Former training partner charged with soliciting conduct
June 1, 2012
Former training partner charged with soliciting conduct
The Norman Transcript
The Norman Transcript
Fri Jun 01, 2012, 02:34 AM CDT
NORMAN — A former Norman Public School district training partner was charged Thursday with soliciting passionate control with a minor.
Jeremy Dale Davis, 34, was charged with soliciting passionate control or communication with a teenager by use of technology. He also faces a assign of stalking. The teenager is a 17-year-old male.
NPS Superintendent Dr. Joe Siano pronounced Davis worked as a training partner during Monroe Elementary from Aug 2005 until his abdication on May 7.
According to a illusive means confirmation filed with a charges, Davis met a teenager in Dec 2011 “when a dual struck adult a pointless loyalty during his place of work during a possibility encounter.”
On Mar 12, a teenager “made a news of stalking to his propagandize advisor and a military review ensued,” according to a affidavit.
The teenager alleges, according to a affidavit, that Davis was stalking him by email, content message, write hit and amicable network links and “repeatedly demand(ed) that they be alone together.”
According to a affidavit, Davis allegedly asked a teenager to attend in several passionate acts. When a teenager refused, Davis allegedly threatened a teenager “by a engorgement of means.”
Hannah Cruz 366-3533 hcruz@normantranscript.com
City, Schools And Teachers Join In Effort To Save Jobs
Portland city leaders are in talks with leaders at Portland Public Schools, and the teachers’ union, in an effort to avoid cutting 110 teaching positions.
The Portland Association of Teachers sent a message to members saying the union has been “intensely working for five straight days with the district.”
Portland Public Schools’ spokesman Matt Shelby says city leaders also are involved in a united effort to keep the district from laying off teachers this spring.
“It’s kind of a joint brainstorm for ‘who can do what’ to help limit those cuts to the schools. And so we’re making progress there. We’re happy with that. We don’t have a ‘done deal’ yet,” Shelby says.
The district’s proposed budget recovers more than $10 million of its $27 million shortfall by cutting teachers.
Superintendent Carole Smith has asked the union to help restore teaching jobs by accepting unpaid furlough days. The union has told the district to look into cutting more than the 34 administrative jobs cut in the proposed budget.
Children working badly: Has it gotten worse?
JANESVILLE — A lady told her mom a child poked her in a stomach with a pencil, causing a bruise. Then it happened again a subsequent day.
Four or 5 kids in a category of about 22 were regulating around uncontrolled, slamming doors and pulling other kids, primogenitor Diane Mayhew said.
A child was seen poking his palm adult a girl’s skirt. The same child hold scissors to a necks of his classmates, one declare told Janesville police.
All of a above were kindergartners during Janesville’s Van Buren Elementary School progressing this year.
“It’s to a indicate where these children are hazards to other kids and a teacher,” Mayhew pronounced during a time.
Mayhew, who also has a child in high school, pronounced it wasn’t like this when he was in kindergarten.
Some teachers agreed, off a record, that a series of problem children has increasing in new decades, and a problems are arrangement adult in increasingly younger children, creation training a worse job.
The border of children with problem behaviors is tough to gauge. Clearly, there still are copiousness of children who act good during school.
Mayhew was one of several relatives with children in a same category who complained to The Gazette after apropos undone with a school’s responses.
Parent Heather Kemps pronounced her daughter was punched in a face and strike in a conduct with a wooden block, causing bruising and swelling.
“My son complains lot about carrying headaches each day since of screaming and yelling,” pronounced primogenitor Jamie Chareumthasouk. “He told me his friends contend ‘F’ word and a ‘B’ word.”
Parental frustration
Mayhew met with her child’s teacher, a principal and a superintendent. She was certain stairs were being taken, though she was not told what. School officials won’t exhibit those sum since of laws that anathema avowal of identities of students with disabilities or who are disciplined.
But a clergyman during Van Buren hinted during a problem in a notation to relatives performed by The Gazette: “Some of a children are struggling with following directions and practicing protected classroom behavior. We are also stressing a significance of regulating suitable denunciation in a classroom. Please speak to your child each day … Encourage your child to tell we if they have had any issues with other children. Please forewarn me if your child ever mentions removing harm or inapt behaviors.”
