I don’t believe that he was only late 1-2 minutes.
I don’t recall very many times ever having a K-12 teacher be late to class. Maybe for an emergency or car accident? Certainly never on a regular basis.
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An elementary school teacher who was allowed to keep his job despite being late for work 111 times in two years said Friday that breakfast is to blame for his tardiness.
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“I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time,” 15-year veteran teacher Arnold Anderson told The Associated Press.
A bad habit of eating breakfast? How long does it take to eat cereal, yogurt or some fruit? What a dumb excuse. Maybe he’s trying to imply that by making him be on time, they’re forcing him to skip breakfast.
I know…what kind of excuse is that? “a bad habit of eating breakfast”? I hope he does eat breakfast…gotta keep the energy up dealing with the young students.
It’s weird because most teachers that I know get to the school at least 30 minutes before class starts…or earlier.
I think this is an important part of the story that needs to be kept in focus:
Being late to “school” is infinitely different from being late to class. Not that I’m excusing 100+ tardinesses but our teachers could’ve done this when we were in school and we wouldn’t know because we always arrived much later than them.
I know that my SIL would park her car near her classroom and just go right to it in the morning, and then later go to the office and get her mail, etc.
I find it hard to believe that if he was 1-2 minutes late to “work” the school would even know or do anything about it. Maybe he was late to early faculty meetings, always walking in a few minutes late?
do teachers still get assigned “yard duty” or whatever to “watch” the early arriving kids?
I can’t imagine that there is an administrator standing in the entrance checking to see if a teacher is 1-2 minutes late (in the morning long before classes started).
Yes, maybe, but I’ve never heard of that much strictness, simply because several people can be “lined up” to punch in. So, often the first few minutes after the hour is “good enough”.
I haven’t punched a time clock since I had a job in college. Back then, 7 minutes before the hour and 7 minutes after the hour, still punched at the hour. I’m sure things are more accurate these days, but the point is still the same…many folks can be lined up to punch, so some will be early, some ontime, and some late.
madison85 - Do you think $90K a year is a lot? I think good teachers are worth way more than that!
There must be more to this story. My neighbor kids are in school from 8:50 to 3:30, yet their teachers are required to be at school from 7:45 to 3:45. So, if he were a few minutes ‘late’, wouldn’t he still be there long before the students arrived? The teachers at my neighborhood school do have meetings two mornings each week, so maybe he was late for meetings and the principal would then notice. Also, I see many staff cars in the parking lot before 7:15 and after 5:00 when I drive by.
I think the teacher was wrong to be late, but the administrator did not do his/her job. If he had been warned/disciplined earlier, he would not be teaching today. Or he would have learned to be on time…
The real issue is that the administrators did not properly deal with the issue. They allowed the conduct until they went to fire him. The arbitrator said that is not the proper process.
Also in NJ I am told $200,000 is barely middle class so $90,000 under those terms is not so lucrative.
We don’t “punch a time clock” but we do need to sign in each morning. And it’s 5 minutes before we’re supposed to be homeroom.
If we didn’t sign in, the possibility could exist that there would be 40 kids locked out of a homeroom. Signing in enables the AP to know that everything is covered.
And I certainly wouldn’t take such a lame excuse from any student, or from my own kids. Breakfast did NOT make him late-- failing to get his tush out of bed on time to eat breakfast made him late.
In the 35 years I’ve been teaching, I’ve been late three or four times. And each time, I called in-- car trouble or an incredible traffic jam on a local street. And it’s never been an issue-- life happens.
And whether it was 2 minutes or 20 is immaterial. He signed a contract, and agreed to be at school at a particular time. It’s his job to be there. He failed to do that job 111 times in a 180 day school year.
And $90K in NJ means that food is on the table, and the mortgage is paid each month, but a week in Disney World is gong to take some serious budgeting over an extended period of time. It’s a Chevy, not a Lexus.
When I was teaching, my contractual day was 8:30 - 3:45, but students were in the classroom from 8:50 - 3:30.
The teacher was the person saying he was 1 or 2 minutes late, so I’m not sure that is accurate. There has to be more to the story. This sounds like a case of where the school wants this guy out, but since it’s very difficult to fire teachers, they are looking for a technicality.
By the way, there was always that one teacher who arrived a few minutes past the start of the contractual day, but they were usually the ones who stayed well beyond the end of the contractual day. So arriving a few minutes late is not unusual behavior. What I find strange is justifying the late arrival by saying it’s because he ate breakfast. If he can’t structure his morning routine to allow time for breakfast, then how can he stay on schedule during the school day? How does he get his class to lunch and specials on time?
In my district, this teacher would have been given an administrative warning after being late twice. If this persisted, he would,have been dismissed from the position…because if late, his students would have been unattended…even for two minutes…which is grounds for dismissal without recourse.
our contractual day started 30 minutes before students arrived. This teacher would have been expected to be IN his classroom…on time…every day unless there was an extenuating circumstances (like the roads were closed due to an accident, or something like that).
Sorry, but this is inexcusable, and would not be tolerated in most places.
I understand that it’s common for teachers to have to swipe their id cards to get into a building and that swipe would record the time this teacher arrived. I agree that the administration screwed up by not documenting the lateness when it started and that’s just as stupid as the teachers excuse. In NORTHERN NJ, $90,000 is a needed salary for teachers, but that’s not the average in South Jersey. Where my parents live the avg. teacher salary is $58,000. And that’s still high for her depressed area. http://www1.salary.com/NJ/Public-School-Teacher-salary.html
In NYS, at least in all the districts that I am familiar with, teachers must report either 30-45 minutes before the official start of the school day. The only time I can ever recall a teacher being late is when they had car trouble or car accident on the way in.