Day 1 brought many, many changes to various buildings. Dress codes, teacher attendance, test scores, bathroom breaks, evaluations. More top-down directives and expectations.
***UPDATE*** Sorry for the confusion about the "bathroom breaks". We were just giving various examples from various buildings. No CO directive about staff bathroom breaks --- yet. As one comment alludes, yes, this does come from THS. Apparently, students who go to the bathroom during class must spend 10 minutes with that teacher after school.
Who knew that Truman students were abusing their bathroom procedures? Wow. Alert US News and World Report - I think that their needs to be an investigation into their rating system if they claimed that THS was such a great school. They obviously didn't know about the roaming bathroom gangs.
Unanswered questions - and really no one was going to put themselves on the line to ask:
10 minutes after school in exchange for a bathroom visit during class:
1 - regardless of transportation.
2 - despite the fact that the parents probably have not been contacted.
3 - what happens if a student asks more than once in a day. Consecutive or concurrent sentences?
4 - what if the teacher is a coach and not present after school?
5 - after the 10 minutes are up, presumably the student is free to go. But what if they don't have transportation? When do they call home? Do they wait at the front door? Who is accountable for this child after the 10 minutes - if something bad happens, someone will need to be blamed. (Just saying.)
And lets be frank - some people have bashful bladders or don't want to do their particular business with a audience nearby.
OF COURSE, there will be a whole lot of flimflam psychojam about the academic need to keep students in the classroom. However, our experience is that teachers really know when a student needs to go to the bathroom and when the student is just bored and wants out of class. If someone really needs to go, we doubt that they will be paying much attention to the lesson anyway.
It will be interesting how the parents and students respond.
***UPDATE*** Sorry for the confusion about the "bathroom breaks". We were just giving various examples from various buildings. No CO directive about staff bathroom breaks --- yet. As one comment alludes, yes, this does come from THS. Apparently, students who go to the bathroom during class must spend 10 minutes with that teacher after school.
Who knew that Truman students were abusing their bathroom procedures? Wow. Alert US News and World Report - I think that their needs to be an investigation into their rating system if they claimed that THS was such a great school. They obviously didn't know about the roaming bathroom gangs.
Unanswered questions - and really no one was going to put themselves on the line to ask:
10 minutes after school in exchange for a bathroom visit during class:
1 - regardless of transportation.
2 - despite the fact that the parents probably have not been contacted.
3 - what happens if a student asks more than once in a day. Consecutive or concurrent sentences?
4 - what if the teacher is a coach and not present after school?
5 - after the 10 minutes are up, presumably the student is free to go. But what if they don't have transportation? When do they call home? Do they wait at the front door? Who is accountable for this child after the 10 minutes - if something bad happens, someone will need to be blamed. (Just saying.)
And lets be frank - some people have bashful bladders or don't want to do their particular business with a audience nearby.
OF COURSE, there will be a whole lot of flimflam psychojam about the academic need to keep students in the classroom. However, our experience is that teachers really know when a student needs to go to the bathroom and when the student is just bored and wants out of class. If someone really needs to go, we doubt that they will be paying much attention to the lesson anyway.
It will be interesting how the parents and students respond.
Bathroom breaks?? Is CO now setting rules for bathroom breaks?
ReplyDeleteSorry if that wasn't clear. At least not yet. But one high school principal is dictating how teachers handle student bathroom requests during class.
DeleteUmmm.....is there an option other than the student going to the restroom? Because if it were my kids there wouldn't be. And let me guess.....this is coming down from the new tough guy at THS?
DeletePL@VH - no way. He has common sense.
DeleteMB@WCHS - does he realize there are bathrooms in his school?
DG@THS - gotta be him by default. He was probably on a strict bathroom schedule in his retirement home for the past three years and realized how valuable one can be. He's just looking out for our students.
I was emailed the new administrator performance evaluation rubric from a source at CO:
ReplyDeleteLives in ISD boundary (85):
Attendance (5):
Leadership/Vision (2):
Fairness (1):
Experience (1):
Student Achievement (1):
Patron Satisfaction (1):
Intangibles (4):
Total: ________/100
Wow...85 points based on residency. Thought the purpose of a principal is to be an instructional leader. Feel sorry for the parents of children of ISD, as educating students is clearly not the focus.
DeleteSeriously . . . is this a joke?
DeleteWhat?????? Are you serious? This WILL go to court especially if it is before 2015. Every lawsuit brought before ISD, they have lost due to settling out of court. This will go nationwide. Bring it! Sure KCMO will love some other district bringing in headline news. Where are the teachers and PTAs in supporting their admins who still are in the district and have not left? Contact the BOE! Call them out! Let our voices be heard!!!!!! Start going to BOE mtgs, flooding emails, mailboxes, personal visits. THiS HAS to stop!!!! So because an admin does not lay their head at night within district boundaries, has had 3+ years of effective service, they can now be FIRED? WOW, ISD, a whole new low.....
DeleteThis inspired me to ask about some type of evaluation system for ISD board members...
ReplyDeleteDoes whatever Hins...er...Hurl tells them (100)
Short list, hugh?
I heard the new THS guy spoke for three hours on Wed morning - really "endeared" himself to the faculty - made all sorts of ultimatums - demanded respect instead of professionally asking for it - this is all third hand knowledge on my part - PLEASE someone tell me/us these rumors are inaccurate!!!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow! This is insane! There has got to be someone over this guy who realizes that you just cannot do this to kids. Almost like you are looking to humiliate kids for having to use the restroom. This sounds almost like bullying.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the teachers at THS will realize that this clown and his bathroom rule are ridiculous and they won't enforce. Sure, there may be some restroom trip abusers, but teachers can usually identify those and they csn deal with them, but this is just plain wring!!
Great job on this new hire, Dr. Hurl! But he lives in district so that's all that matters, right??
I am glad my children have graduated from the district---- before these inane rules were proposed and before Independence started its slide into "laughing stock" territory.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for the first time my daughter calls me and tells me she missed the bus because of this. There will be hell to pay in that front office.
ReplyDeleteIs that evaluation scale for real? It's really too shocking to believe, but isn't all that surprising considering where its coming from.
ReplyDelete