Differentiated Pay Scale--Just One of Many Possible Ideas...

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As I posted earlier this month, I think a creative way to keep experienced veteran teachers in the inner-city classrooms (keeping more from migrating to the less challenging suburban schools) would be to establish a differentiated pay scale.  Such a plan would compensate teachers in tough environments with significant, recurring, and cumulative bonus payments yearly that would correspond with their years teaching in high-poverty schools.  The ones illustrated above, which I developed recently, utilize the existing negotiated pay scale for 2011-2012 as a basis.  (I will present this model to the school board and superintendent at this week's open discussion meeting, to see if such an idea would have any support here in Escambia County.)  

These potential scales consist of two tracks, one for Suburban Schools and One for High Poverty Schools.  High poverty schools, for purposes of this one model of a differentiated pay scale shown above, would consist of the 20% of district schools with the highest percentages of populations eligible for free lunch.  Suburban schools would consist of all the rest of the schools in the district.  This first scale is revenue neutral, meaning the pay is assigned utilizing only the monies currently available;  (The subsequent scale is non-revenue neutral) Each year a teacher stays in a tough to staff, high poverty school, that teacher would receive a corresponding bonus equal to the current bonus plus the amounts for the previous steps at which such a teacher worked at high poverty schools.  Conceivably, a teacher who spent their entire career in high poverty schools and reached step 26 on such a scale would be earning $10,000.00 more yearly than their counterparts at suburban 


schools.  If a teacher transferred from a high poverty school into a suburban school, that teacher would lose the corresponding bonuses from the high poverty scale and revert to the suburban schools scale.  Conversely, if a suburban school teacher transferred in to a high poverty school later in his/her career, the bonus amounts earned would start from the bottom of the step scale for high poverty supplements-meaning, for example, that an experienced, veteran teacher who never worked at any high poverty schools their entire career, if such a person at step 20 on the suburban schools track transferred into a high poverty school, that teacher would receive a bonus of $350 for a total compensation of $44,666.48. In a nutshell, someone could not game the system by spending their entire career at a suburban school then moving into a high poverty school near the end of their career with the intention of maxing out their pay.  This would not be allowed to happen.

Obviously such a plan would be a radical departure from our current district pay scale, and such a plan would need to be agreed upon by the entire School Board as a body, as well as the Superintendent. Such a plan would then require negotiations with the teacher's union.  Additionally, if such a scale were to be implemented it would be for new hires and subsequent employees;  Currently employed personnel would be grandfathered and would continue to work under the previously bargained pay scale--unless the legislature mandated otherwise (as the case may be with respect to performance pay scales mandated under SB736.)

Numerous studies have looked into the efficacy of  paying bonuses or higher salaries to maintain experienced teachers in high poverty schools. One such study in  in North Carolina, where a stipend of $1,800 dollars per year was given for experienced teachers to stay in the inner-city schools, showed success by cutting turnover in half in inner city schools.  Other studies point to similar successes, however implementation on a large scale basis has not occurred in public schools in the United States.

Timing could be ripe for such a bold idea to emerge locally, and perhaps the newly mandated requirement for "performance pay" could be molded into or adapted to work within the pay scale illustrated above, essentially solving two issues at once?

Drug Policy Results From 2011-2012 Released

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In all the hoopla over differential pay and bonuses discussed during this past week's series of meetings and in the press and on social media, an important issue, almost overlooked, was brought back before the board on Thursday.

The 2011-2012 school year in Escambia County marked the first full year of implementing a comprehensive plan to reduce drugs at school that the school board formulated and requested be implemented back in May, 2010.  (Although calls for such a plan had been made for years prior to this May, 2010 meeting to combat rising drug expulsions)

In addition to an awareness  component that is essentially a student-driven "say no to drugs" ad campaign,  drug testing of selected students, a tip line, drug dog searches, and counseling services comprise the main components of the plan.
In the last school year, 400 revolving searches by canines were completed at schools that were randomly selected, but that included multiple visits to all middle and high schools.  Of these searches, canines alerted in 50 instances, which lead to the seizure of....



9 items of contraband.  Also in this last year, a pool of students, all students who participate in extracurricular activities, was established from which a percentage, chosen at random, would undergo drug testing.  Of the samples, 97% of those tested were clean, with no illegal substances in their system.  2.4% tested positive and went through the counseling and other steps necessary to return to their sport/activity.  .3% moved out of the district before they could be tested, and .3% refused to take the drug test.

No figures were given on the data from the student tip line, most likely due to the fact that the tip line is run by the sheriff's office.

No specific data on the counseling of students was given, in order to protect student privacy.

One interesting fact was shared, though;  The very first athlete pulled for testing came back positive.  Apparently, once this individual student was removed from athletic competition--this information moved through the student bodies of ALL schools via social media, and ALL students got the message that this was for real and real consequences were coming.  I believe that incidents like this led to students having a buffer against drug use and a stronger case for saying "no"

...And our drug related expulsions keep going down--which is the ultimate goal of this plan which is working!

Lowering the Bar for "Some" Students, Keeping it High for "Others"??

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I certainly hope the recent bar-lowering in Washington, DC, does not become the new normal.  It actually turns my stomach, and how can we expect less from some and proclaim this will produce higher achievement?  The geniuses that developed this "plan" should be immediately quarantined so their idocy spreads no further, then they should be fired from their positions.  Talk about a GIANT step backwards.....

 from the Washington Post:

"Setting different aspirations for different groups of children represents a sea change in national education policy, which for years has prescribed blanket goals for all students. Some education experts see the new approach as a way to speed achievement for black, Latino and low-income students, but some parents can’t help but feel that less is being expected of their children.
“It’s disgraceful,” said Alicia Rucker, a Ward 7 resident and single mother of six, one of whom graduated from Georgetown University and five of whom are still living at home and enrolled in D.C. public schools. “It’s ridiculous to even believe that if you expect less from someone, you’re going to get more.”

If you can hold your food down while reading this garbage, the article is here

I've spoken out forcefully before about bar lowering, which serves no good purpose other than to make failed policymakers feel better about themselves so they can declare "success".

Escambia School Board Wins HUGE Victory in Federal Court

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The plaintiff alleged that her employer, the School Board of Escambia County,  had committed retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1946, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2000e-17.

This case caused tremendous consternation to the entire district, and has cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, and has dragged on for more than  two years.

