03/13/2008: March 13, 2009 Be sure to attend the ANNUAL SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING – 7:00 P.M. at the BHS AUDITORIUM. We encourage everyone to attend and bring their questions.
Please post your comments and suggestions here.
03/13/2008: March 13, 2009 Be sure to attend the ANNUAL SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING – 7:00 P.M. at the BHS AUDITORIUM. We encourage everyone to attend and bring their questions.
Please post your comments and suggestions here.
I imagine there will be a lot said about Unions when people see the video on the front of the website. I can tell you from experience that it’s not really all the union’s fault.. In fact they play very little part in what is wrong with the system.
When there is any question about schools and how they are run, always look to the head first.
Unions often help GOOD teachers fight for their jobs when they are being driven out because they will not follow the UN agenda. Usually these are older more experienced teachers who know fad education does NOT work and that political indoctrination is plain WRONG.
So they are not all that bad. Trouble is, they are not all that powerful either so they cannot do much to save a teacher’s job these days.
So it seems ironic that everyone thinks they work to keep bad teachers when they can’t even help keep the good ones. Mostly they bargain for benefits and salaries, which in my day was never more than $50K per year for working 12 hour days..
It’s the admin who wants the bad teachers, not the unions. It’s the admin who embrace the expensive programs and federal money, and it’s the admin that does not speak up against foolish mandates. It’s the admin who don’t preserve local control. If parents and teachers had more control, you would solve the problem of bad teachers and bad curriculum. A teacher cannot be a ‘good’ teacher when the curriculum is inaccurate, wishy-washy, or politically charged.
There is a double-edged sword here, and from my view, it’s the administration and “machine” that is worse than the unions.
So keep in mind Unions cannot stop federal or state interference. And if teachers want to NOT support the “agenda”, the very thing that is ruining our schools, the only thing they can do is quit, and by that time, they are in it for the long haul and can’t afford to.
The fish stinks from the head down. Get rid of the non-teaching personnel and the administrators that will follow Lyonel Tracy, Marc Tucker and Russell Quaglia… These highly paid charlatans are sucking you dry and robbing your kid of an education and I daresay helping to bring down the country.
Private schools do a fabulous job preparing students for college and/or the real world. They normally do it at a fraction of the cost of the public school. While it is true that public schools do have to deal with behavior issues that may not be found in many private schools, what is their excuse for leaving the rest of the kids behind?
It takes real leadership to instill a well disciplined environment. There’s no excuse for the classroom to NOT be an atmosphere for learning. In NH we have schools that do a pretty good job of making the environment, an atmosphere good for students.
What is sorely lacking is, quality curriculum. Fuzzy math is all over this state in the public schools and parents need to either get their children outside help or turn to a private school if they want them proficient in math.
The state of NH has fuzzy math standards, therefor all of these schools are now adopting fuzzy math programs to meet fuzzy standards.
http://www.nychold.com
http://www.mathwizards.wordpress.com
On top of that, I keep hearing how there is a lack of rigor in the schools. Who is at fault for that? The overpaid Superintendent? The Curriculum Coordinator who is also paid well?
What is their solution? Pay a HEFTY sum of money to a foreign organization to bring in some UN sponsored program…International Baccalaureate (IB)
Parents who have their kids in private school know that you can get rigor without going to such extravagent expenditures. Why do we hire Superintendents and Curriculum Coordinators? Shouldn’t they be searching for quality History/Math/Grammar/Science text books? Why is it they have to hire “coaches” and BUY expensive programs to do what they fail at?
Don’t tell me you can’t find a GOOD history book, there’s plenty of them out there without all of the political garbage in them. Just give the kids good AMERICAN history.. THe same should apply to math texts, Language ARts and Science.
If these people cannot find good texts and teachers to do the job, maybe they need to go.
Spending money like there’s no tomorrow got this country into a financial mess. Have they learned nothing?
In the past I have supported the Bow teacher’s contract even when I thought their percent increase was high. The economic slowdown, for my industry, started about two years ago and I have been supporting my family on the same wages that I made 2 years ago and it is really hard, particularly when gas and heating oil went through the roof.
I hope the Bow teachers’ union (BEA) doesn’t get too greedy with their contract negotiations because the huge tax increase put me over the edge this year. I was not ready for that big of an increase but I shouldn’t have been surprised. My taxes have doubled in the last 6 years.
I know that when voting for the teacher’s contract. It is either yea or nay and no compromise. If the teacher’s union gets greedy that it will be a nay for me and my wife. Two votes you had before. Perhaps if the union gets too greedy and they lose the vote they can give back the teachers’ union dues.
WHO IS SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER IN BOW IN FUZZY MATH?
The current proposed school district operating budget for 2009-10 as presented to the Budget Committee was $23,813,072. This does not include money spent in warrant articles or the food service (basically self supporting).
Estimated student enrollment for the 2009-10 budget is 1640 students.
If you divide 23,813,072 by 1640, it equals 14,520.
That is $14,520 average for educating each student folks! For this kind of money you could send your student to UNH or many of the local colleges or universities in the northeast.
For $14,520 per student why are we not getting better education results for the money we currently spend in the Bow School District?
Why do we continue to reward no results annually from our administrators and educators? The Superintendent? The Curriculum coordinators? The 3 Principals? The 3 Asst. Principals? The professional educators of the BEA and BESS?
I for one am tired of the excuses for the lack of improvement in education in Bow along with the annual property tax increases. I am tired of the “feel good mentality” exibited for the past 20 years +/-. I am tired of all the smoke and mirrors utilized by the School Board and Administration for the last 20 years +/-.
Why are we negotiating 3 year contracts with the school BEA & BESS unions? Why are we not negotiating 1 year contracts based on performance results? 1 year contracts might be beneficial especially not knowing where the economy is going in the future? Why are we not putting performance clauses in all administration contracts? Why are we the taxpayers and parents not demanding better education for the money we spend for it in our taxes annually?
