Does anyone know why there were a group of teachers outside school this morning? Looked like some kind of protest. Wearing union T shirts

According to the press it was in response to teachers without tenior being let go, an option legal to do if performance levels are low and had nothing to do with the budget. What Id like to know is were any seasoned staff let go.

A teacher in their first three years in a system can be let go for any reason at all. It doesn't have to have anything to do with their evaluations, and the principal does not even need to give the teacher a reason for not being asked back. I have seen it happen many times in the district where I work- sometimes, a new principal comes into a school, and lets all of the non-PTS teachers go, simply so he or she can fill those positions with teachers of his or her choosing. It stinks for new teachers who are doing a great job, but it is the way it is.
For this reason, I always tell new teachers to not join the union- don't pay dues, because there is absolutely nothing the union can do to support you if the administration decides to let you go. Why else would you pay dues? I only pay dues in case a crazy administrator has it out for me at some point, and I can use the union's legal team to help me fight it. After three years, start paying your dues- when the union can actually help you out, if needed. Standing outside a building to "show that we all care for each other" is just an empty show with no hope of changing anything. If they really wanted to help the teachers being let go, they would help them find new jobs in places that would value them. It might be the best thing that could happen for them. They have some experience under their belts, and now they can go work somewhere better.

Translation - if you don't kiss the administration's a$$ for three years, you're gone. Someplace better? You mean - anywhere else?

Always tell the truth. Your real qualification need to be enough to get the job you want. To become a teacher, you need certain credentials in each state. This maybe common sense to some, but a reminder never hurt: compose yourself with restraint.

"Just how many tenured teachers are fired each year anyway." Districts dismiss very few tenured teachers for poor performance. Majority of the time the superintendent decide the third year unless complaints have been brought forward. MTA will only interfere so much for teachers that are not tenure.

Can only "fire" first-year teachers before 90th school day for no reason. After that date and until first day of fourth year annual evaluations are the basis for "non-renewal" usually notified by mid April that contract will not be renewed. Need "cause" to fire or not renew tenured teachers. Those have to be documented within the required evaluation process required at least every other year. Principals are in charge of non renewal process for teachers. Supt is in charge of renewal of asst supt and principals. School committee for supt. Supt and asst supt and principals cannot be tenured. Princ cannot get any more than 3-year contract at a time. Supt and asst supt usually the same max contract. My guess is no tenure teacher firings for one simple reason: There are no SC approved policies within which supt and principal evals of teachers is based. Thus, de facto, no cause to fire. It's a lawyer's buffet for dismissing any "cause."

Mr. Snow: Your reasoning would be correct in a functional school system that abided by rules and laws. Melrose has not for many years. Casey gave out 5-year principal contracts to his favorites (Kerry Clery), regardless of whether they were qualified and had performed well. The only qualification that mattered is how much they sucked up to him and SC, which some continue to excel at (think Brent or JC), even when they otherwise fail miserably, cost the city untold amounts in lawsuits, and get rejected for all the other jobs over the years they've tried to get. Cyndy is even worse, keeping the worst of the worst, and harassing the very best (who threaten her as the ignorant, mean-spirited lousy anti-education administrator she is). (Malden rejected her attempts to climb the admin ladder and booted her, then rejoiced when Melrose got stuck with her and her miserable and equally ignorant, poorly spoken side-kick MA). This horrible team has been responsible for the loss of Melrose's finest teachers (starting with Dr. P) and "recruits" (as in, takes the lowest rung of rookies) who are then either advanced disproportionately to their actual qualifications or performance according to their suck-up factor or dumped via systematic harassment. Last year by Cyndy's own reckoning nearly 2/3rds of her own staff was in the Needs Improvement category, something she has only herself and her wretched administrators to blame. She uses these awful metrics to keep a constantly revolving door of the cheapest staff she can acquire (one of her budget-balancing tricks, as it were), all to the detriment of the students, the district's reputation (in the crapper), staff morale. But the constant influx of new gullible parents and the lily-livered nature of too many of the parents of older students (and their own need to suck up for their underperforming, undereducated students) means that it's a self-feeding cycle of self-congratulating poorly performing staff overall. Cyndy doesn't worry about the legalities of removing a faculty member without just cause, seeing as how she has an epic crew of lying, cheating, incompetent lawyers and politicians who will back up her every horrible move and even praise her to the hilt as they do so.

Wonder what it took for CT to finally remove the guidance head (all euphemized as "moving closer to mom" or somesuch), seeing as how he had pulled some huge ethical and illegal whoppers over many years and still managed to stay employed. Must have been over the top crazy. Same with the band director who is still there. Wonder what it will take with that one since he exceeds the suck-up factor and even manages to flirt with her while accruing legal debts for the city for his hideously abusive treatment of female staff. But that's okay prob because White-L surely oversees all "investigations," and we know how those turn out (OCR, MCAD, you name it).

Are you really going to give CT credit for the head of guidance being gone? I doubt it.

not at all

She's been here for over 6 years and should have removed him upon arrival but didn't. Just wondering what finally was so bad that she didn't have a choice. She couldn't care less that he's damaged the lives of many students with his many failures and bad acts. It had to be something really heinous that meant she could no longer look the other way and was told to remove him or else.

Last Friday when teacher's who got let go wearing MTA shirts was one Mr. Bates. Keep cleaning the swamp more to come.

Retired from MVMMS and so glad I did with all the hypocrites claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case. The team preaches one thing, and does another. You're a hypocrite if you criticize other people. Look at yourself a person who professes beliefs and opinions that she does not hold in order to conceal her real feelings or motives. HYPOCRITES!

Well he's at it again. Can't even be nice or decent at the end of a school year. Nasty mofo to women. Anyone have a handbaskit as he's gonna need it when his time comes.

The sick days were needed because the toxicity of the school environment, of the district expectations which do not at all seem fitting with what I observed at all state or national level. So, the sick days are real because creativity is atrophying at lightning speed for teachers in our schools. My soldering on ended up getting the better of me, however because I was not taking time off from an environment that was becoming increasingly toxic. When the work environment is toxic, it is trickle down.