Comments on: Supt. Proposes Cutting $7.5M & 54 Employees

By: Anon E Mous

Anon E Mous — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:07:31 +0000

If our property taxes and municipal governments were simpler, the who and how of its financial waste would be easier to identify while the taxed and governed might need endure the burden of fairness

Have a very good reason for everything you do. – Laurence Olivier

By: Admittedly Confused

Admittedly Confused — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:23:38 +0000

LOL – and Ms. Bang-Jensen is going to be one of the least popular employees in the Capital region after the state workers get wind of her article in the NY Post.

This recession is coined a white middle class male’s recession as this demographic has been hit particularly hard with layoffs. The numbers are an astounding 80% on a national basis – 80% of those who have lost their jobs and remain unemployed are white middle class/working class men.

On a positive note, women now make up 60% of the workforce, bypassing men on the employment front for the first time ever. This is a major milestone for the ladies!!

By: Anon E Mous

Anon E Mous — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:26:21 +0000

Dear readers, read here, http://nypublicpayrollwatch.com/daily_updates/archives/2010/02/recession_what_1.html#more or here, http://www.empirecenter.org/Articles/ or here: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/public_workers_feel_no_pain_in_recession_hoAksRyqiv000FzZKvrq4O or read here, as described by Ms. Bang-Jensen, ' 'It's hard to believe there's a recession,' a friend recently observed, as he navigated the jam-packed parking lot at a suburban Albany shopping mall. While private-sector workers in the capital region have, in fact, suffered like everyone else during the downturn, many of those cars likely belonged to the favored not-so-few: state employees. '

By: Admittedly Confused

Admittedly Confused — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:53:51 +0000

Anyone know why New York State property taxes don’t use the Mill Rate system like they do over in the neighborhing state of Connecticut? Seems much more complex in NYS but not sure why that is…….Any tax consultants or long time home owners know the answer to this? New York State taxes are not only one of the highest in the country but also one of the most complicated to understand how the costs and final tax numbers are derived from. Can this be changed in Albany?

By: Concerned tax payer

Concerned tax payer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:03:44 +0000

Can you imagine the litigation costs of what you propose? “it’s so simple even a child could understand it.” Surely our tax dollars are better spent educating our students as opposed to paying the lawyers to defend the inevitable lawsuit from the union in the scenario that you propose.

BTW, I wasn’t trying to incite people with “notions of nuclear calamity,” but what do you honestly think our schools will look like if we go to a contingency budget and an additional $3.4 million needs to be trimmed from the budget on top of the cuts already recommended? Is it really fair to the children of the community to cut the best teachers out of the system in the massive layoffs that will be inevitable in a contingency budget? I moved to this community to educate my children in what was considered an excellent school district. I too am concerned about escalating taxes, but the time and place to deal with the teacher’s contract is when it expires next year. Voting for a contingency budget hurts the students most and those are the people I am most concerned with.

By: Anon E Mous

Anon E Mous — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:35:41 +0000

Sometimes a few words can paint the picture of the ugly truth. http://nypublicpayrollwatch.com/daily_updates/archives/2010/02/albany_police_u.html#more And in the words of Anon E Mous, 'It's so simple, even a child can understand it.'

By: lance sterling

lance sterling — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:22:26 +0000

all union are the same – grab until there isn’t anymore look at the auto union i was a union member lost everything when they close up

ask people out of work would they take a cut to keep working lance

By: Concerned Tax Payer

Concerned Tax Payer — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:32:38 +0000

Couldn’t agree more… The “property value will plummet” cry is a tired and unfounded argument… Sky high property taxes will have a much worse impact on your property value, especially in this economy… I pay over $27K a year in property taxes for less than a postage stamp size piece of land… It is ridiculous and unsustainable.

So, instead of the scare tactics, I would suggest helping coming up with a solution to run schools more efficiently… I like the suggestions Anon put forward… They should be explored.

By: excessiveindeed

excessiveindeed — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:35:07 +0000

Well, we just found 50k$. Since when are union jobs on the public purse ?

