Sunday, August 22, 2010

Why Rescind the Furlough Days?

Author:
On August 10th the Loudoun School Board requested an additional $4.5M from the Board of Supervisors to eliminate the two furlough days planned for Thanksgiving week this fall.

Why? It's easy as 1... 2... 3...

  1. The funds are available. Loudoun County had a budget surplus of $18.7M in FY09. This surplus was set aside to cover a possible loss in FY10. When the Board of Supervisors allocated an FY11 operating budget to the School Board in April, the final outcome of the FY10 was still unknown. We have since learned that there will also be a County budget surplus in FY10, and now a decision must be made about the FY09 surplus funds. Of the $18.7M, $7.5M came from LCPS budget surplus. The School Board is requesting $4.5M of that to help fund FY11.
  2. Education is important. Loudoun's parents want excellent educational opportunities for their children. They accept nothing less. Loudoun students need more time in school, not less, to have these opportunities. With our budget restrictions we're unlikely to be able to extend the school day or lenghten the school year. If we can't make progress, let's at least not lose ground.
  3. Educators are important. Furlough days are a terrible way to balance the budget. Furloughs take money from one group in our community, the educators, to reduce the burden of education on rest of the community. LCPS employees have had frozen salaries for three years, and this year their paychecks will actually decline this year due to the furlough days. We can't attract and keep teachers who can and will provide the best opportunities for our kids while shortchanging them on payday.

Supervisors often wish they could direct how the School Board spends its funds. Here is a rare opportunity for them to allocate $4.5M in surplus funds and know exactly where it will go... to restoring the paychecks of Loudoun's public school educators.

Labels: , ,

44 comments:

  1. as a parent we have been given the calendar, made plans travel related and honestly appreciate having a few extra days for that specific break. Personally, I would prefer you pay the teachers and give everyone the break. All well deserved.
    ReplyDelete
  2. I work for LCPS and everyone I know within the system has already made plans for the extra furlough days. The BOS needs to make up its mind from the beginning and not keep everyone guessing. You decide a course of action, then you need to follow through, whether or not you lose popularity and votes from your constituents.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Just because a few people with money to burn have purchased vacations does not mean many parents should be burdened with extra childcare costs. People who made plans can just let their children have absenses while the rest of our children do what they're supposed to do - get educated!
    ReplyDelete
  4. I am insulted by the above posting. Just because I made plans does not mean that I have "money to burn". I'd like to think that instead I am practical. I have a demanding work schedule and work in a place that cannot have everyone out around the holidays. With the advanced knowledge of the school calendar, I made plans, as I'm sure many people have. It would be unfair to those people who shifted their schedules to accommodate these days off only to now have their kids miss school because the school board changed their minds.
    ReplyDelete
  5. If the goal is to recind the salary cut (which is really what the "furlough days" amounts to, you should look for a different solution than scheduling school for those days. Many, many people make holiday plans months in advance. Given the amount of travel and family coordination that has to happen around Thanksgiving, you'd be inconveniencing a significant percentage of both students and staff, if attendance is required on days previously scheduled off.

    I'd suggest you restore the salaries, but take the days out of the snow reserve. If this winter is as bad as last, we'll push into the summer. If not, everyone wins.

    P.S. As for my personal situation, I'll be scrambling for child care that week, as my wife and I have to work those days. I just think this is most fair to everyone.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Three months advance notice for a two day schedule change is fair.

    Like Christmas, and Spring Break the week of Thanksgiving has traditionally seen families pull kids out of school early for vacation. The LCPS must recognize this -- I don't remember any "critical" educational events like SOL the week preceding a holiday. So pragmatically, what is the significant impact to children on family vacation for two extra days of a holiday week?

