Let's have a fireside chat

Sorry for the hiatus. It’s been a busy week and I have bloggers block. A mini vacation has cleared my mind and opened my eyes to what it is like to truly run a district on a shoestring budget. I visited a district in WV with over 150 busses. I’m still processing everything I learned to blog about later. So today I’m going to throw out a potpourri of items just to hear your thoughts on them.
First, someone commented on the new wellness policy and asked if I have any knowledge of our lunch program. I have been asked to challenge all principals to eat the children’s lunch menu for an entire year. Would they do it? I doubt it. Are parents satisfied with the selections? I suppose our lunch menu meets some sort of nutritional requirements. Although I have to question French toast sticks for lunch next week.
Here’s one for teachers. What are your thoughts on controlling classroom dollars? Next year our teachers become more accountable in the classroom. I’m not sure how this will work with tenure. As it stands now, once a teacher attains tenure, it’s a guarantee lifetime job, with the cushiest benefits and extra perks anyone could hope for. So I am curious. Would teachers give up tenure and accept accountability in return for more control in the classroom? A direct budget and the freedom to teach your own style, materials, books, etc… The classroom is truly yours. Do as you wish. As long as your students flourish the way you do it, nobody interferes. But your continued employment in the district would be dependent on your students success. As well as evaluations from students, parents, peers, and superiors. So let’s hear it teachers. Is this appealing or not? If anyone is curious and would like more information on running a school district using unconventional methods that are taxpayer and community friendly, I recommend Making Schools Work by William G Ouchi. In my humble opinion, Ouchi is the band-aid for public school systems.
One last item I’d like to hear thoughts on is the death of the TEL. For those unfamiliar, the Tax Expenditure Limitations amendment would have devastated school systems the most. Although I am in favor of spending caps and limits for governmental entities, but this would have forced our district each year to spend nothing on our children. ALL monies would have went to salary, insurance, and utility increases because that is the only way we could have stayed under the spending cap. Everything you know and love would take a hit. And not just schools. City services would come to a screeching halt as well. Once again paying salary and benefits would come before park upkeep, road plowing, leaf pick up, etc. Although it looks as if TEL will appear on the November ballot, measures are already being put in place to negate TELs’ ill effects. Thank goodness.

Dinner $20, New suit- $300, Car scratches- Priceless

It started out to be a lovely evening. The sun came out (I actually got to wear my sunglasses!), I attended a lovely teacher recognition banquet at the beautiful River Front Pavilion, stuffed myself on steak and cookies, and had a marvelous time handing out 20 year pins, and employee awards. The evening came to an end and we left for our cars. As I approached mine, I noticed a crowd had gathered. Were they making fun of my dirty car? I swear it was my 7 year old that wrote butthead in the grime. But their grim faces told another story. Our cars had been keyed they informed me. Now on my crappy car you can hardly tell. I guess that’s one advantage to having a car that substitutes as a driveway jungle gym. But oh those fancy teacher cars got it bad. To make matters worse, I believe I had a conversation with the perpetrators when I was out taking a powder. I don’t really know what that means but my grandma always said it.
I can’t wait to hand these little lovely’s their diplomas. It’s kind of funny that they probably didn’t realize they were outside talking to a board member. They probably also didn’t realize that their teacher was inside and commented on them being outside. To the entire room. I’m not saying they did it, because as far as I know, there are no witnesses. But I know my heathen radar was perked. But I’m sure the police will rule my internal motherly instinct irrelevant. But I really hope I get to attend the disciplinary hearing. I’ll have to ask the CEO if it would be possible. Oh what fun I’ll have. I will sentence them to picking cigarette butts out of the cracks of the brick pavement at the River Front Mall after every event this summer.
But seriously, there was probably a combined damage total of five to ten thousand. That’s not including the pain and suffering. Yes the pain and suffering of listening to the other half bark about parking decks and teenagers, insurance companies, insurance adjusters, insurance bills, and car repair people. Everyone please take a minute today and thank a teacher. Not just for the things they do everyday in the classroom, but for going to those classrooms knowing each child is potluck and it’s not all good. But they go anyway. And somehow manage not to smack some of them.
We have a teacher that I think deserves some special recognition. Mrs. Burris, a kindergarten teacher at Dewitt Elementary reached her 45 year mark with our district. All I can say to that is WOW!

