Let's cut sped and 3.5 admins...

[StepTo2]

***, Ohio - *** City Schools officials said Tuesday they will implement an additional $2.5 million in cuts that if the district's operating levy fails March 6.

Superintendent *** said elementary art, music, and physical education classes will be reduced by half, and the number of middle school and high school electives offered will decrease. Special education assistant positions will be cut, along with 3.5 more administrative positions, eliminating a total of 25 additional staff positions.

*** said these reductions will bring the district's total administrative staff cuts to 16 percent.

Pay-to-participate fees will also increase to $300 per sport for all high school students and $200 per sport for middle school students.

"These cuts will have a significant impact on the quality of our educational programs, but we have no other choice," said ***, president of the *** Board of Education. "We must address the district's budget deficit, and have very few tools at our disposal to do so."

School officials are already making $13 million in cuts, and have eliminated more than 60 staff positions to date, as well as transportation for all high school and middle school students living within two miles of their school buildings.

*** said district leaders are holding a series of roundtable discussions called "Community Conversations" throughout February to offer residents the chance to ask questions about taxation, expenditures and other aspects of *** Schools' operations. Dates for these discussions can be found on the home page of the district Web site at ***and on all schools' Web sites as well.

Well isn't that nice.
They're cutting sped aide positions AND 3.5 admin positions.

3.5?

FWIW this is the same guy who, when he was principal of Jett's elementary school, violated court orders to let bio do whatever she wanted including medicate Jett without DH's knowledge.

...And... They are building 2 brand-new fancy-pants schools, have eliminated busing for ALL HS students (including freshmen & sophomores), and charge $3.75 for lunch. I rarely spend more than $2! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?!

[buddy]

uggg, our district won awards for how they managed money so had funds and didn't need to cut. So the state said, since you guys are ok, we are going to not fund you at the same level and give those funds to other schools and maybe we will pay it back to you some other time, (a forced lending program) so we ended up losing many teaching positions, many ed. aides. and no admin was laid off.

At that time bussing was cut or offered for a fee, and sports were tripled in cost. Adaptive sports costing more than gen ed sports. Really sad.

[InsaneCdn]

Step - the problem is, people like us don't have time for politics, nor do we want to get smeared by that mess...

We'd cut... 3.5 aides and the rest out of admin... right?

[StepTo2]

DH wants to know where they're gonna cut 1/2 a person...

[DDD]

Drives me nuts! I think I posted a couple of years ago that our District "had" to make radical reductions. Then, goodness gracious, they built a new building on the same property as the existing high school which now houses "advanced educational goals for our community teens who are top scholars" so they will be eligible for admissions at top National colleges. Coincidentally the top scholar teens seem to be, in many cases, realted to the local honcho adults. Sigh! DDD

[DaisyFace]

The money to build is Federal Improvement Grants and the money to pay salaries and fund programs is state/county/local taxes. That why they can build all sorts of fancy new buildings but cannot afford the people to staff them...

[StepTo2]

The money to build is Federal Improvement Grants and the money to pay salaries and fund programs is state/county/local taxes. That why they can build all sorts of fancy new buildings but cannot afford the people to staff them...

Actually, in our case, about 4 years ago they asked for an improvement levy so they could build a new elementary and middle school, and renovate the existing middle school (where Jett goes now) to be part of the high school. It passed. The taxpayers are paying for that one.

Also - a Federal Improvement Grant - FIGment of our collective imagination - this comes from taxpayers, indirectly, too.

[DaisyFace]

Actually, in our case, about 4 years ago they asked for an improvement levy so they could build a new elementary and middle school, and renovate the existing middle school (where Jett goes now) to be part of the high school. It passed. The taxpayers are paying for that one.

Also - a Federal Improvement Grant - FIGment of our collective imagination - this comes from taxpayers, indirectly, too.

Oh yes - the taxpayers are footing the bill for ALL of it...

but the way the money is collected determines how the SD is allowed to spend it. Money for "improvements" can ONLY be used on upgrades like new buildings (never mind that improving staff would be a great improvement - but that's another story).

[susiestar]

At least some admins are being cut. Around here that is about as rare a goose that lays golden eggs. I often wonder where cuts are coming from in the big cities b/c 15 YEARS ago they had such budget cuts that they stopped providing TOILET PAPER for bathrooms and of course didn't tell anyone. Then when kids used whatever they could find they didn't fix the toilets. Someone let a reporter in one day and that blew up in their faces. Two HOUR lines to use the TWO working toilets in the building did NOT go over well. esp when some of the kids just peed wherever rather than wait and GET IN TROUBLE for spending so much time in the bathroom!!!

At the same time they had an admin with a brand new top of the line copier locked in his air conditioned office (none of the rest of the school had a/c) along with stacks of boxes of copy paper. Teachers were given one ream (500 sheets) at the beginning of the year and were told to make it last ALL YEAR LONG. My dad still had a working old mimeograph machine at home (the old purple copies that smelled funny at first and it was a hand crank machine) and did his copies there. Then they let some idiot who couldn't read directions or follow them do an experiment on composting/fermentation in a 2 liter bottle, that of COURSE she never opened to let the gasses escape and it exploded and the rooms on all sides of her were CONTAMINATED and they tried to make students do study hall even though they couldn't breathe in there. Someone let a reporter see THAT too. Boy did heads roll. Someone the teacher who did the experiment couldn't figure out how it was her fault, which was TRULY FUNNY when they interviewed her on tv and read the EXACT directions and she said of course she didn't open the bottle, those gasses stunk!

Schools often have really really dedicated, wonderful people surrounded by idiots and political losers who can't figure out what else to do. Most of the people who did the things in this comedy of stupidity became teachers b/c "you can't get fired and I didn't know what else to do". I KNOW MOST TEACHERS ARE FAR OPPOSITE THIS. But not at the school where my dad taught and all this happened over a VERY short period of time. They took so long to get bids to fix the problem in the ruined classrooms that my dad was hauling in cases of bleach and just pouring them on the carpet b/c it turned black with mold and he was scared for the students and teachers in the building.

My parents spent decades of our lives where our primary family charitable contribution was the school my dad worked in at the time.

But if things were this bad over 15 yrs ago, I am SCARED for the kids who are there now. And the teachers and staff. Because learning from your mistakes is NOT what bureaucracies do.

[StepTo2]

They did an interview of parents and KIDS on TV last night, aired it again this morning while I was getting ready for work. There are some SERIOUSLY ANGRY PEOPLE in my town.

Honestly, between then busing and cutting Speds, I'm so ready to GO OFF. And I think I'd have a LOT of backing...