On Tuesday, the Judge granted the School Board's second motion for summary judgement.  from the order

"Broughton's position throughout this case has been that her son was harassed by teachers and other students and that he did not deserve being blamed for things that happened.  All of her conclusions about whether and how B.B. was harassed come from what B.B. told her, which is inadmissible hearsay."



and finally
"....Broughton has not come forward with admissible evidence raising a genuine issue of material fact whether the removal was causally connected to the protected activity.  Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED:

1.  The defendant School Board's objections to portions of the affidavits of Craig Broughton, Thelma Roby, Karen Broughton, and Jerome Watson (doc. 98) are SUSTAINED.
2.  The defendant School Board's second motion for summary judgment (doc. 84) is GRANTED.
3.  The Clerk shall enter final judgment in favor of defendant School Board and against plaintiff, Karen Broughton.

DONE AND ORDERED this 25th day of September, 2012"


Read Judge M. Casey Rodgers Order here

...Of Course the Union and their Left-Leaning Media Counterparts Will HATE this Movie....

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The new movie "Won't Back Down" hits theaters this weekend.  Predictably, the film is getting very negative reviews.  I love great movies and I intend to see this one, but I'll admit I'm not expecting much from this film and I'm not a big fan of Maggie Gyllenhaal (although she was interesting in "Crazy Heart" and "Sherry Baby".)

But it's not about whether this film is any good or not--it's about whether or not the film has the legs to get America talking about the NUMEROUS dysfunctional problems in our public schools today.  I hope it does. I remember hoping that the Florida parent trigger bill would pass, only to watch the Republican Senate fall apart and let it die via a 20-20 tie--giving the status-quo, unions, and liberal education obstructionists a victory-essentially punting on the issue. (to the detriment of thousands of students in Florida stuck in failing schools.)

Already the unions nationally are sponsoring the picketing of theaters that are showing this movie, which isn't surprising and ought to be telling.  They did not   think much of 2010's "Waiting for Superman" either-although that film spotlighted some very troubling issues in American public education that continue to persist.

From an article in Reuters yesterday evening:

"Parent groups that support teachers' unions have organized protests outside some screenings. And they've been gleefully posting negative reviews of "Won't Back Down" on Facebook and Twitter....Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has called it "egregiously misleading.."

  Unions can spin it any way they want:  Bottom line---- they fear a watering down of their influence as charters and choice spread throughout our nation.  Charter schools are not beholden to unions and their restrictive labor contracts that put adults before kids.  Therefore, unions unite to fight against school choice and conscript well-meaning but oftentimes naive parent groups to assist them-- even though the unions themselves know that their roadblocking efforts mean many students will be trapped in failing schools.  They don't care, though; just keep the taxpayer money flowing and the more the better, is their mantra.  Their priority is themselves, this has been proven and even stated by these unions and their representatives.  I put KIDS and TAXPAYERS first, not special interest, left leaning political activist labor unions!   That's why I love my job, I want to be on the front lines of reform, because things must change! ....and movies like "Won't Back Down" might just be the lightning rods to achieve these changes!

Obama’s Judges Are Confirmed More Than Three Times Slower Than Reagan’s Judges

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Over at Slate, Doug Kendall breaks down just how badly President Obama’s judicial nominees have been treated due to filibusters led by one or more Senate Republicans. “The average confirmation time for uncontroversial circuit court nominees rose from 64.5 days under Reagan to 227.3 days under Obama. . . . Similarly, the average waiting time for uncontroversial district court nominees increased from 69.9 days under Reagan to 204.8 days under President Obama. And the number of district court nominees who wait more than 200 days has doubled from George W.’s time to Obama’s.” Kendall uses the Congressional Research Service’s definition of an uncontroversial nominee to reach these numbers, which is a nominee who receives “little or no opposition when votes are actually cast in the Senate Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor.”

While the rate of judicial confirmations declined steadily since the Reagan Administration, President Obama’s judges have still been singled out for significantly worse treatment than any of his recent predecessors:

Tehrangeles: How Iranians made part of LA their own

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Google maps recently recognised "Tehrangeles" as a neighborhood of central Los Angeles. How did this upmarket part of LA become home to the largest community of Iranians outside Iran?

"We're on the map, I mean why shouldn't we be on the map?" says a girl at a hip Los Angeles cafe where young Iranians hang out.

"There's Koreatown, and Chinatown. Why shouldn't we have an area?"

Now they do.

Estimates show anywhere from 300,000 to over half a million Iranians in Southern California, with many living in Tehrangeles.

"Do not engage in any Iranian gossiping if you're not prepared to defend it," says Mahdis Keshavarz, who runs an LA PR agency. "Because everyone here speaks Farsi.

"They settled in LA because so much of it reminds them of Iran - the landscape, the car culture, the mountains” 

Dr Reza Aslan 

California University

"The first time I came to LA as a student I was on campus and I heard Persian and I turned with that knee-jerk reaction, of 'Wow, cool, another Iranian,'" says Amy Malek, a PhD graduate at UCLA, who studies the Iranian diaspora.

"And the girl looked me up and down as if to say, 'Why are you staring at me, what's the big deal?'

"And that's when I realized, OK, you've got a lot of Iranians here."

The largest concentration of Iranians is around Westwood Boulevard, where most of the shop signs are in Persian and most of the voices you hear are speaking Farsi.


It is adjacent to the affluent Beverly Hills district where 22% of the population is of Iranian descent, and where Iranian "Jimmy" Jamshid Delshad was mayor in 2007 and 2010.

With almost 40% of the students at the renowned Beverly Hills High School said to be Iranian, studies show that Iranians are one of the best-educated immigrant groups in the US, and they are flourishing as entrepreneurs.

Tehrangeles facts

• Also known as Little Persia
• Located between Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles
• Centred on the Westwood neighbourhood
• A fifth of the population of Beverly Hills is of Iranian descent

Entrepreneurs, for example, like Farhad Mohit, who set up comparison-shopping website bizrate.com while he was still in business school and later sold it for millions of dollars.

Online giant e-Bay was founded by an Iranian and the current YouTube CEO is also Iranian.

In fact, plenty of non-Iranian residents of LA are signing up for Farsi lessons to make themselves attractive as potential employees to Iranian businessmen.

The first immigrants arrived in LA as students in the 1960s and prospered in the early 1970s, but the biggest wave came as people fled from the 1979 revolution which overthrew the Shah and ushered in an Islamic Republic.

Many never expected to stay long.

