Tuesday, March 27, 2012

CMS board yanks support of performance-pay bill

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted unanimously to withdraw its support from House Bill 546, a controversial performance-pay measure that came to symbolize many teachers' frustration with CMS and former Superintendent Peter Gorman.

Gorman and his staff crafted the bill,  which would grant CMS the right to revise the teacher pay scale without teacher approval. A prior bill had given CMS authority to pilot performance pay with approval by its teachers. The House approved 546,  but it was tabled by the Senate.

Last year the school board was narrowly divided on the bill,  with a slim majority supporting it. Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators at the time, was a vocal opponent. She retired from that post and is now among three new members. As vice chair of the school board, she made the motion to tell lawmakers that CMS no longer wants the bill pursued.

The board also voted 8-1 on a legislative agenda,  with Rhonda Lennon opposing because it includes taxing authority for CMS.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another step toward the de-gormanization of CMS...

Wiley Coyote said...

Another step towards the Obamanization of CMS...

He's for testing and pay for performance.

He told the Russian President he would be re-elected, so be prepared for PFP.

Anonymous said...

Goodbye $84K.

Anonymous said...

I think the state is testing crazy when it comes to determining the progress of students. It's all about how to take a test than what you have learned. On the other hand, teacher's pay has to be based on merit. Some of the teachers my kids had in CMS were literally incompetent and you wonder why they even chose that profession. Teacher unions are the worst kind...with obvious agendas to simply protect the worst performing members.

Anonymous said...

Good thing there are no teacher unions in north Carolina!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 7:55: if there are no teacher' unions in NC, what is NCEA which is a part of the NEA and has annual revenue of over 11 Mil.?

Oops, I guess someone was learned in public school.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 8:14 you actually failed to do your hmk. THE STATE OF NC is a "Right to Work State" MEANING NO UNION HAS THE POWER TO COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN.....Hence the word Union is a misnomer because the NCEA has no more power to advocate for teacher rights than the NCLSFK (NC Lemonade Stands for Kids). OOPPS someone (You) got learned in PS........ Give it a rest. if the NCEA had any power, the fact that steps on pay have not been given for the last 4 years would not be a reality they would be a myth......... The fact that class size is based on averages rather than reality would also be addressed. Your a clown who KNOWS little to nothing about the power of the NCEA.

Anonymous said...

8:14. Research shows that showing people they are wrong through actual facts just makes them believe their original errors more, but I'll try.

NC is a right to work state which legally forbids public employees from collective bargaining. NCAE functions as a lobbyist for its member teachers in NC, but has no actual authority representing teachers.

Anonymous said...

Ah. Jinx :)

Anonymous said...

This will not be good for teachers the PFP .Due to fact our grades are falling fast since our best students are leaving like a flooding Sugar Creek. Grades will fall this year at least 5% as I predicted. Mary NCAE minority Union leader is a non-factor as she is so smart with her qoute to the Observer. Did KOJO give her tha tline such a slimy cat. Give a TFA teacher a PFP plan see what they do. It can never be successful and our seasoned teachers will retire.

Anonymous said...

What the hell is the Intergovernmental Relationship Committee and how much does it cost us?

Anonymous said...

8:28,
Please consider the future tense of teachers and administrators leaving to way past tense. 57 principals last semester and the exodus is in full swing. James Cameron going to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in a sub and finding nothing will soon have nothing on CMS. The schools are ready full of subs and..........

christine mast said...

HB546 is gone. They voted 9-0 to get rid of it.

Anonymous said...

8:14 nice try. #doh!

Anonymous said...

Then why was it voted for last year?

They dont give a Gormans @ss about teachers.

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem is not to let people accept new ideas, but to let them forget the old ones.

John Maynard Keys

Wiley Coyote said...

Taxing authority for CMS or any other LEA must not be allowed.

All language in this legislative draft includes pre-K.

GET OUT OF pre-K now!.

Thank you Rhonda Lennon for having the only vote against the agenda due to the proposed taxing authority.

christine mast said...

Wiley, Mary and Tim made a point to say that they purposefully changed it to include pre-k.... I will never understand this, as their charter per state law is to be responsible for k-12 only...

By the way, the raises in the budget include over $500k for raises for employees in Bright Beginnings. How do you like that?

Wiley Coyote said...

Christine,

I'm all for teacher raises, but the state should be funding them at a minimum of 3%.

Reagrding the pre-K raises, if they would get out of pre-K, the $500K would be a moot point.

Anonymous said...

Christine, HB546 has still been passed by the house and will make it to the Senate this year. It is the cornerstone of NC getting the Race to the Top federal money. They have to pass it. Or somehow the state has to give that money back and you know that will never happen. The state can not even pay back the interest on the money it borrowed from the feds for the extra unemployment benefits the last 2 extensions.

christine mast said...

I agree totally... We don't have the money for pre-k right now... Add to that the lack of research, and it needs to go.

christine mast said...

