Well just when you think everything is running smoothly something always has to come along and muck it all up. I have reviewed my board report and I am distressed. I don’t even know where to begin. Slowly but surely, as Madam Kellie predicted positions are creeping back into our district. Our bottom line for the end of the fiscal year is 1.5 million less than forecasted. And even though our bottom line is in the red in two short years, additional sports programs are apparently needed.
Let’s start with the additional positions. First back in the game are 3 special ed teachers and a home-ec teacher for Bolich. Next up are 2 tutors. Silver Lake (rated excellent) and Richardson do not qualify for Title I tutors but you know, they need them anyway. Add two more elementary teachers (we have some elementary schools with class sizes of 17 or less.) to lower class sizes of 30+ somewhere un-named. And let’s not forget those administrative positions. Two Technology Specialists are needed but our CEO says they can scrape by with one more. Add to all this the coaches that we will have to pay for the additional basketball teams at the middle schools (an additional $4000 or so) and I would say we are on our way back to January 2005.
Shouldn’t we be doing some reconfiguring and sticking to project recovery and doing something with the Plan for Excellence? Or was all that a waste of everyone’s time? I mean I don’t know about you but I thought the committees were going to give us plans and cost benefit analysis’ and rearrange buildings and utilize our teachers and make things run efficiently with the tax payer in mind. Here it is, one and a half years after the crisis and nothing has changed except that taxpayers who supported our districts levy’s are screwed out of two neighborhood schools and must pay to play on top of your taxes. I hope all you levy supporters are geared up to start campaigning again. After all, our forecast shows us in the hole again in 2008. Tax and spend is the order of the day.
Was project recovery just fluff for the Statey’s? Keeping us out of "fiscal watch" long enough to buy new shovels and dig ourselves back in? Was the Plan for Excellence a bunch of hooey? It all sounds nice and happy but nothing was actually done. But most importantly, none of the above "plans" involves citizen input or attempts to look at savings. Sorry guys, a committee of administrators, teachers, and PTA parents are NOT a cross section of our community. Somebody please wake me up from this nightmare.
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2 comments:
What about the Board President who seems to think that the Sunshine Laws were made to be broken? I would hope he's not dumb enough to be led around by the nose by the Superintendent. But if he is, do we really want to keep him?
Russ,
Please check with the CEO before calling me an alarmist. I think you know me well enough by now to know I would not publish false information. Our district added two new positions this year and we will be adding several more next year. And just to clarify for a few other people, I did not say 70% of our kids won't go to college, I said 70% of our graduating seniors won't graduate from college. it may be closer to 65%. It depends om whose statistics you want to believe.
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