How does this differ from 1st amendment free speech protection

And for teachers there's the chilling effect of weakening or eliminating due process and tenure.

KCS won't outright fire any of the teachers who have been speaking up as of late. They will move principals around who will slowly lower their evaluation scores, stack their classes with low performing kids to affect test scores, or provide "good reasons" for administrative transfers. In the end, they will be able to take teachers in good, if not excellent, standing and dismiss them as substandard teachers in 2-3 years.
I hope this resolution will have some teeth behind it to close the loopholes. The teachers involved are aware this could happen, and still they speak. If they were lazy, unprofessional liars who just wanted to stir up trouble, they would have quit spending their evenings at school board meetings long before now.

Thanks Amy...We must protect our teachers(and all public employees)from retaliation and retribution for telling their truth. I remember how Tony Norman spoke of the retaliation visited upon him while still teaching, and how this hastened his retirement. Isn't that why we employ our teachers? These professionals show our children the truth as they know it.Then they empower, inspire, and challenge our children to find their own truth.It is no accident that the Harvard motto is Veritas... Having said this, it really bothers me when I hear reported that a school board member(and former chair) Karen Carson spoke in a disparaging manner about one of our teachers, Mark Taylor, who has spoken out consistently and courageously about his problems with the loathsome TVAAS virus in Knox County .First, she implied MrTaylor was sloppy and misinformed.Next, she said she had spoken to several of his peers(about 11 teachers I think) that taught the same subjects and that they did not think highly of him and would not highly rate him.Lastly, she indicated that Mark had not been completely truthful in his presentations. She even implied he had actively deceived.Is the strategy is to ignore the important content and then try to impeach the character of a teacher?If any of this report is even partly accurate, then I guess we won't have to wait for retaliation and intimidation.It is already here....Shame.

There's a reason there are so many anonymous posters and so few speaking up about what's wrong, and it goes far beyond apathy.

Fear drives politics here.

County Commissioners Norman and Brown have announced that they will meet on Friday, February 14, 2014 at 10:00 am in the commission conference room of City County Building.The purpose is to discuss a recap of the joint BOE/ Commission Retreat.Several commissioners may be in attendance, so minutes may be taken. I hope several members of BOE will be present to continue the dialogue that so many have called for and praised in the Joint Retreat. The spirit of dialogue and co-operation is not limited to out of county get- aways. No votes will be taken.The press and public are welcome.I feel sure that the protection of our teacher's first amendment rights will be discussed in this meeting.

I hope Amy's resolution will define and strengthen this protection.If, however, the BOE says that it is an illicit commission overreach into BOE business, then I hope our elected commission leadership will call on the BOE to honor it's own Civility Code (Knox County Schools Civility Code)..
.....such that....

...."The Board does not condone a lack of civility by anyone, and recognizes the following appropriate administrative avenues for aggrieved parties to seek action or redress.
"3. An employee who believes that he or she has not been treated in a manner reflective of the Code of Civility should address the concern through the appropriate supervisory chain. If personal harm is threatened, the employee shall notify their supervisor and may also contact law enforcement. If a communication such as voice mail or e-mail or any type of written communication is demeaning, abusive, threatening or obscene the employee is not obligated to respond."

If that is not forthcoming, then I expect the Knox County Board of Education,acting in good faith, to utilize the Knox County Board of Education.Code of Ethics...
.....such that....
...."The School District Ethics Committee(is) to investigate any credible complaint against an official or employee charging any violation of this Code of Ethics, or may undertake an investigation on its own initiative when it acquires information indicating a possible violation, and make recommendations for action to end or seek retribution for any activity that, in the Committee's judgment, constitutes a violation of this Code of Ethics. If a member of the Committee is the subject of a complaint, such member shall recuse himself or herself from all proceedings involving such complaint. "

We have a mechanism and a process of redress in the the guidelines of the BOE...Now we only need the resolve to pursue a fair and just resolution.We can and must protect the first amendment rights of our teachers . No person acting in good faith would deny the absolute responsibility to protect the free expression of our hard working teachers.Let us begin to do this together.

This is not limited to schools. It impacts a lot of public employees. Private, too...but I don't think that is the bailiwick of Commission.

While in my government experience it was always more the belief they would be punished as opposed to actually being punished, the result is still the same.

So anything that can help people secure if speaking up is a good thing if responsibly drafted.

However it happened, it feels skeezy to think about a school board member discussing a specific teacher's performance (and apparently finding it wanting) during a 'retreat' with county commissioners when that teacher isn't given the opportunity to defend himself. Especially when that teacher is fighting for his job.

Trust me, the law suits are coming.

And unfortunately the taxpayers will foot the bills. The edu-frauds in power positions who impose these bad ideas by choosing to ignore research should be personally culpable.

Baker & Oluwole (2013) education scholars from NJ.wrote this brief about VAM & SGP (note this study was conducted by an education scholar NOT MBA/ Broad Academy grads who are trained to identify the profit margins of socks or real estate, etc.)
(link...)

FYI, TVASS, VAM & SGP are all similar statistical methods for analyzing and attempting to explain differences in test scores. Different types of analysis are baked into the three methods but none are sensitive enough to elevate one type over another for teacher evaluation purposes.

At the Jan. School board meeting Townes & McIntyre presented TVASS as having better predictability than other methods. This is FALSE. Their presentation was so complex that school board members and the public could not understand it. If they claim, as they did in Jan,that they have enough data in TVASS to wash out error- Don't believe them.

The conclusions reached by Baker & Oluwole are:

But, we explain in this brief that student growth percentile data are not up to this task. In the following brief, we explain that:

Student Growth Percentiles are not designed for inferring teacher influence on student outcomes.
Student Growth Percentiles do not control for various factors outside of the teacher’s control.
Student Growth Percentiles are not backed by research on estimating teacher effectiveness. By contrast, research on SGPs has shown them to be poor at isolating teacher influence.
New Jersey’s Student Growth Percentile measures, at the school level, are significantly statistically biased with respect to student population characteristics and average performance level.

Did Sam McKenzie just say in Commission that he opposes Amy Broyles free speech ordinance?

Did Richard Briggs just say he has a problem with a free speech ordinance? He says this is a right to work state?

This is a very strange discussion.

Amy Broyles free speech ordinance passes with one no vote, Commissioner Richard Briggs.

Note to users: Please do not copy and paste the entire text of copyrighted material, or quote lengthy excerpts.

This past Monday BOE school board member Karen Carson ignored the resolution created by County Commissioner Amy Broyles protecting teachers right to speak in Public Forum.

See it here:

(link...)

No vote was taken. BOE decided without a vote.

I am stunned to see Karen do this considering her husband was a DOE whistle blower. This is wrong and very hypocritical.

This is what WBIR had:

(link...)

Karen Carson: "What I want, ultimately, is to make sure that our system is appropriate and responsive to all employee concerns," she said. "And I believe that we've not been very good at that, and I believe that's what makes people say – well, I need to come bring it before the board."

She added, "But I also believe that bringing forth concerns about how our public education system is working on TV, without documenting attempts to fix those problems at whatever level they need to be addressed, is not good for public education. And it takes a whole lot longer."

Looks like Carson know she is breaking the law. I hope this goes to court and she loses her BOE seat. She doesn't deserve to sit in that chair.

Arrogant:

(link...)

Back peddling:

(link...)

Thank God for people like Mark Taylor who will stand up to bullies like Karen Carson. He is a hero in my book.

Extend protection to all citizens. Our state and local governments can sometimes get nasty when corruption is exposed.