My favorite excerpt:
Even with the approved increase, Superintendent Victor Lesky agreed to cut at least three staff members by 2013, reduce the number of custodians, cut maintenance staff, delay all-day kindergarten and lose two teachers through attrition.So what cuts were made? None. We reduced some planned extra spending.
Recently I suggested some administration level cuts, busing changes, and staff changes that would occur as a result of making class size equitable across the three elementary buildings (this would have saved 7 teaching positions this year alone).
I didn't hear of any real cuts or changes being considered. The type I suggested would effectively have been 'painless' when it comes to educating students.
And further, we're in the financial crisis due to poor spending decisions. Recently I suggested we could have saved over $20.0 million dollars by building an intermediate school instead of a middle school (read it here). When being proposed many of us called for a k-6 elementary school which would have saved even more, but our board and administrators wanted a 'campus'. The pool is a literal drop in the bucket compared to $20 or $40 million we could have saved and still had a new building.
Congrats to those who have continued to go to meeting after meeting and tried to make points and been met with deaf ears. Brad's posts show the frustration that the board and admin know will eventually happen, which ultimately allows them to continue making poor decisions.
3 comments:
This seems like such a hopeless situation. The nazareth people seem to realize that their comments mean nothing to the present school board. They roll over and play dead, accept the tax hike and the incompetent decisions of both the administration and board, and do nothing. Which is exactly what the board and administration expect.....as they continue their path of destruction to the district. How sad.
I think we used the word "pathetic" at the meeting last night.
The administration knows it can ride out (or wait out) anybody. Questions presented at meetings are met with "we're thinking about that" or "we'll get back to you". Unless the questioner follows up, the admin is usually willing to let the matter die...
For example, awhile back when the administration was presenting the results of the 2007 PSSA scores and the dismal grade 11 math scores, I asked if they would be willing to "unblock" math at the HS. Studies have shown that math scores (and science scores, and college preparedness, etc., etc) suffer under block scheduling. I was told the standard line "we're looking into that". That was that. Nothing since.
A month or two ago, there were two science teachers from the HS at the board meeting to present how NASD was preparing (and what shortfalls needed to be addressed) in relation to the new science PSSA test. One of the teachers asked the board if perhaps we need to go to a traditional schedule for science (e.g., unblock science thereby making it a year long course). Admin's response? You guessed it... "we're looking into it".
It really is pathetic how out of whack priorities are here in NASD. $5M+ on a pool that according to Mr. Heller "we can't afford", $2M on new turf, $1M on a weight room expansion are no problem. An additional teacher here or there... apparently a big problem. Truly pathetic.
Brad, you usually have very detailed complete reports of these board meetings.
But, I am wondering if you missed part of the budget talks where they talked about cuts in administration.
Surely when they were talking about cutting deeply into the classroom and programs they offered up themselves as an area to cut some fat.
On the other hand, maybe they will create a new administration job for one of their pals to oversee the cuts to everything that directly affects students and give him/her a nice six figure salary.
On a side note, to those that pushed for the new pool, THANK YOU for the tax increase. I will make sure to ignore any fund raiser that has to deal with the swim team/programs going forward.
Post a Comment