An article in the Express-Times yesterday by JD Malone outlines the current budget situation in Nazareth where the NASD is struggling to keep the tax hike within 4.2% (read the article here and supplement here).
The 4.2% is symbolic this year as the NASD has received exemptions and can exceed this amount (though by how much has not yet been noted). Without exemptions, if the NASD exceeds a 4.2% increase the tax hike will be decided by voters in the May primary as a ballot item.
The NASD first offered a 10% hike and have trimmed it to 4.26%. The cuts and budget may yet change as the budget and cuts are not final.
It was noted at the last Board Meeting that the cuts are not from the current budget, the only items scheduled to be cut are items that the admin would have liked added (10% increase) for next year. Maybe it is time to look in other areas to ensure that student learning, services and activities are not impacted.
5 comments:
I can help the School Board and Lesky trim the budget....it's easy, cut admin positions! It's happening in the corporate world every day. No one has job security. Sure it's easy to cut programs, easy to eliminate positions through attrition, easy to eliminate the poor janitor. However, these ALL impact our children! Wake up! The hard part comes when you evaluate 'higher ups' positions and determine their contribution to the education of our children. I would challenge the School Board and Lesky to evaluate all 'higher ups' at the admin building and explain how keeping each position is necessary to the education of our children and explore redistributing the responsibilities of one or more admin persons to other lower paid individuals. We need to trim the Chiefs and keep the Indians!
Gee, maybe we wouldn't need to raise taxes after all?
A step before cutting Admin positions (to which I think we've added one a year for about 10 years, so I'm not theoretically opposed to it), would be cutting their budgets by 5% across the board.
Why cut the athletic budget 5% before we cut in other places? Because its easy and people will oppose it.
The budget is pure politics right now with the Admin working to get as much money out the Board as possible to pay for as many programs and services as possible.
We are offered cuts that select groups will oppose (like the pool), then the board and admin come back and say we offered cuts, but the people don't want us to cut, so we're going to use our exceptions and raise the taxes. It's not us (the Board/Admin), it's the people (the taxpayer).
Cut the admin, central office, and business office budgets by 5% and who would rally against it?
Inside word is admin is adding another administrator to central office to handle transportation. Filling the new position with a current high school asst. principal. (Think cell phone/lawsuit and you'll know who it is.)
When will this runaway spending end?
What about the hiring freeze?
I have to agree with Anonymous. I find it VERY difficult to believe we need TWO Assistant Superintendants, THREE assistant principals at the High School (it worked fine with just one in the past), and TWO assistant principals at the middle school.
A quick scan of the NASD web site provided this information. I think the NASD School Baord needs to make use of a methodology implemented by many corporations during a restructuring: the Parking Lot Approach. Everyone is out, anyone with a desire to re-enter submits a resume and short description of work performed. The School Board reviews each individuals resume and contributions and makes a determination whether or not the individual is absolutely required to conduct business or can the work be discarded or reassigned.
I firmly believe cuts can be made without directly impacting the prime objective:student education.
Post a Comment