Hey Mark, I thought you would be interested in the latest stupidity in Human Resources.On the second day of school, one of my friends who teaches in my building was pulled out into the hall by our principal. She was told that he had just received an email from Jim Roberts who's the ESC dude in charge of certified staff. The email indicated that her certificate had expired and she needed to be removed from the classroom until she could get it renewed. That required her to drive to Olympia to be fingerprinted etc.
In the meantime, a substitute has been brought in to teach her class until she can be re-certified. Other teachers in our building also had the same thing happen on that day. Yes it is their responsibility to make sure that their certificate doesn't expire....but if Jim has that information, you would think he'd have sent that out in JUNE!!! not the second day of school.
What's really disturbing is that my friend was informed that 60 teachers across the district also received the same treatment! That's 60 classes disrupted because some bimbo at the district can't send a timely email. That's 60 classrooms with the district paying substitutes! Idiots! I don't have any information to substantiate this other than word of mouth and what I've seen happen in my building.
Keep up the good work!
38 comments:
One teacher in my building was told, on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd, that his certificate had expired and that he had to go to Anacortes to be fingerprinted--and that was the only place he should go. So he called Anacortes and since they have "appointments only" the earliest appt. available was Tuesday, Sept. 9th. Then he heard that other teachers were going to Olympia and he was able to go there on Thursday and get it all taken care of. He will probably be back in the classroom on Tues. Sept. 9th, but if he had followed the district's suggestion he probably wouldn't be back in the classroom until Friday, Sept. 12th. This teacher knows that letting his certificate expire was his fault, but as he said, "If we were all on the same team maybe someone in HR would have sent out a reminder notice."
Actually, the district is probably saving money on this situation. Rather than paying the teacher his/her salary they only need to pay the salary of a substitute. Let's say that a substitute works for about $100 a day less than a classroom teacher. $100a day x 60 teachers x 4 (the probably number of days a teacher will be out of the classroom in order to clear up this problem)=$4000. (Not enough for another round of moving cubicles on the second floor of the ESC, but at least it's a start!)
Was he too busy playing with his ponytail? Not sure. But it has been reported that he works plenty of OT!
I'm pretty sure that letters usually go out to teachers in the spring BEFORE certificates expire. Wonder who screwed up on this one by not getting them out this time?
Yes, Jim Roberts Did get a hole lot of Overtime, working from home. I think he made in overtime was around $30,000."not a miss print"$30,000? Wow, what a guy.
You gota love that Hr Dept!
Just do a public disclosure on a Mr Jim Roberts time last year its all in print can't lose this one.
He's an exempt Prof. Tech and therefore does not or I should say should not get paid OT. But I have heard that some exempt employees get special treatment and so they receive OT. Another change in district policy. Just what is an exempt employee? They receive 5 days of Comp.Time pay on their contract already for the times they may be asked to work OT because the district knows they will work at least tht many extra hours. Now they also get OT besides the extra 5 days???? This is HR right?
The District seeks to prevent this blog from receiving information directly from the source. When we ask for anything, we have to go through our respective legal teams and wait more than 30 days for information.
As a result of the District's attempts to stifle the transfer of information, the blog now must rely on contributions made by anonymous sources.
If someone will make the requests and forward them to the blog, we will be happy to post them for everyone to read.
My department chair told me this week that Jim is where "emails go to die."
He literally does not respond to email requests sent to him by staff.
The reminders should have mailed out prior to the beginning of a new school year; this has been the practice in previous years. Perhaps with Tracey Penney now finally removed or voluntarily leaving, the HR Department, maybe Jim was trying to fill her shoes!! This might be his excuse; they always have one you know!!
Jim Roberts not only does NOT repsond to e-mails, he does NOT respond to phone calls or voice mails either. He has his own agenda; and is "curt" to some employees, it just depends on WHO you are and WHO you know! I know, I was there! There are many flaws in the HR Department, which DOES NOT INCLUDE Benefits, Payroll, or Front Desk.
