Comments for Pahrump Valley Times

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by ty1960

ty1960 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:38:29 +0000

The dfference here is that the student could not get to the test part of the chapter without the teacher “opening” up the test. So someone unblocked the tests for these students and since Mr. Chenevert was the teacher in the room with them …well I will let you draw you own conclusions

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by wowzer

wowzer — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:32:16 +0000

ty1960. The point of the article is not the Mr. Chenevert “did” just change student’s placement. (Mr. Chenevert cannot on his own make a student eligible for special education)
The point of this article is that Mr. Dotson is disgruntled about his current position and did not do enough about the “fraud” that he saw at the school. Any educator, if they saw something of this nature happening, would not just stop ensuring that our students were getting the education they are entitled to.
Also, there is no policy about spouses working together. This happens all over the district. There may be a policy about a supervisory/employee spousal relationship.

Comment on EDITORIAL BOARD: Pathways story requires public to ask hard questions by Fern Brack

Fern Brack — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:13:27 +0000

I commend PVT’s “new year’s resolution to “maintain some modicum of self-control” over your statements! Too bad Ms. Matson hasn’t learned that same lesson. Ms. Matson’s wiliness to “be quite forthcoming to us about certain personnel issues” has violated federal and state laws by revealing personnel issues that SHOULD NOT be shared. Her statements about the two employees she attempted to fire are defamatory and illegal, not to mention, plain ugly. These women are being targeted by her for some reason – maybe one of them signed the recall petition, or maybe one of their family members signed the recall petition. If this is the case, she is retaliating, which is also against the law. She just opened herself and the county to very expensive lawsuits which the targeted personnel WILL WIN! So go ahead, don’t hold back PVT, say it like it is – To those of you that did not sign the petition because it would cost the county $40,000 dollars, that $40,000 just became millions! As someone else said in their comments on an earlier article, “Matson is a loose cannon waiting to explode and cost Nye County more taxpayer dollars in settlements.” This whole matter stopped being about illegal aliens a long time ago. It is now focusing on the bizarre behavior of one individual that was elected into public office and is now embarrassing Nye County and putting the taxpayers at risk of increased taxes to pay off the lawsuits she causes through her behavior. Just wait, anyone with half a mind has to realize that more is to come!

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by ty1960

ty1960 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:47:00 +0000

tc1966 The point of the article is that Mr. Chenevert did just change students’ placement. He took over as their assigned instructor for Math and Science even tho he was not certified to do so.

That students did an entire semester’s worth of classwork in 32 minutes is documented.
To actually believe that students that were failing in a very structured program like the high school would suddenly excel in a less structured program to the point of doing whole semester’s of work in minutes is impossible and is fraud.

It is also against district policy that spouses work in the same school and isn’t it a coincedence that he and his wife now work together. Something just doesn’t add up here..

This teacher was allowed to “help’ undeserving students pass classes that they did not do state mandated work in to pad the figures of Pathways so they would look good to the administration.

Comment on EDITORIAL BOARD: Pathways story requires public to ask hard questions by tired of crap

tired of crap — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:28:19 +0000

I WONDER IF THEIR IS FEDERAL MONEY FOR THE PROGRAM INVOLVED. IF SO MAYBE IF THIS STORY IS TRUE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT MAY HAVE DONE THINGS TO MAKE THE PROGRAM LOOK BETTER ON PAPER TO RECEIVE THESES FUNDS. PERHAPS WE WILL FIND OUT THE TRUTH IN THE FUTURE MAYBE.

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by tc1966

tc1966 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:19:37 +0000

Knowing a lot about this program, Mr. Dotson’s claims are unfounded in any reality other than his own. He is a poor excuse for a teacher that did nothing to help the students at Pathways be successful. He was more interested in surfing the web and looking at sports scores to decide his next bet.

Mr. & Mrs. Chenevert are wonderful teachers that care deeply for their students. Also, Mr. Chenevert cannot “just change” a students placement to be special ed. There are a number of steps and many different people that something like that has to go through before a student can be classified as special ed.

I hope that people take this article with a grain of salt.

Comment on Nye County’s firings by cre8lite

cre8lite — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:03:18 +0000

Unfortunately, elected officials cannot be fired. The Assessor is an elected position. They can be recalled, or removed from office by the Ethics Committee. The County Manager was not an elected position & therefore, could be fired.

Comment on Science Bowl challenges the best of the best by Been There

Been There — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:40:15 +0000

Great group of students. I wish them well.

… and there are many more wonderful students at PVHS. It would be great to see more articles like this in the paper to show the residents of Pahrump that many in the younger generation have a lot going for them.

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by carol

carol — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:02:58 +0000

I read this with interest. I used to be a school teacher and about 50 years ago worked at a school that bought one of these “computerized” curriculums. We didn’t have computers back then but this course sounds very familiar. You have individual lessons that students take at their own pace; they then take a test and if they pass they move on to the next lesson. The flaw we found immediately was the fact that the students could take and pass the test without actually doing the lesson. The tests were so superficial that many students could take and pass test after test after test and never do any work. I had a student that informed me that he had passed a test and wanted credit for the lesson. I knew he couldn’t have read and understood the lesson. He couldn’t even pronounce and spell the title of the lesson. I refused to pass him and then had to deal with his parents. Fortunately they came to agree with me. All the teachers were so disgusted with the curriculum in just a couple of months that we dumped it after one year and went back to a more traditional curriculum.

This material they are using sounds very similar to the material I used that year. So if it is true that students can just pass the tests without doing any work, the students are being “cheated” by the school system and not getting a proper education.

Comment on Teacher: Widespread fraud at Pathways by 177510

177510 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:47:13 +0000

He is a good teacher i am in his 7th period.