One of only two permanent budget reduction initiatives was the genius idea to
"B. Recoup energy cost by charging employees who wish to have personal appliances in the workplace.
Projected Savings: $ 6,000
Rationale: Many school districts charge a fee for staff to have personal appliances in their work areas. These include coffee makers, microwaves, and refrigerators. This charge recoups the cost of electricity for the items used. A guideline and rates will need to be developed.
Citizen representative Rick Mealy asked Deputy District Administrator Phil Frei to respond to public complaints that there is a lack of equity in the fees. One cited example was lack of space for staff to store their lunches, prompting them to bring in small "dorm" refrigerators. Frei admitted that those staff who work in newer buildings have a refrigerator in each "pod", whereas those in older buildings might share one refrigerator.
Frei also agreed that the charges being assessed were not "reality-based" but simply taken based on Energy Star estimates of electricity usage. Finally, Frei acknowledge that the district has had discussions with the Teachers' union officials regarding displeasure with the fees.
Mealy brought discussion to a halt by making a motion that the district cease the practice of assessing personal appliance fees. Citizen Representative Harold Rayford seconded the motion.
Caren Diedrich vehemently indicated that she would NOT support the motion, stating that, "We went in and said everything must be cut; everyone needs to share the pain of the $2M tax levy reduction." Diedrich further noted that, "because the district has cut out buying pizza for staff, you better bring your own bag lunch to Negotiations Committee meetings."
Jim McCourt stated that he agreed completely with ]Ms. Diedrich]. He said, "the board was looking at everything, and I do not agree with taking anything off [the list of budget reductions]"
Terry Shimek indicated that he needed to abstain [as his wife is a SPEA member], but noted that, "It's only about $10 per employee."
The result of the vote was 2 votes in favor of repealing the Appliance Fees (Mealy, Rayford), 2 votes against (Diedrich, McCourt) and Shimek abstained. The 2-2-1 vote means the motion failed.
Nothing dies in committee!
The good news is that because no issue dies in committee [Thanks MaryEllen, for THAT little nugget of weirdness] this motion will be put to vote by the full school board at the next school board meeting (March 8).
We're pretty sure that the full board will vote the motion down as well. Why? Because with Shimek abstaining (does anybody else notice that that happens a lot?) there will be only 6 effective votes and 4 will be needed to adopt the motion. We KNOW Diedrich and McCourt will vote "NO". We've also heard that David Stackhouse has privately told folks he'll vote "NO" as well. We're also pretty sure that John E. Whalen will vote with his troops, thus ensuring the continuation of the Appliance Fee fiasco.
We're wondering if there's a hint of retaliation tactics at work here. Hmmm....the teachers vote down the idea of volunteering a furlough day, so board members respond by holding the line on a silly fee. Stranger things have happened in this district. We bet the next board- SPEA contract negotiations will be an order of magnitude more icy than the classrooms these days.
SP-EYE: We find it funny that when Mealy spoke out about spending money on Kit Kat bars, pizza, and memorials, board members and district administration got all syrupy talking about how they value their employees, and these are such small costs to bear to keep morale high. Newsflash, people...the morale of your staff is at an all time low and now YOU are the one nickle and diming them with silly Appliance fees. At best you hope to recoup $6,000 with this monumental move? WTF! That's a whopping 0.008% of your $68 MILLION dollar budget. Phil Frei missed a 20% increase in the cost per student charge for the JEDI virtual high school student fee. With 9 kids in the program, that amounts to $7,200 NOT budgeted...or 20% MORE than what the district hopes to regain via Appliance fees. None of the board members seem concerned about the $7,200 unbudgeted charges for JEDI, but they sure want to stick it to the teachers in the form of Appliance Fees!!!
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