"We had a saying in our community, don't unpack your suitcase, we thought any day things would change and we would go back," says writer and broadcaster Homa Sarshar.

"But it's been 32 years and we are still here."

Many more followed to join families, to escape the Iran-Iraq war of the early 1980s, or simply in search of better opportunities.

If you say, 'I'm Iranian,' people think you're enriching uranium in your garage!” 

Sara 

Second-generation Iranian

The climate was also a factor.

"They settled in LA because so much of it reminds them of Iran - the landscape, the car culture, the mountains," says Dr Reza Aslan of California University.

But it has not all been plain sailing.

Iran-US relations sharply deteriorated in 1979, when 52 American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, and this had implications for Iranians newly arrived in LA.

"We would be playing on the drive way and neighbors would drive up to scare us and then drive away," says Sara, a child of Iranian immigrants.

Farhad Mohit, who arrived at the height of the hostage crisis, was called names at school.

Demonstrations by Americans against Iranians telling them to go back home were common.

"It wasn't a great time to be an Iranian, so when I went to university I changed my name to Fred," he says.

Iranians in the US have struggled to shake off the terrorist-fanatic image ever since.

"As a result of the prejudice Iranians would say they are Italian or Greek," says Amy Malek.

"Or they would refer to themselves as Persian rather than Iranian, as the identity that comes to mind with Persia is cats and rugs, but with Iran, the images are all negative."

"It's like if you say you're Persian, you're more cultured or posh," says Sara.

"But if you say, 'I'm Iranian,' people think you're enriching uranium in your garage!"

Every time new tensions arise between the two governments, the community fears the return of old prejudices.

"Americans are good people, they are just very uncomfortable with what they don't understand," says one young Iranian American who came to the US in the 1980s.

"You always realize that when you get out of California, but LA is like our safe haven."

But a generation on from the turmoil of 1979, most Tehrangeles residents feel completely comfortable with their dual identity.

Now in her thirties, Mahdis Kehsavarz says she no longer feels she has to choose between being Iranian or American.

"We're not going to be fully Iranian and we're not fully American, so let's keep out names and not change them and be proud of who we are."

US blocks Chinese firm's investment in wind farms

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President Barack Obama has stopped a Chinese company from building wind turbines in the US state of Oregon, citing national security concerns, his administration said.

Ralls Corp, a private Chinese firm, had acquired four wind farm projects near a US naval facility earlier this year.

This is the first foreign investment to be blocked in the US for 22 years.

It comes as the US lodged a trade dispute against China just weeks ahead of November's presidential election.

The move forces Ralls Corp to divest its stake in the projects, which were located near restricted airspace used by the military base.

The president's order came after an investigation into the wind farms by the US Committee on Foreign Investments (CFIUS) said there was no way to mitigate the national security risks posed by the Chinese company's plans.

The White House order said: "There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Ralls Corporation... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States."

The order also targeted Sany Group, the company that makes the turbine generators.

The military has said it uses the Oregon base to test unmanned drones and other equipment for electronic warfare. The aircraft fly as low as 200ft (60m) at speeds of as much as 300mph (500km/h).

Correspondents say the development could disgruntle China, whose trade advantage over the US has become a focus of Mr Obama's battle for re-election against Republican contender Mitt Romney.

Mr Romney has repeatedly accused the president of being too lenient with what he has called China's unfair trade practices.

Earlier this week, the Romney campaign released a video claiming that China is stealing American ideas and jobs, and accusing Mr Obama of doing little to stop it.

Mr Romney has said that on his first day in office he would use an executive order to label Beijing a currency manipulator.

The Obama campaign has in turn claimed that Mr Romney outsourced jobs to China during his time as a private equity chief.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Mr Obama has highlighted his record with China, reminding voters that he filed more trade cases against Beijing in one administration than his predecessor, George W Bush, did in two terms.

This month, the Obama administration filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against Chinese subsidies for its car industry.

The Obama campaign has also criticised Mr Romney for investing in Chinese firms.

Opelousas Massacre Occurred On This Date In 1868, Hundreds Of Blacks Slain Over Voting Rights (This is why we vote, This is why you should vote)

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The Opelousas Massacre in St. Landry Parish, La., has baffled historians over the years. From varying accounts, hundreds of Blacks were reportedly killed, because of their desire to join a local political group that included racist White Democrats. The Seymour Knights violently drove potential Black voters away from the Democratic Party, prompting White Republican reporter Emerson Bentley to write that Blacks should remain loyal to the Republican Party in local paper The Progress.


A school teacher by day, Bentley was beaten by a group of Whites as a result of his article, which some in the town saw as an affront to the powers that be. Black Republicans, looking to defend and find Bentley, gathered to confront the Knights and other Democrats with both sides armed for war.



It isn't said who struck first, but it is known that the White Democrats had the numbers and weapons advantage. On this date in 1868, the groups squared off in town in the early morning.

As the battles raged on well in to the afternoon and evening hours, several Blacks were caught, shot, and some later executed for the uprising. The White militia forces drove the resistance in to neighboring swamps and captured or killed the opposition on sight, in most cases.

Police of Recently Emancipated Negroes
Town of Opelousas

Twelve leaders of the Black Republicans who were seized were lynched the following day, which sparked a round of anti-Black violence and sentiment throughout the region. In the end, an estimated 150 to 300 Blacks were killed as a result of the race riot and an accurate number has yet to be determined even after years of research. Whites were also killed, with the numbers varying between 30 to 50 in most reports.


Although hard numbers cannot be confirmed, what is universally recognized is that Black lives were lost on that day as a result of voter and racial oppression.

As tensions rose in the South for decades after the massacre, the lack of justice and information about the standoff shows that care must be taken to preserve the African-American legacy for future generations.
Source

Texans Fight Back Against Suppression Efforts On National Voter Registration Day

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HOUSTON, Texas — Last week, thenation learned about True The Vote, a Houston-based tea party group that fans out to heavily-minority precincts and challenges voters’ ballots.

As they work to suppress voters this election, across town, a far different story was unfolding: scores of volunteers fanning out not to stop people from voting, but to help them vote.

See Also:  Yes Watch The Polls, But Realize All Voters May Not Get There Chance To Vote In This Election

ThinkProgress was on the ground for the first annual National Voter Registration Day, a nationwide event for grassroots groups to help register voters. (The day was designed to take place prior to October 6, when Texas and a handful of other states have their registration deadline.) We attended numerous events throughout the day, including a radio-hyped registration table outside a breakfast diner, a hip-hop concert where tickets were distributed to those who registered and/or pledged to vote, and a comedy show where the comic interspersed jokes with pleas for young folks to get out and vote.

