It's My Money and I'll Cry if I Want to!

Note: This started to be an answer to the first comment on my previous blog but turned into much more so I decided to make it a blog.

I'm not surprised by the comments. First of all you must realize a few things. Vouchers cost more than you put in locally. Therefore no state can offer every child a voucher for the school of their choice. So that leaves an option of lowering the voucher amounts to provide a small amount for everyone or a decent tuition amount for some. Dollar for dollar your best bet is public schools. I think you would be hard pressed to find a private school that could educate your child/ren for what you pay for schools locally and state tax combined BUT....

I do believe that many changes are needed for the public school system to compete and be successful. The following comments I picked out from the above mentioned poll in the Arizona Capitol Times. The comments indicate to me that people are fed up with the take all you can attitude from employees while our kids continue to languish with mediocre and poor scores.

"I have a family member who is a teacher. I have seen first hand how the school administration is populated with cronies who care only about their salaries, and who only care about their student's education now that the students have to pass standardized tests. Why should a parent be "forced" to send their child to a school that cares primarily about the status quo, while education of the children is secondary. If teachers are hamstrung by administrators, parents should be able to send their children elsewhere. Like I said, many administrators care primarily about their paycheck - education doesn't even come in a close second. "
-- Ned Weatherby

"Parents put the child first in education. Educators put themselves first in the education of children. The parents should have vouchers to back up their selection of school educators."
-- Phyllis J. Clark

"Parental choice in school selection will do for education what consumer choice has done for all other facets of markets: increase quality and reduce cost. We all win except those beneficiaries entrenched in the status quo."
-- Kathy Gornik

"Freedom of choice fosters competition. Competition breeds excellence. So it is with every other aspect of our society. Why would we not want the same principles to benefit our children's education?"
-- Jim Ferrin

"Tax money is OUR money, not the government's. They take our money, and then tell us that our kids have to go to failing government schools. Lovely system... "
-- Tom Jenney


"Choice inevitably raises quality."
-- Steve Murphy


"School Choice should be a right of every parent....just as voting. My support of School Choice is my vote for who will lead my child's future."
-- Tracy Richardson-James


"The formulation of the question shows a bias. The money belongs to the tax payer he/she should be able to spend in in the way he/she sees fit. We need choice in education like we want it everywhere else. The public schools need competition...badly."
-- Steve Balog

Some of the themes I see here are waste, need for reform, and a voice that goes with our money. My favorite line out of this is “competition breeds excellence”.

Some questions we need to ask ourselves:
Why do administrative positions continue to be added as student population declines?
Why is so little being done at the state level to give all our kids an even playing field? I.e.: Mandating districts fund every aspect of special needs children with no funding to support these laws. Letting charter schools operate with sub standard scores then move to a new address and continue to operate under a new name with the same sub standard services. Oh wait, I know why that is. David Brennan and the likes of him are able to donate up to $30,000 to each and every one of our legislators. Impossible you say. There is a $10,000 cap on donations. Yes there is. But when you personally donate 10K and your wife donates 10K and your foundation donates 10K….Gee it’s not hard to figure out how failing charter schools continue to operate under the current law. I bet the couple of charter school operators that stole taxpayer money and fled the state really ticked ‘em off. They didn’t even get their cut. Or did they?

Competition can happen when we have an even playing field. The next time you see your state legislator and he or she tells you how much the state has increased funding to education in the last 8 years or so ask them this question: How much of that increase went to vouchers or charter schools and how much went to my public schools? If you can muddle through all the BS they feed you and figure out the answer, let me know. I know the answer. Verrry little.

I want us to be competitive. But when we are fighting the state and feds who force us to teach an archaic curriculum and focus on passing tests, instead of looking at what is going on globally in the market place, we will never be able to compete. The pocket lining will go on regardless of who we elect. But we need to elect people who will at least allow us to focus on the world we are becoming.

I hear about Japan, China and India surpassing us in education and our jobs going over seas. Right or wrong these are also countries that segregate their populations early in life. Usually by the age of 8 or 9. Performance is a ticket to a path down a vocational or labor career versus a higher education. A focus on the capabilities of the person rather than unrealistically thinking that everyone can- and has the desire to learn the same things as everyone else. There's a lesson for us all to learn from that.

Let the Games Begin

Much to my distress I have learned that board members cannot discuss their personal feelings about a particular levy while speaking as a board member. So when you see that I’m not telling you my feelings one way or another on this blog, it’s because of the title above. Kellie Patterson “Board Member” has sealed the deal. Someone suggested I start another blog and call it Kellie Patterson “Citizen”. Strangely enough I could then legally let it fly! I wonder if a lawyer was involved in writing that law? I doubt there are many people who don’t know how I feel about levies anyway. If you don’t- I hate them. That’s not to say I don’t vote yes on tax levies. I voted for the zoo and the metro parks. I used to regularly vote for school levies as well. But don’t ask me how I feel about the districts’ upcoming 4.75 mill renewal levy. I can’t tell you.

You can Molly Benedum or Barry Ganslein though. The links to the right will take you to their blogs, as well as a few other links you might find interesting. You might have noticed a name I haven’t talked about before. Barry Ganslein. He’s a dad here in Cuyahoga Falls who has decided to run this fall for one of the school board seats. Two positions will be up for grabs. I’d like to see Cuyahoga Falls have a balanced representation on the board. A village of 2000 people should not be the majority making the decisions for a population of 24,000. And please don’t start screaming at me that I’m anti-Silver Lake. Some of my best friends are village people. But even they see the unbalance on the board. The “well to do and reasonably well to do” cannot possibly understand, let alone make tax dollar decisions for the “scraping by and the barely scraping by”.

Molly and Barry live like the majority of people in Cuyahoga Falls do. And some in Silver Lake as well. I received and E-mail from a friend in Silver Lake. It said she talked to a fellow board member of mine about her concerns about tax levies and the fact she could no longer afford to fund the schools. The response was “I feel your pain”. My friend then went on to say that “I guess she felt my pain so much that she wrote a glowing letter to the Falls News endorsing it and voted yes to put it on the ballot”. This is what I’m talking about when I say a majority of the tax payers interests are not being considered on the current board. “I feel your pain” does not address the problem many of us face when the tax man shows up in February and August. I wonder if she feels the pain of my neighbor who lost his home of 53 years to Summit County.

I want everyone to know that I don’t want you to vote for Barry or Molly because I said so. I want you to do some home work (10 minutes a night!) read what they have to say, go to candidate forums, and most importantly, pay attention to how your money is being spent! Molly has the finances nailed down and Barry has a level of common sense and fairness that is rarely seen in people. If you think I like them because they think like me, you are sadly mistaken. In the various meetings and conversations we’ve had I have to say the only common thread is we want what’s best for kids and we want it equitably and ACAP. That’s my acronym for “as cheap as possible”. I figure I have to deal with all the education acronyms I might as well have one of my own. I know it’s only February but I want people to get to know the people behind the signs you see in yards.

I’ve learned one very important lesson in my last fourteen on the board. A majority makes all the decisions. All this district needs is a majority that is representative of the community they serve and has taxpayers best interests at heart.

Who? Me? Micromanage?

I didn’t get my Falls News this week so I don’t know if there was anything needing a rebuttal but there were some great articles in the Plain Dealer last week. Teacher salaries was a good one. One thing I have always said is that teachers make plenty of money. A study by the Manhattan Institute for Public Research says the same thing. And please don’t post that I don’t understand the amount of extra work and things that teachers must do at home. We all take work home. Of course the Ohio Education Association doesn’t agree with this report. Surprise, surprise. Teachers Vs. Unions touches on this issue of the NEA and local teacher unions is trying to do something about the teacher pay myth. Their main complaint is that teacher unions are not using teachers union dues wisely. No one has a problem paying an excellent teacher fair pay. It’s the crappy teachers with tenure that we are tired of supporting with tax dollars. It’s contracts slanted to benefit union officers with not one mention of student achievement that we are tired of funding. It the system of no accountability while the rest of us must prove ourselves to keep our jobs that we want to see change. But unions wont touch these issues with a ten foot pole. I was told to not even think about making student achievement with a merit pay system part of the new teachers contract. The strange thing is that good teachers do not seem to be afraid of an accountability system. But unions are. The same people who tell you that all children can learn are the same people who refuse to make it a contract issue.

Another great article was on the many superintendent job openings in the area. The part that struck me was the amount of money spent on superintendent searches. This is another area of extreme school district waste. Consultants, associations, contractors, etc. One of the great fears of the board majority during out CEO’s contract renewal scare was the cost of a superintendent search. It never even crossed their minds to look from with-in like Kent did. Duh! Besides, whatever happened to classified as in major newspapers, not to mention that new fangled internet thingy with places like Monster.com. It’s like every small claim must be made into a federal case. Another thing the article points out is that most local openings have had 10 or more applicants. Of course these are highly sought after jobs. It’s one of the few jobs you can hold and dole out favors and tax money and not be held accountable to the voters. One thing I have noticed since being involved in this school board business is this- generally a school employee is part of a school family. And I don’t mean that in the sense of “work” family. I mean if you are a school employee, chances are your wife, husband, brother, cousin, son-in-law, and spouses best friend are also school employees somewhere in some capacity.

