Here we go AGAIN! We lost a whole bunch of teachers last Summer because of this and our schools were thrown into a tizzy trying to get teachers to cover classes and forcing students into elective classes they didn't want because others had to be cancelled. Now we're losing even more good teachers, who've apparently tried to deal with it for a year and are now quitting. All because someone committed FRAUD - they promised "incorrect" salaries to the teachers!

The sad thing about this is that both the teachers who were defrauded AND the students suffer when this happens, because our schools are left scrambling ONCE AGAIN to try and get coverage for the classes our kids are supposed to be taught.

I hope any and all responsible adminstrators have been fired already, and I just want once again to register my EXTREME displeasure over this state of affairs!

It's certainly not the teachers' fault - they were promised a certain salary when they agreed to take their jobs, and I am sure they made decisions regarding their housing and other commitments assuming they'd have that money to pay for them. If they hadn't been lied to they could've set up their families' budgets to accommodate the lower salary they were actually going to be getting, and I don't doubt this second round of teachers who are leaving have done their level best to adjust over the past year but found that they just can't do it. We owe them our sincere gratitiude for at least trying and hanging in there for another year.

But the fact remains: they were lied to and now they and our schools and therefore the community at large is suffering as a result. This is NOT acceptable, and I hope positive steps have been taken to assure that this NEVER happens again!

I totally agree, and certainly can't blame the teachers for leaving. Teachers are in demand, especially in this area, and I'm sure they were able to find jobs in other counties that paid much better than Washington County. The County was lucky these thirteen stayed on as long as they did.

WCPS sucks.

i really dont think anyone will get fired over this , they pretty much take care of there own, they will tell them to try and do better next time ,

The costs of replacing them will probably exceed the salary difference. Too bad someone didn't mis-report Morgan's salary, too.

I suspect tagout is right. They've got some nerve over there. After defrauding these teachers, I just read that they had the nerve to say the teachers are lucky that WCPS didn't force them to stay on for the year under their contracts. That WCPS could've had the State revoke their teacher's certifications for having quit.

I say that WCPS is lucky that whomever misquoted these teachers' salaries didn't get personally sued to high heaven for their dishonest dealings. Someone deserves the axe, but from the sounds of it, WCPS is acting more like a crime syndicate than a public service agency.

If it was all that then why didn't they sue WCPS ?

WCPS should've held them to their contracts.

I'm no lawyer but I think if the BOE didn't honor the promised salary the contract would be void anyway. I agree totally that the BOE is out of control and the funding authority (the State AND the BOCC) are afraid to come down on them for political reasons - "it's for the kids" you know.

Education is THE safe place in politics, you can't go wrong supporting it. Sure education is one of if not the most important things in local government but doing it right is more important than simply doing it! Further, while education is terribly important it is not so important that every other issue we face should take a back seat. Our county desperately needs to take a holistic look at operations from education to infrastructure to public safety, etc., etc., etc. it's all connected by one common link - TAXES - and we need to get the most for our dollar.

I agree. The only way that HR guy could've said what he did is because he KNOWS that they were very careful to scam the teachers using tactics intentionally chosen to make sure that the teachers couldn't do anything about it. Probably all sorts of verbal promises were made and they were very careful not to put any of it in writing. Most likely a deliberate scam or misrepresentation of some of the more vague of their contracts' terms or WCPS' policies.

And yes politics is most certainly at work. Considering that at the end of it, the taxpayers would have to pay any really significant damages, the courts aren't likely to award any. Unless there is very clear evidence that would support criminal charges against the WCPS officials involved, which is highly unlikely, the teachers haven't any real hope that justice will be served.

Meanwhile the offenders continue in their cushy gov't jobs, and everyone else in the community suffers. No offense intended towards those rare and few gov't workers who actually have morals and a real work ethic...

BOE should have been made to pay, the teachers what they told the teachers, they would make. That's just totally unfair.

Thank you for any other screw up. BOE your doing a crappy job.