Watch a short video with highlights from the day:



Last year, Texas passed some of the worst anti-voter legislation of any state in the country. They enacted a voter ID law, which allowed voters to bring a gun license to the polls but not a student ID; it has since been blocked by the Department of Justice. In addition, they are on the leading edge of states passing new, onerous restrictions on voter registration groups like the League of Women Voters.

Still, despite the new regulations making their job more difficult, voter registration groups were out in full force Tuesday, doing their best to get as many people as possible registered to vote.

Family tours farm where ancestors were once slaves

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By Jenni Osborne
Todd County Standard

They traveled a dusty road flanked by nearly dried-up corn and beans, stirring tiny yellow butterflies from their afternoon repose, sweating as the sun loomed overhead.

But they could not complain as they walked the path that had paved the way for their future. These were the same fields their ancestors had worked, earth broken on the shoulders of those who came before.

The Russell family looked every bit the tourists they were, khaki shorts, sun hats and iPhone cameras clicking as they surveyed the D.N. Short farm on Allensville Road last weekend, looking for any connection they could make to the past.
The group planned a family reunion around the tour after learning they are direct descendants of the slaves once tethered to the land.

George Russell, whose father was from Trenton, and many members of his extended family hail from Indianapolis, Ind., but they’ve been drawn toward a piece of land in southern Todd County since George met Vanessa Short — whose father-in-law owns the farm — at the Todd County Library while they were researching their respective families’ pasts.

It turned out there was a major connection — specifically, the name Russell.

Vanessa’s husband Ashley’s ancestors — also Russells — owned slaves that kept the surname Russell after they were freed.

Those same slaves that worked what is today the D.N. Short land are Charlie’s forefathers, and when the two families realized it, they began to plan a get-together.

Charlie’s group of about 20 — some of whom hadn’t even met each other before — attended the Aug. 8 celebration in Allensville before gathering at the Short farm on a relentlessly hot day, the women carrying umbrellas as makeshift parasols and exclaiming over the biggest bugs they’d ever seen.

They were still conscious of how much worse it would have been, say, a couple centuries ago.

“As we’re walking, I’m thinking, our ancestors actually worked this land, and here we are with umbrellas!” said reunion-goer Carrie Russell Morris, whose father — the oldest living Russell at 88 — was originally from Elkton.
Ashley and Vanessa showed the Russells around as they stopped to remember a people to whom they owe much of their strength today.

But the real tour guide was Gillie Short of Hopkinsville, Ashley’s nearly 99-year-old grandmother who was dressed in pink and able to lend more insight to the Russells than any genealogical records.

Pausing for get-to-know-yous in a cabin the Shorts rent to hunters, the group’s attention turned to Gillie.

Charlie knelt beside her excitedly but reverently, ready to learn from this woman who had been born on the very farm some of his ancestors died on.

Turns out she was even more amped to meet him. “You’re the man with all the history!” she told him.

Charlie’s been researching his family — and, by extension, Gillie’s — for 20 years, but he still wanted to know what she knows, this woman whose ancestors “owned” his in a way that, as some at the reunion pointed out, we are just now able to talk about.

Cheryl Hall-Russell said it’s about time for gatherings like this. “We have finally gotten to a place in America where we can have these kind of conversations about slavery and what it was and what it meant,” she said. “It’s nice when you can get people who have been on both sides of it, because it is a shared legacy.”

And indeed, on this day, they scrambled for links in their own histories, for the moment their legacies coincide. The extended Russell family kept its attention locked on the tiny woman who might unlock the shackles of their past, the room nearly silent as they waited for names they’d recognize to tumble from her lips.

Does Gillie remember a George Russell? He was Charlie’s ancestor and was named in a Russell family will, as a household’s slaves typically were. Gillie remembered a “Georgie” — perhaps that was him.

Most everyone packed cameras and some videotaped her recollections, as if this ever were a day they could forget.
In the meantime, the youngest member of the Russell group befriended the Shorts’ daughter, Catherine, and the sight of the two holding hands resonated.

“I was just thinking about Dr. King’s words — the children of former slaves and the children of former slave owners playing together,” said Lauren Rochester, another extended family member. “So poetic.”

The kids saw something much simpler happening.

“I’ve made a new friend,” Alyssa Henderson announced as she climbed into the back of a Cub Cadet with Catherine for the tour of the grounds.

Gillie played cruise director — she remembers where the old slave quarters were, a cluster of cabins that have since caught fire, and the group followed her to the shady spot where their family once lived.

Marvin Russell, part of the Chicago side of the family, said he had searched records in Elkton the day before and found his great-great-grandparents’ marriage license from 1895.

Marvin explained that there were 14 kids who came from this farm, sons and grandkids of slaves, who make up the branches of his extended family tree.

One of them, Thornton Russell, is in his direct line, Marvin said. “It’s pretty crazy,” he said of his findings. “We were pretty excited.”

The Shorts also led the Russells on the 10-minute walk to an old sharecropper’s house with 1930s newsprint lining the walls.

“Whew — we don’t know how blessed we are!” was Robert Henderson’s reaction after emerging from the rickety shack.

Ashley showed the group — most of them whom admittedly aren’t that familiar with farming but are interested in everything about the life, asking which crops are which and how they’re planted – a tobacco barn and explained how their ancestors would’ve had to to do everything by hand.

Hall-Russell considered that long-ago struggle.

“It’s pretty emotional,” she said. “You take seconds of quiet where you imagine what their toil was like. It makes me very grateful for my ancestors.”

The pilgrimage concluded at a small family cemetery tucked in a corner of the cornfield. The Russells gathered around the final resting place of one of their own, a tombstone fallen over and nearly hidden in the dirt.

The land owners’ graves are still standing, but most of the slaves were buried in unmarked graves in the back.
Charlie helped brush some of the debris off the headstone and gently righted it to reveal that this one had a name — Cashy Russell.

“If people just knew the stories in their families, they’d be humbled by them — by the sacrifices that were made,” he said.