Anon, HB546 will be pulled from the senate, per how the vote was worded tonight... The board will be notifying Samuelson, Alexander, members of the senate and of the house... The board wants it to be gone. Period.

Wiley Coyote said...

Christine,

Rgardless of what the NC legislature does, Obama and Duncan support PFP.

If Obamacare stands and Obama gets re-elected, there is no telling what sort of mandate could come from the White House regarding PFP, especially where Federal dollars are concerned.

Anonymous said...

How about the "one time bonus" versus the IPads.I think this is a great idea. I would much prefer health insurance instead of the tech that will be outdated in two years.Almost 40 in every class has had negative effects on my health.

BolynMcClung said...

TO: ANON 9:39

You're incorrect about any NC Senate action on HB546.

I sat-in on the CMS Intergovernmental Relationship Committee. The discussions between Mr. Battle, Miss McCray and Mr. Morgan were clear. The bill will not be pushed out of the NC House. It will die.

The reasons given at the board meeting tonight are they same from the committee meeting. Each of the five committee members were glad to be killing it.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville, NC

Anonymous said...

Since when does collective bargaining define whether an organization is a union or not?

Go to a search engine, type in 'NCAE' and you'll see that the NCAE's own web site calls itself "Union representing teachers in the state."

If the NCAE isn't a union, why would it call itself a union on its own web site? Is this a false claim?

At any rate, whether you want to call it a union or not is irrelevant. The fact is that the NCAE has an enormous budget and is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the state of North Carolina. Just look at what Mary McCray did at CMS. She left her job as a local union boss for the NCAE to join the CMS board and help kill PFP.

Say what you want about the NCAE. Their power may be shrinking a little these days, but they're still a political force to be reckoned with.

BolynMcClung said...

WAY TO GO RHONDA.

Taxing authority for the school board is the worst idea possible.

Reason: The board's relationship to its task is an emotional issue: education. The public would pay, pay, pay. The City and County, as bad as they are about spending, are at least run like a business.

CMS' constant argument is that they aren't a business. That should seal the deal....No taxing authority.

Bolyn McClung
Pineville

Christine Mast said...

Thank you, Rhonda.

Anonymous said...

Help me Rhonda,
Help,
Help me
Rhonda.

Gotta get Rhonda out of ......................

Anonymous said...

No, don't back away now! Let Ruth Samuelson and long gone Pete get the bill pushed through that way both he and she can prove to the people that they are the cornerstones of change. Throw in worthless Rhonda Lennon as well this is her baby, let her deal with it. "Or" do we have to "eat cake" Rhonda?

Anonymous said...

Oh Ruth, where are you? I have noticed that you make the proverbial shrinking violet look brave! Oh, that's right little Ruthey has to think about re-election sometimes, right?

Anonymous said...

Dear typical idiot who wrote about the NCAE. It's called a union because they're associated with a national UNION. If NCAE is a union then I want my money back for their successful negotiations of no raises for four years. Stop thinking that there is a union under every rock, they're not the boogey man.

Anonymous said...

Right now the existing legislation says you can only create a pay system that pays CMS employees according to their job performance if you get their permission first.

Why in the world would you need employees' permission to determine their pay?

House bill 546 tried to to strip the idea that employee permission would be needed in order to pay folks according to how well they do their job. It's absurd that bill 546 was even needed in the first place. It's even more absurd that it would be defeated in a 9-0 vote.

PFP will not be implemented at CMS unless by state mandate. That's unlikely to happen any time soon. But once Purdue is gone, who knows?

Anonymous said...

HB 546 tried to eliminate the teachers from having any part in reform. It's absurd that CMS didn't simply try to work with teachers rather than do something TO them. It's absurd that the former super wanted to eliminate teachers from protections of the law and take money from teachers as dictated by the state pay schedule to redistribute some and keep a pot of money by which to grow his bureaucracy. Read the bill. No really before you reply actually read the bill. You'll see I am correct.

Anonymous said...

Obama and Arne are hot to trot for performance paying teachers. If the Republicans get in office, it will not be much different but their first order of business will be to bust the teacher unions. They see the unions as an impediment to improving public education. The unions will not even go after getting rid of those teachers that make them look bad.

But I hope is if the Republicans get into control that they will eliminate that part of the Department of Education that messes in K-12 public education. That is a state responsibility.

As we see with Obamacare, while in principal some aspects look acceptable, you can not underestimate the foolishness a politcal apponitee will do in managing everyone's health or education from Washington DC. Can you say lowest common denominator?

Anonymous said...

I don't trust the CMS BOE.
However, if they actually had taxing authority 2 things would happen:
1. The group that is in now wouldn't get elected. Citizens would elect responsible people.
2. The blame game (it's county board, its NC legislature, it's Arne Duncan's fault for whatever) would have to end.

Anonymous said...

I have a job with cms. Next year I will pay over 7000 for 70/30 health insurance. After 9 years I will make 39000.. If we have a union, they should be fired.

Anonymous said...

Sorry 10 years...... Welcome to the new south.. How do you apply for food stamps?