I got a memo in my Friday board packet that suggests we try using the Ohio School Board Associations “consultant” for board relations to fill us in on what our roles are as board members. Along with this was a suggestion to read an article in the months issue of their magazine entitled “Is micro-management stalling your board?” Ironically this was the first article I read when I received my issue. Here’s the problem. The OSBA is staffed by former school administrators, not board members. We all know by now that administrators expect a board to approve their recommendations. Period. No ifs ands or buts. Recently across Ohio school board positions are being filled with concerned tax payers. Not the traditional levy cheerleaders. This has become a concern to the people spending your tax money. Yes OSBA is spending your tax money. We pay dues to belong. Here’s the part that kills me. We pay dues and get a magazine and various new letters. But the first thing you get from them is a list of consultants we can pay to use and a list of courses we can take for a fee. Now I get to the funny part of all this. I pushed for FREE federal mediators to come in and try to smooth this board rift we have and I quote our board president on this one “We need to learn how to get along on our own”. Now it seems someone wants to pay a buddy to try to help us understand our roles. I took the role course from OSBA. It basically goes like this: You pay a superintendent a lot of money to run your district. Let him do his job and do not interfere. If you interfere you are being unprofessional and difficult. What you promised the voter does not matter now. Do not question the super. Just realize that he knows best and blame the screwed up state funding for all the problems you face. Pay us $3000 - $8000 and we will send you your own tax spending personal trainer for more details. We’ll throw in a free Power Point presentation with every $5000 you spend. (Read this part really, really fast) Meals, mileage, and lodging not included in consulting fee but are expected to be paid in full. High end lodging only and valet parking must be included. Spa and pool desired but not required.

So let’s answer the question: Is micro-management stalling your board? Was I elected to be guided by the administration or the other way around? Is making suggestions to the administration on how I am told taxpayers want their money spent micro managing?

One last quickie. Make sure you check out the Plain Dealers' Regina Brett article on “The Homework Myth”. The book should be required reading for all teachers, parents, administrators and testing companies.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

I guess it’s feast or famine. There’s so much to talk about today I don’t know where to begin. I guess first I should give the Falls News some credit. Quite a few wonderful articles. Ok I am sooo biting my tongue regarding the Silver Lake trash can debate that I can hardly stand it. So I must clear up a few things. In CF when we go out of town, generally a neighbor will haul our cans back for us. In some instances we must pay a teenager for this task. Most of our out of town visitors’ realize that we produce trash and it requires pick up. Most people here bring their cans back within hours of pickup. I’m sure a few stern looks at the lake will take care of any slackers.

The article on Molly Benedum was great! I will admit I am one of her biggest supporters and very biased. I owe much of my understanding of district finances and inequities to Molly and her ability to make the confusing understandable. She has poured her heart and soul into sorting out school finance and what it takes to run a fiscally responsible and accountable school district. I’m glad she has decided to run again. This board needs someone who can get tax payers their moneys worth, yet still want what is best for kids. She has a long term investment in our district having graduated one already all the way down to one who hasn’t started school yet. She has already put 14 years in our district and has at least 15 years to go! Good luck Molly! I know you would make a wonderful addition to the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education.

The article on the survey was great too. Ellin Walsh should get a raise if anyone over there at Record Publishing is listening. I need to ask the question: What are some people afraid of? Asking the community about their wants and needs in a survey does not mean you can or will provide every single thing that has a majority vote. But acknowledging that you want input and being able to explain why some things just aren’t possible is another way you can use a survey. But I think the main point is to gauge what the community at large wants and expects from our district and strive to offer all that we can with the resources these same people are willing to put in.

And I can’t avoid it any longer- The levy. I received an interesting Email. I guess at one of the meetings I was absent for a member was appointed to represent the board on the levy committee. But I wasn’t absent for any you say? Well I had to have been. Unless it was yet another one of those meetings I wasn’t invited to. But surely since that would be against the law….

Please stop calling me to complain about school closings or the lack of closings. I do not get to make this call. I just wear my PJ’s inside out and keep my fingers crossed like everybody else does. Why do some of you think the board actually makes decisions? We’re just told what’s best for everyone and expected to agree.

Did I Miss Anyone?

Why am I so pessimistic? I guess because I’m one of those people that is destined to grow up and be a cranky old lady. It’s my nature to distrust governmental agencies. When you read “real” newspapers (sorry Falls News) you get information about how non-elected administrators are spending our money. Take the Plain Dealer (Monday, January 29, 2007) the other day for instance. They point out that Mr. Sanders may have other favors, I mean reasons, for refinancing. He’s certainly handing out a lot of jobs to his buddies. These are the things taxpayers are tired of. And you can’t vote them out. Favors and grabbing all the taxpayer money you can is the main reason these jobs are sought. Trust me, I grew up in a family that had every extended family member in some sort of government job or another. That or they were a union officer and employee at one auto maker or another so I understand what unions are all about too. Most administrators aren’t in this “for the kids”, and unions aren’t in it for the employees. That’s my opinion anyway. Teachers are at as much of a disadvantage in the current school culture as our kids are. I’m told time and time again that it’s their own union contract that prevents them from teaching methods and curricula that they feel would be successful. Another thing I’m secretly told, but no one wants to say out loud is if they actually had a choice as to joining the union or not, some teachers would not join. But if you want to teach, you’re in. You pay the dues whether you want to or not. Kind of ironic that the union says the teachers are not paid enough, yet force people who don’t want to give up the money for dues to pay. Now let’s talk about administrators, favors and tax money.

The Falls News did do an article this week on the reconfiguration committee meeting. I notice little was said regarding the committee chairs or how this looked to several of us from CF. First let me point out that there are three committee chairs. Two from Silver Lake and one from Cuyahoga Falls. Take note of the ever-present Silver Lake majority. And for the record, nothing from the CF committee chair made it to the recommendation list. Only SL suggestions made it The PFE facilitator was fine with this. But I guess this is where the favors come in to play. The facilitators’ relative recently got a job in the CF school system. But this isn’t supposed to look funny to the taxpayer. After all, it is business as usual. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
SL chair #1 headed up “reconfiguration; grade level based” SL chair #2 headed up “reconfiguration; neighborhood schools. CF chair headed up “reconfiguration; best practices”. All committees agreed that class sizes directly impacted student achievement- yet one SL chair asked the question “Do class sizes really drive excellence?” I wonder if she would have asked this if her kindergartner was in a class of 28? Besides the fact that she had already said that class sizes do affect achievement. The only research not included in the recommendations was research on best practices. If we aren’t doing this reconfiguration based on best practices why are we wasting our time? There are two things I know for sure about grade level based configuration. #1, it’s the most cost effective way to even out all class room disparities and inequalities. #2, it’s the best way to achieve teacher curriculum collaboration. So when kids hit middle school, they don’t come from six different “backgrounds”. Strangely enough the only cost benefits or achievement benefits mentioned were ones that favored keeping things the same. Did I mention that none of the CF chair best practices made the recommendation list?

A disturbing incident happened when the various tables were told to discuss what would make it to the recommendation list. Four board members were present including myself. Two of us sat back with the audience and kept our respective mouths shut. Two of us participated in the discussions. One of those board members wasn’t even a member of the committee. The board will be expected to vote on these recommendations. I have to ponder if it will be difficult to vote on your own recommendations? And strangely enough it's the same board members that don't want a question about reconfiguration on the community survey. Even I'm smart enough to know that neighborhood schools would overwhelmingly win in a community "vote".

The one point made that I can possibly agree with is that no particular configuration drives achievement. Good! Then we can focus on which configuration is the most cost effective. Because isn’t that what project recovery and the plan for excellence was supposed to be? A way to responsibly spend tax dollars and achieve greatness amongst all students? One of the “Plan for Excellence” district beliefs is “All students can learn” LOL! Let me know when that happens. We’re too busy trying to find new and improved ways to keep things the same. How much do you want to bet me that the push will be to redraw the elementary school boundaries? I’ll bet you a bagel and a cup of coffee. I’ll warn you though. I drink $3.50 cappuccinos. This is a desperate attempt to keep a cash cow open. I guess people would rather continue spending $2000 per pupil extra of our own money on open enrollers. (68% of kindergarten at SL is open enrolled) to justify this neighborhood school. Meanwhile break out your check books for the pay to play fees. And school fees, which by the way I still cannot get a straight answer as to what “school fees” are actually used for. I mean I pay for the gym clothes, I pay for the weekly readers, I pay for the assignment books, I pay for workbooks. So what are the fees for? C’mon all you administrators have my Email address in the handbook. Somebody please give me a valid, non BS answer. Oh and if anybody wants to take me up on that bet, let me know soon. We just got the property tax bill so Tarzan said I can’t go to the coffee shop for a while. Something about us not getting a levy increase when our expenses rise. Must cut back. Look for ways to save. I miss that cup of coffee.

Because...

I couldn't have said it better. This is a must read.
Molly Benedum's Blog

Sour Grapes Anyone?