Larry Craig Obituary

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Larry Steven Craig, 61, of Morgantown, formerly of Todd County, died Jan. 16, 2011 at his residence.
He was born in Todd County on June 19, 1949, son of J.R. and Clara Pauline “Polly” Utley Craig of Allegre.
Mr. Craig was a Baptist minister and a newspaper journalist. He was a past owner of the Green River Republican newspaper in Morgantown and taught journalism at Western Kentucky University. He had served as a Butler County Trial Commissioner and a past president of the Kentucky Press Association and was a member of Richland Missionary Baptist Church and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.
Funeral services will be held at noon on Jan. 19 at Jones Funeral Chapel in Morgantown, with burial to follow in the Hill Haven Memory Gardens. There will be visitation from 5-8 p.m. Jan. 17 at Latham Funeral Home in Elkton and from noon-8 p.m. Jan. 18 at Jones Funeral Chapel, as well as on Wednesday from 8 a.m. until time for the service.
In addition to his parents, Mr. Craig is survived by his wife, Patricia Grace Craig of Morgantown; his daughters and sons-in-law, Julie and John Blanford of Henderson, Summer and Will Hines of Beaver Dam and Paige and Brian McKinney of Morgantown; his sister, Jeannie Craig of Rosewood; his brothers and sisters-in-law, Richard and Mary Ann Craig of Allegre, Michael and Jean Craig of Bowling Green and Thomas and Patricia Craig of Russellville; his grandchildren, Garrett and Will Blanford, Morgan McKinney and Hope, Faith, Cameron and Sophie Hines; and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Trenton 9-year-old's death investigation

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Guthrie, KY. (Todd County)


On Friday, February 4, 2011, at approximately 10:20 p.m., the Kentucky State Police Post 2 Madisonville received a call from the Todd County Sheriff’s Department requesting assistance in locating a missing 9-year-old female. The location of the missing child was Dogwood Road between Guthrie and Trenton.


On Saturday, February 05, 2011, at approximately 12:21 a.m., KSP Post 2 was contacted again by Todd County advising that the 9-year-old female had been located deceased. The Todd County Coroner, Bob Whittlesey, pronounced the victim dead at the scene. An autopsy is scheduled for today at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville. At the present time, no other information is available.


The investigation is continuing by the Kentucky State Police. Anyone with information concerning this investigation is urged to contact the Kentucky State Police at 1-270-676-3313 or toll-free in Kentucky at 1-800-222-5555. Callers may remain anonymous. The Todd County Sheriff’s Department, Todd County Rescue/EMS, Todd County EMA, the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wild Life, the Trenton Police Department, and the Todd County Coroner’s Office assisted at the scene.

Trenton 9-year-old's death, brother indicted.

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Garrett Thomas Dye, 17, of Trenton has been indicted for the murder of his 9-year-old adopted sister and cousin, Amy R. Dye.

The Grand Jury indicted Garrett Dye today (Feb. 18) for murder, resisting arrest and tampering with physical evidence. Documents show he has admitted to killing his sister.

Also, the rumor that Dye allegedly used a shovel was wrong. The indictment said it was a hydraulic jack handle.

Look for more on the story in next week's Todd County Standard.

Listen to Gov. Beshear's speech about child abuse files

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Gov. Steve Beshear today (Nov. 29) has directed the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to open the records of cases in which child abuse or neglect resulted in a child fatality or near fatality.

This is a big win for all of those that wondered if there would ever be any light through the darkness of red tape and secrecy in the Cabinet.

Here is the mp3 of the speech:

A video, taken by David Thompson of the Kentucky Press Association can been seen here:
See this week's Standard for a full story and analysis.

Postal Service Set To Default On More Than $5 Billion Payment For Second Time Since August

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The U.S. Postal Service may be able to deliver your bill payments, but it's having a little trouble delivering its own.

Come Sept. 30, USPS will default on a $5.6 billion payment mandated by Congress to prefund employee retirement benefits, CNNMoney reports. That will be the second time the government agency has defaulted in as many months after missing an August payment worth $5.5 billion.

While mail operations will continue as usual, the second default is yet another sign of the postal service's increasingly desperate financial situation. By May of this year it had already lost $6 billion.

Getting USPS out this mess won’t be easy, either. Its best hope would be for Congress to repeal a 2006 mandate that USPS prefund retiree benefits, a law for which National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando, among others, blames the current crisis, according to the Washington Post. However, Congress isn’t likely to act until after the November elections and might not get around to it until the new year, the National Journal reports.

In the meantime, several efforts are being made to ease the postal service's woes. Most recently, USPS announced it would be increasing its volume of junk mail deliveries in an effort to build upon the $17 billion in revenue that portion of its business took in last year.

Service cuts, too, have been common. In May, USPS announced is would be closing 250 processing centers in order to cut costs. Post offices across the country have also reduced hours. In one extreme example, the post office in Sugar Creek, N.H., cut hours of operation to just 30 minutes a day.

Mia Love, Republican Mayor In Utah, Receives Photos Of KKK Member, Aborted Fetuses (This Broad is lying, when the hell did the Klan ever support President Obama? Black Conservatives )

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Note:  Someone is using race cards drawn in crayola crayons on this one. Ms. Love look At Who Is Standing On Your Right First Before Trying to Slap The Guy Who Is On Your Left. Two very strong clues as to who the culprit is - the pictures of the hooded KKK guy and the aborted fetuses. Both of these issues are smack in the middle of the Grand Old Party's ideology. Keep Reaching!
Utah mayor and GOP congressional candidate Mia Love was sent an envelope containing racist and disturbing photos. The black, female Republican says she's become a target because she "poses a problem to the policies of the Obama administration."

The thick envelope arrived at Love's office in Saratoga Springs, Utah, City Manager Mark Christensen told the Deseret News. The envelope reportedly contained a photo showing Love, her husband and a hooded Ku Klux Klan member as well as pictures of aborted fetuses.

Love responded to the "divisive racially and negative racially" photos, saying "I want you to know, I want everyone to know I am comfortable in my skin. I'm comfortable and proud of my heritage..." the Deseret News reports.

Visit the Deseret News to learn more about the contents of the envelope.

The mayor is currently campaigning against Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson for Utah's 4th Congressional District seat.

Love, who could be the first black female Republican elected to Congress, told theDeseret News that she believes she's become a target because she "poses a problem to the policies of the Obama administration." "I knew that people would come after me," Love said. "I knew that people would try to change and distort information so I'm going to focus on things that are really important."

Back in August, Fox News reported that Love's Wikipedia page had been "vandalized" with racist and sexist epithets after she delivered her speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Fox News reported offensive language to the Wikipedia page read "dirty, worthless w---e," "sell-out" to the "right wing hate machine" and "House N-----."