    On the other hand, all of the families which have to make special arrangements to deal with furlough days benefit from the schedule change. I'm willing to bet the greater percentage of families is in this category.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Since so many faculty members have made plans and intend to keep them, the expense of substitutes would be high for those 2 days. In addition, since many of our families have made plans, the educational program would not be as meaningful during those 2 days because teachers would have to reteach what was covered during the 2 days. Use the money as the Commonwealth intends to do with surpluss monies and give employees a bonus and keep the furlough days. That would raise moral among staff who has has not had a raise in 3 years.
    ReplyDelete
  8. Hmmmmm... I find it interesting that no one has considered using the funds to guarantee funding for summer school next year. Or did a year without summer school not make much difference?
    ReplyDelete
  9. Travel plans or no travel plans, the idea that you would consider changing a school calendar that has been publicly posted for months is absolutely infuriating. I am pleased to hear about the surplus, but there are many ways that students can benefit from it other than rescinding the previously announced furlough days. In fact, I have been in and around education enough to guarantee that, should those furlough days be rescinded, the attendance will be so light and morale so low that they will be wasted days anyway. I am sure a group of intelligent adults such as the Board of Supervisors can figure out an excellent way to utilize the surplus that would benefit all involved without wreaking havoc on schedules that have been put into place for months. Loudoun County has never set a precedent of changing a previously established calendar, and I see no reason for that to start now. (And as for the angry poster who complained about the childcare headaches that these two extra days may cause: get over it. You, like the rest of us, have had many months to figure out what to do with those days.)
    ReplyDelete
  10. First, as a teacher in the county, our pay has not been frozen for two years, it's actually gone down due to increase in insurance costs. This year it just goes down MORE. Yes, some people have travel plans. Some students, some teachers, but the majority don't, and I suspect the large portion of the people most directly impacted by the furlough days (the employees of LCPS) would appreciate having the money back, regardless of if they have small classes. If teachers have plans, they have personal days they can use. If parents have plans, they can always take their children out of school like they do many other years.
    ReplyDelete
  11. I cannot disagree about the posted schedule at all. It is not fair to change it now. Additionally, as someone who worked in the schools for years, any teacher will tell you that Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week are not instructional days. So many parents pull there kids out to beat the traffic, get the better travel rates, whatever- look at the absentee rate for those days. It makes it impossible for the teachers to continue their lesson plan with so many students missing from their class. Those were the right days to pick for the furlough days. And in terms of those days - bottom line - it was the SCHOOL BOARDS decision to do this. They could have done cuts in other places - address their transportation issues with its ridculous budget -cut some consultant fees - cut some personnel at the admin building- but they did not. It is all about choices - and they choose to do what is not necessarily the best choice , but certainly the ones that will get the most attention from the parents. Ask the schools how much surplus they already have.
    ReplyDelete
  12. I'd like to remind everyone with children, your child care costs are your own concern. There is absolutely no reason to go back on the furlough decision other than politics. The School Board should be ashamed of itself - pure political ploy to gain favor with a handful of vocal VEA and NEA allies in the LCPS.

    I have 2 kids in public school, they are my responsibility. If school is closed, open, or there are furlough days - I need to be prepared with plan A, B, C or whatever is necessary. Schools are not babysitting institutions.
    ReplyDelete
  13. Some thoughts regarding the new-found funds and spending it on teachers' "salaries":

    1. The funds are available.
    • Do teachers really have salaries? Generally, workers in professional occupations are considered "salaried," but school systems and teachers themselves treat the employment relationship as hourly, not salaried or exempt. The relevant federal and state laws (the Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA) provide tests (criteria) to determine whether an occupation is exempt or non-exempt (hourly). Instead of using these criteria for teaching, FLSA states teaching is "exempt," thus categorizing by fiat rather than principle. Teachers are de facto hourly employees, and behave so in many ways ("work to rule," for example). Can anyone imagine physicians, engineers, accountants, architects, and pharmacists punching in and out?

    • Isn't it time that the county and school district consider presenting multi-year budgets? This "unused" money was not discovered until after the budget battles; if only the timing had been different by a few weeks or months, so much mistrust, acrimony, and hand-wringing could have been avoided. And consider that when the county treasurer warned the Board of Supervisors a number of years ago that the revenue stream from property taxes would drop once property values inevitably burst, both boards might have actually planned accordingly. For-profit and not-for-profit businesses do it, why not the county's biggest consumer of tax money?

    2. Education is important
    • Should we put that much emphasis on the two lost instruction days when there was little, if any, concern over the two and a half weeks of lost instructional time last winter?

    • If our primary concern is about improved instruction (i. e., "learning"), wouldn't the money be better spent on strengthening teacher assessment, development, and quality?

    3. Educators are important.
    • Consider that while staff compensation has been frozen for the past few years, no one has really mentioned a significant issue which affects our school system's ability to attract talented graduates from teacher schools: to avoid pay compression, the school district has chosen to create a new "entry level" step to the pay scales each year. This reduces the starting pay for young teachers, with the potential for making LCPS less competitive in the labor market.

    • Others here have rightly pointed out that benefit cost increases and the furlough days have actually caused staff pay to decrease, not merely stagnate. The new entry-level steps further exacerbate the set of compensation and learning achievement issues involved.
    ReplyDelete
  14. I agree, keep the furlough days and give the teachers a bonus or pay increase. Loudoun County already has more extra days built into it's schedule for snow days than any other school district, therefore we can afford two extra days off. Stop taking away from the teachers. If you want a good educations for your kids, it takes good teachers, not more days of school! Keep the teachers happy so that you don't loose the good ones.
    ReplyDelete
  15. Schools are not babysitters and teachers should not be treated like glorified babysitters. All of the staff would like to not get their pay cut, not just vocal NEA and VEA members. Loudoun County doesn't have a clue what it would be like to have an actual teacher's union with the right to strike for better pay and benefits.

