Americans are like a mother cat that has zero instincts.You drop your litter, and then just stared with glazed eyes. Americas founding people would be ashamed of how you waste what they dreamed of.
* You people are so dependant on the government it is so funny.
** What would you do if Tuesday morning you wake up, and you were told the Government has folded. Most of you would run to the highest building you could find, and jump off the roof because your mind would loss all control.
It would be like those old movies that showed people in the nut house needing padded walls.

badger4life
If money was the answer to retention of students educational aptitude every student in America would be at Albert Einstein's level compared to the rest of the children of world.
American school children really are more like Forrest Gump compare to children of the world.
*Face it Americans breed dumb children. Not stupid children but dumb children that money will not resolve.
I will give you a quote which is the future of America starts in the home.

These tax, and spend people never fail to amaze me. Raise taxes higher, and higher. Drive the employers away. School district workers if there are no employers to pay taxes you do not get a pay check. AKA shop is folded up. Throw hundreds of district employees to the wolves to gain three new employees to pay union dues for a short period.

Hiring aides would be one way to help and if they hired a few 1/2 time ones they could save by not paying their health insurance. In my district 1/2 time aides do not get insurance. I consider myself to have 2 classes of reasonable numbers (17 and 18) but they are very young. I've had a few parents come in and volunteer and this has been great also but it's not always easy to get parents in (they work, have younger children at home...). I agree that it becomes CROWD CONTROL with large classes. I had a class of 24 4 year olds with one aide and even then it was the worst year I've ever taught. They couldn't sit for story without being on top of each other, they were cramped at their tables, the mix of so many personalities caused conflicts and issues every 5 minutes or so...it was bad. We tried to split them up for instruction between my aide and myself but at the young elementary level anything over 20 is way too much. Too bad we can't more college bound or college students in our classrooms to help out at the same time earning credits or hours towards their education. Sigh...

"It's simple, if you want your students to succeed and your schools to improve, take care of your teachers."

"Make sure teachers are valued, respected, and know what they do is important."

~Quint Studer, 2009 TYYO Pensacola, Florida

Our school board loves this guy and what he has been doing for the district(for free). Unfortunately they are not following his simple advice.

Thanks for the sample BeloitGuy, and your class is not the exception, it is more and more common throughout Rock County. Throw in a few more students that come to school cold, hungry, and in need of an adult and it gets even tougher. In additin, add a few families that pull their child to be home schooled because mom or dad didn't want to get a ticket or go to court for truancy. Yes, this happens more than you think. Then, in most of these cases, the child does not get taught at home. (liberal home schooling laws do not enforce that teaching and learning is taking place)and return to public schools a semester or year later (when the parents are sick of dealing with them) and they are a year or so behind their classmates. Then these kids take the state exam and aren't proficient or advanced and it's the teacher's fault.

Why are so many people anti-education? Do they not have kids? If you do, start homeschooling. That will solve all of your problems. Heck, it will even help the class size problem so new teachers don't have to be hired. That would make you happy, too.

Would it help to hire more teacher aides?

I would love to see those who think that large class sizes are no problem at all. I teach in a classroom that has 26 students. 5 students have IEP's, 5 more have SPP's (student promotion plans, the stage before IEP's), 12 students speak English as a second language, and 4 have been labeled gifted. Sprinkle in the three on behavior plans and you have quite a crew! Work my butt off to make it work though because ya gotta love the kids!

School board cut janitors,maintaince personel, others?YET need more teachers?
Why not try other options first? We all are doing the best we can (all professions) with less.Why can't the school board,teachers?
I agree with the statement,class size will be lesser start of (if not before) 2010 school opening(s).

Being a teacher myself, I completely understand this situation. My classroom at the beginning of the year has 29 kids, which was 4 students over the mandated amount. Yes, it was only 4 more kids, but in a classroom already crowded with 25 desks, 4 more can cause a commotion. Within the school I teach in, we did exactlly the same thing and hired 3 new teachers to combat over-crowding. My classroom now is a very manageable size of 15, and I am able to complete my job to the best of my ability much easier than before!

