Not One Red Cent

Granted, teachers and their benefits do cost school districts. Yet there is a far more expensive creature that lurks in the halls of education. It is called the “administrator with the buy-out clause.”  So far, there is no official way to track the history or behavior of a superintendent.

They can come with glowing recommendations from another district. The problem is, the other district may be desperate to get rid of their current administrator and will say anything to make another district take them. It’s a bizarre game of “hot potato.”

Here’s how it works.

Super A gets a cushy job in District 1. He is a complete failure and knows it. He alienates the schools, staff, and even the town. The school board wants to get rid of him, but can’t. They will be immersed in years of expensive court battles trying to fire him. But wait, the Super has, wait for it…”a buyout clause.”

It’s a “if you don’t like me and want to get rid of me, you have to do the following” clause. It usually involves a substantial sum of money and a stellar recommendation, plus additional perks.

This is a pleasant way for a current school board to say “thanks, but no thanks!” to a current Super. It’s also a great way for an unethical Super to ride the mediocrity wagon to money town.

You think a TEACHER is impossible to fire? Try an administrator with a buy-out clause.

A super can demolish a district, destroy all good will, devastate the academic structure and still ride out of town with his reputation intact and his pockets lined with money for several months.

These buy-out clauses cost districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. And who really pays for it? The Super who is on to his next unsuspecting and often desperate district, or the students and the teachers left behind?

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Cutting education funding can’t occur “away from the classroom.” It is simply naive to believe that paper-pushing bureaucrats are going to make sure our students aren’t affected. If you cut classroom aides, P.E. teachers, and clerical staff, it directly impacts the classroom.

A school is a community that relies on all of its people to keep it running. Cutting P.E. staff has put me and my colleagues into the position of teaching yet another class and eliminating all of our prep time.

As for classroom aides, I wouldn’t know what one looked like unless you pointed them out. I have been teaching low-level fifth graders for eight years and have yet to see one in my classroom.

The loss of clerical staff just means more of the paperwork duties will fall to the other staff (teachers!) or simply be neglected because of more pressing issues that assault a school office.

So the teachers will bear more and more of the burden and more and more of the blame when students are uneducated.

“Cuts away from the classroom?” What a monumental joke.

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