It looks as if the naysayer’s were right. I think we wasted everyone’s time with mediation. What does listening mean to you? Does it mean just hearing what someone is saying? Or is consideration of what was said come into play? For me it is this: to take in what someone has said, consider it against my own point of view, perhaps use what was said to modify my point of view, perhaps not. But last night was an example of how it really works. It was stated that “we have to listen to what they have to say, but we don’t have to consider them or capitulate to them.” Gee, thanks. If you’re not going to consider others’ ideas, what is the point of my going to meetings? I also found it very telling that one board member stated that she had planned to be president and have another member to be VP, but “allowed” the current set up to try to compromise and give the appearance of harmony. So I guess we really do have one person running the show. At least that’s how it sounded to me. The selections were done behind closed doors and the rest of us were let in on it at the meeting.

I have said it to many in individual E-mails but I guess it’s time to say it here- You are complaining to the wrong person. You need to be E-mailing your concerns to the three board members that are running the board. They are the ones that can make changes happen. I can tell them how you feel ‘til I’m blue in the face. But as stated above, it falls on deaf ears. Don’t get me wrong, I still want your input on issues, but when you write to complain to me about the very same things I’m complaining about, it’s not productive. If you don’t hear back via Email, call them. They are who is directing how your tax dollars are spent. Not me.

I know there are some of you chomping at the bit about Wednesday’s levy vote. I would like to clarify a few things. First of all we voted to send the language to the County Fiscal Officer, not to put it on the ballot. I do still have questions and concerns before the ballot vote. But I do think Mrs. Gunter made a valid point. She said that in her mind putting this issue on the ballot is giving the voters a chance to evaluate the board. I’ll take it one farther and say it’s a chance to let the voters evaluate this district. Some will say that by putting it on the ballot it’s an endorsement of it. I disagree. I think there are blind followers on both sides of every issue. If people think this district needs and deserves this money it will pass. If people are fed up, it will fail. Either way I do know this. The state auditor said our staying out of fiscal watch depends on renewal levies. Having a school system in fiscal watch isn't good for your property values. And if you want your community to be desireable to families looking to buy a house, fiscal watch is not what you want to present them with.

I better get to bed. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow. The board has an executive session scheduled at 9:30 AM to discuss union negotiations. I know it’s a waste of time for me. After last night it was made clear to me that I will be heard but not considered. I’m wondering why I should bother.

Here We Go Again

Looks like placing a renewal levy on the ballot is on the agenda sooner than I had expected. Not much time to gauge public opinion. Not that public opinion matters much. I’m going to step out of my school board member role and step into my taxpayer role. This is what started my trek down the school board path. Does my district deserve to continue to be funded by me? Is it living up to the same standards I place on myself?
Let’s take a look at this. Our household income did not go up but our property taxes did. So we had to cut back in other areas. I heard propaganda that said “it (the levy cost) is the cost of a daily cup of coffee”. Well it’s a cup of coffee I don’t appreciate losing. And for what? Our elementary kids still don’t get field trips, we pay to play extra curricular activities, and our district condones biased bussing practices and class sizes. Why? Because we have a board that allows it. This board has handed over raises and continued to allow spending in areas that are unnecessary. Oh and guess what? The new bus garage needs windows and an alarm system before it would be safe to move in. Well guess what? I need new windows and an alarm system too. Oh and laugh if you want but I still say a Doberman would work as well, if not better than an alarm system. Can I get back that cup of coffee per day if this renewal doesn’t pass?
Then there is the other side. First of all if this renewal fails a couple times, the first cuts will affect our kids. One of the first battle cries you hear at levy time is “do it for the kids”. Yet I know kids in the Falls that are denied bussing because 1/10th of a mile is more important than the safety of an eight year old, families that were “redrawn” at the last minute last year for the sole reason of denying bussing, and kids that are threatened with not being permitted to participate in art projects because their parents haven’t paid school fees. Like a kid has any control of their parents paying fees. And why can’t our kids take AP classes without paying fees? What the hell are my tax dollars going for if not to educate the brightest students to the fullest? But this is where they will make us suffer if we do not pass a renewal. Our kids.
So you’re between a rock and a hard place. Unless you have a board that is willing to make cuts. We could close another building or two if we move to grade level alignment. Big savings involved in that, as we can recall from two years ago. Now when the last two buildings closed I was told that kids are resilient and could handle the change. Now I’m hearing that it’s detrimental for kids to switch buildings. Hmmmm. I was also told a while back that a certain administrator could leave and it wouldn’t pose a problem to us. Another employee would be able to perform their own job as well as the vacant position. This tells me there is a job that’s not needed. Needless to say both jobs are still filled.
And to top it off, “Project Recovery” is more like real life than you know. We have relapsed. Tax and spend with out an eye on the future of education. So what do I do? It’s like enabling a drug addict if I vote for it but I punish what’s most dear to me if I vote against it.
Gee it would be nice to have a board majority that focused on educating our kids and insisted on less waste? Let’s hear the pros and cons of putting this on the ballot. I’m truly in a quandary.

Let Them Eat Cake

Please excuse my long absence. I need an extended break from the craziness of the school world! But I’m refreshed and back. As you probably read in the paper, not much has changed. I was hoping that after our first session with the federal mediators we could start to try to cooperate. Silly me. I thought we could start focusing on the education of children. But instead we continue to focus on who can outdo whom. Did I really think I would be elected to serve as VP? No. I was nominated to prove a point. You see two of us have been dealing with being shut out for a year now. They do it under the auspices of a majority. Yet they do not care they are shutting out the voting public majority. If you’ve been to any of the board meetings I think you would notice one thing about the five of us individually. There is only one member who continually keeps the focus on education, testing scores, and student achievement. She was appointed to the Cuyahoga Falls Foundation committee! What a slap in the face. I knew the triumvirate would never elect her president of the board even though she would have been the best pick. Their original pick for president and the reasons were unacceptable to me. My vote for board president is not going to be based on politics. Someone needing a title because they are up for re-election this year is not sound reasoning. Since I knew common sense would never prevail, a 5-0 vote was promised for the current president (lesser of two evils) and our education person as VP. But it became apparent that was not going to happen. My pick for VP declined my offer to nominate and offered to nominate me instead. What the heck, I had to try! I strongly feel the taxpayer majority deserves a voice on the board. But politics prevailed and winner takes all by a margin of one. I found the whole scene a comical waste of time. It was known going in who it would be. We should have skipped the formalities and just sworn them in when we walked in. Could’ve shaved 15 minutes off the meeting.
Now let’s touch on a few hot button (pardon the pun) issues. Cell phones first. Driving home from Bolich, I watch my friends’ daughter text message a 3-paragraph dialogue in 10 seconds flat. Keep in mind you non-text message users, each number on your phone stands for 3 or 4 different letters. “S” for instance requires 4 pushes of #7 on your phones and the actual #7 takes 5 pushes! Kids can text faster than an executive secretary can type. In fact Madam Kellie predicts that future keyboards will resemble a phone number pad more than our familiar keyboards. And everyone will type one handed. Eventually people will only type with their thumbs. I was told a story Wednesday night of a kid who texted 28 messages back and forth with his girlfriend during class, phone under the desk because he can do it with his eyes closed. I’m actually getting proficient at it and I’ve only done it about ten times. Everyone is fretting what to do. As usual I have the solution but no one will listen. We have the ability to block transmission in the classroom. Now I’m no techie, but I do know that if I go into secure areas, my cell is rendered useless. Scramble the signals, or whatever it is that these computer guru’s do that I know nothing about, but do know is available.
And thanks to the Beacon Journal, let’s talk about retire/rehire, or more commonly referred to as double dipping. There are two schools of thought on this one. First is the “it’s saving the taxpayer money” argument. You as a taxpayer will no longer pay for insurance benefits, (I wonder about the $1000 payment for not taking our insurance though), and perhaps a slight decrease in pay. This side will also point out the years of experience you are getting for the money. While this side has some merits the other side counter attacks with cries of how unfair it is. And to a point I agree. If you are a productive employee hoping to apply for that job when it is available, what is your incentive to stay if retirees are keeping their positions? And although a state pension is money the retiree earned, most taxpayers do not have this option after retiring and it leaves a bad taste in the voters’ mouth. It gives the appearance of a good ole boy system. It also eliminates young fresh professionals from bringing new ideas to a system. And they generally come in at a lower pay rate too. And the new person would generally buy a house in the neighborhood and start contributing to the local economy.
What’s your thoughts on these issues?

Dream On

No it’s not an ugly rumor. The CF BOE actually had federal mediators come in (for free!) to help us learn how to function together. You see some of us are concerned that the constant friction present is doing this school district no good. I want to see us move into the 21st century. Follow global trends. Send kids into the world prepared for life, not just college. We have another meeting with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services in January. Just enough time to ponder what we’ve discussed thus far. To try and sum it up- we all come from different places. Different morals, ethics, beliefs, and backgrounds. Besides looking for flaws, look for some positives, some strengths that person has and appreciate them.