I guess I am confused. Why couldn't the teachers go to the local police department or the state patrol for the finger printing? Who is over seeing Jim Roberts? Has anyone complained to his supervisor? Again HR's feeling is that they can do whatever they want and get away with it. Just let them need something, and you better believe, they will stop at nothing to make you drop everything and bow at their feet. Should we not all be on the same team and work together?
I also thought that prof. tech. folks were not paid for overtime. How did Jim get paid, and why was he doing all of this work from home. If the work was done from home, who verified the hours and how? Did the district supply a computer and track the hours? Where is the accountability? This somehow does not smell right to me.
By the way, I checked and most of the local school districts and out of state school districts notify the teachers at least two to three months before school is out that their license will be expiring.
If these techers were told to go to Anacortes and Olympia by the district, will the district be responsible for paying their mileage?
Some Prof Tech employees qualify for overtime, it just depends upon who you are.
I was a Prof Tech 12 and qualified for overtime, but was routinely denied overtime by way of a stipend when I carried the District's emergency pager for 56 hours a month. I received $22.16 per event and frequently there wouldn't be a single event all weekend but I still stayed home waiting for something to happen.
The District currently has an employee (Thom Boltin) that sits at home waiting for the pager to go off getting 16 hours of pay and benefits each week for the inconvenience of performing the same task.
My question is why was Jim Roberts working from home? He lives on Whidbey Island (at least he did when I was employed at the District), rides his motorcycle to work, so I would think that the cost of gasoline wouldn't be an issue, so why is he working from home? For convenience? He doesn't answer the phone, and tells persons stopping by his desk he is "busy", so perhaps this is why he gets by with it. I would think any employee of the District should be in attendance and be willing to respond to inquiries from other employees, whether in person, by telephone or e-mail.I guess this is just another example of WHO you know!
Basically none of the girls over there, including Jim respond to anything. They are in Bigshot mode on floor 1.
Jim Roberts! did you get your overtime taken away. WAH WAH WAH!
Just do your work. How about just do something. I did'nt know that people in HR got overtime anytime they want.
HEY NICK DO SOMETHING "SIR"!
Jim if this is true, I would hate to be you.
How in the world did Jim Roberts walk away with $30,000.00 in overtime money when the district laid off people because of budget cuts? Does anyone realize how this makes the district look to their employees, taxpayers and especially to the laid of workers? What is Jim Roberts job title? I hope there is a good explanation for the overtime. Was there a crisis at the district this past year that would have made it neccessary for him to work overtime, especially $30,000.00worth of overtime from home? Who was balancing the budget in this
department? Does this mean there needs to be an audit by the state auditors? This does make you wonder if the need for budget cuts last school year and the talk of more budget cuts this year is the truth or just lies. Can the truth please stand up?
Wow!! $30,000.00 in overtime. Can you believe it?
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This issue should have been taken care of prior to the beginning of the school year; we know this. When I was employed by the Edmonds School District, as a union employee, I was written up (set up) for matters which were trivial; had I been responsible for sending out reminders to teachers to re-new their certificates, I believe I would have been fired on the spot! Do you think Jim Roberts got his hand slapped? Probably NOT. HR gets away with murder and the supervisors cover it up if they LIKE you! Tracey Penney was given more than one chance to clean up her act!
Has anyone else had the luxury of hearing Cathy Birdsong say that HR is leading by example? Just curious. And really she did not say what kind of example they were, so I guess they are off the hook. There are so many poor examples of relations with employees on the first floor, that I would not even know where to begin. But remember they are leading by example. Good or bad, or what direction is a bit shady!
Does anyone know who the two employees are that are delivering computer carts in a district stepvan? Maybe more importantly the Driver department that they are performing for. Let's not forget the positions that were cut because the district claimed that there was not enough work to keep people busy. I am of the opinion that their duties fall directly under my collective bargaining agreement. I would like to know their salaries as well. Apparently the district still likes the concept of spending more to save money?? What is going on? Local 925 would you like to take a stab at this one?