District Superintendent Karen Schulte concurred a classroom has problems, though she pronounced they were being addressed. The school’s building coordinator, Stephanie Pajerski, was one of a district’s best kindergarten teachers until she was promoted this year to run a school, Schulte said
Pajerski told Schulte some of a kindergartners’ behaviors were “challenging” though zero surprising and zero Pajerski hadn’t seen in her career, Schulte said.
“Kindergartners are guileless and extemporaneous on tip of that, and rambunctious, so we have to cause that in as well,” Schulte said.
Schulte pronounced several times that classroom government is a teacher’s responsibility.
Change over time
“Do we have other severe classrooms — kindergartens — in a district with even some-more children? Yes we do. They’re regulating really well,” Schulte said.
Schulte pronounced a district brought in experts and pulled one tyro from a Van Buren classroom. She concurred that operative in a classroom is some-more formidable than it was 30 years ago when she initial taught.
“We do see an boost in autism, for example, and other behaviors that are many some-more challenging,” Schulte said. “… School districts opposite a republic are identifying some-more students with behavioral issues than we have in a past.”
Roberta Sample has seen many behavior-challenged children over a decades, initial as a proffer and afterwards 12 years as a propagandize district special-education primogenitor liaison.
“Master teachers tell me, ‘I don’t know what it is, Roberta, though I’ve never had a first-grader tell me to “F” off before,’” she said.
“They tell me, ‘It is different, Roberta. we can’t tell we why, though a behaviors and a responses are different.’
“Somebody should listen to them. They’ve been on a front lines forever.”
Problem parents?
Sample quiescent in 2010 though stays tuned in to relatives and teachers. She believes training has gotten harder and children some-more formidable for a accumulation of reasons:
– “Inept parents” who don’t know how to set boundary for their children and who apparently consider it’s OK for kids to learn coarse denunciation during a immature age.
– Technology — “At a really immature age, they have entrance to materials that we would’ve been repelled if my 15-year-old had entrance to it. We don’t manipulate since we don’t know that we know how to manipulate it.”
Sample pronounced she is removing some-more calls from families with children who have accessed “extremely racy websites.”
– Substance abuse — Wisconsin has prolonged been a personality in ethanol abuse, Sample said, and it’s famous that ethanol affects fetuses. Society has not dealt with that problem as it has finished with tobacco, she said.
Sample — not a health-food geek by any means — wonders if chemicals in dishes we eat also competence impact child behavior.
– Mental health problems, mostly associated to drugs and alcohol, that are not treated, infrequently since there’s no money.
“As a society, we only need to collect adult a possess problems and stop observant ‘I don’t know what to do.’ Start somewhere.”
Sample pronounced multitude is to censure for not giving relatives a collection they need to move adult their possess children.
“You can’t only censure families and children, and we can’t only censure teachers,” Sample said. “It’s a common burden.”
Teacher training
Simone DeVore, associate highbrow and early-childhood preparation coordinator during UW-Whitewater, pronounced schools have aloft educational and behavioral expectations of kindergartners.
“That raises a clarity that we have some-more children with duty problems. I’m not so sure,” DeVore said.
At a same time, teachers are traffic with a arise in autism and with some-more misery and some-more different populations. Sometimes it’s a problem of bargain a child, DeVore said.
“Every duty has a function, so teachers need to figure out what a child is perplexing to tell me, and that requires training, of course,” DeVore said.
Demands on teachers to get some-more training have increased, DeVore said, and luckily, Wisconsin has good professional-development resources.
Families also have some-more final on them, and both relatives mostly are working.
“Stressors families knowledge in a home can really many impact a child’s duty in school,” DeVore said. “The duty of a duty is maybe to find attention.”
Discipline programs
Schools contend they are addressing fortify problems with programs that are pronounced to be research-based “best practices.” The programs, such as PBIS — Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports — evangelise a behavioral formula and try to drive children to do a right thing by rewarding good behavior.
At Janesville’s Roosevelt Elementary School, students who behaved good recently were famous with a lunch ceremony, a design arrangement in a office, a certificate and approval on a propagandize website and in propagandize announcements, according to a new blog by Schulte.
At Van Buren School, in a same report: “Office fortify referrals are down for a quarter. Students continue to support with morning announcements by reciting a goal matter and Eagle Expectations, along with pity personal examples of how they are creation certain choices and following a expectations.”