By: Anon E Mous

Anon E Mous — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:37:39 +0000

Yes, hopefully the cooler heads will prevail, reaching a real solution. Such will require more effective education and the recognition that in this economy the tax increase well already has run dry.

Perhaps you will join the cooler heads and contribute to the solution. There are more effective schools operating less expensively. Increasing taxes does not improve property values. Inciting people with notions of nuclear calamity is destructive, not educative.

So just to encourage some real thought, suppose the MUFSD were to disband, contracts becoming just paper. Then a merger is undertaken with a nearby district saving administrative expenses, e.g. one less superintendent, and providing for the best in teaching under terms where leadership runs the schools?

It is so simple, even a child could understand it. And as Bill Archer said, ‘We must care for each other more, and tax each other less.’

By: Not a rich resident

Not a rich resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:52:54 +0000

I have nothing but the utmost respect for our teachers and want them to earn a solid income and have a secure position. However, the union contracts cannot continue as they have been. With cost of living percentages at 0%, it is untenable for the average teacher to be making 6 increases, on top of step. We’d love to give them that–we just can’t, not without cutting programs for kids or raising our taxes even more. So yes, let’s roll up our sleeves and start being more productive. The board has proposed some ideas — what is the union offering? Because it all shouldn’t fall on the community year in and year out to pony up and pay for the shortfall in the form of taxes.

By: Concerned

Concerned — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:45:48 +0000

The president of the teachers’ union teaches each day until 11:30 am. Her $114,000 is fully paid by taxpayers.

By: momin10538

momin10538 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:37:25 +0000

I support cutting full day K across the board and offering an extended session (morning or afternoon) for all who would like to pay for it. Then, a full day option will exist for those who would like their K students to be in school all day (for free play, lunch, recess, trips, art, music, gym, library, etc…). And, the K teachers who are not retained by the district to teach the school may opt to work in this extension program. This should be a for-profit program with scholarships available to those parents who need it (they are working and they would like their children in school until 3). Then, for the 2.5 hours of school, daily, the teachers pack in solid academics. The developmental play is gone from the day. Any children at any site who are determined to be at risk for learning difficulties should be identified and placed into an intensive full day program similar to what is offered for pre-K students at Mamk Ave. now. This is a common K scenario in this country.

By: alumni

alumni — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:37:28 +0000

From what I gathered from reading and listening, the teachers have agreed to listen to the budget presentations and then decide about a one year concession that could be done without opening their contract to a legnthy negotiation process. This sounds both fair and reasonable to me. Wasn’t only a year ago we tried to ‘bail out’ the banking system and much of the money was squandered? Maybe waiting would have made that process smoother and more effective as well. I imagine that the teachers would be happy to give money to save jobs (like last year) or to keep class size down or to help the community — what they seem to be worried about is that the give back would be used to pad the consultant budget lines, pay for the full time PR person, maintain capstone classes like Chinese that only affect the tiniest number of kids, etc. Would you give money if you had no idea how it was going to be used? I wouldn’t!

By: concerned

concerned — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:18:46 +0000

Has anyone given any thought to the impact that cutting all those special education teachers and aides will have? This will not only impact students receiving special services, but also students in the mainstream classroom who aren’t receiving services. As a professional in this field of education, I have seen firsthand the amount of time and attention that students with special needs require. How will this be handled? The time spent by the teacher in modifying and accommodating these students will further retract from what we term our “average” students; not only will the student with special needs not be getting an appropriate education, but neither will the other students. This is not an idea situation. A mainstream classroom with inclusion requires support staff; it is unrealistic and unfair to expect one teacher to be able to “differentiate teaching styles” as they’d like to say. Teachers are human…can you imagine differentiating work for up to 25 or so students? This will have devastating effects on all our children. Furthermore, it is absolutely pathetic that in a district that collects enormous taxes, they are proposing cutting out art (decreasing the period by 10 minutes for K and 1). For K and 1 students, art is something they cherish and look forward to; this feels more like a district in an inner-city than an upper class suburb. It’s very depressing. I, for one, left Tuesday’s meeting, feeling cheated and angry. These cuts are horrific and will leave an imprint on our community’s morale.