An interesting conversation took place among friends the other day. Do we have enough family time during the school year? I think complaints about homework have been around since homework has been issued. But today there is a valid argument that too much is coming home. We have after school sports and church and girl/boy scouts and music programs and practices, not to mention family activities suchas birthdays and shopping and doctor appointments and the rest of life. And most teachers do not plan homework and assignments around these things. I’m not saying they should but the amounts of homework that come home can be overwhelming. I hear of 2 hours and more and I’ve experienced it myself. My son had 3 reports dues in one weeks time. That’s a lot for a fourth grader. I like the 10 minutes per day and day per week rule. That means in first grade you have 10 minutes of home work once a week. In second grade you have 20 minutes of homework 2 days per week. But it should never exceed 4 days per week. Homework should not come home on Fridays in my opinion. Weekends are my time for family. School work should not dominate peoples lives. I have actually read about districts that issue no homework! Can you imagine that? I’m not necessarily saying that is a good idea, but it’s worth looking into. I’d revamp our whole system if it were up to me. Core classes would be 50 minutes. Art and music would be 45 minutes every other day. Gym class would ½ hour every day. That’s right-every single day. Obviously the high school would have to be different. But the focus should be on future trends not past practices.

That’s the end of my day dreaming today. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the policy committee will consider looking into some of these items next year. No meetings this week. What will we do with ourselves? I’m planning on shopping. Only 13 days left!

How good do you have it?

The Plain Dealer did us a favor. If you haven’t seen Sunday’s PD you must check it out. It has a list of every districts pay scales in our six county area. The article points out that our teachers don’t have it so bad. In fact a new teacher in CF makes the same annual wage as our city’s medium income. Add in the benefits and time off and we have first year teachers out pacing the average taxpayer paying the bills by 50%. It also says that there is not a teacher shortage. One of the lowest paying districts in northeast Ohio had over 150 applications last year. The article also says to me that our pay is on par with our community. The higher the community’s medium income, the higher the teachers pay. Ohio is 14th in the nation for average teacher pay. Not bad.

I often hear the argument of what is a teacher worth. I’m the first to admit that it depends on the teacher. Some teachers are worth their weight in gold. Others aren’t worth the paper their degree is printed on. So instead of trying to decide what a teacher is worth at this point, let’s discuss what people are worth in general.

Most of us come out of college or technical school in debt to some degree. And I hope we can agree that most professions have their own unique challenges and levels of brains needed to perform. Most of us pay out of our own pocket for continuing education. Many of us must get our C/E hours on our own time as well to keep our licenses. Most of us take work home. Most of us work 238 days per year. (I gave everyone weekends, 12 holidays and 2 week’s vacation.) Most of us can’t demand a raise because we feel cheated in pay from the profession we chose. Most of us don’t have free insurance. In fact most of us pay 50% premiums or more. Most of us can’t earn $5000 to $15,000 on top of our wages with supplemental and extra duty contracts. Most of us don’t have tenure. Most of us have to prove our worth through performance to keep our jobs. Some of us have mandatory overtime. Some of us must take vacations when the shop shuts down for maintenance. Some of us haven’t had a raise in years. A few of us have taken pay cuts, layoffs, elimination of positions, wage freezes, and no benefits at all. Some of us are held to 30-hour workweeks. Some have had their names on the delinquent tax list. Most people live paycheck to paycheck and carry some debt. If you think any of this is off base, let me know.

Someone asked about the survey. The survey has been put on hold. With the holidays here and the hustle and bustle of all that comes with it, it was decided that it would get lost in the junk mail and Christmas cards. I have been asked about the cost. It seems some board members have been spouting about the huge expense of this survey. Let’s put it this way. It cost $10,000. That’s less than the raises and benefits this same board member handed over to our top two administrators. Hardly an amount to sneeze at yet in the scheme of things it’s really a drop in the bucket. I can guarantee we will get a better idea of what this community want’s from this survey than from the people who got raises. Another reason it was put on hold is the board cannot agree on a direction the survey should take. Some want it centered on the “Plan for Excellence”. A plan most people who pay taxes here know nothing about. OK. Let’s waste ten grand asking people about a plan they don’t even know exists. Another smart move from the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education.

Speaking of the Plan for Excellence, I have an update. A third co chair has been added to the redistricting committee. Cuyahoga Falls’ Molly Benedum was asked to join the two Silver Lake chairs. Thank goodness! It will be an uphill battle for equity but I have faith in Molly. She knows the numbers in this school district better than anyone. If you have never looked at her blog, you really should take a peek. She puts the numbers, facts and info behind all the things I complain about. She also has a vested interest in our district for at least the next 20 years with generations W, X, Y, and Z at her house.
As for the board meeting this week, should be long but informative. Part 3 of school finance from our CEO. A presentation on the 07/08 program of studies for the HS. The regular business of appointments and such. Approval of an agreement for a property tax valuation reduction from 15 million to 11.3. Hope to see you there!

What can we expect?

It’s Saturday night about midnight. Right now about 20 teenagers are hanging out around the corner from me. Trash in the street, bikes lying everywhere. Cussing like Hells Angels at a truck stop. Do they have parents? How can the people living on that corner put up with the noise and trash? I’m disgusted. I wish some of the people on the Plan for Excellence would come and take a look at what they’re up against. When I say all children will not learn, these are the kids I’m talking about. They know I’m on the school board, yet willingly tell me they have left school. One asked me if it was OK to leave the HS because she had a headache. Two boys from Bolich left for the day because they “didn’t feel like being there anymore.” If we don’t find a way to reclaim these kids we will never achieve excellence. They do not have guidance from home on what it takes to survive in the world. Yet we expect them to take tests, bring up our scores for the state, graduate and become productive members of society.

As idealistic as it is to say parents need to do their job, the reality is many don’t. Whether you like it or not, these kids go to school with your kids. They smoke, they drink, they do drugs and they have sex. They are also a part of our scores to the state and federal government. We need to do something for these kids so that regardless of where they come from, they know where they are going. Out into thr cruel, harsh world. If our schools do not show them what it takes to survive, who will?

My fourth grader was taught last week how to write a check. That’s nice but first he needs to understand how the money gets into the checking account. Fourth grade isn’t too early. We need to add to our curriculum financial literacy, maybe even an overhaul of the “home ec” course. These children do not understand what a resume is. They do not have a clue what it takes to get into college at an early enough age. We do not spend enough time steering kids in directions that suit them individually. We spend an inordinate amount of time teaching things the children of this generation will never use. Computer literacy should be it’s own class in each grade in this day and age. And why do we force music class on kids? Some kids just are not cut out for singing or playing an instrument. Some are born with it. My opinion- it should always be an elective. Phys ed on the other hand should be mandatory daily. I can get up the stairs faster than some of our fifth graders. Nutrition is another area we lack in. We preach the food groups and healthy eating and all, yet we serve pizza and French toast and rarely anything that resembles beef, pork, or chicken. It’s all processed and frozen. I realize this is a real money saver. But it is at the expense of our children’s health. Don’t even get me started on the pop at school. Millions of people have survived by only being offered milk at school. OJ is available for those with allergies.

I guess what I’m getting at is we have to be examples and teachers of what life is all about in the classroom. Because unfortunately this is the only place many of these kids are going to get it. We need to use our imaginations and incorporate real life into our curriculum. Otherwise ours will never be an excellent district. The kids around the corner have no desire to learn. I want them to. What I’d like to know is this- what areas of education do you think need adjusted or a complete overhaul?

If It Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All

What a week! If you think you’ve had a bad day, allow me to make you feel better about yourself. First Saturday. Hold B-Day party for my 96 month old baby. Secretly wish I had 4 more babies. Then other kids invade my house and I’m grateful I didn’t. Feed children donuts, ice cream, soda pop, and other sugar-laden goodies. At 1 AM I wonder what the hell I was thinking. At 2 AM I wonder why my kids are asleep and the others aren’t. At 3 AM I contemplate leaving for Columbus now rather than waiting until 2PM. Wake at 7 AM to automatic machine gun fire and Nerf bombardment. Wonder why they say kids need 8-10 hours of sleep but these ones only need 4.

Leave for Columbus at 2:30. Decide to be lead car in a 2 person caravan. Realize that 80 miles per hour is not fast enough for Miss Leadfoot. Wonder if cop will believe I was forced to go this fast. Probably not. Arrive at check in with my printed out reservation from September CLEARLY showing my smoking room. Informed that the hotel is 100% non smoking as of last May and my minority butt can stand outside if I wish. She also informs me that my blue and yellow outfit was not a good fashion statement this weekend. Huh? Whatever.

Go to dinner. The first clue should have been when the hostess directed my companion to not sit in a particular seat because of the vent above. So she moved to the seat the hostess suggested instead and I sat down. Long story short, froze the entire time and my food was cool after my first three bites. And I should have known that chicken pizza would suck.

Depressed Monday cuz it’s my baby’s actual birthday and I’m not with him. Call baby and tell him the story about the day he was born with a tear in my eye. Baby reply’s that he was playing Spyro Year of the Dragon on his new Nintendo DS Lite and forgot (?) what I was saying. And wants to know why I didn’t name him Spyro. And if he can change it to that. Go to bed wondering why my mom didn’t name me something cooler too.

