A trio of teachers representing 101 members of the faculty at Flagler Palm Coast High School submitted a plan to the Flagler County School Board today calling for all Fridays starting Sept. 14 to be “enrichment” rather than direct instructional days for students. The proposal in essence turns Fridays into a version of study hall or tutoring options for students and planning, grading and tutoring for teachers.
Students currently attending in person would have the option of attending from home or to report to school. They would not be seated in their individual classrooms, but in other areas of the school under supervision other than that of their teachers, assuming deans and other personnel, including a rotation of teachers, would fill that role. Students attending from home would still be required to attend each period, logging into their class and remaining at their desk, as they do the rest of the week.
The plan was submitted by the teachers at the beginning of today’s workshop meeting of the board. All three of them and the president of the Flagler County Educational Association, the teachers union, pleaded with the board to consider the plan, keep an open mind and not see it as adversarial, but as a way to improve a situation they say hurts both teachers and students.
The board customarily does not address comments or plans discussed by the public during the public-comment segment, though in a latter part of the meeting a board member and the superintendent spoke of keeping an open mind. So it’s not clear how the board or the administration will respond, if at all.
Katie Hansen, president of FCEA, said the 101 FPC teachers’ points apply beyond the two high schools. “I have been president of FCEA for 11 years now,” she said. “This is the first year I am dealing with messages, emails, Facebook messages, every single day, with teachers in tears, threatening to leave a career that they have been working hard years of dedication to Flagler County, because of what is being asked of them. I shared at the table, when we were negotiating this, that I thought a blended plan was not a good plan. Not for our students and not for our teachers. And that’s what we’re seeing as a reality. And I know we’re only a week in and things may potentially get better. But I hope that you’re willing to listen to these concerns, because it’s not just these three people. There are hundreds of your teachers that are sharing these exact same concerns.”
The plan is being prompted by increasing frustrations among teachers after more than a week of instruction under the coronavirus-imposed conditions, with many teachers now required to offer “blended” classes. Those classes combine in-person instruction with instruction for the students who have opted for the remote-live option, following class from home through a live, video stream.
“Across the board, educators are saying the same thing: what we have tried to accomplish this first week of school is not sustainable for any length of time,” Tina McNally, first of three Flagler Palm Coast High School teachers to address the board today, said. “The added responsibilities of blended teaching have added an enormous amount of time to our planning.”
Before school resumed on Aug. 24 the teachers union tried repeatedly to keep the blended model from going forward, insisting that teachers should have the right to do one or the other–face to face instruction or exclusively remote-live, but not both at the same time, as that creates a host of issues and multiplies each teacher’s workload while technological issues and matters as laborious as electronic attendance drain class time.
With the blended model, teachers have to provide the same class content to in-person students as they do students at home but must alter it to fit technological constraints. They must alter tests in such a way that remote students can access and submit the material through current technology. Teachers must alter class activities in such a way as to ensure that online students are also engaged. They have to add several steps to their planning for tests when contending with the requirements of exceptional student education students (ESE) with specified learning plans, and convert all class materials to digital formats. They have to call students who don’t log in or don’t turn in work–all tasks that have been added to teachers’ regular workloads.
The district stuck to its blended approach during negotiations with the union, namely because it has limited means with personnel to offer more than it’s offering.
The three-page for “enrichment” Fridays is intended to alleviate some of those pressures.
“High School teachers are asking that one day each week is a dedicated enrichment day,” the plan reads. “All students will be given the opportunity to participate in structured and supervised enrichment and acceleration activities on campus,such as tutoring, SAT/ACT prep, AP/IB review sessions, etc. during the times that align with those courses in their schedules. Students who choose to participate
remotely will be able to do so. Attendance will be taken through schoology each period to verify student contact and participation. This ensures that seat time remains intact and there are no changes needed to the calendar. Faculty and Staff would still report to their school for normal working hours. This provides teachers with one day every week to plan, create content, grade, etc.” (See the complete plan below.)
Corinne Schaefer and Brandee Crist were the two other teachers who addressed the school board.
