A significant piece of Obama's Jobs plan promises money to save some 280,00 teacher jobs and repair schools. They also say that there are 270 billion dollars in repairs needed in schools. Would like to know three things: How many of you are working in schools that are in a really terrible state of disrepair? Have there been many staff reductions at your school? Is there any talk /expectation of teacher jobs being saved at your school by this new jobs bill? Below is a link to a conference call with Secretary Are Duncan on who will get this money, how, and when. http://www.bamradionetwork.com/inde...:jackstreet54&catid=73:jackstreet54&Itemid=18
Although my school is an inner-city public school, it is fairly new and in very good physical condition. The building is I think 8 years old. It looks like it is 2 or 3 years old. We have had a significant reduction in staff. I think we're running with 20 fewer teachers than we have in years past. I haven't heard any talk whatsoever about how this jobs bill will affect us.
I know the school I went to they tore off the "old" section that was giving them troubles. They had built a couple new wings a few yrs ago.... I'm not sure if it's cost effective or not. Although it looks pretty sad when you see the ac units on the building & know it's only for the "office" people.
The main part of our building is about 50 years old, the next wing is 20 years old or so, the next wing is about 15 years old and the newest wing is less than 10 years old. For it's age it is in pretty good shape. There are always issues, but our maintenance guy is super and gets to them just as fast as he can. Yes, you read right - we have one maintenance guy. I don't think they pay him enough. He has enough work to keep a couple of guys busy.
I'm not in a public school. But ours is kept up well. I'm not entirely sure of the schools my kids attend. All LOOKS well, but I've seen such a tiny segment of those schools that it's hard to judge.
My school is 100 years old. Luckily, the voters passed a bond issue, and we are currently building a new school.
I think some of the physical issues aren't so much an issue of disrepair, but in buildings being outdated. Every year we hear our colleagues out of Chicago complaining about teaching in virtual ovens. Their buildings are old, outdated and lack air conditioning. Even if those buildings are in otherwise great shape, the toll that having to teach and learn in rooms topping 90 or even 100 degrees has to be substantial. I'm quite certain those old buildings are also lacking in updated electrical and plumbing. All the technology in the world is useless if you can't plug it in, and how much learning are you doing if you can't use the bathroom when you need to because the buildings simply weren't built to house the number of people being housed in them now and the plumbing simply can't keep up. All of that contributes to the disrepair being talked about.
My district took money in the last round of "economic stimulus" to create a preschool which actually added a few jobs and MADE money for the district. Overall, though, I'm not a fan of unabated spending...
The schools where I sub are extremely nice! They have everything to the point of when they were faced with having to cut teachers during the past few years, I have wondered why they didn't just cut back on spending elsewhere. It doesn't seem right to buy a new multi million dollar reading curriculum when teachers have to be cut. Is it necessary to have laptops for every elementary classroom? Their fix to the problem was not to cut back on spending or even to cut the teachers that they said they would have to cut. Instead the fix was to raise taxes again on people who are having difficulty with their own jobs. Alot of people in my community have lost their jobs in other fields. With such a huge tax hike, alot of the houses have been foreclosed on. In a nearby district that I don't sub at, the superintendent was promised a $50,000 bonus for staying in the district for two years. This was after the district scared people by saying that they would have to cut so many teachers that there wouldn't even be an elementary band program because of the budget! They didn't end up doing that and just raised taxes. A big reason why the budget was so bad in that distrct was because of mismanagement of money. I don't see why giving that kind of a bonus to a well-paid employee is a good use of money in this economy! So, I don't think that 270 billion dollars is going to fix the problem. While alot of schools are short funded right now, I think that most of them have problems with managing the money that they do have. Where are they going to get that kind of money anyway? Oh, I forgot! It's coming from me! I guess I'll need to start working harder!
Our school is brand new! The old one was dark and drab but I didn't even realize that until we got the brand new one. As far as buildings go, it did the job.
My school is o k a y, but others in my district are in great need of repair and refurbishment. There is no money, the custodians and maintenance workers have been drastically reduced, and many systems in the buildings are out of date and difficult to repair. No mention of how this bill might help. But, they are looking at more cut backs and closing some schools, so I hope it helps in the end!
