Posted on April 3 at 2:06 p.m.

I thought you were replying to entertain yourself, not in effort to dignify my stupidity. I guess that's just one more time that you contradicted yourself.

Well, have fun “working hard” on the computer.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 1:19 p.m.

That’s not a bad idea. What would happen to your precious taxes if all the teachers resigned? I wonder if they would raise salaries to attract new ones.

I thought you worked hard. Are you on spring break too? If not, your job must be pretty easy if you can afford to spend all this time playing on the news. You wouldn’t be screwing around at work would you? Maybe we both should resign.

Ps – I already justified the term retarded and I think you keep justifying it more.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 12:35 p.m.

It’s funny that you find it entertaining to advertise your ignorance. You have no idea what my degree is in and you clearly have no idea the hours that I work. You are also reinforcing the fact that you are selfish, insulting and incapable of teaching others. If you look over my posts, my goal was to inform and educate.

Thank you for enrolling your kids in private school. I wouldn’t want to see an apple that fell from your tree.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 12:20 p.m.

hmmm, so hard work should equate to large salary.....what a novel idea. You should go to the school board and suggest that.

Why don’t you enlighten me more? What do you do? What level of education do you have? What is your annual income?

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 12:01 p.m.

Radio, are you retarded? (It’s okay to use that word – Dr. Thompson does)

Earlier you said, “maybe all these cash incentives taken away will bring in and retain teachers that teach for the kids, instead of the money”. But now it seems like you admit that a quality education is expensive. You must believe that by spending your money on a private school gets your children a better education. Do you think that spending money on a public school might result in the same?

You are also trying to insult me based on the value of my home. I do live out in the sticks. That’s my point exactly – TEACHERS CAN’T AFFORD TO LIVE IN THIS COUNTY. Go ahead, make fun of my 12 year old truck too. I’m sure your bmw is nicer, but hey, teachers don’t need a raise, do they?

So, your solution to the whole problem is to financially protect your children while mocking the rest of us and calling us trailer trash. I’m going to take a guess here, but did you pull your kids out of public school because other kids beat them up everyday?

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 10:53 a.m.

Do you judge a shortage by having a room without an adult in it, or is it a room without a certified teacher in it? Umleed, if you are associated with a certain school, ask if that school has teachers who are “out of field” right now. You may also ask if they have any long term substitutes. These are “tricks” to keep positions staffed when qualified teachers aren’t retained.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 10:40 a.m.

I saw a guy in Ft. Myers who said he'll work for food. Lets put him in a room with Radio's kids.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 10:37 a.m.

Umleed, that is correct, I would suggest qualitative methods to assess the quality of a teacher.

Radionews, who better to teach a teacher than a teacher? It seems like the majority of teachers hired in this county are alternative certification teachers. That means we hire college graduates who have never had an education class. They need guidance on how to deal with everyday issues. Some teachers may be self learners, but others occupy a lot of time. That spreads the $450 out to be much less than our standard hourly earnings. When you do overtime, do you make less than your standard wage?

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 9:46 a.m.

Ps. Umleed,
I should be clear that merit pay should not be based on test scores (neither county wide, state, or federal).

A teacher should do the best he or she can with the student they are assigned. If test scores are factored into salary, it forces teachers to avoid teaching low level classes. If your salary depended on test scores, would you rather teach advanced placement or special ed? And how would a standardized test compare the teaching ability for a culinary arts or physical ed teacher?

There has yet to be a good merit pay plan proposed.

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend

Posted on April 3 at 9:40 a.m.

Umleed,
Did you happen to read some of the statutes that Goodsense was commenting about the other day? Statute 1012.22 mandates things such as differentiated pay, a salary schedule based on community input, and salary based on teacher assessment. I support all of these things and I think Florida was on the right track when they wrote the statute. Unfortunately, Collier County has entered into a collective bargaining agreement that relieves the superintendant from abiding by this statute. As long as neither the union nor the school board wish to negotiate for these items, they won’t be part of our county policy.

Teachers are required to complete CTAS (collier teacher assessment system) which involves documenting our strengths and weaknesses. This system can be used to assist or weed out incompetent teachers, but it does not benefit the competent ones. Since I am forced to do CTAS, and I am successful at it, I wish it would increase my paycheck.

I also already mentioned that critical shortage areas (math, science, reading, esol,…) suffer a higher turnover rate, I wish the county would incorporate a differentiated pay incentive to teach these areas. Science for example may spend thousands on lab equipment that new, untrained teachers do not know how to use. It would be better to pay the existing teachers and let them make do with less equipment. I would also be willing to differentiate between elementary, middle and high school teachers. Different teachers argue about schedules and job difficulty. If one position is less desirable or harder to staff than others, pay more for that. Immokalee teachers get “combat pay” already. More research should be done to see who else deserves such.

I think we need to ask ourselves which is better for teachers and students – should we have collective bargaining when we live in a state where unions are not respected or should we let the superintendant create the salary schedule in accordance with the statutes?

On Collier school district agrees to change date of salary hearing so teachers can attend