Hinton also recommended the new “birth through eighth-grade” school [replacing Glen Oak School in the East Bluff] be a choice school, meaning students may come from anywhere in the district, as well as incorporating year-round schooling, a specialized autistic program, a longer school day and parental contracts, requiring more involvement from parents.
— Journal Star, 1/8/2008
In the fall, [a restructured] Manual [High School] will reopen, officials say, as a much different place. Ninth-graders will be isolated among the rest of the student population in what is being called the ninth-grade academy; a seventh-and eighth-grade academy, made of about 80 students each, will be added; the school day and calendar will be longer; parents will be required to devote time at the school; and the school itself will undergo a facelift as well as compartmentalization to accommodate the different learning academies.
— Journal Star, 4/22/2008
So, let me see if I have this straight. Manual was not doing well academically, so they’re restructuring — that is, making changes that will help improve the educational experience there, which will manifest itself (hopefully) in higher test scores. One of those changes is a longer school day.
Furthermore, Superintendent Ken Hinton recommended just three months ago a longer school day for the new school that will be built in the East Bluff, replacing Glen Oak Primary School. I presume he recommended this because he thinks it has pedagogical benefits. Isn’t that also why Edison schools have a longer school day than other District 150 schools?
So, now I’m trying to figure out this quote from today’s paper:
Despite less time at school, many principals say the proposed schedule change [i.e., shortening the school day] improves classroom instruction by eliminating interrupted teaching, allows for more classroom flexibility and gives teachers common planning time in the morning before students arrive.
How about that! Longer school days improve classroom instruction, but surprisingly so do shorter days. Evidently, the only length of time that’s bad is the current length of the school day, which is six and a half hours. Somehow, this precise length of the school day is detrimental to academic success. Make it longer or shorter — it makes no difference which way you go — and things magically improve! I hope they publish this new finding, because it will be helpful to other school districts around the country. Beware the six-and-a-half hour school day! Keep scores high; avoid six-point-five!
I’m assuming the logic curriculum got cut from District 150 a long time ago.
When is Hinton’s contract up?
Stop making sense, CJ.
Maybe he’s referring to a shorter day but less interrupted time. Or maybe some grades need shorter time, ie young children, while older ones, ie., middle school, need longer.
I am sure education isn’t a one-size fits all. But, I have a great idea. It’s novel and probably breaks out of the mold for bloggers.
Call him.
Hinton’s contract is up June 30th; several months ago, the BOE voted the “intent” to renew his contract when it expires next month. Oh joy – we will have 2 or 3 more years of this nonsense to look forward to.
The common prep period/shorter instructional day was put forth as a counter-measure to additional staff reductions at the last BOE meeting. There is absolutely no doubt this proposal will save money, but at what cost?
Hinton seems to specialize in speaking from both sides of his mouth at the same time. How can any reasonable thinking person believe anything he says? And the BOE, they rubber stamp anything he wants, so what good are they?
The only length of days anyone paying taxes or with children attending D150 should be concerned with is Mr. Hinton’s at D150. He should have been history after purchasing all those homes along Prospect Avenue….there’s a million dollars doing nothing.
I wonder if 150 has the market cornered on dysfunctionality?
I just made that word up, by the way.
Mazr:
Hum, if one Googles “dysfunctionality”, one receives a lot of search returns.
Here is an intersting search return
http://www.irational.org/sic/dysfunctional/
It ain’t Hinton… it’s about the teachers. It is about jobs, the union and tenure. How do you save money when you have a system that extorts teacher pay and benefits? Cut the day and refuse to increase pay. “We are paying you the same to do less”. Do less????? Can District 150 teachers REALLY do less?
Actually, now that I think about it, the less time District 150 teachers have our kids the better. Can we reduce the school day to about 15 minutes?
There are still some very fine teachers at #150 – but, no doubt, there are teachers who “retired on the job” a long time ago and should be gone. The administration and principals are responsible for that situation. If the principals honestly evaluated teacher performance (instead of trying to win a popularity contest), the picture would look very different.