Bus-ness as usual

First and foremost I want to extend kudos to our assistant superintendent and our talented teachers for once again guiding our district into the effective status. Also a big thank you to him and the committee of teachers that spent hours reviewing K through 6 mathematics and HS foreign language textbooks that are being presented to the board for approval this week. New textbooks were a long overdue promise to the taxpayer and I’m glad to finally see it come to fruition.
On to the board meeting. Presentations to the board this week look to be upbeat and positive. There’s a commendation, a congratulations, and the much awaited Plan for Excellence presentation.
Next up- Policy review. The health and wellness committee has been at work for weeks on the districts new health and wellness policy that we must by law have in place for the upcoming school year. Lucky I wasn’t on that committee. Our lunch program leaves something to be desired and phys ed. is not stressed enough in our district. The kids get tired going up the steps at Lincoln faster than a pack a day smoker. Ask yourself why many kids pants are 4 inches longer than their legs. I have heard the soda machines are getting the boot. Juice and water will be the order of the day. Throw in some milk and maybe yogurt smoothies and I believe Jenny Craig would enroll her kids here.
This week’s agenda was an eye opener for me. I did not realize the substantial number of "extra duty" contracts our district pays. These are monies paid to teachers for extra duties such as coaching, athletic trainers, department chairs, department advisors, committee chairs, audio video coordinators at each building, substance abuse coordinators at each building, club and extra curricular advisors, music directors, music coordinators and music activities coordinators. In this weeks agenda alone we are being asked to approve $161,619.00 in extra duty contracts. Raise your hand if that surprises you as much as it did me. I have asked our CEO to look into the actual necessity of each of these positions as some of them seem archaic to me. He indicated to me he would look into this matter.
In other business the board is asked to approve waiver days on Nov. 7, 2206 and Feb. 16, 2007. Math and language arts 8th grade intervention program, the esteemed 2006 June graduates diplomas’, personnel issues, bid on univent replacement at HS, athletic stipends, PBS contract, and membership to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The board is being asked to reject the bids as presented for the bus garage renovations/ Vincent Street property. Can someone call habitat for humanity? Looks like we need help. Some thought my last post was a little negative. Once again being a realist frightens some people. I only wanted to point out that if estimates came in this high (315K-450K), there seems to be more problems with the property than anyone was aware. I am doubtful that re-bidding the jobs separately will significantly lower the cost of this project. I grew up around bureaucrats; I know how they come up with new and improved ways to spend taxpayer money. I believe people voted for most of the board because we promised to save the taxpayer money not spend their money willy nilly.

We aint in Kansas anymore Toto

Well I tried to be the voice of reason. I tried to get everyone to take a step back and slow down. I said we haven't had time to think things through. But the new bus barn was railroaded through anyway. Now here we are, one month later and already there are signs that something's amiss. Was this decision made to hastily before all the facts were in? The board has already had to pass a resolution to correct clerical errors. This move really scared me. Clerical errors? I am trusting that a name change is all that will be fixed. That's what our CEO said. But in reality the board gave permission to allow a contract to be changed with no formal board approval. Kinda scary when you think about it. I contend that this wouldn't be a problem if people had used cool heads and taken their time. Rushing major purchases through without thinking things through tends to lead to problems.
But here's the part where I get to say I told you so. I am also going to play Madam Kellie and pull out my crystal ball and make a prediction for the future. Madam Kellie has been told the bids on the bus garage renovations are in. Our districts CEO first predicted renovations would be around $140,000, then revised it to $190,000. Low bid was $315,000 and high bid was $450,000. The latter is what the building cost us! Oooh. Not good. Wait wait… my crystal ball is clearing up…. I see separate bids being offered on various projects… I see bids coming in at various times… I see murky combo bids being made on "concrete work" and "carpeting work" for the bus barn and various buildings… wait- what's this? It looks like a question mark. Question marks represent all the problems we don't know about yet. Madam Kellie calls this the "stuff that didn't happen until you moved in" syndrome. Oh no! Now I'm getting a red tint to everything. My ball is showing me that we are quickly going to be in the red regarding renovations on the new bus barn. Now it's green question marks bouncing around. They represent the confusion involved in trying to keep track of money spent on renovations when bids will come in at different times, on different projects, and I predict this is all going to turn into a convoluted mess. I predict that before all is said and done this bus barn project will be a million-dollar project. Your session with Madam Kellie is over. I must rest the crystal ball after putting it through stress like that.
First of all I do not want to hear the mantra "you can vote how you want but support the decision of the board after the vote" I did not support this purchase because I knew we were jumping in with our eyes closed and noses plugged. Now we are stuck with a building and spending a lot more on it than originally stated for our huge fleet of 19 busses! I think it's prudent to add that our audit recommends we reduce our fleet by two busses. Frankly it's not going to matter how you re-bid the projects. A duck is a duck and obviously this building needs a lot of work. Oh well- maybe next time we have an extra $800,000.00 someone will actually look at our capitol improvement plan and consider implementing it. Or at least hanging on to the money for a while and looking at options. I didn't spend our tax return as fast as our district spent almost half a million dollars.
Please be sure to thank the people that made this all possible.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I’m tired of hearing the argument that certain people and/or areas of our district pay more to our schools than others. First renters do pay property taxes through their rent. I do not know of one landlord that is willing to eat the cost of a tax increase. Second, we all pay the same millage to the district. The City of CF and the Village people pay equal millage. The value of a home does not increase the millage you pay. And lastly, the Village people do not disproportionately fund our schools. In February of ’06 our school district collected $11.6 million from the property owners of Cuyahoga Falls and almost $1.3 million from Silver Lake Village. Looks like CF pays their fair share to me. So please stop telling me the Village people deserve more because they pay more. They don’t and they don’t.
I have been asked to explain why I voted for the resolution to release our district from fiscal watch. I’ll do my best to explain. I cannot argue with the fact that our CFO stated that the state auditors asked her when we would be asking for a release. Do you really think people will want to move their families to a city whose school district is in fiscal watch? My number one priority has always been to do what is best for my family and my community. I don’t think using my other tax money (state auditors) is best for us when they want us to ask for release. Although I would like a watchdog, I’m not sure state auditors should be it. I’d rather see something along the lines of the KIDS committee formed- An independent group of people not beholden to, nor appointed by the school administration. A group on the outside looking in. My goal is to keep us in the black through union negotiations and serious, real cuts. The PFE I’m sure has some good solid academic ideas. But most of it is a spending spree that we cannot afford. There are two ways to meet rising fuel, heating, insurance, and aging building maintenance costs. Levy or cuts. You pick which one is best for you.
Lastly I would like to comment on the OURSS group and the debate that is taking place on a previous blog. For those of you unfamiliar, OURSS- outreach understanding respecting student sexuality-
is a student led support group with a male school psychologist as well as a female teacher volunteering as teacher advisors. It is my understanding that this group is for any student dealing with sexual identity issues. Straight or gay. I would like to see respect and understanding from both sides. The bottom line is this- regardless of your personal views, the law is the law. Ask any attorney and he’ll be glad to bill you- I mean tell you that there are about 55,000 laws protecting the rights of ANY group to meet in a public building, discuss any issue they want, promote any cause. Hence the expression "It’s a free country". I am not willing, and I feel safe in saying our district is not willing to put up taxpayer money and without a doubt fight the ACLU in a lawsuit that would surely ensue should someone actually decide to "ban" this group. I will not defend nor promote this group in any way. I think both sides need to show a little respect to the other.
The comments made here should be on blog topics. Hijacking will be deleted from here forward. There is a forum at FallsWatch.org for ongoing debate and discussion on various issues not currently being discussed on this blog. The man who started this ingenious web site would be tickled if you make it worth his time and money I’m sure. I will not tolerate hateful diatribes, profane language, or inappropriate slurs in the comments section.