Other programs such as Response to Intervention concentration resources on children with a many formidable problems as early as probable so they don’t wear as a child moves by a grades, Schulte said.
The economy
“Parents are overworked. People are operative dual jobs,” Sample said. “I can learn some-more about children by visiting a day caring than by articulate to Mom and Dad. That’s scary,”
Good teachers are coping, though operative in a formidable classroom will wear down even a best of teachers, Sample said. She pronounced schools and relatives need some-more common sense.
Sample pronounced a Janesville School District has a enlightenment of insisting a schools always do a right thing, so relatives with concerns aren’t taken as severely as they should be.
“You can’t say, ‘My child would never do that,’ since a notation your child leaves your supervision, they competence do whatever they wish,” Sample said. “And we can’t say, ‘My clergyman would never contend that or do that.’”
Teachers infrequently feel things have gotten many worse, though that could be a slight view, pronounced Marge Hallenbeck, who late in 2010 as executive of at-risk and multicultural programs in a Janesville district.
“If we have a tough category this year, that’s what it looks like, though we tend to forget a good years,” Hallenbeck said.
—
Mental illness one pivotal to misbehaving children
Mental disorders are one reason children competence act adult during school.
These problems mostly arise during immature ages, though they competence not be diagnosed or treated for years, experts said.
One in 5 children has a mental health disorder, according to a National Center for Children in Poverty, and adult to 80 percent of children and girl in need of mental health services do not accept them.
Early diagnosis is key, experts agree.
The problem of early mental disorders is only commencement to be recognized, and too mostly children are not treated until prolonged after problems arise, pronounced Simone DeVore, early childhood preparation coordinator during UW-Whitewater.
A new consult showed that psychiatric hospitalization rates have increasing for children ages 5 to 12, rising from 155 per 100,000 children in 1996 to 283 per 100,000 children in 2007. The boost was a biggest among all age groups, pronounced Lana Nenide of a Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health.
The use of anti-psychotic drugs in children is on a arise as well.
“Helping children as early as probable is really important. The longer we wait, a some-more behaviors turn entrenched,” Nenide said. “In fact, investigate shows that when assertive and eremitic duty has persisted to age 9, serve involvement has a bad possibility of success.”
“We contingency work on impediment and early intervention,” Nenide added. “When we wait, we competence be too late.”
(c)2012 The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, Wis.)
Visit The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, Wis.) during www.gazetteextra.com
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Greater state funding may save a few Lynchburg teaching jobs
Lynchburg City Schools will be able to save a handful of teacher positions with new money packed into the state budget.
The schools expect to get about $722,000 more than anticipated under the General Assembly-approved budget.
Most of it — $469,000 — will be pumped into higher Virginia Retirement System costs.
But $253,000 was earmarked to protect k-3 classroom sizes, allowing the schools to take a few teachers off the chopping block.
“I would use that money to begin to restore the cuts made in classrooms,” Superintendent Scott Brabrand said during a City Council meeting Tuesday. “… It would be used to lower the ripplets.”
The schools were planning to nix 47 jobs, including 34 teachers. An estimated five teachers can be saved with the added state funding.
Other cutbacks — including charging fees for certain sports and music programs — remain on the table.
The other big block of state money will be used to offset a more than $500,000 rise in VRS costs created by the 5 percent cost swap passed by the General Assembly.
School employees will be required to pay 5 percent of their salaries into VRS, which will defray the division’s required percentage contribution. But employees will get a 5 percent raise — increasing overall division costs for VRS, FICA and other expenses tied to salary levels.
The state budget, still awaiting approval by the governor, gaveLynchburgschools $469,000 to use against VRS costs, non-personnel inflation or one-time preschool costs.
The schools have the option of phasing in the 5 percent swap and spreading out its cost hikes over five years, but Brabrand recommended doing it in one bite.
The city manager made the same recommendation for the city side of the VRS changes.
Council considering paring back its local increase in school funding in light of the higher state aid, but Brabrand, who started just this month, asked them to give him a chance.
“I understand you demand excellence from Lynchburg City Schools and maybe over the last several years you haven’t seen it,” he said in response to questions about limping test scores and graduation rates.