#150 is no different from any other organization – its culture is established from the top down. If the system is dysfunctional, then it is safe to assume its leadership is dysfunctional.
You have to look no further than the time frame 2000-2002 to discover that the BOE, under the leadership of Rhonda Hunt and Garrie Allen, entered into a collective bargaining agreement that was very generous to the bargaining unit – all for the sake of “labor peace.” The district leadership and BOE are the parties who negotiate these labor agreements. The responsibility rests there (or as Harry Truman said, the buck stops here). You can’t hold the teachers responsible for an agreement put forth by the administration and BOE.
How much did District 150 waste on the houses on Prospect? Do they really plan to rehire Cindy Fischer as a consultant after she retires? How many superintendents will that make at what salaries? How much do Hinton & Cahill really get compensated? How many District 150 vehicles park at employee homes at night and why? Does the District employ a degreed, licensed engineer or architect to supervise construction of new buildings and operation of existing buildings? They can save money all right, if they want to.
kcdad, I’m wondering what your experiences are in District 150 schools. You are highly critical of teachers, insist that teaching isn’t hard work, and seem that think that most of District 150’s teachers are ineffectual. Do you have training in education? Have you ever been an educator? Are your children enrolled in District 150 schools? Or are you simply speaking from a perspective of someone outside the organization who thinks he knows what’s *really* happening?
I’m not an absolute defender of any aspect of District 150. As a parent of a 150 primary school student, though, I can say that the education he’s receiving is incredibly good. In fact, my feeling is the exact opposite. At my son’s school my question would be, “can they possibly do any more?” I DO have the credentials to back this up: a doctorate in education, a decade of combined experience in public school service provision and higher education instruction, and a LOT of time spent in my son’s school over the last 2 years. Quality teaching and learning does exist in District #150 and you don’t have to look hard to find it in most school buildings.
Sure, some teachers are ineffectual. So are other professionals in other fields. There’s no excuse for this and, yes, tenure does play a large role in perpetuating the notion of teachers that aren’t effective staying on in positions where they shouldn’t remain. However, you simply cannot blame every issue/problem that arises in District #150 on the teachers and the union, though. As others on this thread have said, it’s a shared responsibilty and we can’t be ignorant of that fact.
After checking with a source close to the BOE, I have an update on the question about Hinton’s contract.
The BOE could not renew Hinton’s contract because he did not successfully complete his performance goals and objectives. Therefore, the BOE simply issued him a new contract. If rumors are correct, this contract contains a clause that Hinton will receive a “bonus” based on the amount of cost reductions he achieves.
That could explain a lot . . .
Other than attending District 150 for 9 years, teaching in District 150 for 2 years, working in a non-faculty position for 1 year and living in Peoria witnessing the deterioration of the schools… not a whole lot of experience. I have met teachers who claim to earn over $70,000 a year… I mean each nine months… (while this complain about pay), teachers who can not teach their disciplines because they are incompetent in those areas, teachers who do NOTHING but coach sports and “hang out” in their classrooms,teachers who expressed the idea to students that because someone was white at Manual they had no excuse for not being in the top ten of their class. I have experienced TOTAL incompetency at the administration level to understand alternative certification for teachers. I have witnessed a principle telling a student they didn’t belong in the school because their parents are not the same race. I have witnessed a teacher striking a student and then getting another student (on the team he coaches) to lie about the incident.
Oh… I have a graduate degree in Education… but, so what?
What is the problem? Tenure, Administration bureaucracy and and lack of interest in the public to do anything about it…. “They (the school officials) are the experts, let them make the decisions.” Well they prove over and over again, all they are experts at is protecting their jobs.
Give education money back to the families and watch how fast schools clean up their act. Let families decide which school or which teachers will best meet the needs of their students.
I guarantee their won’t be any talk about no child left behind, or “management by objective”, AYP, results based education… none that mullarky. Schools be will be interesting, exciting and fun… or they will get no students.