Tuesday fairly uneventful. Except for the fact that I got up ungodly early to attend a meeting that was supposed to unveil the legislation to solve all the states education and property tax problems. Had to get presentable, pack, check out, get bell to put bags in storage, take shuttle to conference for- NOTHING! That’s right. The plan that brought everyone together, that mayors, and just about every educational entity is a part of, get this- wants us to donate money and get petitions signed for a piece of legislation we still haven’t seen any part of!

Wednesday. Take kids to school and pull back in driveway. Hope the green antifreeze all over the driveway is from someone else’s car that was at my house while I was gone for 5 minutes. Nope. Call Tarzan and listen to 20 minute tirade about car repair people, cost of radiators, and the fact that we will have to use our furniture funds to pay for car repairs. (The furniture isn’t due for delivery for 6-8 weeks.), told to not answer the phone if Wayside Furniture calls. Laugh because of this outrageous staement. Like furniture ever comes early! Get ride to Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Miss winning 50-50 raffle by one number. Get free hand sanitizer and a ride home. Realize my car is gone. Hope it was stolen only to find out it’s already at the repair shop. With all my stuff in it. Listen to messages. Wayside called. Furniture is in. I can call call them anytime to pay the balance and set up delivery. Repair shop message says they think they can fix it for only $350. Only?!

Computer repair guy is scheduled to come at 5PM and repair shop has finished and closes at 6. So I take Tarzan’s car to shop while he stays home to meet techie. Leave home at 5 and get to shop only realize his car needs gas and I don’t have time to get it. Leave shop in my car and race to board meeting. Get there with one minute to spare. Gotta pee but I guess it can wait. Take my car home and get ride to Kent from Miss Leadfoot to pick up Tarzan’s car. Argue the entire way about teaching and learning and if people come to games for the team or the band, when we all know it’s for the band! Oh and did I mention the air conditioner was on the entire way to defog the windows? This must be how they do it down south. Finally in Tarzan’s car and driving home. Car starts dinging at me. I instinctively hit the brakes because that’s what you do when the car dings. Realize the brakes are barely there. Debate whether to go home and tell Tarzan or go to bar and drink. Decide to go home and drink and then tell Tarzan. Realize I have broken two cars in one day and hysterically laugh and cry the whole way home and why the hell wont the car stop dinging? I know already for God’s sake! Does it think I can just stop and walk home? Besides even if it wants me to I’m not sure I could since it’s the brakes!

Thursday. Volunteer in Library. Tell Library buddies I feel like Schleprock. Informed that Schleprock must be from the OLD Flintstones because no one but me remembers him. For anyone who doesn’t know, Schleprock was a guy on the Flintstones that had gloom and doom follow him where ever he went. Go home and find out Tarzan’s car will cost $1000 to fix AND they will have it for a WEEK. Wonder why I didn’t become a school administrator so I would never have money problems.

TGIF. Friend stops by and tells us she’s leaving town for 2 weeks and want’s to leave her car in our driveway. Wishes one of us would drive it while she’s gone because she doesn’t take it out enough as it is. Um, OK. Maybe I won’t need a drink after all.

Lady Luck Doesn't Live Here

I’ve had some interesting conversations lately. A relative in South Dakota tells me that their teachers pay is 49th in the United States. Yet they are ranked one of the best school districts in the nation. Oh yeah, and their property tax bills laugh at ours. Taxes levies fail resoundingly over and over. Guess what I suspect funds their schools. Gambling. Let’s look at Nevada. Per pupil spending in Nevada is some of the best in the country. I think you all know what funds it. In fact Nevadans aren’t real clear on what taxes are. Now a conversation from Iowa. For over 20 years the state of Iowa tried to legalize gambling. The issue finally passed a few years back. To quote the source- “Once people realized what a cash cow it was for the state, gambling issues passed faster than prunes through Grandma. We pass gambling issues to fund just about everything.”

Now I’m not saying issue 3 was perfect. But I would like to take at look at what other states, especially Nevada, to allocate so much funding to schools from gambling proceeds. What I find perplexing about this issue is that the people who wanted property tax relief and legal way of funding our schools, seem to be the same people that voted against issue 3. Without an alternate source of funds, property owners will continue to foot the bill. Strickland’s “Learn and Earn” is going to cost the tax payers money. Whether its income tax or sales tax or a reduction in Medicaid funding to reallocate to Learn and Earn programs, we all will pay for it one way or another. Unfortunately it won’t be through gambling proceeds. So in order to help out our freshly minted State Representative, tells me folks, how should we pay for education AND reduce property taxes? Or how about one better. Until someone in the state figures out how to pay for the mandates they issue, and make the playing field fair, public school districts should not have to abide by them. The same could be said to our federal lawmakers. Let expensive court ordered special treatment centers come out of the court’s budget not the school districts. And please legislators stop trying to tell us that local dollars do not follow a child to a charter school. When we must pay a charter school more money than the state pays us for that child, the difference is local dollars. If you want to send money to charters schools, let the district send ONLY what we get for them from the state.

The Ohio School Board Association’s capitol conference is next week. The whole gang is going. I will learn all the new and improved ways to spend our money. There will also be legal lectures as well as educational issues. The room of vendors peddling their wares rivals the IX center. Some are truly valuable products. Most are consultants. Surprise. But I always learn something at the seminars offered. The free highlighters and stress releasing squeeze balls make it all worth it. Bonus- our very own Plan for Excellence team will be there filling other districts in on how we saved ourselves from financial ruin and brought the community together.
Stay tuned, if time allows, I’ll be posting from Columbus.

It's Getting Deeper

I need a question answered. Maybe I am being unreasonable. I asked that our survey indicate where the responder lives. Some think this aspect is unimportant. But whether you have DSL vs. high speed cable internet service is. Don’t get me wrong. “Do you have internet service?” is a good question. But is the type really going to help us any? I also am a little worried at the direction the survey is taking. Seems a few people think it should focus on the “Plan for Excellence”. I hate to be the realist once again but most residents of CF do not have a clue what the PFE is nor do they give a crap. BUT they do know how they want their money spent. And they DO have opinions on our schools and what is important. I want to know if athletics are a high or low priority here. I want to know what the people paying our bills want. Not what they think of committees they know nothing about and don’t understand.

I am disturbed by the happenings on Molly’s blog. Why any of this mattered to anyone anyway, I will never understand. And how was this a topic of discussion? I can’t even imagine how the subject came about. Let’s pretend.* We’re all sitting around sipping our cosmopolitans listening to each others rings clink the glasses.

MargaretKatherine: So Buffy did you hear Jane open enrolled her kid to our building?

Buffy: You’re kidding! Do you suppose she wanted $1500 per pupil more spent on her kid?
(Laughter)

MargaretKatherine: Maybe she wanted to benefit from the amplified sound system throughout the building, or the air conditioners, after all the schools in the city don’t have them.

Buffy: Well then her kid would just be costing the district more money then. After all we don’t get reduced electric rates like they do in the city.

Steph: Now ladies, everyone knows it had to be because of our low class sizes. Who wouldn’t want a student teacher ratio of 15:1? My child wouldn’t be so exceptionally gifted if the teacher had to spend her time with 25-30 kids!
(Gasps of horror and disbelief)

Buffy: Well if most if the city’s residents would send their kids to private schools like we do, they could have small class sizes too. It’s not our fault we don’t have an over crowded building.

MargaretKatherine: I heard if the district keeps pushing all open enrollment to our school we might have class sizes of 17:1 next year!

Buffy: Thank goodness we are the grand ring masters of the district wide reconfiguration! I hope our idea of making our school building the districts school for elementary aged geniuses goes over well. I mean who wouldn’t want that?

Everyone: Shhhhhh. Buffy!

MargaretKatherine: Buffy, you can’t talk about that! We haven’t figured out what to do with the rest of the district yet! There are a lot of kids in the city you know. We need to figure out a way to make ours a magnet school for talented kids and appease the city folk as well. It wont be easy. They actually think they deserve as much as we do!

Buffy: But they actually haul their own trash. To the curb!! I don’t understand how you can do this without getting some sort of debris on yourself. Besides my nail technician would die if she knew I was handling trash.

Steph: I hear they make their kids haul the cans back to the garage. Like my little Stanford is going to walk from the curb to the garage. It’s all he can do to ride his electric motor scooter to the lake and walk to the sand.

MargaretKatherine: I’m not sure why Jane didn’t enroll her kid here, I just thought I would bring it up. I really have no details or actual information just rumor and innuendo. I could ask Jane about it, but that wouldn’t be nearly as fun as figuring it out for ourselves. After all we have all the answers to the districts problems.

Steph: Refills anyone? Oh and I made the stuffed pumpkin soufflé that was on Martha the other day.

Buffy: Steph you are so talented.