    Erv - Can you imagine engineers, pharmacists, physicians, architects, and accountants being paid what teachers are paid with as much or more education and experience? Or being paid according to the whims of local yocal polititians every year?
    ReplyDelete
  16. If LCPS can recind the furlough days, I say DO IT. There are all of these comments saying "school is not a babysitting service". Nobody is using school as a babysitting service -- school is where the kids need to be to learn and that is where they should be on those days. It really defeats the purpose to pay the teachers AND still cancel school those days.
    ReplyDelete
  17. I say give the pay back to all LCPS personel and leave the furlough days in place. The calendar is set. Since our students go to school well over the amount of time mandated by the state as it is, leave the two days off. It doesn't impact the mandated time and wasn't important to be needed during the budget process, so it can be forfitted now. Plus, there are usually lower enrollment numbers on those days to begin with and many students, families, and staff already have plans because of a calendar that was published months ago. Don't screw up peoples plans or cause LCPS staff to now use personal days to take of time they were told they would not be working. Some people already have plans that use those days and this would now cause them to take time without pay - another backhand at LCPS staff. Stop treating our public school employees with such little disregard. Give them the pay they deserve and leave the days off - maybe next time the powers that be will be a little more considerate of peoples ime and money, as well as the amount of education we want our children to receive.
    ReplyDelete
  18. How about he teachers don't get paid for snow days.
    ReplyDelete
  19. "Can you imagine engineers, pharmacists, physicians, architects, and accountants being paid what teachers are paid with as much or more education and experience?"

    This poster raises an excellent point: teachers should be paid similarly to other professions, and be eligible for the same compensation opportunities; all we need to do is dump the hourly, step structure, and, just like other professionals, the effective teachers should get compensated more than the less effective teachers (who should have real development programs and goals available to them to help improve their performance) or find another vocation.

    This way teachers would not be treated like "glorified babysitters."
    ReplyDelete
  20. "Can you imagine engineers, pharmacists, physicians, architects, and accountants being paid what teachers are paid with as much or more education and experience?"

    No, I can't. Find me one of those jobs that offers 16 weeks off a year and snow days off. Find me one that offers the same job security. Find me a teaching job that pays commensurate with productivity. All teachers - whether they have 1 year experience or 30 years; whether they have a bachelors degree or a PHD - teach approximately the same amount of children.

    This is a classic teachers union argument that has no merit.
    ReplyDelete
  21. Teachers get 16 weeks off per year? Look at the school calendar and tell me how you came up with that fiction? The last day of school for teachers was June 22nd. They are returning August 25th. That is 9 weeks. Add the weeks of spring and winter break and that adds up to 11 weeks. Eight weeks more than the typical 3 weeks of vacation most professional workers get. Most teachers I know find some other form of employment to supplement their low salaries during the summer break (tutoring, waiting tables, retail jobs, etc.)

    Teaching jobs are no longer so secure - don't you read the newspaper, internet, watch the news, etc?
    ReplyDelete
  22. You make 8 weeks sounds so, uh, trivial. Also, I can't think of a single colleague who took a summer job or even went to school this summer.

    Nice job if you an get it.

    And how many Northern Virginia teachers were laid off this year (or last)?
    ReplyDelete
  23. How many of any of us (not just educators) in Northern Virginia lost our jobs during this recession compared to the rest of the country?

    Thanks to our Uncle Sam and the federal milk and honey that flows here and enriches all of us directly or indirectly here in NOVA.
    ReplyDelete
  24. I didn't have one summer job this year, I had three summer jobs in addition to a second job I work during the school year to make ends meet. Yes, we get "summers off" but we're not under contract those days - the only reason we get paid is our salaries are split over the entire year instead of just when we're contracted.

    And perhaps some teachers have made plans, but of all the teachers I know, only one has plans that she'd HAVE to take off.
    ReplyDelete
  25. I'm curious to know if you're the rule or the exception. Just how many teachers get other jobs to supplement their 10 months of contract pay?

    Based on my Facebook Friends comments, everyone appears to be using the time to enjoy their families and to travel. Not scientific, but since we're discussing what and how teachers are paid, we should know what the actual situations are.
    ReplyDelete
  26. Lost in all of this back and forth is the fact that this is the 2nd year in a row (that I can remember) that the School Board has not used all of the money from their budget - a surplus.

