Plan to add literacy and art teachers

Sunday, October 25, 2009

School board candidates Jason Haap and Lisa Schare cross party lines to benefit Cincinnati’s students

(Cincinnati) - For the past couple weeks, Jason Haap, the Green Party candidate for school board, along with Lisa Schare, a Democratic candidate, have been talking about similar issues for the schools that have now converged into a new and concrete plan.  The school board race is officially non-partisan, and this new plan is a non-partisan project based on benefitting kids, crafted by the two public school teachers in the race.

Haap has made holding principals accountable a cornerstone of his campaign.  “Principals are instructional and community leaders in each of their buildings,” explained Haap.  “We should have policies that hold principals accountable, providing them with the resources they need to take their schools to the next level.”

“Whether we are talking about student achievement or parental involvement, the principals are uniquely positioned to make such concepts a reality,” continued Haap.  “They should be held accountable to meeting such goals, provided with constructive criticism as needed to help them and their buildings meet and exceed expectations.”

Schare has been on the campaign trail advocating for principals to be reinstated as figures responsible for teacher evaluations.  She says CPS spends six million dollars a year paying outside agents* to perform a task best suited for principals.

Haap and Schare say that combining these concepts would create a system where principals would be held accountable to accurate and fair evaluations of their own teachers, freeing up six million dollars for more constructive uses.

“Lisa and I talked casually about the situation, and we quickly realized all the things that could happen with six million dollars,” explained Haap.  “That money could fund salaries and even benefits for 60 teachers.”

Under the new plan by Haap and Schare, a fund should be established with this saved money, and it should be used to hire teachers in literacy, art, music, and physical education.

“Just imagine what we could do,” said Haap.  “We could use this new and restricted fund to hire 10 physical education teachers, 15 art teachers, 15 music teachers, and 20 literacy teachers.  With our plan, struggling schools—which frequently are the schools lacking support in the arts—could benefit from additional instructors focusing on the whole child.”

Haap and Schare say that the addition of literacy and arts teachers could enliven and support the core curriculum in creative ways to engage kids and to raise achievement.  Though this would require a change to the current collective bargaining agreement, Haap and Schare believe teachers would support holding principals accountable, and reallocating money into the creation of new teaching jobs that help students.

*UPDATE:  A quick note on the use of the phrase “outside agents.”  The TES system does involve Lead Teachers evaluating other teachers, but the high cost comes from taking them out of the classroom and having to hire subs (which is not good for our students).  It is administered through Mayerson as a private agency.  It does cost about 6 million because the Lead Teachers are also given more money to evaluate teachers and engage all the consultant work regarding professional development.  But here is the point: this system wastes money and should be the responsibility of the principal in the building.