Posted on 07/14/2012 2:58:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
When computer science teacher Mike Van Dyk returns to Coral Gables Senior High School in the fall, he will leave the drama of summer behind.
...Surplussed in early June from his position in the school’s Academy of Business, Management and Information Technology, Van Dyk, 61, was reinstated early last week.
....“I was ecstatic when I found out Mr. Van Dyk would be staying. And I found out on my birthday making it my best birthday ever,” said student Julian Mitat, 16.
[SNIP]
Last year alone, Van Dyk’s students won first place in the Florida International University Programming Competition; and first place at the University of Florida Programming Competition. At the Future Business Leaders of America District Competition, the school took first place awards in Network Design, Data Base Design, Desktop Application Programming and Intro to Technology Concepts.
At a meeting with parents in mid-June, Principal Adolfo Costa explained that his decision was based on numbers. Enrollment for the academy, including some classes taught by Van Dyk, had been decreasing over the last few years, he said.
“There are not enough students. It’s not financially sound ... I had to look at it and say we have to cut,” Costa said at the time.
Parents were not convinced nor did they know at the time that Costa had hired a head basketball coach and special education teacher — not certified in computer technology — to lead the academy.
[SNIP]
Parent Silvana Castaneda said that while students and parents are thrilled about getting their teacher back, she hopes the teens also learned a valuable life lesson.
“All things are possible if you take action. If you are right about something ... you have to take action,” Castaneda said.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Quite the story.....this reminds me of the America I knew when growing up.
One consequence of the way teachers are compensated is that longevity of employment usually means a higher salary. And that means higher pressure on the board or the principal to find a way to get rid of the teacher.
As to coaches teaching special ed., I will NEVER get over this: My kid had a kind of destructive infantile epilepsy which left her with an amazing combination of abilities and disabilities. For example:Her vocabulary and delight in language always tested super high, while diagrams of any kind baffled her.
So she was in special ed math. On parent night - 4 weeks or more into the term, I dutifully showed up and made the rounds. Her math teacher had not even opened her file to read her history. He excused himself by saying he was the varsity football coach and had been very busy. A few years later his team had an undefeated year.
Since then I have suspected that high schools sometimes (often?) just give up on the special ed kids and give the appearance of "serving" them while in fact warehousing them with athletic coaches as their guards -- so that the coach can concentrate on more important matters than, um, education.
I thought this was more common in private schools, where the teachers needed supplemental income (because they only worked 180 days per year, from 8 to 3, and were paid accordingly); I didn’t know this was done in public schools. I see your point, though; that is disgraceful. To be honest, I think most parents going to the conference that night were dealing with the same attitude and lack of preparedness; contrary to the unverifiable assertions mad by public school teachers, they DON’T bring work home.
Yes! A great teacher too!
For the modern reader it is called merit. Kill government schooling and let merit lead the way. Parents themselves will police the market.
My wife is an elementary school teacher, and basically I say good-bye to her in late August and get to talk to her again the middle of the following June.
Bless your wife for her wonderful work.
football and “baskaball” are DEATH for American schools. Worship of dim-bulbs...
The Principal, Adolfo Costa, will be out to get him. And 'Mr' Adolfo Costa's sycophants will be out to get him. Mr. Van Dyk's one time 'friends' will be leery of even talking to him or they'll be the next target for Adolfo Costa's vengeance. Like poor performance reports for all concerned with Mr. Van Dyk, and that is a death sentence for a teacher looking for his next job.
So now the school will be divided and the atmosphere will be poison(1). As a result the students performance will suffer and not only in Mr. Van Dyk classes as they'll get caught up in the loyalty thing too -- The kids are always collateral damage in these Loyalty wars (It's similar to a Mafia War, but with a lower body count).
The fact is all Teacher Union Members are not equal or 'Brothers In Arms'. My *guess* is that the sycophants are teachers who shouldn't teach in the first place and will do anything to keep their jobs. And just may be of a (cough) similar heritage of Principal, Adolfo Costa. As to the Union in general they'll take the side of anyone involved who is a 'protected minority' and by the Prinical's name he sounds like one. And too bad for Mr. Van Dyk, but by his name he's a member of the Oppressor Class, and so it's Union Membership be damned.
(1) Waaaaaaay back in my Sophomore year of 9-63 to 6-64 I went through one of these fricken Wars. All because the school hired a HOT, and I mean H-O-T English Teacher, she was 'Miss Chicago of 1962'. The 'It Girls' were jealous as hell and made all kinds of BS accusations against her to get her fired. The whole school was distracted by this baloney -- especially us guys who had her as an English Teacher -- Hubba-Hubba! (LOL)
[when she sat on the front of her desk with her legs crossed we'd almost faint. Did I mention H-O-T! ;-)]
Why do you say this? Is this your experience? Most teachers I know bring home homework.
He was surplussed. Doesn’t that sound efficient.
He made the rest look bad.
The class was probably “hard.”
So out with quality (1 who educated his students, positioned them to win and inspired excellence) - to be replaced with 2 totally unqualified “leaders” to dumb it all down and be more “inclusive.”
Yes, I personally know a group of public school teachers (they teach in 3 different urban districts in north Jersey), and they don’t bring ANYTHING home. Obviously, they are already tenured, so they don’t have to.
I had a relative that did bring a lot of work home; she was thrity years older than the group in question, and when she retired she was probably the last one in her school that had been doing it.
The nonsense that they stay after 3 is a lie, too; I work close to a school, and the parking frees up considerably at 3:05.
Lack of competition, along with tenure, brought all this about; it has chased many American taxpayers out of NJ, leaving whole pockets of municipalities that haven’t paid for their local services in decades. When “state aid” dried up (read: other peoples’ taxes), you saw the mass layoffs on those welfare reservations of cops, untenured teachers, and firemen starting a couple of years ago. They continue annually because the teachers’ unions still get nice raises despite our 2% property tax cap - that just drops more cops & firemen.
Interesting, I know several teachers in South Florida, all of them bring work home, and they all stay after the kids leave for at least an hour. Perhaps it is a regional thing. On the other hand, perhaps it was the TYPE of person, these teachers are all fairly conservative, no nonsense types...
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