- Boundary Task Force - On the agenda for Monday 2/11/08. At the 1/28/08 meeting of the school board, a number of residents appeared to take issue with some of the Boundary Task Force's recommendations. Following Jim Carrel's "Hail Mary" motion to evaluate discontinuing SAGE at Bird Elementary to free up space, the school board decided to table the issue. Was discretion the better part of valor? Or are elections getting close and incumbents Stackhouse and Havel-Lang wanting to step carefully around a hot-button issue?
SP-EYE says: that if there were better options, the Task Force would have looked at them. No boundary changes ever occur without fear, or frustration. That's what happens when you live in a growing city. Arguments that folks moved to a specific neighborhood for a specific school are weak at best. We cannot afford a school for every neighborhood, and we have to address over-crowding as well as school equity as it relates to children of low income families.
- Teacher Contracts - Teachers want raises that are well above the consumer price index (3.0%). They also like the current practice of having taxpayers fund 100% of the cost of their health benefits. The teacher's union wants a higher average teacher wage. They want an increase in total package (salary + benefits) of 5.2% in 2007-08 and 5.4% in 2008-09. The District is offering total package increases of 4.0% and 4.2% for the two years. That package includes raise of 3.7% (QEO minimum is 2.1%). Teachers want over a 5.2% salary increase. The District (i.e., the school board) wants teachers to pay a percentage (2-4%) of their health benefits as members of Local 60 (support staff) and administration do.
SP-EYE says: The school board has already offered a package that exceeds the QEO. The economy is tight right now, for everyone. Hello! have you looked at the housing market lately? The business climate? No one is getting 5% raises...well...except for Exxon-Mobil execs, that is. State employee union contracts are looking at potential salary increases of up to 2.5-3% for 2007-08, and likely 0% for 2008-09. That's zero...as in goose egg. In addition, state employees will also likely have to pay an even higher percentage of their health insurance premiums. Already, state employees pay 6-8% of the cost of their health insurance. As far as teachers, in Dane county, school district employees pay an average of 5.24% of their health insurance premiums for a single person, and 6.99% of premiums for a family. Our teachers currently pay zip.
- Electronic School Board - Conceptually, Jim Carrel's plan and the board's decision to purchase BoardDocs software has merits. The cost of putting together, making copies , and delivering school board packets to board and committee members is pretty high.
SP-EYE says: Time for a reality check. The FTT was never provided final analysis comparison cost figures. The software costs $$ initially and at least $5,000 per year. In addition, the district is has to purchase at least 7 laptop computers-one for each board member. BoardDocs really is, at best, an electronic organizer. You tell it where to provide situation reports and attachments, and it assembles a board package. Where the rubber meets the road, however, is in the claims for searchability. In order for anything to be searchable electronically, the documents must be text-based. Despite availability of high-tech optical character recognition software such as Adobe Acrobat, board packages are always prepared by scanning numerous pages...and saving them as image-PDF files. These files are not only unwieldy in size, but they are not searchable. So neither board members nor the public will have any less difficult a time finding critical information. This seems pretty incredulous for a district that prides itself on its technology.
Engaging the Public - On February 18th, the first meeting of the "Community Engagement Task Force" will be held. The school board appears to be interested in how it can better engage the public.
SP-EYE says: Yeah...RIGHT! This from the same group of people that have attacked citizens like Roger Fetterly, who keeps trying to correct the board on financial matters. You may not like Roger's delivery, but it's easy to understand if you ever watch how he and others are treated by thge board. Tim Boylen gets downright nasty. Board candidate Terry Shimek is constantly outright laughing at comments. Why WOULD anyone want to speak before the board. Speak with your votes in April.
- Taxpayer funded "Memorials": Did you know that ---when a District employee is ill, has a child, or sadly passess away--- the District purchases flowers for the employee with OUR tax dollars? True story. Check out the check details. Last year over $500 was spent on flowers.
SP-EYE says: While this is a wondeful practice, these flowers should not be funded by taxpayer dollars. We've never received a "thank you" from a diostrict employee or employee family member who recieved flowrs that we paid for! The heart of this issue is that in each of our jobs, these situations arise and we all take out our wallets and chip in to provide card/gifts/flowers, depending on the occasion. We dont expect our employer to cover these costs...and certainly this is an abuse of the system --and our hard earned tax dollars that the school board and Finance Committee need to stop. It may seem like a small--even petty-- amount, but these things add up, and ethically it's plain wrong.
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