This seems to be making the rounds a bit. Anyone from Rhode Island (U.S.) here who can give some flavor to the story?
Central Falls HS to fire every high school teacher [staff]
Quote:
Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.[...]
After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.
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Reading through the article, the school isn't ranked high in graduation (less than 50%?) or test scores, and has been mandated by the Education Commissioner(?!?) to improve. There are six points that need to be signed off:
- Adding 25 minutes to the school day
- Providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school
- Eating lunch with students once a week
- Submitting to more rigorous evaluations
- Attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer
Pay increase for this is going to be low, but the teachers supposedly make US$70K to 78K per year where the median income in the town is US$22K.
The administration seems to be a bit heavy-handed in directing the changes to be made, and is not offering to improve the teachers'/staff's income through their extra work. The union is being painted, in the article anyway, as wanting change but want to have input as well. Given the current status of the school, I'm more in favor of the administration's side since the teachers/union haven't done much to improve so far, it seems. Thoughts?