Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween tricks courtesy of NFT

From today's Courier Times . . .

The Neshaminy school board will consider mandating schools get board approval before cancelling any traditional in-class celebrations.

This comes after the president of the parent-teacher organization at Samuel Everitt Elementary School in Middletown alerted the board Friday that teachers, who are in contract talks, did not hold Halloween parties this year, which have become a tradition.

School board member William O'Connor said Friday that board action would ensure that future holiday parties would be held. He added that teachers who don't adhere to any board order could be committing an "act of insubordination."

"The whole point would be that if for some reason (celebrations cannot be set up) by a teacher, we want to give parents that opportunity to keep that tradition going," O'Connor said.

"The teachers just didn't have (Halloween parties)," said PTO President Melissa Kitzmiller, who suspects they were canceled because of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers' work-to-contract directive. "They have them every year and usually parents are invited and many attend. I've heard that some teachers did Halloween activities in their rooms (Friday) but no parents were invited."

"I'm outraged. I don't blame the teachers. I blame the union leadership," she said. "I don't know for a fact that it has to do with the work-to-contract, but there is no doubt in my mind that's what this is about. I believe the teachers want to do the right thing but it's time for them to step up and do it."

The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching NFT President Louise Boyd for comment Friday.

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6 comments:

KClarinet said...

In my personal opinion eliminating Halloween parties at school (and Valentine's Day parties and all the other parties throughout the year) would be one of the best things to happen in our schools. Everyone complains there isn't enough instructional time. Yet hours and hours of perfectly good instructional time are wasted every year with this stuff. Let the kids have their parties after school under their parents' supervision. Whatever the rationale for it was this year, my vote would be to make eliminating these parties permanent.

abbeyainscal said...

I do somewhat agree with KClarinet but it is a tradition and if they were done away with for the purpose of adding instructional time, awesome. But, I agree, they were totally done away with this year at Heckman, had to be WTC.

Oh and guess what the teacher's costumes were? NFT tshirts with a construction paper crayon hung around their neck. Solidarity strikes again. Embarrassing if you ask me.

Izzy said...

The board will take action about classroom holiday parties? How about you focus on the educational needs of our students. How about you hold teachers accountable for insubordination for the important educational things they are not accomplishing…. We cant get student grades through the Open Access system, classroom teaching time is diminished, homework done in class, grading papers during instructional time, students cant get teacher recommendations for college applications … These types of things are hurting our students. WTC means no extras …. Absolutely skip the parties. How foolish the board will look if they actually address the entitlement of holiday parties… your playing right into the union’s hand.

Langhorne Resident said...

Ms. Kitzmiller should base her arguments on facts. Not all schools canceled Halloween activities. If this was a work to contract issue, all teachers would have canceled the activities.

MKitzmiller said...

My argument was based on the fact that our school, Samuel Everitt, did not have class parties. I can not speak for other schools, nor did I.

Langhorne Resident said...

Ms Kitzmiller, your article would leave one to believe that all schools canceled halloween activities. If I read it incorrectly, I appologize.

From my understanding, Everitt allowed the students to bring in cany and treats and celebrate throughout the day.

Can you tell me what part of the elementary curriculum includes parties?