OK. I better stop there. I feel myself getting out of hand. If this much time was spent working on the problems that face us we might actually move forward. But petty BS keeps occupying otherwise smart and talented peoples minds. The work that the PFE sub committee is doing has already been done. By Mayor Robart’s KIDS committee and the CEO of our district as well. I have been assured that the reconfiguration is being handled fair and impartially. But I must question why it is headed by two people from SL. Is it wise to have people from a small outside wealthy community making the decisions for a much larger much poorer part of our district? Can you be objective when it would so adversely affect your child’s education? I sure hope so. But the gossip on my friends blog makes me wonder where peoples priorities are. Molly’s priorities are with the facts and inequities in our district. Where she enrolls her kids has nothing to do with what we need. So how does community get togethers sound once some preliminary plans have been proposed? Or will we once again be handed a plan that a few have been involved with and no feed back from the community affected?

I haven’t talked about tomorrow’s election because I am so burned out on politics I could puke. My recycle bin is stuffed full of smiling faces telling me why the other guy is a bad person. One thing I have noticed. The History Channel doesen't play poitical ads. Please get out and vote. If there is anyone who understands how one vote can make a difference it’s me! So please go and make a difference.

* The people and names depicted here are fictional characters and not meant to portray any actual characters you may know. The author apologizes for any similarities between these fictional characters and any people the reader may know to be real.

Git Yer Boots On

WOW! My comment to Sarah wasn’t even up for 2 hours and my phone rang. I gotta give the guy credit. Mr. Widowfield made his case pretty well. AND he apologized for not responding to the boards’ request to attend candidate’s night. He also says that Sarah never contacted him. I find the comments from Sarah strange anyway considering only one candidate actually knows me. So if Ms. Hanna wanted to invite me to a mental health forum, I’m sure it was to help me understand some of the people I serve with.

Mr. Widowfield pointed out to me that it is not easy to legislate. While I only have to deal with 4 other points of view, he must deal with 99. He has a point. But then again that’s why we hired him. He told me he has done much to increase state funding and protect local dollars since taking office. But he did defend charter schools. He claims that there a many charter schools outperforming public schools, I pointed out that are a few that are outperforming local "Big 8" districts but generally publics outperform. He also claims that David Brennan’s money has no effect on his decision making in congress. I must be suspicious of that comment until he stops taking his money. How could you take someone’s hard earned cash (she said with a snicker) and not feel some sense of partiality? When I posed the solution of closing all failing charters now and allowing new start ups that must succeed within a 3 year period he said that's how it is now. Except for the closing the already failing ones. And except for preventing them from reopening down the street. Read this article for more on this issue.

As for the judgeship comments I made, he says I’m off base on this one. To sum up what he told me in a nutshell, The juvenile court had said for years they needed a judge. Summit Co. Common Pleas was also yelling for more judges. Mr. W asked the most independent person he knew, Justice Moyer, to look into each request and decide what was needed where. Later the power shifted at juvey and the demoncrats said another judge was not needed. It is my understanding that cases move fairly quickly through the system at juvey. Not the case at Summit Co. Common Pleas. So I have a feeling politics play into this a smidge. But I’ve gotta give him credit too. His kids are enrolled in public school and they do and will continue to feel the effects of funding deficiencies. He does understand DeRolph and asks people this question: What is your formula or answer to fund schools? It’s a good question. There is no easy answer. But then again that’s why we hired them (legislators). If he is re-elected I expect him to find the answer to this question. I’m not paid enough to find that answer.

The Plan for Excellence comment stems from the fact that there is one parent from CF on the building reconfiguration committee and the rest are SL parents, teacher/SL residents, and administrators. The committee chairs both hail from SL as well. This is not fair and balanced. Madam Kellie is going to make another prediction. Madam Kellie predicts that nothing will change. Instead of going to grade level based buildings, a proven winner, we will keep our "neighborhood" schools. Well some of us will. Some of us will continue to trek across town to our neighborhood school. Unfortunately not many people were aware that our district was reconfiguring. I place blame on many people for this, including myself. But I gave up on the Plan for Excellence after my first meeting. You see the committees were set up and one was labeled "facilities and resources". Common sense would dictate that building reconfiguration would happen on this committee. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the "teaching and learning" committee would be handed this task. That’s when I began to realize that the whole process was flawed. Is this committee looking at the financially beneficial configuration? Hmmmm… It’s obvious our district needs all day kindergarten. Look at the percentage of two career households and single mothers in our district. Did this topic really require a committee? Along the same lines, I hope they look into letting middle school aged children out 15 minutes before the elementary aged kids. After all they are the baby sitters of these kids.

People are throwing their hands in the air. I remain hopeful that the community survey will provide some guidance for these committees as to where the taxpayers want to see our money spent and what we expect in return. Please O please return your surveys!

As the Board Turns, a new soap to watch.

I should be used to this by now. But I keep thinking that that this board is making strides to cooperate. Then I am brought back to reality. Wednesday nights meeting was going smoothly. At board comment time I mentioned that I had heard from Paul Colavecchio, one of the candidates for the Ohio House of Representatives. He was the only candidate for house or senate that I heard from regarding an invitation to a board hosted candidates’ night. Since he bothered to respond, I offered him the opportunity to speak to the board at our Nov. 1st board meeting. Silly me. I actually believed your board of education would want to see where this man stood on the issues facing our school district. I didn’t even think it needed a vote! But I was forced to put it to a vote when someone raised concerns of what was fair and handing a candidate an open mic. I assured her that the opponent had been given several opportunities to respond to the request. But he was too busy to take 2 minutes to get back to me. One board member even stated that he would like to hear what Mr. Colavecchio had to say but turned around and voted no to hearing what Mr. Colavecchio had to say! I don’t know what I should think of that. Nothing like an alliance to confuse you. But then again when you vote the way you are signaled to vote by others, it can be confusing. I feel like we are third graders and need to stand folders up on the desks so we can’t see what each other is doing.

I also find it very disturbing that a union president approached a board member after the meeting and congratulated her on the fine job she had done. What the hell is so fine about blocking information? After all our current state representation has done very little for public education, but smiles while David Brennen, the charter school Don, lines his pockets with tax-payer money. I’m sure he wouldn’t use any of that money for campaign contributions now would he? I am so sick of watching people try to play both sides of the fence. Public education has suffered because of our current congress people. Why does everyone bitch about it at luncheons and meetings but not speak about it publicly? Mr. Colavecchio is not taking money from people to run his campaign and I respect that. His hands are clean and he can think about the citizens wants and needs, not wants and desires of a small, wealthy portion of our population with special interests. I do not know the man except for our short 5-minute conversation regarding the talk to the board meeting and what I’ve read and heard about him. But I feel the people that live here have been ignored by our current representation. Too many in Columbus have this attitude that they know better than the common folk. We’re not stupid. We can see what’s going on. Common folk do not want their hard earned money funding failing charter schools and making a few private citizens' millionaires along the way. And stop spending our money on test consultants and test preparers and test printers and tests, tests, tests. Our state dollars need to come to the buildings not to test companies. It’s disgusting the amount of tax payer money goes to companies "specializing" in education issues.

Lastly, yes I did say special education inclusion needs a looksy. I do not apologize for this statement. I had a severely handicapped father so please do not yell that that I do not understand. I do. I also understand that are certain limitations and prohibitions involved in a special needs persons’ life. I will once again use the example of the screaming autistic child being included in an advanced reading class. Who benefited from this action? I’m sure it was not easy to read a chapter book with this type of commotion in the classroom. I feel the 25 "typical" children in this classroom have the right to a peaceful, productive learning environment. I am also not sure what the autistic child got out of this. I saw this child in the hallways and playground often and witnessed many screaming fits and literal lying on the floor screaming kicking fits. I had the distinct impression this child did not like inclusion in the classroom. And you don’t even want to hear what happened when they tried to bring the entire autism unit outside for field day with 300 screaming hyper maniacs we call students. All I can say is Duh!

And then there is the violence. It seems that while we want these children to be treated just like any other child, that is not the case when it comes to behavior and discipline issues. If a "typical" child strikes another child, throws objects at teachers and others kids, or otherwise disrupts class, he or she will be disciplined. But the special needs label gets you a free pass 99% of the time. So I feel like it’s treat this special needs kid like every other kid except when they are not acting like every other kid. I want to do everything we can for the children of our district. But not at the detriment of the majority of them. If inclusion is possible without disruption of education, go for it. But use a dose of common sense when placing these children in a main stream classroom.

Sorry if that offends anyone but I tend to see the reality in situations. The reality is there really are some kids who cannot and will never learn. My father could return to work with his peers after his injury. To think that he could have preformed at their level is ludicrous. His co-workers could not wait for him to perform his job so they could complete theirs.

One more thing. The Plan for Excellence committee has been formed that is charged with reconfiguring our districts' buildings. It is so unbalanced and not representative of our community that I have washed my hands of it. I think the only hope of knowing what this community wants is through the community survey. Be sure to let people know it's coming.

A Taxing Situation

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.

