Our new 5-year forecast is out. Looks like we may not be getting out of fiscal watch after all. It never ceases to amaze me how 4 months can make such a difference in our bottom line. I am waiting for an appointment to have explained to me how we go from an ending cash balance of $1, 324,570 to $5,541,000 for this fiscal year. For fiscal year ’08 it was a negative $1,562,768 to a positive balance of $5,383,000. But strangely enough, by fiscal year 2011 we have a cash balance of… brace yourself… negative $20,980,000. It’s no wonder to me why people are so distrusting of our governmental entities. Even the drafts of the current forecast, given days apart have differences of several million dollars. I realize that forecasting is a guessing game but geez there are some radical differences. I will try to blog more on this as details become available.
I want to touch on Sunday’s Plain Dealer article regarding school district legal services and fees. The main point of the article was that school districts in most cases (including ours) can use the city law director or county prosecutors office for legal advice free of charge. This is something that I asked our CEO about last January. I learned about this legal loophole through my service on the KIDS committee in ’05. Now I feel the need to tell you that the City of CF’s law department had no problem getting answers to the KIDS committee in a timely manner. Our CEO felt that the law director was not well versed in school law and would not have the time or want to assist with school issues. But I couldn’t get past the free part so I asked our cities fine law director about the issue this past spring. He told me that school issues were not outside his realm but he is a very busy man and the district could be better served by using our own separate council. Since I have great confidence in our current attorney, this didn’t bother me much. His fees are below other firms approaching us for business. The biggest plus is I trust him. He is fair and unbiased and bonus- he pays property taxes to us! He is one of our own and has a personal stake in decisions made. He’s been our attorney since I was in kindergarten. I’d say he probably knows our district’s policies, history, and people better than most. In my humble opinion, we are much better off keeping our current attorney. While I think the City of CF has a top notch law director, I don’t think he could devote the time and attention this school district needs. He’s got eminent domain issues to worry about!
Let me tell you about another positive thing our current attorney is doing for us FREE OF CHARGE. I put that in caps for a reason. I generally put attorneys in the category of blood sucking, lazy (we know paralegal's do the real work!), sedimentary parasites. But there are a few exceptions. Very few. Luckily our attorney is one of those exceptions. He has at his own time and expense attempted to do what this board desperately needs. Bring in mediators. The Federal Mediation Services Center will try, for free to help the board get along merrily. But it seems some members just can’t seem to find the time. I think it’s sad that members can find the time to campaign, attend events that their kids are involved in and their own schools boards and committees but can’t seem to find the time to meet with a much needed gro9up. In fact I believe our board president a months ago made the statement "this board is too divided to spend money on mediators". So our attorney finds one for free and no one wants to cooperate. No wonder so many board members in this area resign. How much petty BS is one person supposed to take?
I don’t know where to go next. The abortion airplane or the levies on the ballot next month. Ok let’s do the plane first. Last week while picking up my darlings from elementary school I was shocked to see an airplane overhead pulling a banner the size of a two story building with the words "10 week abortion" and an accompanying picture of one. It was the most disgusting display of free speech I have ever seen. Luckily my kids didn’t see it as they were so excited to see me after a torturous day. But today we weren’t so lucky. As I was pulling up to a middle school to pick up one of my besties (that’s slang for a great friend), one of the youngins’ in my car said "Oh my God, What is that?" Then my 7-year-old said- "It’s a detached arm" First I want to say I did not know my 7 year old knew the word detached. I was impressed at his vocabulary. Then I realized it was not a Halloween display. I had to listen for the next 60 seconds as the three innocents in my car tried to sound out the word abortion. Finally they decided it was abolition. Should I have to explain something like this to my kids? How do I explain it to someone else’s kid? But problem solved when Miss Middle Schooler jumps in the car and says "Ohmigod didya see the abortion thingy"? My 7-year-old said "abortion"? I did the 50’s thing and said that it was something they didn't need to know about for a few more years. I need some little old lady advice on this one. Speaking of little old ladies…
The library levy. Boy did that endorsement tick some people off. Just to set the record straight I want to say that I am not the anti-levy. I do not want to see a school levy any time soon. I would hope no one would vote for or against a levy just because I said so. The question was asked why didn’t I ask the voters what they thought of this levy. I did. I may not have asked each and every one of you personally, but I did talk to people. I also felt I should consider the students of this district, as they also became my responsibility when I was elected. So I talked to them as well. I would rather give a little to the library, metro parks and zoo, and let a school levy expire. Not that I could ever get the board to go for that but it would be my personal ideal. I don’t want to see services that he entire community enjoys and benefits from lose out when they are not the reason our property taxes are what they are. Our schools have an over reliance on property taxes. This is what the state has declared unconstitutional. An over reliance on property taxes. It did not declare all property taxes illegal for schools as some people think.