“This isn’t about complaining,” Crist said. “Teachers are on the front lines and are looking to collaborate with the district to create a plan where students are afforded the same level of education regardless of whether they are face to face or remote, and with what we’re working with right now, we cannot do that. I know personally myself and all of the teachers that I work with, we go to work, and then we stay working even after work. We had teachers on campus for five, six, seven hours this weekend, just trying to catch up from this past week. The enrichment days would not be used as a break for teachers. It is a day for teachers to try to work to get ahead, to keep up and to stay above water, because right now we’re not doing that. And we’re only a week and a half in. So once students are starting to do tests and they’re starting to do quizzes and assignments and all of that stuff on top, now we have to grade–we’re already floundering, and when that all starts, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I got into teaching to teach kids. I don’t feel like I’m doing that. I’m not able to make the connections that I previously was able to make with them.” Like many other teachers, she had been told just days before her return to school that she had to take on a series of courses she hadn’t taught before, and had to cram to prepare for.
“We need some help,” Crist continued. “We’re not trying to go over anybody’s head. We really would like to start a conversation. If this isn’t it, and this isn’t the plan that we can go by, then please, let’s continue talking about it and like Tina said, you all were in a really, really difficult position. Your hands were really tied as far as opening. But we are all on a really steep learning curve, so we have to continue to adapt to the needs of our students and our teachers.”
Hansen shared one of the innumerable messages she’s receiving from teachers that she told the board captured the essence of the teachers’ challenges “Today I felt like I was dancing on hot coals while juggling five balls and a baton that was on fire.” That, Hansen said, is how teachers feel, with parents interrupting instruction, being rude to teachers over Zoom, in front of other students, technological issues, and so on. “Teachers are saying I’m wasting so much instructional time just trying to take attendance and figure out who’s in my class and who’s not. So I hope that you’re listening. I hope that you have an open mind and are willing to collaborate. If it’s not this plan–a plan, something to do more support for our teachers and our students, because our teachers are struggling, but our students are struggling as well.”
The teachers’ plan acknowledges the district’s difficulties in reopening under a state mandate, against which it could do little but to offer a set of options within the mandatory reopening requirements. “We have done everything we can to make sure we opened safely for the students, now let us collaborate to ensure that no student gets left behind because of blended learning,” the plan states.
When it was their turn to speak toward the end of the meeting, Board members Andy Dance and Trevor Tucker did not address the proposal, and Maria Barbosa offered thanks for those bringing concerns.
Colleen Conklin spoke in greater detail, urging her colleagues and the administration to live up to their own slogans: “It’s always refreshing when people come to share concern but also share an idea or a possible solution, so I really do appreciate that–that additional effort,” Conklin said, “and I just want to encourage us, all of us as a leadership team, to be open to listening and hearing what teachers are sharing right now. I don’t think anybody should feel defensive about it. I think it is what it is. We’re learning as we go. But I think being open to what is being shared with us, understanding, acknowledging, recognizing the frustrations and the concerns that are happening, and then realizing that as we keep telling everybody, the word of the year being ‘fluid’ or for the importance of us all being flexible, that that includes us as plans evolve.”
Janet McDonald, who chairs the school board, spoke well, though without addressing the teachers’ concerns so much as commending them for working hard. It was at times difficult to follow the thread of her thinking: “It’s been incredibly rewarding, and I don’t mean this in a slight way at all,” McDonald said. “But everyone has stepped up and given 150 percent in spite of whatever obstacles have happened. They continue to deliver for our students, with the additional layers that we heard about that come through the airwaves from those in the environment that aren’t necessarily in to complicate the educational process of our students with as hard as our teachers are working. We need our families and our parents to work just as much to honor that space that’s been provided for their choice in the way they’d like their students to engage. It’s the students and the teachers that are engaging, and we need to keep at that relationship, and separate comments by parents would be appreciated by the teachers outside the instructional point, I think, because truly everyone has the best interest of everyone in mind.” She said exhaling and breathing would help.
Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt pledged continuing open minds. “It’s not always what we’re sharing out, but the other part of that is how we’re listening or digesting. And we’re not ion the defensive mode. We’re always on the offensive mode to make something better for all of our stakeholders and all of our faculty and staff,” she said, though at no point let on what she thought of the Friday “enrichment” plan, namely because she had a broader summary of the district’s work in the past few weeks in mind. She reverted to metaphors of her own: “We are still walking up that mountain and we’re walking up that mountain together.”