Well, I guess all this information makes sense of my request in May of '05 to meet with HR to present my evidence and outline my objections to the bullying treatment of senior staff at MMS. After eagerly waiting for nearly two weeks and being told that HR would conduct an investigation prior to the meeting, I was told the day before the meeting was to occur that it was cancelled because HR had more important things to do. They had orientation for new employees; show them around the ESC, that sort of thing. Who were they showing around the office rather than investigating their bullying administrators? Tam Osborne.
Nine months later, Tam was "investigating" me (victim/whistleblower) and refering to the bullying as "the other issue." He refused to "investigate" "the other issue" until I signed the settlement agreement ending my employment with the district for "personal and health" reasons; he examined less than 50% of the evidence before he failed to continue.
Imagine if HR had done their job in May '05 and appropriately investigated those concerns. Then the retaliation that I experienced beginning the following August could have been verified and appropriate measures taken against the bullies. It would have created a safer work place at MMS and sent a signal to every employee that HR was concerned about their welfare. As it turns out, the opposite is true; people have no trust in HR. Sad.
I think the guy doing the driving is Tim Coomes. I think he works for 925.
Regarding the two employees delivering carts in a District step van; shouldn't this be handled by Warehouse personnel? Does anyone know if these two employees are from Technology Department? This definitely should be a union question.
Regarding the two employees delivering carts in a District step van; shouldn't this be handled by Warehouse personnel? Does anyone know if these two employees are from Technology Department? This definitely should be a union question.
The teacher, who is mentioned in the first comment, is still not back in the classroom. All paperwork was filed and fingerprints finished on Thursday, Sept. 4th, but today is Sept. 11th and he's still not back. The district has told him that they will pay him as a "paraeducator" for the days he is in the classroom helping the substitute teacher. He doesn't know what's holding up the system. Do you?
This seems strange. How can a teacher be removed from the classroom because of a certification lapse and then be IN his classroom as a "parapro?" I would think that you are EITHER "in" or "out" of your classroom. To be asked or ordered into your clssroom while the paperwork is processed seems to me to be odd. If the lack of paperwork doesn't allow you to teach your class, under what laws or policies (oh, that word!) are you allowed to be there in a lesser capacity? Who is in charge-the sub or the teacher?
What happened to Jims ponytail?
The district let employees go because the work was not necessary so the position was not needed but now we see substitutes in some of those position. They are not union and work cheaper so is this the district trying to break the union? Seems if the position is not necessary the work is not their either. Am I going crazy!!!
so that's how Jim bought that convertible Benz on a parapro salary ...
an update on the teacher in the original post. She is still uncertified. She's been told it may be a month. In the meantime, she's working in the classroom getting the top paraeducator wage (around $20 and hour) and a substitute is in her room to cover the certification. I'm not sure how this pencils out but can't be saving the district too much.
Is Jim teaching Expedition?
A teacher making $50K (around 20 years experience with an MA) would get around $270 per day. About $20/hr is around $150 a day. The district may be saving $120/day. No hurry there apparently.
What kind of a raise will the elite get next year?
Do not forget the cost of the sub. It isn't $5 for a footlong.
If the teacher is teaching the class, the sub would be sitting around doing little-just as if they were in a class "run" by a student teacher. Nice work if you can get it; bring a book to read.
I just spoke to a retired teacher friend who subs in the District; she tells me that there are 7 subs in the building (one building), plus the regular teachers are there as well, acting as Para-Educators (so to speak), so how does one writer to the Blog think the District is saving money by hiring subs? If Jim Roberts had done his job, perhaps most of the teachers would have re-newed their certificates on time! Just another GLITCH at HR!
Employer payments to retirement system, health care, Medicare, labor and industries, etc. are a percentage of the salary earned. If the teacher is earning less, the District would be paying less to those funds (the sub doesn't have an employer payment for many of those items so it doesn't matter for them).
Grow up and take responsibilty for your own requirements. Jim's job is not to have responsibilty for their certificates. If the State Patrol pulled you over and you didn't have the proper license, could you blame them? If you teach our students, take responsibilty for your certification.
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