Apparently the topic for AAA's meeting with teachers has changed from collaborative planning to the budget. Is this correct? Planning is important (duh....everyday after school ,nights, weekends, breaks, snow days, holidays) Why worrying about an hour(?) of planning time a week dedicated to collaboration is an issue I will never understand. Either you collaborate and much more than an hour, or you don't. Quit quibbling!

The budget, however, is impacting every school that I know about in different ways. Positions have been lost, the arts and libraries are directly affected,full time staff has been cut to half time and the employees told to "find" the other half of the position themselves. Forget the hiring fair. A joke for most. I am personally not affected so I am only reporting what I have seen, been told, and found out about by doing some of my own research.What has happenend to art, music, science, and social studies? No department heads? Or are there? Shouldn't a good employee know who these people are and how to find them?

Why does BCPS keep paying partial tuition for certifications for people/postions that they have no intention of keeping? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? So, let's say someone is spending time, their money and energy to become certified in art.(or any other cert) BCPS pays at least half of the tuition. The employee pays the balance which is still alot of money. Plus books, studying, papers, etc. Then, after all this BCPS decides that your certification is not important anymore! No postions. Does the city have this kind of money to waste? How about all the folks who got administrator certifications and did not use them? Where is the good faith that if someone studies, pays etc. that their postion will exsist? If you can't predict your future needs, why are you paying the bills? Of course, some of the credits go towards maintaining an exsisting certification but for that you only need a few credits every few years.

The budget. What are BCPS priorities? Do you want good people? The surrounding counties are looking better every day. And do not EVER let any BCPS person tell you the county won't want you. Not true. I have been recruited and thus far have stayed put. I am wearing thin

Is anyone else experiencing budget issues that are not being reported in the cleaned up version of the 2009-2010 budget? Does anyone care.

Sorry if funding students' education, (because after all"it is all about kids"-AAA )is too much chaff,not enough wheat.We discuss, we blogg, we go to meetings, we work all day. What else can we do? I think ,sadly, too many wonderful employees are afraid to speak out publically. If you would do it for your own child's school, why not your work place? It's hard.

Mostly people don't comment because it is like spitting into the wind. Either that or they fear retribution on every level.

Is it about Stith or about the "program". Teenage pregnancy is no longer socially unacceptable for recent generations so there may no longer be the need to isolate these young ladies. I would think every high school and some middle schools would benefit from a replication of this "program"

In case it's not common knowledge (found on the BCPSS website by accident):
the Collaborative Planning CEO’s Teachers’ Forum scheduled for May 14th is canceled

Is the book autographed?

$75 is steep!!! Can't I just catch this on CSPAN or something?