TEACHERS SCAMMED? Maybe you are not so grandfathered as I thought I was..
This document can be requested
by calling or emailing:
Mr. Julio Arana, Operation Analyst at the Office of Personnel Operations & Records.
Telephone: (305) 995-7212
Email: jarana1@dadeschools.net
Could you be feeling like me - SCAMMED?
Is Miami Dade County School intentional mis-designating you so that you have less job security and earn less income throughout your working years and receive less pension benefits during retirement?
Request the Employment History chart and find out.
After all, there is a motive.
You would be cheaper labor freeing up thousands upon thousands of dollars for the state or district to use for wasteful and unnecessary spending - but an investment nevertheless. No, not for teachers or students silly! An investment for them!
Miami-Dade County Public School operates like a business and the Superintendent is its CEO.
You see. Who donates to these politicians' campaigns? Not teachers, students or most parents. So, why would they invest in the stakeholders when they can investment in themselves.
It is, after all charter school and testing companies, publishers, and a wide arrange of vendors who so on and so forth who make campaign contributions.
This is where I ask myself? Where is union leadership?
Collective bargaining anyone? "What's that!?!" said, Karla Matz with a smile, of course. "I'm just here for the photo-opp!" (see earns a 6 digit salary; reason for smile)
"Anybody out there?" (echo 10 ten times).
MY STORY
What made me ask questions is the fact that even though I started working in 2007, and therefore before the law would presto-o change-o, I was not designated as a grandfathered teacher but as an annual teacher on performance pay. What!?!
I worked for Miami-Dade County Public Schools from 1995 - 1998 at which point I decided to go to law school and practice law and live abroad where I taught at a law school. As I often put it, "I rediscovered the joys of teaching." It sounds romantic, doesn't it? And in this way, I would return to this noble but unappreciated profession we call teaching.
The fateful year of my return to Miami-Dade County Public Schools was 2007 - at least 4 years before the laws would be changed.
My decision to return was carefully thought out. It was anything but impulsive.
I balanced how much I would earn as an attorney against my projected earnings on the "grandfathered schedule" - and not just in terms of income but also pension benefits. I then weighed the difference (in the negative) of my income against my quality of life. I concluded that the trade off for not having to work 12 - 15 hours days at a sweatshop (a.k.a. law firm) was worthwhile. After all, I knew too well what it was like leaving the office at 8 PM.
Fast forward.
The year is 2016, and I am (possibly "we are") trying to make sense of how the inept Florida Legislature changed the way in which instructional personnel, as they call us teachers, are compensated. What a joke, by the way.
Well, this laborious exercise revealed to me that I am not "grandfathered teacher" - even though I was hired before the law changed.
Did you read, SCAMMED?
Follow me on this...I think I am on to something. Negative. But, something.
If you started working for Miami-Dade County Public Schools around 2006 - when they were having all of these "recessions" and "economical problems" - you may recall that there were "hiring freezes" where teachers were only offered 3100 or 3010 positions because they were not giving professional service contracts. It did not make sense to me then, but now it makes perfect sense.
I strongly believe that the reason why the MDCPS Board was not issuing professional service contracts is because this decimation of teachers' salaries and pension benefits is a well-thought-out - and insidious, of course - systematic plan perfectly crafted to get away with paying more teachers less, while affording them with less job security.
So, the MDCPS would have given "effect" to the statue which was in the pipeline - unbeknownst to us - years before it was actually enacted.
At the time it sounded like - well, just that. The MDCPS Board is going through a financial crisis - and at least I have a job, right? If the words: County - Board - Miami - School - Dade are in the mix - well all I am saying is, "Don't be so naive. Leave that act to your students who do not know the ways of the educational system."
If I have planted a seed of doubt, or maybe just curiosity, go ahead and call. Request it.
It is YOUR right to know to what extent your educational career is in a precarious state and subject to the whims of the gods and goddesses of the Administrators [read: "Terminators"].
Request the Employment History chart which I provided you a copy of above so that you know exactly what to ask for and what you should get.
You may just be in for the surprise of your career: You are not a "grandfathered teacher" - and even better you are not only an annual contract teacher but a performance pay teacher.
Yes, we all know that if you are annual and are to be paid performance pay both your future and livelihood hang by a thread - possibly at the mercy of your school administrator.
Yikes! Be nice!
Wait. Does this mean that I relied and made a life altering decision to not practice law - on a "schedule" which has magically disappeared? I'll never let Superintendent (Can I say his name?) Carvalho forget the magic!
How could I have relied on these unforeseeable changes in the law? How could anybody?
This does not pass the smell test. I trust you know what I mean by that.
Question: Is this retro-activity even legal,
or is it subject to challenge in a court of law?
Brace yourselves. We are only just beginning the journey...