When will we get $1 worth of education for each $1 that we spend?
What can we as a resident, parent, taxpayer do to start to get these school board members and administration to see that they need to start looking at the daily news and the articles about the economy?
It seems that they are oblivious to what is going on. I always paid no attention to the comments in town about Bow having a private school and campus at taxpayers expense but this is sickening to see and hear.
Are their heads buried in the sand?
This is extremely depressing, fuzzy math or not.
Have you ever considered calling or emailing the members of the School Board or the Selectmen or the Budget Committee and letting them know how you feel?
Maybe they are not aware of your s and others problems so close to home?
Maybe worth a try.
Not all are monitoring this web site or maybe they are?
Just a thought……..
RLB asked about the school board members and the administrators to look at the daily news regarding the economy. They don’t care even if they did as their jobs are secure. All
of these folks (perhaps there’s one exception) earn far in excess of $100K per year So any increase in taxes would be but a fraction of their income. Folks making a lot of money also have the luxury of tax breaks not afforded to the less fortunate, who are paying more than their fair share for this school system.
I’m sure that they pay less in taxes than a household bringing in $50K a year.
On a different note: the teachers’ benefits and administrators’ benefits are
what are obscene.It’s not so much the salaries. SAU Superintendent, Dean Cascadden makes $109,000 a year and has benefits
exceding $40,000. AND his son attends BHS at the Bow taxpayers’ expense!!! That adds insult to injury. Would he have agreed to accept this job two years ago if his son
was not allowed to attend BHS? It’s time for the school board to end this
archaic benefit. Dean lives in Bristol and obviously pays no taxes in Bow.
So he’s an outsider not even contributing to the bottom line. Thanks Dean.
There is absolutely no doubt that the school system is “top heavy.” Time
for a serious look at what these folks actually do. Much of their respective duties are redundant and could easily be consolidated.
There are currently no teaching vacancies within the state. With that in mind and the economy in the tank, I’d like to think that the teachers
would have second thoughts about demanding pay raises. Can’t they
at least wait until the economy recovers? That would be the moral ideal.
I don’t understand why folks think the district is top heavy? We are below what the state considers minimum standards (1 AP for every 500 students for example). Its been mentioned a couple times above, but we have no curriculum coordinator (which is why there is tracking at BMS but not at BES & BHS) and no assistant superintendent. The work normally associated with those positions is done by the assistant principals. Bow has no library/media director as many schools do (and as appears in the state standards). We have no department heads. What would you cut? The district staff is two people if I am not mistaken that are required by state law, the super and the business administrator.
I agree on freezing admin salaries.
I have to be honest, I don’t get the suggestion that the schools are not performing. They are in the top of the state in standardized testing. We are the top of the state in terms of graduation rates and acceptance into 4-year colleges. We have among the lowest drop-out rates. What data are folks using to suggest the Bow school system is not succeeding? Should we push them to constantly improve and in return expect high achievement? Of course! But lets not lose sight o the fact that we are one of the best schools in the state and the data proves that.
It’s because the standards for NH are so poor that the grades are skewed. They teach to the test, but it may not include everything you think it should.
Also, it may not have hit Bow yet, but they could be still using a traditional curriculum, but the more things ‘change’ the more fuzzy the academics become and more politically charged.
I lived through this and it was devastating to the little ones. They didn’t get to learn things until grade 3 that normally they would know in grade 1.
I mean, kids can read when they are 2 or 3, so by age 8 if they can’t read there is a reason why — not letting teachers teach.
You may be right teacher, and it may very well be that I went to a very poor school when I grew up, but my kids, grade k and 3 are infinitely ahead of where I was at the same age. What my oldest child is doing now I did not do until grade 6, and I ended up successful at an Ivy League school.
I do agree with your overall sentiment, that standards, not just in education, but in the workpace, hell, even things as simple as good customer service, have fallen.
Still, I think its fair to say, as the data shows us, Bow is quite a bit ahead of the state and national curve. I’m not saying we should be satisfied wth that, but we have to recognize the success of the district within the system in which it operates. We really do have some excellent teachers and students who accomplish amazing things. The school is far from a failure.
The smart kids will always survive. In some towns the Math is so fuzzy that parents have to re-teach it to their kids who aren’t dumb. And I’m talking about parents who are BOTH engineers, etc.
It’s the poor learners who suffer the most under fuzzy academics. But then again, they don’t want them for their political reasons, they want the smart kids.
I agree with you. I just which I could get one person to acknowledge one time that there actually are some very good things going on in Bow.
I just reread your post –
“it may not have hit Bow yet, but they could be still using a traditional curriculum”
All this talk about underperformance being the result of fuzzy academics and you don’t know what the curriculum is in Bow? How do you know if its worth supporting or not?
I still have not got one person, by the way, to even make a lukewarm comment about the successes that do happen in Bow. And can I ask
“It’s because the standards for NH are so poor that the grades are skewed. They teach to the test, but it may not include everything you think it should.”
Is your thesis essentially that whatever curriculum we may be taching is poor, it just happens to be not as poor as everyone elses so we look good comparatively? Basically we are valedictorian’s of summer school? How do you know the numbers for all of NH are skewed by the results of fuzzy academics if you don’t know the curriculum in your own town?
Did I misunderstand?
Independent studies from Fordham show that NH’s State Standards get an F. So you figure out what that means. I can’t be inside every classroom, and some teachers may do more than they are told, so it’s hard to say who is doing what, but they definitely must teach to the standards.
http://granitegrok.com/blog/2008/11/the_first_step_to_improving_math_educati.html
AM Banfield is a Math Teacher who studies these things.