Saranac Lake Central School District - Supervision and Evaluation

One of the longer articles of the SLCSD teachers contract is Article XII. Bargaining Unit Member Supervision and Evaluation (pages 10-13).

Here are a few things in section A of Article XII. New teachers get a minimum of three observations per year starting Oct. 15th of the school year. Observations should be made by mutual agreement at least 24 hrs prior to the observation. Note taking by the observer shall be done as inconspicuously as possible and the observer shall not participate in classroom activities in any manner unless expressly invited by the bargaining unit member.

Section B covers circumstances in which the building administrator becomes aware of significant pedagogical inadequacies in a bargaining unit member's performance. There are specific steps which must be followed to place a bargaining unit member into remediation.

Saranac Lake Central School District - Additional Pay

Ever wonder how much the teacher is getting for coaching football or basketball or hockey? How about for advising the Art Club, Honor Society or directing the Musical? Did you know that high school class advisors get paid? It's all public knowledge but it's just not usually publically provided. Here is some information obtained from the Athletic and Extracurricular Pay Schedule 2007 - 2008 (year 3 of contract).

Let's look at some typical Head Coaching salaries for this school year (no difference between boys and girls head coaching salaries within a like sport)(all step 3):

Varsity Baseball $3483
XC Varsity Boys and Girls $3050
Varsity Football $4526
Varsity Boys Basketball $4421
Varsity Girls Basketball $4421
Varsity Boys Hockey $4732
Varsity Lacrosse $3483
Indoor Track $2969
Outdoor Track $3483
Soccer $3517
Golf $3483
Skiing $3202

Here are some salaries for extracurricular activities:

Art Club $1056
Outdoor Club $818

Director of Musical $2749
Asst. Dir/Choreographer $2595
Costumer $1208
Music director $1670
Stage manager $1363
[Assume these monies come from admission fees to the musical, but not sure]

Extra band days $1606
Extra chorus days $1606

Class advisors, 4 ea @ $1320
Year book advisor $3517
Video Club advisor $1375

Saranac Lake Central School District - Health Insurance

The Saranac Lake Central School District provides health insurance in a consortium of school districts including Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES, Brushton-Moira Central, Chateaugay Central, Lake Placid Central, Malone Central, St. Regis Falls Central, Salmon River Central and Tupper Lake Central schools. The consortium has a governance structure consisting of 9 school district representatives and 9 bargaining unit represtatives. Basically, these Districts insure themselves.

As I understand the contract, the consortium is required to maintain negotiated insurance premiums for 3 year periods. The premiums for the 1997-99 periods were $2,280 for single coverage and $6,012 for family coverage. I do not know what the current premiums are but they are surely significantly higher than they were in 1999.

Drug co-pays for 1997 were $3 for generic,$5 for brand name and $0 for mail order. If a generic equivalent does not exist, the generic co-pay will apply. Major medical deductible for 1997 was $150/$450.

12. D of the Memorandum of Understanding reads: New premium rates will be computed effective July 1, 1997 based on the gain/loss of single and family coverage at a level necessary to generate a pool of money as if no change was made. Effective March 1, 1997 and on March 1st each year thereafter, a demographic comparison of the number of employees otherwise eligible for a second family coverage shall be performed. If the number of such employees has changed in comparison to the prior year, then the total pool of money may be increased or decreased accordingly as determined by the governing board.

According to the 2005-2008 Teachers contract: As of July 1, 1997, the bargaining unit member's share of the health insurance premium shall be $250 for family coverage and $125 for individual coverage (article XXIX. A. 2.).

Moreover: Effective July 1, 1996, any bargaining unit member who elects not to receive any health insurance from the district for a minimum of one year shall receive a stipend of $1500 annually (article XXIX. A. 6.).

Saranac Lake School District Superintendent Abruptly Leaves

Scott Amo, Superintendent of the Saranac Lake School District, is leaving in October to become Superintendent of the Beekmantown School District.

This is not surprising for a couple of reasons. First, Amo's wife is a principle at a Plattsburgh school. Amo cuts his "commute" time down drastically by obtaining a job closer to Plattsburgh. Amo, like previous superintendents, was hired by Saranac Lake with the condition that he reside in the District. The current school board cut him quite a bit of slack by ignoring the residency condition.

Second, the Saranac Lake School District is becoming a well known district for new superintendents to get experience or for superintendents needing a medium-term "interim" position.

