Wednesday, August 28, 2013

New superintendent launches new school year in New Bedford | SouthCoastToday.com

What are your thoughts?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

More thoughts about the HayMac parent letter...who put her up to it?

Anonymous said...

Mayor was fashionably late as usual.

Anonymous said...

On Tuesday Superintendent Durkin told us she wants everyone to give 100 percent. Well Dr. Durkin, I along with my teacher friends have been giving 110 percent for years.

Are you going to be demanding the same 100 percent from the students and their parents? What magic potion do you have for accomplishing this as I would like to try it with my students?

Anonymous said...

Mayor Jon Mitchell's speech on Tuesday was not genuine.


Anonymous said...

^I agree with the previous post: His words were just words-he has no respect for us.

Anonymous said...

Blame the parents. That'll work

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh whe I read this in the local rag, "Superintendent Pia Durkin, who had a testy relationship with the Attleboro School Committee in her final years there....". And all this time I thought pia was perfect. I thought she $$$$ ice cream in different flavors. I thought she was the rags Christmas gift to us. What happened?

Anonymous said...

It won't be long before old Pia, Jon "i am the mayor" Mitchell and the school committee are at each others throats.

Anonymous said...

Is it true that @@@@@@ has been fired by Pia? I heard that she was escorted out of Prab on Monday. Marlene Pollock must be &@@&&&&& herself. Those two clowns did each others dirty work. As one who was the victim of her harassment I'm glad she's out. My only regret is that I didn't get to see the perp walk.

Anonymous said...

They'll probably buy her out so she can spend more time with her family.

Anonymous said...

I remember the sc meeting where ell issue was tabled. Pollock is wrong. Ell team presented a raft of recommendations.
Agenda called for a presentation of the report, nothing more. However, pollock end moved to approve all recommendations.
At this point no one on sc had even read the full report.
Mayor moved to table in an open and free vote, motion passed.
The real story is that a sneaky attempt to pass through policy that no one had read was halted.

Anonymous said...

Attleboro's poverty numbers are not even close to NB. The reasons why few took AP there are much different as well. We should not allow these faulty arguments to hover around. Pia's perceptions need to stay flexible and we all must insist on it!

Anonymous said...

Class sizes will be HUGE this year. Largest classes in a generation. District staff reduced by 20% and the expectation is to increase MCAS scores by 40%; yeah good luck with that. How about we use some of the extra millions for supplies on bringing back some staff. Quality instruction will suffer with class size around 30. I wonder what the class size max will be at the new Innovation school.

Anonymous said...

I am scheduled to teach six classes (alternating 3 classes a day) at HS with 150 students signed in SO FAR. With 30 to a class, I could possibly max. out teaching 180 in total every two days! A good portion of those students are on IEPs. Another portion are in AP classes and the rest are anywhere in between. I have no technology in my room, only a handful of very outdated, torn textbooks, and usually no aid for IEP students, which are sometimes mocked by the other students when they speak in class. The students range in age from 15 - 18 (sometimes much older). When I look around the room, I say, "This is progress?" I often feel that I am in one of those one room schoolhouses from the early 1900s!

Anonymous said...

This year's school department budget is $millions$ above last year's budget. The only difference is that several million dollars are being diverted away from keeping teachers employed and instead will be spent on supplies. Why can't this transfer be a gradual approach that is accomplished over the next 3 to 5 years? While all in 1 year? Students lose any individual attention in a class of 30.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, IEP students thrown in a mixed class (25 or more) with various abilities without an aid are not having their needs met. Between the disciplining, trying to keep students off their electronics (which interferes with their learning), and handling a flow of interruptions (answering calls from office and documenting students arriving late to class with slips). . . . . very little learning is taking place. I witness it on a daily basis, and my questions were met with a shrug and a comment to the effect: "Do the best you can and move them along." (Even though some of them are barely grasping any of it?) To repeat the mantra: WHERE ARE WE HEADED? I think we all know!