Mittelstadt noted of teachers and employees: “It’s a two-way dialogue here, and we are listening and we want to meet their needs. So as you hear through your social media, though your emails, through your phone calls, through walking our community, I appreciate your support, and just reverse those folks back to us, because we’re the ones that are boots on the ground trying to make all our learning models be successful for all our students.”
The superintendent toward the end of the meeting again acknowledged the teachers’ concerns, saying the blended approach was “yeoman’s work, it’s a very big lift,” before deferring to Diane Dyer, the director of curriculum, who spoke of the teachers’ proposal directly. She said the administration has been soliciting faculty concerns and ideas to come up with solutions. Some ideas include setting up help desks for students having trouble with Zoom, so a class isn’t affected by one student’s issues. Another administrator spoke of the sharing of solutions from one school to the next as one way to maximize problem-solving. But the district hasn’t conducted a more systematic survey to learn where the recurring problems are. “We are listening and we are trying,” another district employee said.
“I’ve never heard this level of concern from teachers, from all grade levels,” Conklin said. “While it’s new, is it the best model moving forward.” She said she was worried about teachers and the sustainability of the current approach.
“Everyone is struggling with remote-live” across the state, Mittelstadt said, noting two factors that must be protected: the number of minutes students are teaching, and the quality of the teaching. The current plan is still being re-worked, as long as it respects the time.
The one thing none of the board members or administrators who discussed the teachers’ proposal did not address was the central plank of the proposal: the altered “enrichment” Friday.
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Percy's mother says
Look. I’m so bloody sick and tired of teachers moaning and bemoaning their supposed predicaments.
Healthcare workers have been on the front lines and have been and will continue to report for work. Ditto for personnel in grocery stores. Ditto for personnel in assisted living facilities. Ditto for personnel in any other congregate care facility. AND none of the aforementioned have a union behind them.
Teachers in general get a hell of a deal with pensions (which hardly any other profession gets), they get loads and loads of time off for summers and holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) and they STILL continue to complain. AND they get paid very well for the small amount of education they actually have to get just to teach.
If you don’t like your lot, then find something else to do to make a living. Go and work in the thankless realm of healthcare and see how long you all last there.
Absolutely sick and tired of the crying and wringing of hands from this particular profession.
Steven says
The thing is the jobs of nurses and doctors never changed.
With teachers they are now required to teach 2 different sets of students, in two different environments at the same time. It would be like a nurse tending to a patient right in front of them in a hospital bed and then taking care of someone at home using a computer at the exact same time. It’s not the same thing and eventually one does not get the same attention as the other. Now think about a classroom of 20 kids and then 8 more on a computer.
Hopefully this helps you understand that it’s just not that simple as do your job, and the thing is teachers want to do their jobs. They want to do what is best for their students, but it’s hard to do what is best for each student when they are being pulled in several directions at the same time.
As far as plenty of time off, you clearly have never been a teacher or know that their job entails.
I arrive at work at 7 everyday, and I usually don’t leave until at least 4. My 30 minutes I get for lunch are often spent answering emails, preparing for my other classes, or talking to other faculty about issues that need to be addressed. After I leave I often spend time planning, grading, or calling parents to let them know how their child is doing. Don’t get me started on the hours I put in on weekends as well. When you have to give individual feedback to 130 or so kids for each of the assignments, or assessments they take the time adds up.
I would love to know what you consider what you consider the small amount of education they actually have to teach. Please explain to me what you mean by that.
I don’t mind the time I spend doing my job because I love my job. I want to do what’s best for my students and see them succeed to their highest potential. Most teachers also take time over the summer for professional development, or working on the curriculum for the following year. Most educators are like a parental figure to at least one if not many kids a year. We go to sporting events, school functions, plays and concerts because we love our students.