A newly released poll from Love's internal polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, shows the 36-year-old now leading Matheson 51-36, the Salt Lake Tribune reported on Tuesday. The group said a July poll of the district had Matheson leading 51-38.

Love said in a statement that the support is "encouraging," according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "Sadly, Jim Matheson has turned to false attacks on my community and my family. Now is the time for Jim Matheson to stop his negative campaign."

Hitachi Data Glass: New Glass-Based Data Storage System Would Last For 100 Million Years

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Once upon a time, we worried about the sound of our records degrading as they aged. Then, CDs came along and we had to worry about them scratching. Even MP3s are destined to degrade over time.

But Japan-based company Hitachi says it has solved our file woes with a new storage system that the company claims can keep data unscathed for 100 million years. Data is etched onto a four layers of a thin sheet of quartz glass using a laser that creates dots that can be read by a standard optical microscope.



Reportedly heat resistant and water resistant, it's also invulnerable to "many chemicals" and unaffected by radio waves. According to Engadget, Hitachi reported the glass enduring 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours without affecting data quality. PC World reports that just a square inch of the glass can store 40MB of data, which is 5MB more than a CD, but that the storage will likely only be useful for archiving.

Originally conceived in 2009, PC World reports that Hitachi had struggled with a speedy write time to make etching of the data timely, but that the company has since resolved the problem and is preparing to introduce the item to consumers in 2015.

However, pricing for the miracle glass has yet to be announced. Tech Report estimates that it will be highly expensive because of additional yet-to-be-developed equipment needed to read and etch the glass.

German woman held on suspicion of killing five newborns

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A woman in northern Germany has been arrested and charged with manslaughter over the killing of five of her newborn babies.



The 28-year-old has already admitted to killing two of the infants in an earlier unsolved case, police said.

She turned herself in after they took a DNA sample, and confessed to killing the children, who were born alive, they said.

Her identity has not been released in accordance with German privacy laws.

The case had been under investigation for years, after a newborn's body was found in a paper-recycling plant near the northern city of Flensburg in 2006.

A second body was found in a car park in 2007.

"She is also suspected of giving birth to three more children and subsequently killing them," police in the city of Flensburg said in a statement.

Three further bodies were found in the cellar of the woman's house, police said.

The woman was afraid her husband would leave her because he did not want any more children, prosecutor Ulrike Stahlmann-Liebelt told a news conference in Flensburg.

He knew nothing of the five births, she added.

The couple have two living children, aged eight and 10.

There have been several cases in recent years in Germany of women who have killed several of their own children.

In 2006, a woman was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the maximum 15 years in prison for killing eight of her newborn babies and burying them in flower pots and a fish tank in the garden of her parents' home near the German-Polish border.

Source

How The Tea Party Hopes To Purge Thousands of Ohio Voters

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Members of an Ohio tea party group are taking it upon themselves to individually police alleged voter fraud, launching challenges to a targeted list of voters that includes hundreds of college students, trailer park residents, homeless people and African Americans in counties President Obama won in 2008. In all, the group has sought to remove from the voter rolls at least 2,100 registrations in 13 Ohio counties, nine of which Obama won in 2008, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The alleged perpetrators of this voter fraud include Lori Monroe, a 40-year-old recovering from cancer, whose apartment for the past seven years was allegedly listed as a commercial property; and eight members of an African American family, whose four-bedroom home where the family has lived since the 1980s was allegedly listed as a vacant lot. The group has also focused on challenging college students for failure to specify a dorm room number, a claim that every election board has thus far found invalid.

The group behind this crusade has dubbed itself the Ohio Voter Integrity Project, an offshoot of Texas-based True the Vote, which champions voter purges and voter ID laws and has been building a “poll watcher” network, an effort documented by Colorlines’ Brentin Mock:

True the Vote National Elections Coordinator Bill] Ouren and Americans for Prosperity gathered these recruits in Boca Raton in July to instruct them on how they could become “empowered” vessels for True the Vote’s poll watcher program. True the Vote is most widely known for its advocacy of restrictive photo voter ID laws. But while that might garner headlines, the group’s real focus is on policing the act of voting itself. As Ouren declared during the group’s national summit in April, and repeated again in Boca Raton, his recruits’ job is chiefly to make voters feel like they’re “driving and seeing the police following you.” He aims to recruit one million poll watchers around the country. […] 

True the Vote encourages recruits to “build relationships with election administrators” because “they control the access to the vote,” as Ouren told a gathering in Houston. In 2010, the group was able to get a list of voter registration data from Republican Harris County registrar Leo Vasquez, who reportedly refused the same to the Democratic Party, for which the party sued. When the King Street Patriots submitted to him their list of fraudulent actions they claimed to see at the polls, Vasquez accepted them without verification and held a press conference with Engelbrecht asserting Harris County polls were “under a systemic and organized attack.”

Of course, these phony charges of voter fraud – a wildly exaggerated phenomenon — do more than harass legally registered voters; they provide an artificial justification for the real and considerable threats to disfranchisement that come from new restrictive voter suppression laws, such as the move to limit early voting in Ohio, now embroiled in litigation.

Has Europe Taken Online Privacy Far More Seriously Than The U.S.

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Last week, Facebook announced it would cease using facial recognition technology on European Union users and delete all data following complaints from member states and an inquiry by the Irish Data Commissioner. While the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission here in the U.S. over Facebook’s use of the same technology, the complaint remains pending — repeating a familiar narrative of online giants facing higher levels of scrutiny in European Union countries than in the United States.

In the U.S. numerous agencies enforce a “patchwork” of laws defining online privacy protections in different sectors, leaving some areas with very little oversight and users without a clear path to pursue if they feel their rights have been violated. It’s a different story in the E.U., where online privacy policy is guided by the Data Protection Directive — a sort of bill of rights for online users that provides member nations with guidelines for national level laws guaranteeing a base level of control for users.

European protections are on the cusp of becoming even more robust with proposed regulation this year that would implement rules superseding national level laws and extending the scope of protections to apply to all foreign companies processing the data of EU residents. The new regulation also comes with some teeth: Penalties up to two percent of global revenues for offending companies.

To put that into perspective, this summer Google agreed to pay the largest Federal Trade Commission settlement ever to an individual company: It amounted to five hours of 2011 revenues. Under the proposed European Commission Data Protection rules it could have amounted to one hundred seventy-five hours of revenue.

