All Things Not Being Equal

This week I have learned some very interesting things. I learned that the Jefferson County Department of Education is more than $2 million dollars richer than anyone, maybe even them, thought that they would be. Of course, this is good news for the DOE and I am glad that the situation is not as dire as they have painted it recently. $2 million dollars is a pretty soft cushion but I expect that it will not take long for the money to start to drift away. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that the government is not in the business of acquiring tax payer money and not using that money for the needs of the people. But, it would be nice to see a little planning go into the spending of the money.

The Jefferson County Commission has requested, for several months, that the School Board come up with some type of Capital Project Plan that does not come with a $29 million dollar price tag attached. They also want the DOE to approve their plan of divvying up the left overs from the various building projects and an on going law suit. The County Commission wants the DOE to take the proceeds from the law suit and turn over the extra building funds to the County. They, the County Commission, have deemed that they will not release any of the left over funds (that require their approval) until a Capital Project Plan is submitted, citing a once bitten twice shy reasoning. Some Commissioners have grown weary of the “ emergency” needs of the DOE and want a clear picture of what is coming down the road. They feel that holding up the release of funds is their best bet in getting some sort of list of needs. So far, their plan isn’t working very well. Some would call it stalling. I don’t know if I am ready to go that far but there does seem to be a decided lack of interest in providing what has been requested. Just who that lack of interest can be attributed to is a matter of debate but, let’s face it. It is relatively simple to come up with a basic project list. After all, there are apparently $29 million dollars worth of needs to choose from. The County Commission didn’t even ask for the funding source of the project list, they just want some realistic idea of what is on the horizon.

But, what absolutely baffles me is that so much time and effort is put into getting together a project list and absolutely no time, apparently, was put into the differentiated pay plan for teachers. That little gem we pilfered from Maury County and, with its passage, we did a real disservice to our teachers. According to “our” plan, the money that was given to the DOE by the State of Tennessee- the money designated to reward teachers, has some ugly caveats that even our School Board was not aware of. Though teachers, through their contract, get ten paid sick leave days a year a teacher will not receive their differentiated pay if they miss more than nine school days. So, a level five, highly accomplished educator will not receive their differential pay if they take their earned sick days. If they get sick enough for family leave, which is a really extended period of time away, then it doesn’t count. But if they get the flu or shingles or two stomach viruses and a cold, they are out of luck. How does that make any sense? Certainly teachers need to be in the classroom but sometimes life happens. That is what sick days are for. Imagine any other industry that penalized their employees for using earned sick time-and the party line from the Central Office was that this is bonus money. So a marginal teacher that only misses eight days gets his/her “bonus” but a great teacher who needs to take all earned sick leave days gets left out? Who designed this plan? Oh yeah. Maury County. Apparently we couldn’t be bothered to develop our own and apparently most of us didn’t read it thoroughly.

I have a suggestion. Before we tackle spending one dime of the surprise $2 million dollars, let’s fix the differentiated pay. And the next time we decide to cut corners and pilfer a plan from another County, let’s do a couple of things. First, let’s read the fine print and second, let’s choose a school system that is not ranked below Jefferson County. It is hard to aspire to greatness or even mediocrity, if you are always reaching down.