Please try to state your reasons for or against issues without the personal attacks. We all have a right to our opinions. You can get your point across without explaining why everyone else is wrong. It really doesn’t matter who’s who because most are using fake names anyway. Stick to your point and people will take you seriously.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
To: The Kind People who want to discuss problems in our community,
Kellie refers to taxes, mediation, priorities related to time spent by BOE members, and the need to express opinions without judging the person who expressed their own opinion.
From the previous blogging, some response was given to the questions related to 'conflict resolution'. So, what can we do with these variables?
Please allow me to express an opinion. And, please allow me the freedom to expand and change my opinion based on information from you.
If we are to compete in a global information-based society then we must learn how to use the tools, techniques, and training available to us. Here are some opportunities available to us.
We can use blogs, group eMail distribution lists, and websites to display the content related to 'conflict resolution', taxes, and our priorities related to time management. Most of us think that taxes (costs) and the quality of the education experience are important issues to resolve.
I think that the process of 'developing a community' is more complex than 'developing an engineering organization' within a large corporation. I coordinated the second option during the period of 1980 to 1992. As a result, I also know that certain learning processes, leadership processes, and project control processes are useful for 'developing an organization or community'.
Most of us will agree that we want an excellent school, library, and city/village information systems. Many people are quick to judge an isolated problem/solution statement as useful or useless. A few people understand the need to capture problem/solution statements and organize them so we can see the big picture (mosaic). And, even fewer people have fully experienced an 'enterprise analysis process' over a 10 year period. An 'enterprise analysis' is designed to transform an organization, community, or nation into a higher level of action.
Is anyone interested?
Lou Schott lschott@neo.rr.com
Oh right, because it's SO right to shield your children from the realities of the world just because they're unpleasent. I'm not saying it's right to fly pictures of abortions around. But the more you try to hide things from them, the more curious they're going to be, believe me. There are explanations you could give without being either entirely graphic or an incredible prude.
Everything seems simpler through a child's mind... when I was twelve I looked at Stem Cell Research as "poor little eggs" and now I'm completely pro-choice.
But if pro-life groups want to fly anti-abortion banners across the skies, they should be allowed to. It might be gross, but it's a fact of life.
To: The Kind People who want to solve problems,
We need to understand the process of building/developing a team. Please allow me to define how a mature, highly funcional team operates. Each member of a mature team is equally capable of 'pinch hitting' for any other member of the team.
In contrast an immature team has each member who joins the team with strengths and weaknesses. We can describe the strengths as personality preferences (PP). For simplicity, I will identify four of the PPs. They are director, analytical, amiable, and expressive. A director and an analytical will think before they feel. An amiable and expressive will feel before they think.
Our BOE has 2 amiables, 1 director, 1 expressive, and one member who is probably an amiable/director. Mature team members understand the PPs of their team members and know how to bring out the best in each other.
Mature teams know how to develop both their team and their team members. It is a process.
Is anyone interested in knowing how to activate the process? If so, I could describe the weaknesses and how we could help our BOE transform the weak into the strong.
Lou Schott lschott@neo.rr.com
To: The kind peole who want to develop our BOE, classrooms, and marriages into problem solving teams and NOT problem causing members,
Any group (marriage, BOE, classroom, etc) operates in both similar and different ways. Please allow me to explain how they are similar. If the group is to be successful (as measured by the members of the group) then the group members will need to share the same expectation of the future.
Thus, they will have well identified goals, tasks, and timetables.
Let's apply this to a team of two people (like a marraige). If I am a member of the team and you are a member of the team then I must know what you expect of me IN THE FUTURE. And, vice versa. If we share the same vision of the future and we perform the actions required to create our future then we will be relatively satisfied in our relationship.
Some groups never discuss their shared vision and are relatively successful -- if the environment around them is not changing.
Our environment is changing dramatically and many people continue to repeat patterns of past successes. Here are some examples. When one person acts in a manner that is judged bad then another person will move to exclude the 'bad actor'. This worked in tribes (where we could kick out a tribal member). The other option was to kill 'bad actors'. When we ask for resignations then we do the same thing.
CEO's, who turn around corporations, know that it takes about 6 weeks to get a team focused in a useful direction. Does anyone want to know how to do it?
Lou Schott 330-923-9328
Tax Payer--
I must say, I find it humerous that you're comparing something as benign as allowing a child to think for themselves about matters of religion to allowing them to break laws by using illegal drugs. Nobody is saying that parents should turn a completely blind eye to their childrens' behaviour. Parents should of course provide good examples for their children to follow but in some cases it is simply impossible to control their actions, and questions of personal faith are one of those times.
All right, TaxPayer, what would you say then if your children decided they believed not in your religion but in ANOTHER one and rather than attending church with you wanted to attend one of THEIR services? It is entirely possible for someone to choose religion on their own. And the "so many... parents teaching their children at home" are no indication of the fact that what they are doing is in their childrens' best interest. The majority of people sharing an opinion does not make it right, to know this you need only look at history.
Post a Comment