Tulsa Public Schools Label 286 Teachers Non-tender

Tulsa Public Schools, much like Rhode Island schools before it, are now removing scores of teachers from their jobs. The sad words of the Tulsa World tell the tale: Tulsa Public Schools are sending home 286 teachers for the summer and asking them not to return. That’s about 10 percent of the total number of teachers who work for Tulsa Public Schools . It doesn’t even take into account the 125 office and support staff who had already been released. These were good employees, not under performing driftwood. Good teachers are being cast away.

Media says Tulsa Public Schools will try to recall half

Half of the Tulsa Public Schools teachers who have fallen may come back. Yet as the World indicates, the Oklahoma legislature would have to come to a favorable budget agreement. The legislators must approve that as part of the spending budget, otherwise there could be no such positive action. The teachers will discover themselves in need of the installment payday loans if things continue to go south.

The cost-cutting worth isn’t really worth what the children have to face

No number-crunching can hide that $15 million in savings on the school system’s budget pales in comparison to the human casualties. Teachers may have to pick up the pieces and make an effort to steer their own families in a financial boat with a broken rudder; similarly, the kids could have to try to learn when being stuffed into leftover classrooms like sardines. Tulsa Public Schools Director of Human Capital Roberta Ellis talked about sensitivity and kindness when crying herself about how tough the times are, writes the Tulsa World. Did Roberta Ellis or any similarly officious administrators do their part to keep teachers in Tulsa Public Schools by sacrificing personal salary, one wonders. The peons are almost always the victims, rarely the top brass.

Baby boomers’ claws do not retract

Baby boomer teachers in large numbers did not accept early retirement packages offered by Tulsa Public Schools. Cash bonuses for early retirement had been offered before, but the older teachers largely balked. This, unfortunately, was not enough to prevent the layoffs.

Fallout of the layoff explosion

The Eugene Field school principal within the Tulsa Public Schools system told the World that some of the teachers shown the door had just purchased new dwellings. One of those teachers is a single mom. While some would play the world’s tiniest violin over that image, others might say that it is infinitely a lot more sorrowful to look at administrators go on paid retreats and make golf arrangements. The kids of Tulsa Public Schools should know that even if they learn nothing else that will prepare them for the world, at least they can learn from this ordeal that being a mediocre administrator is inexcusable.

Sources

Tulsa World

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=332&articleid=20100513_19_0_TulsaP94353