Ronnie says
Please remember that teachers do not get paid for the summer. This is a big misconception. The pay teachers receive over the summer is their money. Money that they already earned that is held back everypaycheck all year and then given to them over the summer. Many other professions may have had to work as they did before COVID but their patients did not receive less care. Teachers are being so stretched that many kids will not get what they need. I suggest hiring more teacher- problem is that this years budget did not plan for this thus can not afford to. It would be great if people did a bit of research before they made unfounded comments.
Gary R says
@ Ronnie – “I suggest hiring more teacher- problem is that this years budget did not plan for this thus can not afford to”. Why are there 52 openings on flaglerschools.com? https://flaglerskyward.nefec.org:444/scripts/wsisa.dll/WService=wsFin/rapplmnu03.w
Ronnie says
@ Gary R Those are not all new positions, most are positions that people left and were not yet refilled. These salaries were already budgeted for with the the exception of a few. I agree, they need to find the money and get more teachers.
Hmmm says
Very well put. Bless our educators.
Linda Morgan says
I agree! I am a grandmother of 4 students that do remote schooling at my home. Two in 5th grade doing work for Bunnell Elementary, one in seventh grade at Buddy Taylor Middle school and one soph0more doing advance and pre IB at FPCHS. I hear what goes one in a typical day of mixed “remote” and “at school” classrooms. The teachers have to repeat themselves over and over to make sure that both groups hear and understand, while addressing disruptive kids in the class room as well. I admire their attempts to reach their unrealistic goals. This is unattainable, but it’s not the teachers or administrators fault. We are in a time of Trial and Error. There is no silver bullet for the Covid-19 times. Give them a chance to get it right. I wouldn’t want their job. One last thing, every student is getting a FREE i-pad. Guess what? Volusia county doesn’t give their students i-pads. Give them credit for what they do get right and unless you a have a crystal ball, try to not pretend we have all the answers.
Robert says
There won’t be anyone to teach anymore if teachers who dislike this issue leave. There is already a teacher shortage. No one else is willing to do this work.
A Teacher says
Percy’s mother,
Since you know so much about teaching, perhaps you’d consider subbing. I’ve been on Family Medical Leave since the beginning of the school year and will be out until the end of October. I do not have a sub yet, and my building alone is seven subs short this Friday. We’d love for you to come show us how easy our job is…
Derrick Redder says
Boom
Mike drop
Green says
Hey Mom, just a little FYI – teachers pay into their own pension plans. Go look it up, and continue thinking we have it Oh SOOoo good. Try doing my job. I’d pay to see you, or anyone else who thinks I have it ohhh soo good… to run from what I do on the daily. Stop thinking the grass is greener on the other side. It’s only greener where you water it. Sick.
JD says
You spew some completely asinine garbage on FL all the time, but this one tops the list. You obviously have no clue what goes on in schools. I feel sorry for Percy. He must be a real doll with a mother that spouts off about things she has no right to speak of, or has any education on. Go volunteer at a school and see what really goes on (when that time comes… assuming it eventually does). Teachers want to be at school doing what they were educated to do. They’re probably more of a mother or father to most students than you are to your own child. Sort yourself out before you attack people that do more than you know for the children in our commiunity.
Jeff Sica says
Really? REALLY?!?!?!? Is this woman (Percy’s mother) actually allowed to drive? Or be around sharp objects? Wait, I think I just figured it out……..Percy’s mother is actually Betsy DeVos! Poor, poor Percy….
Agkistrodon says
I guess everyone e else who has had to work through this pandemic just need to suck it up right. Imagine if waste removal workers carried on like teachers…….
Ronnie says
Did the amount of trash that waste removal workers increase? Were they asked to use their own trucks? Are they being asked to also flip burgers or paint houses at the same time? Will a whole generation of students suffer in their educational foundation?
Agkistrodon says
Yes during the lockdown trash levels did increase. Facts trump feelings. And everything THEY come in contact with has been touched by others…..
Ronnie says
Yes, they worked more hours and were paid for every hour they worked. Teachers do not make overtime.
Blown away says
After hurricanes, they typically do. Just FYI.
Ronnie says
@Blown away- Yes, they get paid overtime too and it is the same job.
Ronnie says
@Blown away. These workers get overtime. They do not purchase supplies for their job. When they finally do get home, they are not grading assignments, emailing students & parents or making lesson plans. They are done for the day. Teachers do not get overtime and most continue to work after contract hours and use their own money for supplies.
