Old Hands and the Buna ISD

 

 Of course the term " Old Hand" means someone with a lot of experience in that field, or on the job. 

I of course, am referring to people who have 20+ years of teaching experience who now work for the Buna Independent School District. 

The Ole "Govteach" of course was an "Old Hand" when he was working at the Buna Public Schools.  Say what you want, I "apprenticed" at several of different school districts, Beaumont, Magnolia, Everman, Dayton, before I was the " Mr. Thomas" you got teaching you Government and Economics at Buna High School.( As I have said for years it was either a fluke or in my personal belief, "foreordained" that I wound up teaching in Buna.)

It seems that the raise that the "Old Hands" or older teachers were promised a raise like the rest of the school teachers with less than 20 years of experience. 

That said, supposedly, the teachers with 20+ years experience are not getting the same raise amount as the people with less than 20 years of teaching experience. The number, I have been told, is $1500 less. 

Needless to say, the veteran teachers are upset. 

Many are talking about retiring. Others are going to look at other districts to teach. 

In this day and age, and this is important, it is getting harder and harder to find people who want to teach school. 

The kids, the parents, society, the media, the politicos, are anti-teacher. 

There are very,very few younger people who are in college and university training to become teachers. They know the score. They see how teachers are being treated. 

Even worse, those in the classroom are getting out to go into other professions, and many if they have the "points" are retiring. 

Others, who are still in education, are looking to get out of the classroom. They are thinking, if I am going to be abused, I may as well get a little more money and go into administration. 

( Lamar University now has more people working on Master's degrees than Bachelor's degrees....And what are they studying? Education Administration or Education Leadership. They are becoming principals, most with the hope of moving up the administration ladder.One of my favorite people, an excellent teacher,  and it was a sad day when she left Buna, got out of the classroom and moved up the school administration ladder. And I can't say I blame her.)

I wonder if Buna is trying to "run-off" their older teachers in an attempt to save a couple of dollars so they can buy solar panels? 

The trouble is...Who's going to replace them? Especially if people find out how they treat teachers when get older?