Seminole County public school teachers plan to hold a rally outside the Educational Administration Building today to draw public attention to the fact the school board got a 4.57% raise and says there’s nothing left to give any of the thousands of other employees a raise.
Seminole School Board gets raise yet denies teachers
Seminole County teachers are fuming over the fact they’ve had no pay raises in in years yet the school board got a 4.58% raise. According to the Orlando Sentinel: Seminole County teachers gave the Seminole County School Board an earful Wednesday night over how much board members are paid. “We’re fed up! We’re done, ” said Kelly [...]
Florida Judge Rules in Favor of Public Employees
Via a press release from the Florida Education Association: March 6, 2012 TALLAHASSEE – Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford ruled today in favor of the Florida Education Association in its lawsuit on public employees’ mandatory pension “contribution” and reminded Gov. Rick Scott and the extremists in charge of the Legislature that a promise is a promise. Last year, the [...]
Educational Bill Tracking
• HB 1191 Parent Empowerment in Education (aka Parent Trigger) passed the House Rulemaking and Regulation Committee by a vote of 8 to 6 — ALMOST along party lines. The committee heard and passed the “delete everything” (aka strike-all) amendment. There are significant problems with this version. The bill in its current form would: – Allow parents [...]
Florida Plans to Evaluate Teachers on FCAT Scores of Students They Never Taught?
Call and email SENATOR STEPHEN WISE and tell him to hear SENATE BILL 1380 to stop unfair teacher evaluations!
At the request of Florida Education Association members, Senator Audrey Gibson has proposed Senate Bill 1380 and Representative Dwayne Taylor has proposed House Bill 1067. These bills would repeal an unfair requirement in SB 736 that impacts teacher evaluations, pay and job security.
The bills would remove provisions in the law that require that non-FCAT teachers’ and non-classroom instructional personnel performance evaluations be based in part on upon the FCAT scores.
Civil War Festival Next Weekend
Renninger’s Twin Markets will be home to a live Civil War Re-enactment, living history exhibits, folk music, weaponry demonstration, authentic camps and sutlers, full-scale artillery, cavalry and soldiers in period dress and weaponry, a Civil War era Dress Ball and more this weekend. When you hear the boom every hour or so remember it’s not [...]
Proposed HB 543 to Rate Parents
This bill would require that school districts inform parents of its expectations regarding parental responsiveness to teacher requests for communication, such as accurate contact, emergency and medical information and oversight of their child’s school attendance, completion of homework and preparation for tests. They can use existing guides or checklists or new formats to communicate but would require parents to acknowledge, in writing, the receipt of that information.
3 Reasons Teachers Hate Rick Scott
His ridiculous merit pay plan – an unfunded mandate signed at a charter school no less. The legislation will establish a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system in 2014 and do away with tenure for new teachers hired after July 1 this year. It also chips away at teachers’ due process and collective bargaining. The measure is the latest in a series of steps Florida has taken to instill accountability into its education system by relying heavily on student testing to measure success and failure. That includes a grading system to reward top schools and sanction those that fall short. Those changes were instigated by former Gov. Jeb Bush. No teacher with any sense supports this legislation.
Scott’s not sweating the “pension tax” lawsuit
A total of 556,296 public workers, including teachers, is suing the state of Florida saying that the new required pension contribution without a pay raise is really a pay cut for hundreds of thousands of state, county and city employees. Florida educators are suing the state on behalf of all public employees in the state retirement system.
FEA suing state over pay cuts to for pension contribution
“This pay cut was used by legislative leadership to make up a budget shortfall on the backs of teachers, law-enforcement officers, firefighters and other state workers,” said FEA President Andy Ford. “It is essentially an income tax levied only on workers belonging to the Florida Retirement System. It’s unfair – and it breaks promises made to these employees when they chose to work to improve our state.
“While the state of Florida may make the policy decision to ask future employees to contribute to their retirement, it may not unilaterally change the covenant it made with current employees,” Ford said.
