Today the information concerning Houston ISD's Admin/teacher bonuses was made public.  The local newspaper, The Houston Chronicle, requested the information be provided to them for publication based on a "public information request."  Last year when this information was made public it became a disaster within the district.  This year it is much the same but in a different place;  The disaster is in the public arena instead of "The Teachers' Lounge".      

The front page story on the Chronicle website is over our superintendent's 300k base salary and 75k bonus pay. (link)  Many have expressed frustration describing his pay as outrageous and offensive.  The overall feeling is that there is no way that an administrator should make this much money when the teachers are doing all of the hard work. 

I had to think about this for a minute;  300k + bonus pay does sound like a lot of money but what about this?  The Chronicle writes, "As chief of one of the largest districts in the country, Saavedra oversees a $1.5 billion budget, about 30,000 employees and 200,000 students."  Doesn't he have a major responsibility?  Don't we want those entrusted with training, managing, and leading our teachers to be of the highest quality?  Perhaps, one doesn't agree with the decisions that he has made or how the district is ran;   The fact is that the position he holds is an extremely important part of the school system.  He is the one who guides and directs our resources to educate our students in the best way possible.  I disagree with thos who say that this salary is anything but fair.  In comparison to the responsibility that he has and what other executives are paid in other fields he is grossly underpaid.          

Maybe I'm wrong but I think that as long as Dr. Saavedra has fulfilled his end of the contract, the salary he is being paid is relative to the responsibility that he has.

Do you think that the salary/bonus pay is fair?

Brian

*edited for clarity and length!

Since I've been teaching, I've used Making the Grade for my gradebook.  I thought a gradebook on the computer would be easier.  However, sometimes I think that all the "bells and whistles" take too much time to figure out how to use and are tedious and impractical for daily use;  Basically once I figure out how to do what I need to do, I've either forgotten the other feature that I learned how to use and could have easily written down the information in a paper gradebook.

I'm thinking that it would be better to do a paper gradebook and then transfer the grades over to the computer;  I'm not sure though.  What do you think?

How do you keep grades: paper, electronic or both?
Any electronic gradebook recommendations?
Suggestions on how to keep a gradebook?

Brian