“But give me a chance to put some points on the board. … I need a chance to build a team of excellence, and I can’t do that if I can’t field a full team to compete and win for our kids and for our future in Lynchburg City Schools.”
Brabrand said he’s committed to raising test scores and graduation rates. Every school will have an improvement plan in the next year and every principal will be re-evaluated, he said.
He rebuffed suggestions the city should be compared to surrounding counties. The city has a higher percentage of impoverished students, which brings a different set of challenges.
Bass Elementary School has both the poorest student body and the highest test scores in the region. But it gets about $2,000 more per pupil than any other Lynchburg elementary school because of grants and Title I funding, Brabrand said.
“So excellence comes at a price and it does not come cheap,” he said. “… I think we have to decide what kind of city do we want? What kind of quality of education?”
Council, which planned a $3.7 million increase in local school funding, considered a motion to divert $720,000 of that into police salaries. The proposal was voted down 4-3.
“I will not pit our education against our public safety,” said Mayor Joan Foster, who voted to keep the full $3.7 million for schools.
Councilman H. Cary, who voted for the transfer, said police salaries are embarrassingly low and have created a critical turnover problem among officers.
“We need a good police force with experienced officers,” he said, adding he doesn’t want to see more “Mr. Bakers lying on the sidewalks of Lynchburg.”
George Baker, an Arizona man in town for his granddaughter’s wedding two years ago, was killed by a group of teenagers.
“We’ve got to turn our turnover rate around so police officers want to stay here and not go anywhere else,” Cary said. “Frankly, money is one of ways we do that.”
Vice Mayor Ceasor Johnson said he wasn’t “going to play this game.”
“I really appreciate everyone’s true colors coming out now,” he said. “… I’m going to stick with the schools on this one.”
On the split vote, council elected to give the schools the full $3.7 million increase proposed. Total local operating funding for schools in the new budget is $35.6 million or about $4,300 per pupil.
Edison Local to cut teaching jobs to deal with budget deficit
Edison Local School District will cut teaching jobs amid a serious financial dilemma, officials decided during a special board meeting on Monday.
District administrators said they are trying to find a way to cut spending enough to overcome a $1.5 million deficit, and they said they will have to cut jobs.
Superintendent Dave Quattrochi said a resolution passed on Monday will help the district lessen its deficit, and — without specifying — he said there will be a number of teaching positions that won’t be filled next year.
Quattrochi said the decision was difficult but had to be done for the district to move forward.
“We had a staffing analysis done (and looked at) enrollment. It was not an easy decision, but we need to maintain our excellence and keep moving forward and build trust with the community,” Quattrochi said.
He said the board is hopeful a levy can be placed on the ballot again and will be passed so a similar situation can be avoided in the future.
Stay with NEWS9, WTOV9.com and WTOV9 Mobile for continuing coverage.
HISD to cut teaching jobs
Houston ISD trustees are scheduled to vote Thursday to cut numerous teaching positions, including 51 special-education jobs, next school year.
The school district’s general counsel, Elneita Hutchins-Taylor, told the board Monday that the cuts, part of a reduction in force, are necessary because of budget cuts, fewer students in special education and dwindling enrollment at some campuses. She did not provide the exact number of jobs but said principals have the power to eliminate any positions to balance their budgets.
“We’re not trying to push people out, but we are trying to focus on children,” HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said.
Some secondary schools may have to eliminate teachers of elective courses to afford hiring a reading teacher as part of the district’s new focus on literacy, according to Hutchins-Taylor. Grier noted that older students who struggle to read will fail the state’s new standardized exam called STAAR.
The displaced teachers will be allowed to apply to other open positions in the district.
School Supe: Additional Aid Will Curb Layoffs
In light of additional funds the Riverhead Central School District will receive next year after state legislators agreed to a final budget, Riverhead Superintendent Nancy Carney said the extra money will allow the district to curb teacher layoffs – though she’s not exactly sure how many, or which staff, will be saved.
In February, Carney said that 12 teacher and nine teaching assistant layoffs would save the district over $2 million next year. But after Carney got word on Friday that about $270,000 more than originally projected will be coming to RCSD next year, layoffs will be lighter than originally stated.