The European Commission website claims that 70 percent of Europeans are worried about misuse of their personal data, but Americans are concerned too. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project73 percent object to their search history information being gathered even if it is to personalize search results and eighty-five percent of Americans call controlling who has access to their personal information “very important.”

Despite public sentiment, it’s unlikely major tech companies will change their approach to privacy without a fight. After all, big data is big business, and those businesses spend big money to keep it that way. Facebook has upped its lobbying spending more than three-fold from $351,390 in 2010 to $1,350,000 in 2011 and started a PAC last year to raise money for political candidates last year. Google nearly doubled its lobbying from to $5,160,000 in 2010 to $9,680,000 in 2011. Both companies along with Amazon are founding members of the new Internet Association lobby announced last week.

‘Little Rock Nine”’ Enter High School That Forcibly Banned Them On This Day In 1957

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The events surrounding the controversial and moving spectacle of the “Little Rock Nine” still reverberates in the minds of many with its stark imagery and political implications. The barring of nine Black African-American students who were prevented from entering Arkansas’ Little Rock Central High School on September 4, 1957, became known historically as the “Little Rock Crisis,” with then-Governor Orval Faubus calling in the National Guard to stop the students at the door. On this date in 1957, the nine students would begin integration of Little Rock Central along with federal and nearby Army troops.

Although segregated schools were declared unconstitutional after the Brown v. Board of Educationruling in 1954, Arkansas officials neglected to heed the ruling after the NAACP registered nine students to attend a high school for the fall of 1957. Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Kalmark,Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals were nicknamed the “Little Rock Nine.”

Segregationists who did not want the Black students in their schools promised protests, prompting Governor Faubus to deploy the Guard. The images of the soldiers blocking the frightened teens from entering the school ignited a firestorm of debate and controversy nationwide.

Trudging through the hostile environment, the “Nine” were cursed at and spat upon during the harrowing ordeal. On September 9, the Little Rock School district condemned Governor Faubus’ actions and even President Dwight Eisenhower would involve himself and warned that the Supreme Court’s decision of desegregated schools should not be ignored.

In a noble act, Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann requested that President Eisenhower send troops to protect and escort the students inside safely. On September 24, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock and took over the Arkansas National Guard, effectively stripping Governor Faubus of his power.

The transition wasn’t without struggle as the “Nine” suffered racial and physical abuse for the entire school year from White students. Melba Pattillo even said that a student flung acid into her eyes and there were other atrocious acts as well.

Governor Faubus’ actions were indicative of many Southern conservative Democrats


who resisted the tides of change with the advent of African Americans integrating in to a desegregated world. Xenophobic and racist treatment continued to thrive in the deep South, but the “Nine” would eventually find some closure after PresidentBill Clinton (pictured right) presented the group with Congressional Medals of Honor in 1999.

Although the horrific treatment of the students marked how sick and twisted racist minds worked during the 1950s, the moment helped to motivate those within the Civil Rights Movement to fight even harder to combat similar injustices across the country. To make their struggle even more noteworthy, each of the “Nine” graduated from Little Rock Central and all went on to have amazing careers spanning the fields of journalism, accounting, social work and psychology.


Watch the “Little Rock Nine’s story here:

                               

magine the hell the “Nine” endured for just a moment. The fact that each of them found a way through the madness and excelled far beyond every low expectation that their doubters had about them speaks volumes to the resiliency of the human spirit. The “Nine” and their fight for equality is a moment of our rich history that should not be forgotten or discounted.

7 IN 10 AMERICANS THINK OBAMACARE IS HERE TO STAY

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A majority of Americans believe the Affordable Care Act will be implemented while just 12 percent believe it will be repealed, according to a new Associated Press-GFK poll. 63 percent of respondents were also in favor of the state-run insurance exchanges that many Republican governors are refusing to set up in case Mitt Romney wins the election and repeals the health reform law. Just 15 states and DC plan to run their own exchanges. Though they believe the law will not be repealed, many people still hold misconceptions about what exactly Obamacare does, with just 14 percent correctly identifying the provisions and feeling confident about their answers.

Could gay marriage keep Black people from the polls?

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Could gay marriage keep Black people from the polls? It was the subject of a segment this week on NPR, largely fueled by an article published by the Associated Press, entitled, “Some Black Christians Waver Over Vote.“ To save you time, the pieces basically argue that since clergymen of color can’t decide if they dislike the Mormon candidate more than the Black dude who dared to personally endorse same-sex marriage, they are encouraging Black congregants to stay home on Election Day.



One of the story’s quotes came from Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of Baltimore who said, “This is the first time in Black church history that I’m aware of that Black pastors have encouraged their parishioners not to vote.”

Once the story ran, though, Bryant’s Twitter account asked in response:

WHEN did you contact @jamalhbryant in order to get his statement on voting? you need to revisit this & be accurate.

This clarification is important, because Rev. Bryant — and the other Black pastors who were interviewed — never said that Black clergy had in fact told their congregations NOT to vote. Still, select members of the press argued this baseless and sophomoric point across media outlets across the country.

In the age of the two-year presidential election cycle coupled with online media and 24-hour news, it is clear that substantive information continues to be cast aside in favor of the spectacle.

Not all of us are conservative Christians, and even for those that are, there’s been several decades of voting patterns that suggest Blacks will stick with their economic interests to guide them at the poll over anything else. After all, there’s a reason Blacks aren’t standing alongside white Evangelicals en masse at GOP conventions.

That said, as mainstream publications continue to peddle this little theory about gay marriage and the Black vote, there is currently a Black pastor actually campaigning for marriage equality in Maryland. What’s more, there have been others publicly voicing their support of same-sex marriage even before Obama declared his personal support of it. Speaking of Obama’s historical moment, his endorsement shifted many people’s opinions, both Black and White alike.

But, of course, Blacks are the only ones garnering headlines on the subject. It’s not hard to figure out why. Noticing the discrepancies in coverage, I read a comment on tumblr that noted “plenty of ink will, of course, be given to once again making Black Christians into monsters under the beds of White liberals.”

Indeed, there is an obvious attempt to make a boogeyman out of Black churches and an unfortunate number of White liberals are choosing to be willful suckers.

I’m exhausted by it, especially when it comes from White gays who are doing their part to share it. It’s déjà vu from 2008 when Blacks were faulted for the passing of Proposition 8 in California. Many of these so-called progressives didn’t reach out to Black voters then and too many of them are willing participates to paint Blacks under the same monolith as the mainstream press is doing now.

