Teacher Absentee Rate Cited
Among comments Tuesday night, Schools Superintendent Paula Howard mentioned a high teacher absentee rate – 25 percent - as part of the problem in managing students at Plainfield High School.
The topic was a student’s attack on a teacher and its aftermath in the media, where accounts of the situation ranged from isolated incidents of misbehavior to chaos in the hallways.
If the absentee rate is now that high, it is a precipitous drop from the previous rates of 95 to 96 percent. In the 2005-06 school year, the faculty attendance rate exactly matched the state average of 96.2 percent, according to the school report card on the state Department of Education web site.
“This is not a blame game, but a factual account of the issues,” Howard said, noting the high absentee rate means more substitutes trying to conduct classes.
All this is going on just as a state team is conducting a review of the district under a new process with the unwieldy title, “New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum,” or NJQSAC. The state Department of Education is looking at five aspects of district functioning - instruction and program, fiscal management, operations, governance and personnel.
City residents are invited to make comments on the school district at a forum from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Washington Community School. A state team will take the community input into account as part of the review.
In a district with 1,100 employees and 6,662 students, there are lots of issues and points of view. Eventually the monitoring process will sharpen the focus to what must be improved. It’s not exactly on the list, but one hopes the general level of acrimony can be reduced.
At the same time on Friday, there will be a Golden Gloves event in Plainfield. Board members were urged Tuesday to attend. It may also attract city residents who just want to see something where there is a clear winner instead of a dizzying array of ongoing concerns. If parents, students, teachers and the community at large can’t pull together soon, is it possible that the state might declare the district down for the count?
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The topic was a student’s attack on a teacher and its aftermath in the media, where accounts of the situation ranged from isolated incidents of misbehavior to chaos in the hallways.
If the absentee rate is now that high, it is a precipitous drop from the previous rates of 95 to 96 percent. In the 2005-06 school year, the faculty attendance rate exactly matched the state average of 96.2 percent, according to the school report card on the state Department of Education web site.
“This is not a blame game, but a factual account of the issues,” Howard said, noting the high absentee rate means more substitutes trying to conduct classes.
All this is going on just as a state team is conducting a review of the district under a new process with the unwieldy title, “New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum,” or NJQSAC. The state Department of Education is looking at five aspects of district functioning - instruction and program, fiscal management, operations, governance and personnel.
City residents are invited to make comments on the school district at a forum from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Washington Community School. A state team will take the community input into account as part of the review.
In a district with 1,100 employees and 6,662 students, there are lots of issues and points of view. Eventually the monitoring process will sharpen the focus to what must be improved. It’s not exactly on the list, but one hopes the general level of acrimony can be reduced.
At the same time on Friday, there will be a Golden Gloves event in Plainfield. Board members were urged Tuesday to attend. It may also attract city residents who just want to see something where there is a clear winner instead of a dizzying array of ongoing concerns. If parents, students, teachers and the community at large can’t pull together soon, is it possible that the state might declare the district down for the count?
.
posted by Bernice at 9:19 AM
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