Ronnie says
Teachers do not get overtime $$$$$$ EVER. The holidays that you mentioned Yhaksgiving, Christmas and New Years are federal holiday- most people get holiday pay and if they do have to work there is time and half or someother form of compensation. Do not annnounce that teachers get paid for those holidays lke it is a perk just for them.
Marie says
Mittelstadt should spend less time seeking clever metaphors and more time acting as a leader and creating consistent messaging and solutions.
She is quite a letdown but but everyone is cut out to be a chief. (Metaphor)
Jimbo99 says
Typical nonsense of any bureaucracy. They’ve actually found a way to make K-12 Education impossible. It’s one thing to do it for colleges & universities where students have already gotten thru K-12, assumed to be functionally literate and demonstrated they are at a certain level with SAT scores. Compensation still sucks too and now the lesson plan has to be digitized, so they can eliminate teachers somehow with automation of education.
Jimbo99 says
And it’s always been a problem, the children that simply are late to class & those that don’t show up at all, Dog ate their homework or whatever else you can think of. There are going to be kids who want to go outside and play basketball or whatever else at home rather than login & logout of their courses. All of those problems of on-site school don’t disappear because of virtual education. Trust me on this, I pretty much had perfect attendance throughout K-12. We saw the schools had to reopen because of safety & concerns that children had no day care of adult supervision.
MRC says
I applaud the teachers for standing up and trying to take leadership because the school board and administrators sure aren’t stepping up to the plate. Another solution is just to hire some teachers whose job is to only do distance learning. It is totally unreasonable to expect teachers to conduct both in class and remote learning students at the same time and also attempt to deal with technical issues with the internet, etc. That robs students of instructional time while teachers attempt to reconnect with students who are experiencing techical problems with their internet connection and in meantime the rest of the students are sitting there getting bored and distracted. It is hard enough keeping students engaged without adding this in the mix. And now you have parents attacking and bullying them remotely also???? The teachers and the students don’t deserve this type of unsustainable model. The school district clearly didn’t do due diligence by designing a system that works for all students. And now the teachers are placed in the position of coming up with some type of soluton for this broken system. Note the lack of administrators taking leadership and banding together with the teachers to support alternative options. Does anyone care at the upper level of management beginning with our poor excuse for a governor on down? No, all they care about is getting those kids back in school, regardless of the consequences. The end result is bound to be disastrous. The current model is just not sustainable. Take some leadership administrators and school board!!! That is what we hired you for!!!
Dennis says
Crazy thought. Just do your job like the nurses and doctors did. Quit the crying.
MRC says
You obviously have never been a teacher, so you have NO idea of the demands and workload that are placed on teachers. I am a retired educator and I can assure you that I worked at least 60+ hours per week, under normal circumstances. But with the current circumstances that teachers now have to deal with, they are additionally thrown another layer of problems by having to deal with constant technology problems, make sure students are on-line and doing their assignments, etc. is just not sustainable. And then there are those of you who are negative and verbally attack??!! Do you have someone sitting there yelling at you and criticizing everything you are trying to do when at work? I doubt it. Your comments are baseless and demeaning. Unless you have been in this situation, you have no clue!
Steve says
The thing is the jobs of nurses and doctors never changed.
With teachers they are now required to teach 2 different sets of students, in two different environments at the same time. It would be like a nurse tending to a patient right in front of them in a hospital bed and then taking care of someone at home using a computer at the exact same time. It’s not the same thing and eventually one does not get the same attention as the other. Now think about a classroom of 20 kids and then 8 more on a computer.
Hopefully this helps you understand that it’s just not that simple as do your job, and the thing is teachers want to do their jobs. They want to do what is best for their students, but it’s hard to do what is best for each student when they are being pulled in several directions at the same time.
Shoes says
Walk in my shoes Dennis, go ahead. I’d pay to see you do it – to do my job like I do. Good luck dude!
Winston says
Are teachers covering remote classes and in house classes at the same time? Kind of 2 jobs for the pay of one. And how do they do that, stick a camera in the middle of a room. Not very engaging, I would think.