Such is the problem with not communicating enough with the people you’re condemning.

Make no mistake, the role religion plays in homophobia is problematic. I have writing about it here,there, and everywhere else I can and will continue to do so. Yet, I’m sick of this story being told under only a sole stroke of color. It’s not just Black religious people and it never has been. Besides, if there’s any group of religious people to worry about social issues leaving them blind to their own self-interests, it’s surely not Blacks.

I get that papers need to be sold, a certain level of listeners and viewers must be maintained, and everybody needs their clicks, but enough already. This myth about Black churches, Black Christians, and Black voters at large is condescending, devoid of reality, and – pay attention if you truly want the advancement of gay rights in this country – not the least bit helpful in gathering support for gay rights.

Proof Of Actual Voter FRAUD In Colorado, "Oh forgot to say for Romney Only"

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Check out this voter fraud caught on camera. She claims to be an employee of the County Clerks office – but is only registering one particular party, in addition to exit polling. Why isn’t there harsher laws against voter fraud since the presidential elections are so important to this country.

                                                       "THAT'S ALL I NEED HONEYBUNCH!"

This is how it works, Repubs get caught doing something or saying something wrong and in the explanation they include both parties. Even, if they were the first an only ones to ever do it!

Talk to any conservative, instead of debating what their guy is currently doing, they will find something to relate to your guy and no matter what was done by there guy, you end the supposed debate talking and defending your guy.

This is how they have made this whole voter thing stick anyway.

More On The Story:
COLORADO SPRINGS — A shaky YouTube video of a voter-registration effort outside a Colorado Springs grocery store led the county's elections boss to clarify Sunday that campaign volunteers aren't on the government payroll.

The incident caught on video shows an encounter between a patron and a young female volunteer who was apparently working to make sure voters backing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made it to the polls. The problem: The young woman, after some head-scratching, says her work to boost the GOP turnout is funded by the county clerk.

Neither the volunteer on the recording nor the patron could be tracked down Sunday. But some who saw the video were outraged, demanding an investigation of County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams, a Republican.

Williams said the woman doesn't work for his office, which oversees local elections and voter registration.

Source

Are our kids forwarding emails blindly?

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Are our kids forwarding emails blindly?
Sometimes your kids must be giving you the privilege (!!) of sharing some of their interesting emails with you. Mine does!
What appalls me at those times is the blind forwarding these children do. Most forwarded emails have all the trailing mails, with at least over fifty email addresses being disclosed to all. Sometimes the text of a non-suspecting parent’s mail to his child is made evident to everyone. Sometimes lots of official email addresses trail in! Most funny are the instances when the emails are forwarded to the senders themselves!
Also when sending emails no one ever seems to use BCC, every one’s email address is made apparent to all the recipients. With BCC though I see the minor danger of one person receiving same email many times. So maybe we can encourage children to have address groups (family, friends etc) where they are sure that no one would mind sharing their addresses with one another.
It is our onus to teach our children how to forward e-mails, how to delete the non-relevant parts & trailing emails. It will ensure higher Internet safety for all of us & our precious little ones.

Place for Students' issues

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[Dear Students, We have noted the contents of the comments posted by 'Infernus' on this blog, and the sentiments expressed therein. We had to then delete the actual text of your comments, mainly due to the "linguistic style" employed ;)

We certainly understand that, as students, you do have -
1. your own issues and concerns to resolve, and,
2. your own views you wish to air and discuss.

As regards the first (your burning issues), please bring them to the attention of your parents or teachers. Your goal should be to convince your parents to take up these issues on your behalf, and try to get them solved! As for the second part, the best way to air your views and discuss them with other students is by setting up your own blog. If you set up one and provide us the link, we will review and consider placing a link to your blog from this site.

We really don't mind an occasional direct contribution from students if it shows grasp and maturity (age is not the bar... but the developmental stage at which your faculties are, might be! But we also realize that there is no better way to develop than by expressing your ideas and engaging in discussions). As parents, we will only be proud to see a well-thought-through and well-expressed comment that eschews street language, on any topic that is of interest to the general parent community.

Remember, that our intention is never to smother your views. -Ed]

---

Issues Posted by Infernus:

(NEW: Restored sanitised summary, 04/05/2008).
1. Korean students are being allowed the use of a mobile phone but Indian students who need to reach home as late as 8 PM are held to the no-mobile policy. IB students are given privileges, and are allowed to tuck their shirt out, etc. This is discrimination.
2. Principal Mr GSS Rao is generally rude/unfair (towards students),etc.

---

Some friendly parental advice on how to raise your issues and get them the attention they deserve:
1. Please avoid personal attacks and instead, focus on the issue you want to draw attention to. Focus more on the 'what' and less on the 'who'.
2. Please avoid repeated use of adjectives such as 'stupid' which, all things considered, do not mean a thing and might turn people off and make them ignore you.
3. Please think it out in your head, before you start writing or presenting your issues.
[Dear Infernus, please bring your issues to your parents' attention. -Ed].
Good Luck!

Teachers' Salary - Survey Results

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We have now, a better idea of GIIS's pay scales for teachers, based on typical salaries paid to surveyed teachers. (Based on informal contact with several ex-teachers. Teachers holding EP (Employment Pass) were not approached for this survey).

What we find:

The seniority of the teacher (number of years of experience) makes some difference within each band, but salary generally fits into certain bands or ranges based on the level taught, i.e., KG / Primary / Secondary.

Monthly Salary Ranges (includes employee's CPF)
KG Teachers: ranges from $1250 to $1450. Typical figure is: $1300
Primary Teachers: ranges from $1500 to $1700
Secondary Teachers: ranges from $1600 to $1900, rarely touching $2000
Std XI, XII Teachers: ranges from $1800 to $2200, rarely touching $2500

Variable Pay: Additional to above, is variable pay = 20% of monthly salary.
20% of monthly pay is deducted as Variable Pay.
[Thanks to the ex-teacher, comment #3, for pointing it out the -20% and included CPF contribution]

[It is rumoured that a $50 pm salary raise was given to all teachers recently. If it is correct, it is only a 2 to 4% salary raise. These percentages are nowhere near the employee-related cost rises claimed by Kaustubh Bodhankar's high-handed fee hike announcement. -Ed.]

Dear Parents: How can we expect the school to recruit good teachers, or retain the better ones, if we pay only that much ?