Seriously! You want parents to volunteer in place of Kindergarten paras? 6 positions at maybe 12.00 an hour! Where did that pot of money go? Raises for admin! This is the exact reason the override will never be passed. Do you really think parent volunteers are going to be trained in this short period of time. People here have been complaining about paras not being certified now you have volunteers. This is actually funny. Funding will be reduced or cut every year. Think long term! 25 5/6 year olds with one para running back and forth. Yes this is the high standards we expect. Melrose is growing with young families. Have a plan in place and not deciding a week before school starts. Did I hear that new interim director of finance just received a raise? That is one para salary for a year ! So is the splitting of paras working? Do we have volunteers yet?
why my kids are enrolled in St. Mary's and the Charter School.....why I voted against the override....
This year has changed you are not qualified for a para in kindergarten unless for a student or students needing help. Don't know how the teachers are doing that. Hoover needs help in classrooms and no hiring of paras...why I voted against the override also...
Can you imagine having over 20 students in a kindergarten class without a para! That's impossible how did that change from last year? Do parents or volunteers help in the classrooms? So many questions and not enough answers in Melrose.
Sorry to show my ignorance, but can someone please give me a brief explanation of what a "para" does? I know we never had one many years ago, so just curious what has changed to make them necessary. Thanks!
Para is short for Paramilitary.
Unless you're Taymore - then it means parachute, as in golden parachute.
We can all joke about it - but the topic is serious and the implications to our students - critical and immense!
That is what I am (apparently unsuccessfully) trying to determine.
Apologies for the joke.
They are called paraprofessionals. They help the teachers in the classroom. There are two different types. Some of them are in the kindergarten classes full time helping out the teacher with the students. Others are people who are assigned to a special education student to be with them in the classroom. Some students have disabilities (think blindness) and need someone to make the classroom resources accessible to them. Others have a learning or behavioral problem and need an adult to help them in other ways.
I don't know how many of either type there are in the system, though. I expect they don't get paid much but they probably get health insurance because they work more than 30 hours a week.
Question for others - Do all the new kindergarten classes have them this year or did they cut them because of the grant not being funded?
What do you think Melrose did?
'Obvious', thank you for that explanation. At least now I can follow the conversations knowing what people are talking about!
The paras cut by the grant not being funded are the classroom helper ones. The special needs ones are a different animal.
Does anyone on here think that it's interesting that these K helpers were cut? Staff that the emotional so-called young families are going to care about? Enough to vote for any future override proposals.
Since it was well known, as Margaret Driscoll said herself on social media, that the grant for the paras might not get funded, should there not have been a back up plan?
How about losing or reassigning those make a believe fake job holding "instructional coaches"? Or not giving the make a believe fake UNTRAINED finance manager a raise? Or not paying money to MAAV? 6K if you read the June SC packet with the student initials.
Plenty to cut to keep the paras.
I'm not sold on the need for the paras. Yes, it would be nice and a huge help the in classrooms but.... we are talking about K which is not mandatory and free full time K is huge. Years ago, we all had to pay a hefty fee for full day K. I think to the tune of about $2500 per child enrolled. Personally, I think the focus of the system should be on the HS first and foremost as these kids need excellent teachers and education in order to move on to college. The HS always takes the hit when it comes to budget cuts and I think that's completely wrong. Even MD admitted this in a SC meeting but then voted to let the HS take the hit. This year at the HS, no agenda books for students, huge increase in sports fees, some CP and Honors classes combined into one class (w/o telling parents or students about this) overcrowded classes, some unqualified teachers, too few guidance counselors, etc.
I know that every grade is important and that the Elem schools are building blocks to MS and HS but, honestly, HS is a building block to college, and future career so, why short change the group who needs the most attention?
Your not sold then get yourself in the class for a few days and then post me. You are talking 23 kids with one teacher have fun. Make sure you bring some Tylenol with you.
Put yourself in a HS math class with 30+ kids, a CP and Honors combined class or a class with a HS teacher who has NEVER taught before. All scenarios are Tylenol necessary for both students and teachers.
This district is a disaster, top to bottom. Priorities are all geared solely to political patronage, not at all for what the students need and deserve or for what our taxes are paying heavily for. The malevolent hacks have driven out so many of the best real educators and hire only the bottom-rung rookies, partly because they are cheapest, they are the only ones willing to work here, and also because they can be controlled and won't fight back. Also, they'll leave as soon as they've moved up a couple of steps, gotten a taxpayer-funded pretend master's from one of the many sources today that covers up their astounding ignorance and poor academic performance previously, and then they're onto the next mark for much better pay and working conditions. Melrose is perpetuating the lowest kinds of values and educators, not only into our own district, but onto all the others unfortunate enough to get fooled into hiring one of MPS slightly less green but equally poor teachers or Peter-Principle principals. Even CT was a reject from a neighboring community that refused to promote her to asst super (they were smart!), while our city was dumb enough not only to hire her, but reward her with much more than was offered initially and then three successive substantial raises to date, along with their indefensible "exemplary" ratings that lock in her ability to sue if anyone dares try to axe her now for all the many causes she's provided. Instead of being tarred and feathered and sent packing as is richly deserved, the MEFites glorify this bunch of hacks and charlatans.