And if enrollment is so low, have there been any changes to the number of members in the administration/leadership numbers. Three administrators, 1 Dean, 1 Behavior Teacher, and 2 coaches sounds like a lot of top dollars going out for people not in the classroom.
Ld says
Camera in classroom. Those who want to learn will appreciate the opportunity in either home or at school. In some countries instruction is broadcast on TV for students to watch from home due to lack of Internet. I actually had a math class at University of Maryland which was on TV in the classroom and office hours with instructor posted on bulletin board. It wasn’t preferable because there was no way to listen again to material if you missed a point and the instructor office hours were not a time I was free. Yes, it was a time before computers but my guess is they were cost savings measures to reach many students. Teachers and students must learn the important lesson of changing how education happens during extreme unexpected circumstances.
G Lee says
You really think working in these conditions for $40,000/year is worth it? What a joke. Pay teachers what they are worth! And for those saying teachers get all this time off, they don’t. They are working/planning during Holidays and Summers.
Mrs. Doubtwater says
Hire more teachers to come in and take care of the “on-line” part of it. …….There, problem solved. Oh Yea, pay the extra teachers from the salary’s of USELESS COUNTY POLITICIANS !
Derrick Redder says
If teachers have to try and explain or justify “thier chosen” career then that says all we need to know.
I understand that there’s now two seperate types of education. In person or on line. So what’s the left thinker come up with?
Hire more teachers of course!.
How about laying off those that don’t want to come to school. Then rehiring those same ones that can actually teach via on line as part time workers.
Think of the savings, then stop all the extra curricular stuff and get rid of the no longer needed personal starting from the top down until Nov. 4, when this will be over.
The FCSB needs to consolidate and cut waste. Not incur extra costs at the Taxpayers expense.
Jason says
I agree with the teachers , blending learning is a mess system, I’ve seen it first hand
One day a week to make sure both classes are on same page to finish out week , seems smart
Teachers aren’t paid enough and they are all cracking, it’s sad
John the Baptist says
I read the postings and see there are many who think the teachers are overpaid and moaning about their schedules this year. Those anal openings that are critical of the teacher’s plight show their overabundance of ignorance about the teaching profession and need to get a grip. So, let’s look at a high school teacher assigned to 5 classes. Further, let’s say each class has 20-25 students each. During each period of class, homework must be collected and the lesson plan for that class must be followed with instructional material. Perhaps a quiz is given or a test is administered. All this paperwork has to be graded in a timely manner. It is not going to be graded in school by the fairy godmother! This is homework for the teacher. Oh, let’s not forget about providing after school help students who honestly need the extra help. And, how can we forget about those handfuls of students that are constantly being disruptive in class? Dealing with those darlings takes time away from instruction.
Now, teachers also have to deal with a handful of students through virtual learning. Classwork must be formated for these students to maintain parity with the face to face classes. By the way, don’t expect support from that poor excuse of a school board. School board members, for the most part, are not qualified teachers. They are loathsome politicians who deem themselves as experts in the field of education! Unfortunately, when they open their mouths, they expel nothing but feces!
Teacher too says
10 years teaching and making $40k. Disgraceful, I have to deal with disrespectful teenagers that are entitled just like Percy. Not all but what most students want to do is look at TikTok, Twitter, instagram, YouTube, text their friends and play games on the laptops given to them by the county. Anytime any of you critics want to teach for a day I welcome you.
Agkistrodon says
You teachers, your union, your social engineering is what have made schools the places that they are. There was a time when unruly students were expelled, but some, mostly the left, seen that as “too harsh”. You got what you wanted, and now you complain it “tastes bad”. When those in charge relinquish their “charge” to the students, that is what happens.
Lucidota says
Teachers? Unions? Wow you really need to point blame, don’t you? Like an angry venomous pit viper (you’ve named yourself after that?), you just wana be on the attack – to point blame. Unfortunately, it is clear that you’ve never heard of FAPE, or IDEA, you just need to point blame. I have an idea, go look them up. The grass is only greener where you water it Mr. Viper. I’ve enLIGHTened you, so I’ve named myself after… (look that up as well).