Zippidee Do Dah

It seems last Fridays football game had a little more excitement than we realized. This is that lovely time of year when the leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and the politicians are swarming like bee’s on a smashed peach. Our State Senator had some people at the game handing out peanuts with his name on the bag. No biggy. Well at least you would think. It seems the president of the board of education ordered the peanut pushers to vacate the property. Strange considering our board president himself campaigned in the stadium last September and October. I’m really ticked because he kicked them out before I got my free peanuts. But even more interesting is how I found out orders were issued. Tuesday the board received an Email from our state senator saying this action was illegal. I’m not sure it actually is but I will agree with him that if his people were not causing a problem, why boot them? But then the disturbing part of the letter happens: "it was unwise to target a member of the legislature for such an action"... "a legislator of lesser temperament may have carried that with him when considering policies impacting the Falls schools."

I think a better legislator would have not said this. Taking money from David Brennan whom makes millions of dollars from our taxes, and touting charter schools as supporting educational choice for parents doesn’t sit well with me. I am for educational choice myself. But a majority of charter schools are not performing well, are not held to the same standards as public schools and have tainted the purpose behind the legislation. They cater to throw away kids and do nothing to prepare young men and women for life beyond graduation. I want representation that understands the problems the people in Cuyahoga Falls face. Not someone who would threaten the funding for my kids because of a skirmish with the pres. Both of these guys need to grow up.

I’m sure it was a shock to see a 5-0 vote on several agenda items this week. I’ll try to go in order and explain without getting off track.

First we amend and approve the agenda. I added an item to employ the Santa Rita Collaborative. It was also amended to appoint a library board member and a resolution to support the library levy. The library appointment went well as it should have. The man we appointed has wonderful ideas for library programming and facility operations, as well as a firm grasp of finances and the need for public transparency. He has experience having served on a neighboring community’s library board, as well as many other professional and civic boards. His appointment is one of many reasons I also supported the library levy resolution.

Do I want to pay more taxes? No. Do I think our library needs a little restructuring and better public relations? Yes. But I also know that if this levy fails hours will be cut even further and I feel it will directly impact the educational quality offered in Cuyahoga Falls. It will cost the average homeowner in Cuyahoga Falls about $5 per month. A small price to pay for what you can get. It will be the first time the property owners in Cuyahoga Falls will be levied for the library.

The Santa Rita Collaborative is in the business of surveys. I have long wanted a survey of the entire community because I feel it is the only way your board of education can understand who we are representing. We all claim we know what the people think but in reality we only know what the people we talk to think. For some reason this item caused quite a bit of discussion, with some members quite concerned about the cost. I proposed a $10,000 cap. The CFO said $12,000 was possible. I find it odd that some of the board members that handed over raises on a silver platter, negotiated not with but for the CEO and CFO for annuities and Medicare and such during their contract negotiations, were the same board members hesitant to pay for a survey that will cost the same as the aforementioned items. Anyway after much ado it was finally put to a vote and much to my amazement, passed 5-0. The "Plan for Excellence" calls for community input. So does the "Pledge to the Community". I’m starting to think that it’s not community input that is desired, but insider input. The Plan for Excellence committees are stacked with teachers and administrators. They need to get used to the fact that the taxpayers of the Cuyahoga Falls School District should have the loudest voice in where our dollars are going. If we want our dollars in the classroom or in a stadium. In an innovative program or in the administrative offices. I think I know but I can’t wait to get results back! Make sure you tell your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and grandma that it’s coming. We were told the typical return on surveys mailed citywide is 10-12%. I’m hoping our community will set a new standard.

Sorry this was so long but there was a lot to talk about. School is back in and volunteering has started. Building tours, late night executive sessions, and general family responsibilities have kept me from posting as much as I’d like. I’ve got my mojo back and Barberton looks like it’s going to give me some blogging fodder. From the looks of my last blog, educational topics are not of much interest.

ABC- Easy as 123

I had a chance to attend the districts’ presentation of our new math program this evening. Everyday Math is the name and having fun is the game. I’ve always believed that children learn the same concepts in different ways. This math program promotes these different ways of learning for each child. They will naturally start using the concepts he or she is most comfortable with. It uses games and a lot of interactive materials. The most important part of this program is it makes math fun. I know the old school thinking is "school shouldn’t have to be fun" but I think everyone can agree that if it’s fun, kids are eager. I wanted to plat with some of the stuff I saw on the demonstration tables. I didn’t get to play with dominoes and cards and fancy rulers when I was in school. It looked as if all of our teachers were there to help explain what our kids are doing. A big thanks to all of our elementary teachers that helped out at the events held throughout the district.

I’d like to hear some feedback from parents who attended any of the Everyday Math events. I found it very engaging. I hope to see more of our curriculum move to programs like this. This is what I think our tax dollars were intended for. Books and materials. Let the academic conversations begin!

Gray Hair Meter Currently 35%

I am not in the best spirits. I want to explain how things work in the world of school boards. You do what you can with what you’ve got. We have a divided board attempting to run a school district. But in reality the CEO runs the district and tells the board what to do. All over Ohio I see good people run for and win school board seats only to resign months later because they soon realize they cannot make a difference. They realize nothing changes. The people running our schools only want board members that are yes men.

I am going to attempt to explain what has happened in chronological order. Maybe you can understand why things happened the way they did. I read in the paper thatour CFO had applied for the job in Hudson. The board president asked the CFO what it would take to keep her. Contract negotiations begin. I tried to convince the board from the get go that if we allow one employee to hold the board hostage in this manner, others will follow. I then realized that as usual, what I think really doesn’t matter. But the one thing that was important to all was a mutual agreement was desired. A five O vote would make everyone a happy bunch. I decided that I would use this aspect to negotiate out of the wish lists all I could. Let the games begin.

We also began building tours. It was an eye opening experience. We started with elementary buildings in the Falls and went to Silver Lake last. Somewhere in the middle of tours CEO approaches the board with ultimatum. Here’s my wish list, let’s talk or I’ll walk. It was like I was dealt two nines on the black jack table and now had to split them, but the dealer has a ten and play both hands at once. But let’sget back to the buildings. Like I blogged earlier, the differences were striking. Crowded buildings and class rooms in the Falls buildings, while SL enjoys average class sizes of 19. Don’t even get me started on the cost of rewiring the building and providing the additional costs of electricity for the current and future window air conditioners. Then it is mentioned in the hallway that we bus students from SL less than a half mile away to a daycare. I can’t think of any other building in CFCSD that we do this for. But the real pisser is this. One third of SL enrollment is open enrollment. Here’s the kicker. We bring in a lesser amount of money for these kids from the state than it costs to educate them at SL elementary. Our tax money is paying to educate "outside" children when we push them to our most expensive per pupil school. I mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again, our district would have had to shut down the SL kindergarten program had we not pushed open enrollers there. People requested buildings in the Falls but were pushed to SL. I didn’t notice any special ed programs either. Hmmm. Our largest elementary school (Lincoln) in the district has one book scanner in the library, our smallest school (SL) has three.

The board was able to meet several times on the CFO’s contract, work out an agreement that was agreeable to all and vote on it Wednesday night 5-0. I like our CFO and I believe she does a good job and works well with our CEO. I think she truly tries to work with all board members and wants us to understand what she does and how she does it. Much was negotiated out and in return I voted yes. I did what I felt was the best I could do for tax payers under the majority circumstances. As we saw with the raises handed over, the majority will do what they want regardless of how tax payers or fellow board members feel about it.

Unfortunately the CEO’s wasn’t quite so smooth. It was no fault of any one person. The board was given a deadline that was short to begin with and unforseen circumstances made proper negotiations difficult. A majority of the board was willing to give CEO more than I was comfortable with. I was told by one member on Monday that it was going to be on the agenda Wednesday whether I liked it or not. We entered executive session Wednesday and I was handed a revised copy of the contract and informed the board I was not voting on a contract I was just handed and had not reviewed and have not had a conversation with the CEO since negotiations started. I was then informed that the board would make hand written changes and strikes and vote on it this way! I couldn’t believe my ears. Some seriously wanted to vote on a scribbled on, language altered by a bic pen document. Can you say "yeah right"? I asked our CEO to withdraw his name from consideration at Copley and give us a few days to hammer out the fine points. A concern among some board members and the CEO was that if his name became public applying for this job, it would undermine employee morale. I said I would not vote no if we were granted extra time to come to an agreement that was acceptable to all as we did with the CFO’s contract. I emailed our CEO with the changes I wanted but I guess he was so busy talking to the Beacon Journal on Thursday that he couldn’t be bothered to reply to my Email. I knew then that things will remain the same. I had already given my word that I wouldn’t vote no, but I could not in good conscience vote yes.

The changes I asked for were simple. That our district stop favoring certain buildings, that unethical behaviors not be tolerated, and equal treatment and rules for board members. Not getting a reply coupled with the Beacon Journal article only reaffirmed for me what I had been trying to convince the board of all along- The board was held hostage. It worked because several board members were terrified of losing our CEO and he was well aware of this. Get it while you can, but wouldn’t a five 0 be dandy? I feel like nobody quite kept their promises and I’m tired of being one of the few people that actually tries to work with others open and honestly. Emails exchanged encouraging the hiring of friends (that end up with the job), board members hanging out in administrators offices having giggle fests, performing office duties, and forming friendships shouldn’t be tolerated. We were told in January it wouldn’t be.
I abstained so I could be true to myself and true to my word. The CEO gets a 4-0 vote for the record and all is well.

