? If a student can’t thrive within the structure of the school, their answer is to remove the structure? Or modify it so that it suits the needs of the child? Is it just me or doesn’t anyone see the massive inequity that this presents amongst our students. Is this fair? The students that walk the line, we don’t worry about, because they’ll be just fine. We don’t even reward them anymore in an effort to not make the lesser successful students feel badly about themselves. So we punish those who conform and we encourage failure by allowing for so many second chances. The real world is not this merciful. Realistically success precipitates survival in society. What are these students going to do when they leave? So many accommodations will not be made for them in the job force. What exactly is it we are setting them up for? We are showing them that the world is a flexible, yielding place and we all know it is not.
Give me a break. There are already alternative programs in place like Twilight, Credit Recovery, Night school and even PPT that make it vastly easier to graduate. Most students don’t even take these opportunities. They just drop out. I’m sorry but if you can’t hack one of the above mentioned programs, then you don’t deserve to graduate. It can’t get any easier. What’s the point if it’s just a farce?
What the NBLA wants to accomplish, I think could be done if they were willing to significantly expand the Guidance Dept. Essentially they want to reach out even further and try to save these kids. An admirable intention, but the only way to even attempt that is through individual personal contact. Some of these kids would need to be heavily tracked in and out of school. Attendance is the biggest enemy. Home contact is essential. Guidance counselors are better equipped to do this. They are licensed counselors and many of ours have worked for DSS. Our guidance counselors at the high school are some of the most amazing individuals that I have ever had the honor of working with. They are fantastic people. But their talents are wasted by being spread so very thin. There is no way to catch all the problems of this number of students with such little staff. Many of the issues that our students face stem from the home. They need counseling for those emotional and/or psychological issues that they deal with on a daily basis. Counselors have about 250 students on an average each. If we tripled the guidance staff they would each have less than 100 students each a piece. Ask a guidance counselor how much they could get done if they had say 83 students. I know it’s a crazy idea because there is no room and no money but it is a logical solution. And far more practical than the NBLA, and it wouldn’t cost 10 million. It may be outside the box, but at least it’s still on the planet.
Sometimes good intentions are not enough. In my opinion the NBLA as it was initially proposed was flawed from day one and destined for failure. Since Dennis was in charge he should take full responsibility for it's shortcomings.
Even Portia was not happy with the leadership academy and that says a lot.
Dennis, I'll pray for you.
This academy was created for "AT RISK" kids. It was presented to the school committee by some of the best and brightest students we have. This year it is going forward with a regular freshman academy schedule. That means Honors classes are included. If the academy wants to do what it says it can then it need have type of student in it that the academy was written for. It also needs to teach curriculum that is needed to graduate. Standards must be met. We need books. We need technology in every classroom not just for a few select individuals.
Those teachers who propose to teach in the leadership academy with innovation failed a huge percentage of their students last year. I'm just wondering why it seems they will be successful with the leadership academy but not within Freshman Academy. Oh By the way, a director that is not certified as such to make $92,000? What's this?
I would have loved to have seen the firestorm this would have caused if they were actually incompetent enough to go through with it in the midst of this massive budget crisis. This was never a practical idea. I agree with one individual who stated that the NBLA proposal was "DOA; Dead on Arrival." 92,000 a year to handle an eventual total of 200 students when the Headmaster gets 106,000 to handle 3,000. Are they joking? Maybe they were going to use that salary to buy a clue. We lost all math and literacy coaches at the elementary level and they thought this was actually still going to happen? If the elementary level received the support it needed we would have less "at risk" students by the time they got to the high school. A 16 year old freshman that possesses a 5th grade reading level should never have been promoted every year in the first place! Studies show that it's already too late to make up the deficit once they hit middle school. It needs to be addressed at the elementary level for these kids to have the best shot possible, otherwise, the achievement gap just gets bigger and chances of success further away. The NBLA seeks to rectify the problem after massive damage has already been done. The plan should be preventative not disaster control. Replacing the levy in Louisiana would’ve been a lot cheaper, than rebuilding the state. And no lives would have been lost. How many students would really be saved from this plan? For 10 million a year, it better be all of them.
In my opinion Mr. Winn is the person most responsible for the failure of the original NBLA proposal.
I didn't know he had retired. I would have gone to his party. He seemed nice
Dennis Wynn is not to be independently blamed for the failure of the NBLA to be fully in session. The majority of the blame has to go to the self serving small group of teachers who collaborated to write the self serving proposal. They continually tried to circumvent the union, hiring practices, evaluation practices, funding practices, class size practices, etc. to create their own little kingdom. Their original assignment was to come up with a restructuring plan for NBHS. they came back with a plan that was best for them and used the students as pawns. What does it say when Portis, who had no love for the union, ordered them to go back and to make significant changes and to eventually work within the confines of the present contract?
Yet not one of these teachers wants to work with the at risk population. Just the best and brightest.
Hello? This is New Bedford! We all work with at risk students. Some of us used to be one! Oh yeah and we do it without getting extra pay.
The Insider has learned that the Leadership Academy exists at NBHS as the second team in the Freshman Academy. There is no autonomy in hiring, evaluation, budget, curriculum, etc. They are expected to follow the same curriculum and to follow the same rules as eveyone else unless changes are negotiated in the next contract, if that happens. There is no administrator assigned to either the FA or the NBLA. The administrative positions were cut and this additional duty of attending common planning time meetings falls on the Housemaster. The Housemasters are now responsible for discipline and educational leadership in grades 9-12 without help as they were in the past, however, times and the kids have changed. Given the amount of time spent on discipline, it will be interesting to see how much time is spent on educational leadership. Given that this is the last year of the contracts for Units A and B, it is assumed that the NBLA will be an item for negotiations. Members should be on the lookout for correspondence from the NBEA leadership for membership on the negotiation teams for Units A and B as well as for suggestions for items to be negotiated for the respective units.
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