It's not clear how much time remains on Amo's current contract with the SLCSD. Not that it really matters. Superintendents contracts only work one way. It provides them with job security and does nothing for the District if the Superintendent decides to break the contract and move on to another school district. But good luck to Mr. Amo. I hope he can get along better with the Beekmantown School Board than the previous superintendent. And, thank-you Mr. Amo for leaving at the beginning of a new school year. That was very professional of you.

Now who will replace Amo at the SLCSD? Let's forget about an "interim" superintendent. Saranac Lake has a very, very well qualified and experienced principle and administrator currently working for the District. He is a lifetime resident of Saranac Lake and lives in the District. He was a candidate during the last superintendent search.

It's time for the District residents and taxpayers to rise up and insist that our School Board immediately hire Mr. Patrick Hogan, current Principle of the Bloomingdale School, as our next District Superintendent.

UPDATE: The School Board has hired Mr. John Raymond as interim superintendent.

Saranac Lake Teacher Base Salaries

Let me state right from the beginning that I do not think these salaries are high. But they are well paying jobs for this area.



What everyone obviously wants to know is how much are teachers paid. That is not an easy question to answer but the below graph shows the base salaries for 2007-2008 (final year of the contract).

Add to these salaries $500 for a Master's degree and 1 month salary for attendence (please don't ask me what attendence means). I'm guessing it's a bonus for showing up to work but I could be wrong. Notice how the curve goes up significantly the last 3 years on the job. That is for retirement reasons.

Cannot forget the teaching assistants.




Next we will go into the pay one gets for extracurricular activities and other activities. Then we can discuss benefits.

Saranac Lake Central School District Teacher Contract Ends June 2008

The agreement between the Saranac Lake Central School District and the Saranac Lake Teachers Association ends on June 30, 2008. According to Article II of the agreement "the parties will enter into good faith negotiations over a successor agreement" starting no later than December 15th. And, "If such an agreement is not concluded by 120 days prior to the end of the district's fiscal year, June 30, either party may request the use of mediation."

Negotiating a teachers contract is always very secretive process. In the past, both parties have agreed not to discuss anything about contract negotiations outside of the formal negotiating format. In other words, it's not kosher to go to the local newspaper and let the public know that teachers don't want to contribute to health insurance or that they might be asking for a 15% pay raise over the next 3 yrs. etc. The only party that is at a disadvantage to this "gentlemans" agreement is the teacher's association. What? The public doesn't have a right to know whether either the teachers or the school district are being reasonable in their demands?

I have a copy of the July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2008 Agreement. I suggest that every interested person go to the SLCS district office and get their own copy. I'd reproduce it here but it's over fifty pages long. However, I will discuss certain sections of the agreement in future posts.

I will admit to being biased. The reason for my bias is that I actually sat in on the negotiating process several years ago. Teachers are extremely professional. That is... until it comes time for negotiating a new contract. Then their collars turn a very, very deep shade of blue.

Superintendent's Day at SLCSD

Have you ever wondered what happens at Superintendent's Staff Development days? These are the couple of days just prior to school beginning and then perhaps another couple of days during the school year where your school system's faculty and staff meet to become 'developed'.

From the Saranac Lake Central School District Superintendent's webpage:

The district and the Staff Development Committee have reviewed and modified the Staff Development Plan for 2007-2008. This document is required to be reviewed annually by the State Education Department, and is used to plan training/in service programs for the staff. The Board of Education will be asked to adopt the plan before August. The staff development activities planned for September 4, and 5 of 2007 include:

• A welcome back breakfast for staff, and board members
• A recognition ceremony for outstanding employees and retirees.
• A presentation to all staff by Jones Loflin on the topic "Juggling Elephants" which will focus on managing changes.
• Training on bus safety to all bus drivers
• Training for all support staff on the topic of change
• Content/department chair presentations to teachers.
• Personal health service profiles for all interested staff
• A presentation by Dr. Zacharie Clements on the topic "Miracles Begin With You."
• A presentation to all staff by Dr. Robert Sylvester on the topic "The Brain-Classroom Connection."
• Faculty meetings/classroom set-up time.

I imagine much of this time is spent doing things that NYS requires at the beginning of each school year. I'm not really sure what the Content/department chair presentations to teachers is all about because my understanding is that SLCSD does not have department chairs [UPDATE: surprise, surprise, the School Board just appointed academic chairs at their June 20th meeting. Too bad this good move hasn't received any attention in the press. It's been a long time coming]. At least not academic department chairs. I could be wrong because there really isn't alot of information presented about what is actually going on in our school district on a month to month basis.