    Funny thing is, it's the 2nd year in a row that the School Board has also put up a gloom and doom forecast when getting ready to publish their upcoming budget.

    Remember all the cuts that were proposed? Furlough days among them. The Board of Supervisors didn't vote the furlough days in, they just told the School Board how much money they were getting and it was the School Board that decided on the furlough days.

    I am glad the Board of Supervisors didn't cave in to the demands of the School Board this year. It has been proven, at least 2 years in a row that the School Board doesn't need all the money they request. Now it's time they start acting responsibly and stop wasting people's time and money on some of the fluff programs that are out there.

    Give the teachers their fare pay and be done with it.

    Oh, and by the way, I'm not a teacher and if I use the same logic that one did in an earlier post, my pay is also getting decreased every year because of rising insurance costs.
    ReplyDelete
  27. LCPS salary range is between $46,000 and $96,000.

    Not exactly chump change, and certtainly not poverty money for a bachelors degree.

    $46,000, eight weeks off, snow days? Cry me a river.
    ReplyDelete
  28. Teachers, it is Hatrick and his supplicant School Board who put you in this difficult position. You all know there are excesses to be cut that would have made these furlough days unneccesary. But they chose to play politics instead of doing right by you. Please don't lose sight of that fact and direct the blame where it belongs. Don't let yoursevles be pawns.
    ReplyDelete
  29. LI, give it up. You have tried to incite people many times by your inflammatory comments and it doesn't work. You are the one treating people as pawns. Your drivel is getting boring.
    ReplyDelete
  30. Yeah, I'm the one causing the problems! Hilarious, pawn.
    ReplyDelete
  31. "3. Educators are important. Furlough days are a terrible way to balance the budget."

    Then why in the heck did the School Board choose furloughs over cuts in several areas of wasteful spending? You could have given the teachers a raise had you chosen to trim the fat.
    ReplyDelete
  32. It might be the BoE's way of raising the ire of staff and students' families against the BoS, since most of them perceive the BoS as the baddie.

    It's all a political poker game.

    Just like summer school, I'm sure. I bet that card gets dealt again during the next round of budget fun and gamee, with Dr. Hatrick and the BoE blaming the Supervisors as the culprits.
    ReplyDelete
  33. Mr. Stevens, I've seen a couple comments about summer school. Is there any way to use this money to make sure there's summer school next year?
    ReplyDelete
  34. Love the “Cry me a river” comment.

    LCPS teachers actually get 58 regular days and 7 holidays for a total 65 day off. That is 13 weeks of time-off in the corporate world. In reality though, corporate America (for profit or non-profit) do not follow the Federal government holiday schedule. Just because the Federal government calls it a holiday does mean it is followed in corporate America.

    So $46K - $96K with 13 weeks off, limited layoffs and fairly good benefits... they should be thanking the heavens above as they would never survive in corporate America.

    LC teachers may be singing the tune of no raises for the past 3-year... let’s try 5 years without a raise. Some companies are forcing layoffs or a week of vacation without pay just to stay afloat. .

    I also agree that not one of my teacher friends worked over the summer. All reports on FB were of vacations, travel and rest. Then they actually have the nerve to count down the days until school starts and whine about it.... get real. Again... in corporate America, they would never make it!!

    The true subject of this blog was to rescind the furloughed days or not. Being a full-time working mom, I understand both side of this. I have already started to plan for the full week off, but luckily my children are old enough to stay by themselves. 5 years ago, I would have to scramble for extra childcare and the expense incurred by this. Early planning is key if extra childcare is necessary and must be budgeted or schedule time-off from corporate America.

    Bottom-line.... be thankful for the job you have as a lot of people don’t have jobs and/or health insurance. If you hate or whine about a job so much, get out! I want my children around positive educators! If you want whining.... here goes – I have to use my allotted time-off (vacation/personal/sick) for next weeks’ student orientations that are scheduled during working hours (9 am – 5 pm). Some of the LCPS have decided to inconvenience the working parent with orientations at 2 pm.

    We built a house in LC understanding that we would pay more taxes for better quality schools. We accept that and work hard for the LC lifestyle. I would happily take the median LC teacher salary of $70 with 13 weeks off.
    ReplyDelete
  35. I have worked in "corporate" jobs for well over 20 years.