By: letsbereal

letsbereal — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:21:48 +0000

Good feelings don’t pay the bills. Whether our teachers, some of them, most of them, are saints/heroes or not does not matter in the end when the economic facts have to be taken into account. There will be no money to pay pensions and healthcare as promised today – whether guaranteed by contract, law, constitution or the President of the Teachers’ union. This is a fact. Facts are stubborn. So we might as well start to accept reality, all of us and start planning and acting accordingly.

By: concernededucator

concernededucator — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:12:40 +0000

btw if they did cut the remaining coaching positions – that would equal 3 teaching salaries, plus if they cut the Literacy Design Team which is made up of 12-14 teachers each making a stipend…you would save well enough to reinstate the money needed for class trips and Lincoln Center, and who knows what more…maybe even a few teaching positions.

By: concernededucator

concernededucator — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:00:29 +0000

Reasonableapproach and concerned parent I appreciate your thoughts and agree that there are many grateful parents in our community. Although only 1 parent spoke out directly against the teachers and the union there was a room full of parents applauding and another parent handing our what I would consider “propaganda” in fliers that were filled with complete untruths. This parent was quite vocal and making an effort to make sure everyone entering the board meeting received her fliers filled with lots of fiction.
I agree that there may be teachers out there not pulling their weight but then why aren’t administrators doing their jobs? There are enough of them… they need to be in classrooms support teachers and building a good relationship with their staff. I will tell you that most of them spend their days in meetings and in offices. They are hardly seen in classrooms, so they need to be accountable for their work as well. As far as coaches… no not athletic coaches…. we employ 4 coaches – 1 at the Hommocks and 3 at the elementary schools. They are supposed to support teachers with literacy, math and technology needs through a professional development model of “coaching” teachers. They have no interaction with students. They have cut 1 position in the budget scenario proposals but truly they should cut all of them. In a perfect world, it would be great to keep these positions if they were really making an impact and affecting student achievement but they are not. The Literacy Design Team has been charged with writing curriculum at the elementary level. Teachers and the Literacy and Technology Coaches get paid a stipend for doing this work. Cut these programs and let our kids go on trips. How can they justify keeping these positions and taking trips away from the children?

Yes, all those e mails that you get are from the PR person…. And she now works full-time.

By: Anon E Mous

Anon E Mous — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:40:14 +0000

Though the process may be difficult, it is so simple that a child can understand it.

In the words of Oreo, ‘We must administer less – just what will we propose to pay a new nationally searched Superintendent? We must teach more – read the contract and then burn it. We must recognize how facilities and ‘place’ need to change – we are in a flatter, more technologically advanced and economically more fragile world. We must come to a new understanding – that educational quality is not necessarily correlated with financial expenditures. The decades when we had the ability to increase school taxes have ended as must the ‘Age of Expectation’. Now we must find and use the underutilized resources that are available to us to replace the dollars that we no longer have. Else our lasting education to the students will be that we did not know what we were doing and we will leave them little except debt and problems.

By: Cocnernedparent

Cocnernedparent — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:59:03 +0000

I agree with the concerned teacher that there are many teachers in the district that go out of their way to give their all for the children and deserve every penny that they make. Yet the rigidity of the contract protects teachers who take all of theri sick days, and do the minimum (if that). I believe that the parent community would be much more understanding if teachers were all held to the same scrutiny and subject to the same economic realities that other working moms (and dads) face.

I agree wholeheartedly that we are ridiculously top heavy in terms of administrators earning hundreds of thousands of dollars and the coaches and literacy design team (also paid more than teachers) should either be eliminated or put in the classroom in order to restore a reasonable student-teacher.
ratio.

Is there really full time PR person? How much is she paid? that’s just ridiculous, particularly in this time of financial crisis. Do we have a PR person since we have to put a rosy glow on a more sobering reality…