But what about the presentation by Dr. Zacharie Clements? Dr. Clements is what's know as an "inspirational speaker". From Dr. Clements website you can see what "Miracles Begin With You" is supposed to accomplish.

Miracles Begin with You Through humor, role playing and drama in this presentation recommended for his first visit to a district, Zach:

-explores hypocrisy in contemporary society and its impact on schools (“In-my-day” disease, Responsibility buck-passing syndrome, and more);
-portrays what‘s happening within schools (retire-itis, imagined burnout, educator buck passing);
-allows educators to assess their own attitudes without feeling threatened;
-leaves educators laughing at themselves, yet challenged to make a positive difference in students‘ lives;
-rejuvenates total staff audiences, both certified and support.

So like with most "insirational talks" the point is to make you feel good about yourself (and hopefully make some changes).

"Exploring hypocrisy in contempory society" sounds like it could end up being parent and taxpayer bashing (not that some of them don't need it). But how many times in your career has someone paid to have you rejuvenated? But the main concern here is what is the point of this "inspirational talk"? Is it to help teachers make objective changes in how they make positive differences in students' lives? If so, how do we know if the "inspirational talk" had any effects?

Let's try this. After hearing the talk, how about having every teacher write out three methods they will use to effect positive change in students lives. Then, at the next superintendent's day, they can have a forum on whether their methods were effective or not? Let's get something out of this "inspirational talk" besides a day or two of "inspiration".

They have another speaker "Dr. Robert Sylvester (sic)" (actually Sylwester). There is an interview with Dr. Sylwester here which seems to be a mix of biology and psychobabble. It's confusing to me where in the interview Dr. Sylwester talks about getting a Ph.D. when he actually has an Ed.D. Yes, there is a difference.

Saranac Lake High School Valedictorian Redux

Go here to read the other side of the "Valedictorian Bullying Story".

My first reaction was, “Oh boy, here we go again.” You see, this entire year seems to have revolved around graduation and who was (or wasn’t) going to be valedictorian and salutatorian. And with graduation being done and over with, I was really hoping we could leave this conflict behind. It seems that students’ reactions to this problem have evolved over the course of the year from surprise to disbelief followed by anger, then, finally, acceptance. Yes, many of us were unhappy with the outcome, but we knew that there was nothing that we could do about it. So we accepted it for what it was and moved on.

I believe that the Nashett family has failed to see the Class of 2007’s view when it comes to this topic. That Rebecca was able to graduate early is terrific. I myself think it’s great that she had the determination and perseverance to finish four years of work in three. But what about our own top grads who have worked hard over the past four years to win the top honors? I believe Rebecca’s hard work should be recognized but should not trump that of those who have worked for so long to earn what they have.

Unfortunately this story has far reaching effects. In todays Adirondack Daily Enterprise there is a letter to the Editor from Alaska. Here it is in its entirety:

To the editor: Dear Saranac Lakers: Most every day, either myself or my husband go to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and/or the Plattsburgh newspaper to read. You see, we’re looking to relocate to the area from Alaska and are getting acquainted with the various communities through not only reading the news there but through other avenues as well.

We’re looking at which community would best suit our needs in buying a home and property to set down roots, with special attention given to the needs of our gifted son’s education, as well as which community we would like to positively contribute to.

This Tuesday, June 26, in reading an article from your headlines, I was not only disappointed but appalled at the behavior from those at Saranac Lake High School toward the student Rebecca Nashett and her accomplishments. And seeing that the school administration there did little to curb the bad behavior toward this young lady is completely without excuse.

With that being said, I want you in Saranac Lake to know that you’ve been watched from as far away as Alaska. In the last several months of making calls and reading the news, and today with the article about the Nashetts and their daughter Rebecca, we have seen enough to know that Saranac Lake seems to be far less than the warm-hearted small town that we’re looking for. To ostracize one who excels to the extent as Rebecca Nashett has shows only a small-minded community, with envy and malice in their hearts for those that stand obviously heads above others, no matter the age or grade difference.

In closing, our family sends a big congratulations to the Nashetts and their daughter Rebecca for a job well done!!

And ... that we will be moving to a community in the Adirondacks in the very near future, but sadly, we can gurantee that it won’t be to the community of Saranac Lake. Please be aware of the type of example you are setting for all to see, even as far away as Alaska.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Orchard

Seward, Alaska

The Internets have made the World a very small place. In the last few weeks many in Saranac Lake have shown Saranac Lake to be intolerant to gays and unable to handle administrative problems in our high school (I personally believe we have a very good school system at least academically).