The CFO’s contract is not a renewal, just changes to the current allowing insurance to be accessed, board paid medicare (currently 1.45%) and a 2.5% annuity. The CEO’s changes from the current to the 4-year renewal are: a 3.5% annuity, board paid medicare, clarification of the duties of the CEO, an agreement that unused vacation days will not be bought out if the CEO engages in teaching during that contract year, and an agreement for the board to pay all professional and civic membership dues.

The Magical Mystery Tour

The board has started touring the buildings. It’s interesting to me to see the differences to me just in the four we have toured so far. Nearly all of the kids I saw were engaged and well behaved. Our schools are clean and well maintained. The teachers were teaching and the kids were paying attention. I have to give the kids credit, it had to be hard to pay attention and give answers to the teachers questions with all the "suits" in the room. One child was extremely impressed that we had a doctor (Ph.D.) with us. Only two things disturbed me. One was the fact that one of our elementary schools is so crowded that a child was getting physical therapy in a closet. The other was a conversation I overheard. It seems that enrollment is so low at Silver Lake elementary that if our district hadn’t pushed most of the kindergarten open enrollment there, we would have had to shut down the Silver Lake kindergarten program. The pledge to the community says that a district wide reorganization is to be completed by the 07/08 school year. I’d say it’s time we got started. Most of the buildings in Cuyahoga Falls are busting at the seams. Our bussing system has too many exceptions and too little riders. I see huge busses with 10 –12 kids on them. I have had parents complain to me that mostly empty busses go past their house to schools their own children attend but can’t pick up their children. We have kids walking over or on mounds of ice on Graham Rd. to get to Lincoln Elementary and Bolich Middle School.

And finally I can tell you what all the executive sessions were about. The board has been negotiating renewing our CFO’s contract. It’s on this Wednesday’s agenda. Strangely enough no attachment was with the agenda. I’m sure the media will appreciate that. I find it curious that I am expected to vote on a resolution Wednesday without having seen it. What I was sent last week through my Email and what’s handed to me Wednesday in the board room could be two totally different documents. I think an attachment would have been prudent, if not necessary in this case.

The changes are as follows: (edited to remove contract details) The attorney has suggested that it might not be a good idea for me to post the contract details until after we have voted on it so I've taken them down.

Anyway, in case you’re wondering, I’m OK with this. We have a really smart CFO that has a way with charts and spreadsheets. I appreciate her enthusiasm and zest. And I want stability and understanding of where we are financially when entering union negotiations in a few short months. Our CFO wanted to feel secure in her employment and I can’t fault her for that. Hopefully we all got what we wanted.

There is a special board meeting executive session only on Monday evening, as well as one at the end of Wednesdays board meeting. If we have many more special meetings I’m going to ask for a raise. Better yet, maybe some one will just throw one on the agenda for me.

Whose Money Is It?

Tsk, tsk. I thought I could leave you to talk amongst yourselves but I guess I was wrong. First let me explain what auditors do. They come in and look at a particular moment in time. They do not look back at our finances, and they do not look forward. They look at the information provided and tell us where we stand at that moment in time. Think about how your finances may look at any one moment in time. Sometimes we look like we we’re rolling in dough, other times it looks like we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. Right now the auditors could probably certify me a deficit. But next week is payday.

I will preface this by saying that school finances are a monster of it’s own kind and both our CFO and my consultant make very compelling cases. Let’s first talk about what set asides are. Set asides are monies that are "reserved" for particular purposes. According to the rules of school financing we must spend at least 800K on textbooks and instructional materials and 800K on capital improvements. There are lines on our five-year forecast to account for this money. Above that we have "expenditures". This is where it gets tricky. Much of the set aside money is already accounted for in the expenditure lines in our five-year forecast. Mainly in supplies and equipment. Our CFO contends that she was conservative in these areas and would rather have leftover money, than not enough money. My trusted consultant says it’s money spent twice. Thing is, as a friend pointed out to me, leftover money is never used to the benefit of taxpayers. To some this leftover money was the difference between lowering the heat, cutting off cable and other budget cuts to cover a tax increase. The medium income in CF is $30K and some odd change. This is not an amount that can support another tax increase. Did I say levy? If "leftover" money is there, the taxpayers of this district have a right, and dare I say a need to know. For many elderly people I talk to, another tax increase could put them out of their homes. Homes they have owned 40 years or more. Social Security cost of living increases are lucky to go up $40 per year. Not nearly enough to cover the $40 per month increase the last new levy taxed them.

I was told the forecast will be updated in October. The auditors are here now. I checked my notes and know what I was told during my meeting with our CFO. Our bottom line should show a drastically better outlook in the next few years. While I respect the work of the districts Financial Forecasting Advisory Committee, I also am aware that they are not familiar with the ins and outs of school financing. A school treasurer offered to help me. A school treasurer who also happens to be a stakeholder in our district. Since I keep having policy and bylaws sent to me, I figure I should return the favor and cite bylaw 1320 part 2 letter I: In addition the treasurer shall help interpret the budget and district affairs under his/her supervision to interested members of the community.

I promised I would do what ever it took to see fiscal transparency and accuracy. I never claimed I could solve all our problems myself. I do not regret accepting help from someone who is an expert in the field of school financing. I am grateful the assistance was offered. I also think we have a wonderful CFO. I was told at our meeting that she was told to put the set aside money in the forecast and leave expenditures where they are at. I believe she was told to do this. I’m sure October will show an agreeable picture of where we stand financially.

Lastly, some quick notes. Another special board meeting, executive session only was held Sunday. No action taken. At least it was a quickie. In at 2PM out at 2:30PM. As I understand it, action will be taken at next Wednesday’s board meeting. And I didn’t want to have to do this but….If the name calling and personal attacks, assumptions about who’s who, and mud slinging doesn’t stop, I will have to start censoring posts. I goes against my grain to do this but you guys are worse than my children. Since I cannot put you in the corner or ban you from the playstation 2, I will start removing posts that are attacking people. Discuss and offer ideas and insight. Views on issues and debate. But please stop the pettiness. It serves no useful purpose.

Busy weeks ahead....

Several people have asked me about the special board meeting that was held Tuesday August 29th. What happened? What was the meeting about? Was any action taken? The answers are CONFIDENTIAL, CONFIDENTIAL (I am allowed to say personnel), and no. We have another special board meeting, executive session only scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Yes you read right. Tuesday. Yes there is still a regular board meeting this Wednesday. But the time has changed. It is now at 6 PM. You are welcome to come to both, but you will be asked to leave Tuesday shortly after you arrive. With the price of gas these days, I’d hate to see you show up Tuesday for nothing. I felt bad for the two ladies that showed up this past Tuesday and had to wait outside until we adjourned at 10:30ish. Didn’t anyone tell them it was only an executive session? Anyway, I can’t promise no action will be taken Tuesday. You never know with us!

The next question I am being asked the most is why did our CFO apply for the job at Hudson? Only she can answer that. I suggest you call or E-mail her and ask if you’re wondering. A few people have asked me if it is something I have done. If you mean finding utilizing outside help that found over 1.6 million dollars extra for our district for each of the next four years, then yes. It seems the same money was expended on two separate lines in our five-year forecast. I made a promise to the voters of this city that I would be a responsible steward of your money. I will use whatever means available to me to do that. One of the Roosevelt’s once said, "I am not a very smart man. But I surround myself with very smart people." Our five-year forecast needs adjusted and maybe we can put off asking for new money a little longer. We’ll see if that ever happens!

The stakeholders in our city expect and deserve to have a critical eye in their money. I think the vote turn out said this loud and clear. I ran on a platform of fiscal accountability and less levy begging. I can’t convince most of my fellow board members to look for savings, cut waste and streamline our central office, but I can continue to try. I am of the mind set that it is my money we are spending. It’s your money we are spending. I am aware of the rising costs of heating, gas, and "supplies" in my own household. I can’t get as many cappuccinos, pedicures, and visits to the chiropractor like I used to. The kids don’t get as many Poke-Mon cards, Water Works passes, or trips to Chuck E. Strep throat. I had to make cuts to adjust my budget. We have to keep the heat on. I want our school district to run the same way. Before we paid a lot of last minute debt this year, which is a commendable thing, our bottom line was 2.1 million. We actually ended with a balance of 726,526.

Don’t get me wrong. I am glad we were able to retire the musical instrument, athletic equipment and the boiler for Sill debt. It seems we have accomplished a miracle turn around in one year unlike any other. Our leaders should be proud. I just hope they remember whose backs it was on. Teachers, support staff, kids, parents, and property owners.

I have faith in our curriculum and pupil services departments that test scores, AYP, and enrollment will continue to rise. In my experiences with teachers and other staff I have noticed much enthusiasm and passion for seeing our kids succeed. We are getting the kids the extra help they need even at buildings that do not qualify for funding. You don’t hear me talk about academics much because I am comfortable with the direction we are going.
Bussing is another story…