Doubts starting to creep in

I'm beginning to have some doubts about the contract.

Evaluation; We haven't heard what the new evaluation systems will look like. There are some tested areas that are externally assessed, but the scores don't come back until the summer. How can that determine your salary for that year? That means, perhaps, the district will have to heavily invest in some testing, and, generally, the materials we have gotten from North Avenue for these purposes have been poor. Could my salary is going to be determined by tests that has questions without right answers? That's what I hear happened in the summer programs. And, of course, what about non-traditional subject areas? How about courses, like IB English IV, that have external assessments - will we have to stop instruction (we have not a moment to spare) to give internal city-wide tests just to determine teacher salary? Seems counterproductive.

I'd love it if teachers could develop their own benchmarks to demonstrate student achievement, but there would need to be plenty of oversight on that, and I don't know how that could happen.

Basically, we've heard few details and we're being asked to vote for this on Oct. 14, just ten days away. Where are the public forums? (There's one scheduled, on Oct. 14, the date of the vote.)

Also, how is this going to be paid for? Also worrisome.

I'm all about the bullet pointed big ideas but worry about the devil in the details. I figured we would start to get some information by now. Nope.