“The additional state aid from the passed state budget will allow us to restore certain staff that were eliminated under tighter budgetary restrictions,” Carney said via email on Monday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo had proposed upping Riverhead Central School District’s aid by about $630,000 in January. After state lawmakers negotiated the governor’s competitive grant program down from $250 million to $50 million, additional funding was made available throughout the state. Riverhead’s final aid for 2012-2013 is now estimated to be just under $18 million as a result, about $907,000 more than last year.
“In turn, we will therefore be able to bring back instructional staff using these funds,” Carney went on. “The specific decisions as to which staff members will be restored to the budget has not yet been reached, but I am pleased that our staffing and instructional cuts will not be as severe as originally envisioned.”
Barbara Barosa, president of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association, said on Monday that she had not heard of the precise increase in aid to the district.
“I’m hoping we can save three, four, or five positions, but I really don’t know yet,” she said. “[The increase in funding] may be used for staff, equipment, programs, or other things cut or reduced out of the budget … I have a feeling it will probably be about two positions.”
The teacher’s union is in the process of renegotiating its contract – which expires this upcoming summer – with the district. Barosa said there appears to be no sign at the moment of any settlement between the two sides which would save jobs slated for excess.
“As of right now, talks are not going well,” she said. “We are not making any significant progress at this point. I don’t see any settlement coming in the near future.”
Edwardsville board votes to cut 60 teaching jobs – The State Journal
EDWARDSVILLE — The school board in Edwardsville has approved a cost-saving plan that will eliminate up to 86 jobs – including 60 teaching positions for next fall. The budget cuts passed by Edwardsville School District 7′s board on Monday are designed to save $3 million.
Superintendent Ed Hightower says the cuts are needed because property tax revenue has dropped and the state has reduced funding. Hightower says the district is making the cuts rather than increasing property taxes because officials didn’t want to put more of a burden on families.
School officials say the positions being lost include teachers, teachers’ aides and administrators. The district also plans to trim programs, including athletics, performing arts and driver’s education.
20 jobs to be cut at South Shore schools
The South Shore Regional School Board has decided to eliminate 20 teaching jobs next year.
Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, the superintendent of the board, told CBC News on Wednesday those job reductions could be achieved through retirements.
“We’re anticipating an estimate of 20 retirements, however we won’t have details on that until April,” she said.
Pynch-Worthylake said five of the job cuts are linked to declining enrolment, while the rest are necessary to deal with budget cutbacks by the Department of Education.
Cuts to the board could be as high as $2.7 million.
Pynch-Worthylake said her school board is still looking for more places to trim costs and will decide later this year if any non-teaching positions will be eliminated.
Nova Scotia’s eight school boards have been told to expect a combined cut of $13.4 million from an overall budget estimate of just over $1 billion.
The cut follows a $17.6 million funding reduction last year and officials with the Department of Education have said the latest decrease could result in larger class sizes and will mean fewer teaching positions.
The South Shore, Strait and Cape Breton-Victoria regional school boards are facing the highest cuts at 2.1 per cent.
Premier Darrell Dexter defended the move on Wednesday, saying the cut is necessary given the province’s continual decline in enrolment.
He argued the ratio of dollars per student has actually increased under his government.
Greenfield Union School District looks at slashing teacher jobs
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Greenfield Union School District might be forced to cut almost a quarter of its staff, including teachers, as it tries to cope with a $3.2 billion state budget cut.
Nearly 60 teachers and 15 assistant principals face getting a pink slip in the next coming weeks. By the 2012-13 school year, Greenfield will have to make $4.8 million in cuts. Those cuts could come from eliminating 35 elementary teaching jobs and 24 single subject jobs, including math, English, music and art.
“If we laid off all that many people, the number, itself would be huge. We can’t, but we also don’t have an unlimited reserve and can’t go forward without doing anything,” Greenfield Superintendent Chris Crawford said.
Eyewitness News received a tip from a teacher working with the district. She said she is concerned that money is being wasted by administrators using district-funded cellphones and getting car allowances. We asked the superintendent why those areas haven’t been cut.
“We are looking at things like cellphones, but that’s a small number. The cellphone savings alone would be less than $5,000 a year,” Crawford said.
Crawford said he hopes teachers and administrators will take advantage of retirement incentives offered to teachers that could help save jobs. School districts throughout the state, including Kern County, must make the layoff decisions by March 15.