In just 8 days, the Teachers Union will have been without a contract for 1 full day.
Get your count-down clocks ready!
Click Here for a copy of the current Contract.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Mark your Calendar!
In just 8 days, the Teachers Union will have been without a contract for 1 full day.
Get your count-down clocks ready!
Click Here for a copy of the current Contract.
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11 comments:
Do you think union members ever figured out that the only thing they gained after the last epic contract battle was that the union got the right to charge an "agency fee" to those teachers who either refused to join the union, or stopped paying fees out of disgust with the leadership?
It was an easy one -- it didn't cost the Schools and the only people it affected -- the non-union teachers -- didn't get a vote!
Nobody had the backbone to protect the rights of teachers who were willing to be employed based on their talents and abilities -- not just protected by union work rules.
But ... it's for the children!
Sometimes I think they drag this on so they can have an opening statement for their speeches at SC meetings..."we've been without a contract for a year"....as if they are not a part of it taking too long.
Let us all not forget that for 7 years the SC took supplies out of the school budget and passed even more nickle and dimeing to death" on to parents so contracts could give raises to people who didn't deserve them and to people who are milking the system, stipends for additional pay, wildly high salaries to administrators, etc etc etc. Let us just hope that in the negotiations there will actually be someone representing the taxpayers as well as efficient management.
When you get into systems like this as we all know, most of the waste is about giving the entitled what they want. That is the down side of both the school and the municipal budget process. No real accountability for creating improvement in the institutions. It is all about salaries and entitlements.
Mr. Simmons, Mr. Guerin or anyone that can help me with understanding the school budget.
So the school system has been getting a larger budget each year with a declining student population.
Yet the school year ending June 2012 there was money at the end of the year for the purchase of Ipads, bleachers and whatever else.
We have yet to hear what was squirrelled away for the year ending June 2013 or what was bought because of extra money at the end of the school year.
Now the Superintendent has put in place a spending freeze after the kids start next week. In affect saying, and maybe I'm over simplifying here, that the schools didn't need the extra money because they are going to survive without it in order to save it for next year aka STEM.
Why does our school system keep getting more and more money yet has a surplus each year or can say we're going to make due without and save our money for another year?
If they can do without why isn't the Superintendent paying for the window sills or pool? Why should those price tags be put on the town, when this year the schools are not going to spend, but save?
I must be missing something, any help filling in what information I'm missing would be greatly appreciated.
All fair questions.
As much as I support technology, I think the schools really shot themselves in the foot when they suddenly "found" $500K for the iPad buy last year. Could have been a good idea -- but there was absolutely no public discussion, and what appears to be little, if any, curriculum planning. Some teachers still require kids to have access to a PC and MS Office for some classes -- and some math teachers still require an expensive graphing calculator, rather than the cheap iPad app. It seems many classes used the iPad for the purposes of taking pictures of notes written on the classroom white boards -- and communicating with friends.
The Pool was rarely used by the Schools until recently. The Community School ran it and eventually paid the ultimate price for deferring maintenance. Now, the School is left with a dry hole.
The Windows are another great example of lousy workmanship, crappy maintenance and lowest bid work. That wing is barely 15 years old and the masonry is falling out?
Neither of these are school operating costs. BUT, your point is well-taken that if there is money legitimately "left over" (after paying SPED and other allowable costs) it should be turned back and not burned off on last minute buys.
Presumably, this last-minute iPad buy also locked the District into spending $250,000 + each year to buy new iPads for incoming classes?
That is a major public policy discussion that should have involved the School Committee -- as all past technology adoption discussions were handled.
Bob provided a nice summary of the issues. I’d simply add that the fundamental issue is and always has been transparency and prioritization.
While it’s clear to all that money in the school budget gets reshuffled and reprioritized often, what’s missing for many is justification and explanation prior to the strategic shifts.
As Bob highlighted with his mention of recent I-pad purchases, the issue isn’t are I-pads useful but rather where’d you find this money to buy them and what other town spending priority should have been considered before you spent the surplus funds?
Mr. Simmons and Mr. Guerin,
Thank you for your responses.
However I'm still confused about the legality of the school department requesting and getting budget increases. How is it they can go before the finance committee and BOS "crying" poor mouth and then eventually getting a raise in their budget, yet not using it during the school year?
If things are as financially tight as they present to the different committees, the schools should have absolutely no money left at the end of the year. Or be able to survive with a spending freeze.
It just doesn't sound "legal". Especially since the infrastructure of the town is in such a horrible state.
Who can tell me or how do we find out what happened with school funds at the end of the school year, June 2013?
Thank you for your patience with this inquiring mind.
I don't think its a question of "legal". They can ask for anything but they only get what Town Meeting (generally with the concurrence of FinCom and the BOS) gives them.
Under State Law, Town Meeting only approves a single dollar amount for the Schools, it is up to the elected School Committee to allocate those funds among various budget lines -- including prepaying some SPED tuitions for the subsequent year.
While legal, I think suddenly "finding" $500,000 at the end of a year to start a major technology initiative with absolutely no discussion was ridiculous. The School Committee -- AND THE PUBLIC THAT ELECTED THEM should have been up in arms! (Despite the fact that I support Canfield, and I support technology investments.)
Any SC Member SHOULD be able to explain what happened to their budget at year end.
Is it possible to have the school budget and the municipal budget be voted on separately at town meeting?
You could make a motion to change the school budget total (but not any of the individual school budget lines). But the Town's contribution to the School Budget (which is combined with a much smaller state contribution) is contained within the Town Budget.
If the Town's contribution was changed at Town Meeting, it would be up to the School Committee to reallocate the remaining funds.
Hopefully we will have some resolution to the drama that will address the past supers dimisal on Sept 5 at the Barnstable Court.
If any one has the time and care to put it up , it would be appreciate.
If the awards goes against the town then I would expect to see some further financial problems for the schools that may also affect the union negotiations.
43 pages of bla bla bla bla crap!
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