    I also worked as a part-time teacher for LCPS. I can honestly say that I felt more physically and emotionally wiped out after a day working with school children than I ever felt sitting behind a desk working on a computer, going to lots of meetings, and the other typical duties of most "corporate workers" in NOVA. The commute is a real hardship, but it is for many teachers who live way out west to afford to live while working as a teacher in Loudoun.
    ReplyDelete
  36. Just to clear up the time off debate, teacher contracts call for 194 scheduled work days. Then they get 3 days personal leave and 10 days sick leave (but with the leave bank program, they can be out much longer than that and still get paid.)

    There are 261 week days in a year, so that is 80 days or 16 weeks off. That does not include the 10 or so snow days this past school year!
    ReplyDelete
  37. The argument of public workers has always been that they do not earn as much in salary as comparable private-sector workers, so governments must make up for this inequity through increased job security and greater pension benefits. If this was true a generation or two ago, it certainly is not today. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employee compensation revealed that, as of March 2010, state and local government workers earn, on average, nearly 44 percent more than do private-sector workers, including 34 percent higher salaries and wages and over 66 percent greater benefits.

    http://reason.org/news/show/bell-california-government-salary-p

    For anyone that thinks government employees generally don't get compensated as well as private sector workers, check this out.
    ReplyDelete
  38. “Furloughs take money from one group in our community, the educators, to reduce the burden of education on rest of the community.” You said it!! And clearly you think that is wrong.

    Think about this then:
    Isn’t that exactly what Hatrick does every year as he demands more and more and more from the paychecks of hardworking taxpayers who DO NOT have children in the school system. It is taking “money from one group in our community….to reduce the burden of education on the rest of the community”.
    ReplyDelete
  39. This sounds like a great opportunity for professional development! Since the families have already made plans (and even if students are in school those two days, not much ever gets done), then let's pay the teachers to participate in two days of professional development.

    This will give Central Office three months to develop an awesome set of training sessions, thus investing the money in something much more effective than seat time.
    ReplyDelete
  40. That could be a great thing to do but judging from the comments on Face Book, teachers aren't too happy with the training they're getting this week. Lots of complaints about "don't they realize we'd rather be in our rooms?" I can't tell if it's because of the quality of the training or that teachers don't like training in general.
    ReplyDelete
  41. 8:07- Most of the "training" is terrible. We used to have staff development throughout the year and now it's all frontloaded.
    ReplyDelete
  42. And there lies the rub. Every effective trainer in private industry knows that for employee development to be successful, the students must have time to reflect on the training, have time to incorporate it into their performances, receive coaching and feedback, and have opportunities and incentives to continue to utilize the new skills in their activities.

    Sound familiar? It should, since in theory this is how we educate our children in our schools. Tragically, we do not practice what we preach when it comes to our school staff development. Instead, we conduct our "PD" during the week or two just before the new school year starts, providing no time for staff to reflect on and evaluate it before students fill the halls and seats, much less actually have time to figure out how to incorporate it into lessons and other learning activities.

    As for incentives to use the training? There are none. Rarely (if at all) does anyone observe and critique the teacher relative to the target skills and behaviors; there is no feedback, no ongoing coaching to ensure the time and money spent achieves the desired results. And unlike employees in most other jobs, the a teacher is not evaluated or rewarded based on their ability to acquire and exercise the new skills.

    What's just as perplexing as this situation, is that school leadership is certainly aware of this hypocrisy, but does nothing about it. Why?
    ReplyDelete
  43. I would like to clarify a few points here:
    1. Education (and debates related to education) concerns the welfare of a child, not the convenience of a teacher--or a daycare arrangement.
    2. Teachers are not one group of people. No one on this site is stereotyping the other professions mentioned the way teachers are being stereotyped.
    3. Opening costs for a classroom often approach $500 out of my pocket. Honestly, it's part of my job....er, profession....and I expect to pay this each year. I like to greet my class with supplies, treats, and new materials that I find during the summer.
    4. No matter what your opinion is of the furlough days, "those teachers" have very little to do with the decision-making right now. We will take the pay cut if the county decides that is the best policy, or we will cancel plans if the county wishes to provide two extra school days for their children.
    5. Keep in mind that changes in education keep pace with changes in available information and technology. We don't take the summers off. Often, teachers are in training, classes, or frantically trying to do what they can during the summer in order to keep households running during a busy school year.
    6. I don't know one teacher who "works to the rule". And, yes, all professionals have limits. Have you ever met a doctor in the office after business hours? On the weekend? Before the office opens? During his or her lunch?
    I'll bet you've arranged to talk to a teacher.

    We do these jobs for the love of education and the welfare of the children we teach. Very few professions are as rewarding or as difficult. Please remember that we are people. Most of us care very deeply about our work.
    ReplyDelete
  44. We can't attract and keep teachers who can and will provide the best opportunities for our kids while shortchanging them on payday.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)