We should have more one year contracts...not less.

what classes are these k-3 are the ones where you really need to watch class size. After that up to 25 kids a class a teacher should be able to handle and to teach with out there being issues.

Class size, particularly at the elementary level, should never ever exceed 25 students. After that, it becomes more of a "crowd control" situation than a learning experience. Major kudos to those who realize smaller class size increases the quality level of education provided. These leaders are putting the kids' needs first....well done!

I don't think people here realize just how common a one-year contract is for teachers nowadays. And yes, a one-year contract is FTE with benefits.

whenever insults like "stupid" are thrown around, i pause, this time to read all of the comments the insult is thrown at. actually, i agree with the comments in question (there were two, i agree with both) and i agree that he/she has a right to their opinions without being slammed. in fact, if that is the only rhetorical response one has (stupid) then maybe the argument is lost before it has started. lost on the person throwing the insult that is.

Maybe they should just hire one teacher per student,tax payers have all kinds of money,people on the hill seem to think! What i see & the drop out rate,i don't have an answer,do you smarty pants?? But i'm sure you'll be thinking you do,but your answer will not be written in stone,only in your mind!

Woodsman -

Your uninformed rather stupid comment only re-enforces the idea of hiring more teachers -only this time at the adult education level. Do you even think before you start typing your responses?

poor janesville school system, board, students, teachers, janitors, on and on. next up; an Obama propaganda sing along.

The whole thing is,they got that extra 150,000 that is burning a hole in their pocket,that's how i see it!! And in most jobs temps don't get benefits. Mac only pays around 10 GGG's a year,so wrong guess my friend!

Woodsman,
I would say that you earning $20,000 is a gift. After all, how much work is it for you to bag up french fries? And then, you get a five minute break while the next batch of fries cooks. You are not the only one who pays taxes. I pay taxes too, and my guess is that I pay quite a bit more than you per year. My taxes are $5400 per year and I have a very modest home. I agree with badger. Get your degree if it's so easy. Or, if you have a college degree, please sign up to substitute teach. You could make $20,000 doing that to get a flavor for it. My guess is that you couldn't handle a class of 15 yet alone 30. That's also 30 progress reports and conferences, except it would be 35 conferences because of the split families, etc.

This is still a one year problem. Enrollment will continue to drop for the next few years. Rotate the teachers that have smaller class sizes.

There are SOME people that think schools and teachers are a place to park their kids for babysitting. They don't seem to care how well they learn something only to just keep the kids out of the way. These people probably didn't pay much attention in class or really appreciated the value of school so they ended up getting a lower paying job and want to lower everyone to their standards/level. We know the community benefits from better and higher educated people.

Woodmans, do you have a 4 year degree and credits beyond that? If so, and you only make around $20,000, then I feel as sorry for you as I do for teachers. However, if you don't have a four year degree and make that much, you are right about at the average for those that don't continue their education.

If the school district pays $60,000 for a teacher, that includes benefits, which have a substantial cost. That is not the starting salary of a teacher.
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The people who would "suffer" in woodsman's world are the students. Read the full article in today's paper and make an informed decision.

Woodmans- $180,000 for three teachers is not their salary. Health insurance is between $15,000-18,000 of that and then other benefits are taken out as well. The salary will most likely be around $33,000-$35,000. And then after TAXES (yes, teachers pay them also), they will take home $2,000 or less a month.

If you want this wage, go back to school for 4 years and get the degree.

School Board, please do what is best for children and not what will save tax payers $2.00 each.

went4milk, why don't you take some time to visit or volunteer in a classroom of 30 or more students and experience how ridiculous it is before making such an ignorant comment.

I'm so sick of reading how people that are not in the schools think everything should be done. Teachers are professionals just like firefighters, police officers, doctors, etc.. They know what they are talking about and requesting. When they have a request that directly affects students and learning, the entire community should support it.

And they say the teachers don't get good wages,BULL,60 thousand a piece,that's three times more then most people,me included,WOW!! Let the class be bigger,everyone else has to suffer some. You spend crazy people just never quit,do ya.

If this is only for one year, let the class size be larger than expected. How much larger is the class size anyway? I would think that some classes are smaller than expected. "Board" do the right thing!!