Gimme a P! Gimme a F! Gimme an E!

Make a note to attend the next board meeting. The Plan for Excellence committee chairs will be making a presentation. . Of course I don’t know what else is on the agenda. I’ll try to fill you in as soon as I know. The PFE will be filling us in on what they have been up to. I can’t wait to see what cost savings are involved. Our district has managed to pass a new levy , go from a projected deficit in 2008, to requesting a release from fiscal watch. The preliminary draft didn’t have much cost cutting. I am curious how buildings and bussing reorganization went.
Let’s talk about those two things today. Buildings and bussing. Our bussing program really needs revamped. We have exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions, busses picking up one and two kids. Busses picking up open enrolled kids but denying our own kids a ride. I have had parents ask me why their child must walk on Graham Rd. while children a little further up Graham Rd. get a ride on a bus. I’ve also had parents ask me if Broad Blvd, State Road, Portage Trail, Tallmadge Road, Bailey, etc… are any less dangerous than the current exceptions of Kent Road and Graham Road east of Route 8.
I’ve heard so many building scenarios it’s mind boggling. I’ll put my two cents in and I’m sure everyone else will offer rebuttals here as well. While neighborhood schools have support in our community, it seems that grade level tracking has benefits that outweigh many other options. For those unfamiliar with this concept here is an example- one building houses K-2, another house 3&4, another 5&6, another 7&8, and then the HS. For one they out perform other school configurations academically. Teachers have an obvious advantage being "on the same page". You don’t have kids entering middle school from different elementary schools having learned different concepts. This configuration also seems to utilize building capacity most efficiently.
I’m sure the PFE has covered these concerns and more. I believe they have been working since last October. I will admit I am not as in the know about the PFE as some would like. Many of us were excluded from the steering committee based on the fact we were running for the board?! I was assigned to a sub committee called "Facilities and Resources" I attended the first of three meetings and discovered facilities had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately family business prevented me from attending the second and third meetings. But I am confident that the sub committees have found new and ingenious ways to save us bunches of money. I bet the building reorganization alone saves oodles. I doubt there is much that can be done to save money in the bussing department. Even if we bus in a more efficient manner we will still bus the same kids the same distances. And what efficiency saves, higher overhead at the new garage will eat up any meager savings we could have accomplished. I think building reorganization is where we will see the money savings.
Let’s get talking about the results you expect from the PFE. There has been a lot of time and money put into this. The board will be expected to approve some sort of resolution or recommendations from the PFE and I would like to know what Joe Taxpayer has to say about this.
I still think a survey of the entire community is the only way our district will truly know what is expected of us. The city of Orrville did one with surprising results. Yes the grape jelly capitol of the world. They learned things about their community that they’d never considered. They were able to rebuild their district around survey results and do it with the support and backing of the community. I know this city is capable of doing the same. But only if we include the stake holders.