Overcrowded classrooms with sub-par (if not outright horrible) teachers, administrators encouraged to behave abusively towards staff and families alike, and a totally negligent school board are what define the district now. The glowing BS that the hired PR guns have aimed at the dumb public ("Most Improved"--embarrassing!) should be viewed as criminal in the lies that are being perpetuated. Instead of responsible use of all resources, there is the steady stream (to buy votes and assuage the vague and weak scrutiny of a few) of stupidly conceived and very costly school building projects, not a one of them having been done well or in accordance with what competent communities count on as "state of the art" and truly using resources responsibly.
By the way, the new "Learning Commons" is just a new-smelling version of the wasted space at MHS that in now way is worth the $5+ million that we're paying for it, just like the $6.6 million Science Labs were obsolete before the plans were even drawn, and missing their floor drains to boot! And how about that raw sewage that poured down the outside walls of the middle school a couple of years ago, or the many un-air-conditioned rooms that exceed 90 degrees there still.... MHS is still a dreary dump and now we have far bigger tax bills, too. Great, just great.
Well at least Taymore can brag that she brought her "trailer park" mentality to our school district - now that she plans to add 5 ugly portable classrooms to our suburban neighborhood schools! What's next - murals painted on the outside of these structures?
Ct has brought the worst principals to the district. The one at the Roosevelt is the worst
of all! MBM the principal at the Roosevelt has lost great employees. Now, she is losing the
sec. and nurse who have been together over ten years. This must be what the parents want at
Roosevelt. If your employees are working under a principal that don't know how to tell the
truth that's a problem. This down the road will damage your children when staff are not
happy. Taymore should not be bragging about what she brought to Melrose. Taymore came from
Malden with Adams and didnt succeed their. Ask your friends in Malden they will tell you.
I feel for you in the HS math class. Melrose has a lot of first year teachers and its so hard because they don't have the experience. You might need more than Tylenol.
Can anyone tell me if they have ever seen CT or MA teeth?
The city needs to get rid of Driscoll. I am sure she is not shopping around Melrose.
Need to vote in November all yes on the questions.
MTA SUCH!
If your child has special needs teachers and principals ignore those students.
Its more work for a principal and teacher that don't specialize in students with special needs.
Lincoln school has violated all one on ones students and IEP's this year also. Why don't teachers speak up to the principals???
Report it to DOE. Take action picket in front of the schools. No accountability, IEP violated,teachers leaving, etc. Action speaks louder than words.
We are not allowed to picket. Melrose has NO subs so the paras get taken out of the room to cover. Its done every day. Teachers are not speaking up to the principals. Report it to DOE than the system will give you the worst positions and bully you till you leave...
Parents picket not teachers. Want to get your messages across form together at every school. Hold up signs of everything you want for a school system. Advocate for the Children.
I don't understand this at all....we are in such dire straits suddenly, right after an override failed that was NOT ADDRESSING ANY OF THIS.
The override, we were told, was going to take us from "good to great" , was ADDING curriculum coaches and ONE history teacher at the high school, which was neither needed or asked for, and a few support positions. It never addressed the problems with overcrowding, with our inability to hire subs. And we were suddenly told we needed to cut department chairs at the high school.
Bait and switch? Did the district try to use the MEF mommies to run their campaign by promising them what they wanted, with the intention of using the money to fill in the budget gaps when all these problems were eventually revealed?
Dire straits? They didn't seem to have any trouble pulling 4+ million bucks out of thin air for modulars and renovations. You cannot believe ANYTHING these people say, about anything, ever. Lately we've seen that they will lie even when the truth would serve better.
How can this system be in violation of IEPs, and nothing happens? Why are the parents of the SPED students allowing this? Report these people to DESE.
Again, I ask, why do these SPED parents not file formal complaints with DESE, followed by phone calls to all of the local news outlets? Seriously, I have to think someone like Mike Boudet would take this story and run with it. So why?
Officials at DESE are no friends of parents, even when there has been documented and egregious abuse. They go directly to CT and dis the parents, only occasionally willing to do an "investigation" that is bound to prove favorable to administrators. It's all contrived to support the administration, local and state.
If my child had an IEP, and was not getting the services required, you better believe I would be up everybody's a__! Parents in Melrose are wimps. Band together and cause a problem for the admin. Remember strength in numbers. Don't shy away because you are afraid. Believe me, it's YOUR child who suffers. Admin. could care less.
And, they are quite willing to go even farther (ask that ridiculous excuse for a principal on Wyoming) and call Dept of Child Services on a parent, whether there is anything legitimate or not. The super will wave it all away and admit that her inexcusably poor choice of principal handled things poorly, but it's all just a bad joke on everyone else, while turning the world upside down on innocent families who can't afford to fight the system. This administration and its hack counsel are willing to do absolutely anything if it serves their purpose, and they could not care less about what it has cost anyone. They are without a conscience, and they are being supported by entirely corrupt politicians who will not hold anyone accountable, starting with themselves. There is proof in spades. At some point these arrogant monsters will get caught, probably by something relatively inconsequential that they waved away thinking it was nothing. But it is inevitable that they will go down eventually, just not soon enough to spare further harm. Those who do have a conscience that have looked the other way will have much to feel ashamed of. Those who fear for their political survival should be finding a way to jump ship and line up with the voices of truth before the inevitable happens.
Department of Special ED in Melrose is a disgrace it falls on PWL in the business world she would have been fired.I have dealt with this piece of garbage. I hired a advocate 6 years ago my child 's ed plan was not met and was bullied by special Ed teacher. Melrose paid for private school. You want to change this School System do something stop writing on this board. Follow Boston Latins example parents picket. They got their Superentant to step down.