Well, then, kcdad, we’ll have to agree to disagree. It’s unfortunate that you seem to have seen the worst of District 150. I’d argue that I’ve seen the best. None of what you describe is anything like I saw in my 10 years in working in Peoria’s schools. That said, I worked with preK and primary level children and was not involved in any way with middle/high school, which seems to be the age range that you’re likely to have experience with, based on your comments. I can see, especially with athletics as a consideration, that these situations could be quite nasty. I still don’t think that we can totally write off educators in 150 as bad and unworthy, though…
And, thank you for clarifying your position/experience with 150. While you might not consider it important, I find it helpful to frame your bold and unrelentingly negative comments in light of your experiences. I have a better idea of your perspective now and while I probably won’t ever agree with you completely, I understand where you’re coming from.
kcdad, you taught in District 150 for two years?
“It ain’t Hinton” & “I guarantee their won’t be any talk about no child left behind, or “management by objective”, AYP, results based education… none that mullarky.” I am glad you are not still teaching there.
“Their” is possessive, “there” refers to a person, place or thing. If you home school your children will never know how to write or use proper English.
The district’s problems do not belong to the teachers, they simply inherit them from the decisions made on Wisconsin. District 150 has excellent teachers. If anyone wants to homeschool their children, so be it, but please, do not use the excuse that teachers in District 150 are inferior.
PrairieCelt, thanks for the Hinton update. I am going to jump to the defense of the principals here, also. They are not all trying to win popularity contests. With the way this district is being managed, they are simply trying to keep their heads above water. Principals do not have unions to protect them the way teachers do, and they do not have the authority that admins have so they are in a “Catch 22” situation. I do not envy them, nor do I envy anyone involved in education here or anywhere.
So, Ken gets a bonus based on cost reductions? LMAO So, did Caterpillar come in to District 150 and implement Six Sigma??
Last I heard, Cat was now favoring Pacific Institute over Six Sigma – the new training method du jour. My real question is, what does the district do now? They hired Otto Arcaute, former Edison bookeeper, to coordinate Six Sigma. Now the district is trying to raise something like $600,000 – $800,000, through its foundation, to implement Pacific Institute training for all staff. So why does the district need to keep Otto Arcaute on payroll?
I understand your point about the principals, but something like 95-98% of teacher performance evaluations are in the above average to excellent range. If that really was the case, one might think there would be a direct correlation to the number of students making AYP. But there isn’t. We all remember the bell curve – 80% of staff will fall in the average range, 10% of staff will fall in the below average range, and 10% will fall in the above average range. That is a pretty good estimate of what the evaluations should like like in any organizational population. I understand the principals don’t feel as though they receive administrative support, and I understand that there have been successful unfair labor practice suits pressed against the district over evaluations, but the principals should be more honest during the process. That is why the district really can’t comply with the ISBE/NCLB guidelines for determining the staff members who contribute to the problem of the children not making AYP and removing them from the classroom. The principals are paid well to do their job. Evaluating staff is a part of their job and they should do it honestly.
PrairieCelt, point well taken regarding the principals, but I still contend they are between a rock and a hard place and it is going to get worse with the new standards Hinton is putting on them. Principals are paid well to do their jobs, but at the present time, I think many are living in fear as to who will get axed next. All Hinton needs to do is restructure and he can eliminate any principal and they have no recourse.
I need to do my homework regarding Otto.
Any word on the survey that was sent out regarding Special Education?
The “bell curve” is a bunch of baloney.
In any given population, you may have any disribution. In too many populations now, it seems that people congregate around the edges. We have the good and very good, and the poor and very poor, and not so many in the middle any more.
Well, thank you so much for grammar corrections. I bet you didn’t understand a thing I wrote because of them…
You wrote: “there” refers to a person, place or thing.
Does it really? Hmmmmm….
You also wrote: The district’s problems do not belong to the teachers, they simply inherit them from the decisions made on …
If they inherit them, don’t they now belong to them?
Maybe picking the nit picking is not the way to read these blog posts.
Karrie — I took the “dysfunctionality test” to which you linked. Here’s my diagnosis:
So I guess no one will trust that test now, will they? 😛
Hmmmmmmmmm save money from the District and put it in KH pocket. Interesting.