Comments on Aberdeener: Take-Home Pay in the School District

If are going to cancel ceramics class why not the ...

2010-03-12T23:52:52.342-05:00

If are going to cancel ceramics class why not the performing arts academy oh I forgot some bodys daughter wants to sing and dance and they get to vote on what is cut , I say shuffle off to buffalo with the small academy classes that special interest groups want

Street gangs becuse our young people will be free ...

2010-03-09T07:14:26.812-05:00

Street gangs becuse our young people will be free to roam the streets and get in trouble? Parents who make such a suggestion need to not spare the rod of discispline. Here is a shocker maybe parents need to parent and teachers need to teach. Back to basics is not so strange then is it?

How is that the take home pay? Do you know what th...

2010-03-08T19:45:31.013-05:00

How is that the take home pay? Do you know what that means?
Reading your blog shows that you know little about education.
Mrs. Demarest should be praised for her courage in doing the right thing. Despite any backlash you are attempting. Any money spent as a result of legal fees being spent is far less than the money the board is spending on the legal fees involving grievences for breaking the MRTA contract. When are you going to post those figures? Shouldn't this wasteful spending be public information? Also do you have the permission to post the name of the child you mentioned in your blog?
Your idea of getting rid of many after school activities will be popular with local street gangs.

When thinking about cuts, why not look at the Acad...

2010-03-05T22:45:09.798-05:00

When thinking about cuts, why not look at the Academies? Yes they are new, but how do you justify class sizes of less than ten for some Academy classes? All that does is create larger classes outside of the Academies. The district also needs to do a better job of hiring qualified people. How can one justify hiring a chorus teacher who cannot play the piano?

This is for the jerk that does not understand the ...

2010-03-05T12:20:52.260-05:00

This is for the jerk that does not understand the 50.00 for teachers to work the graduation not attend , if people dont want to pay then let the parents of the undergraduates be the security for the graduates see how that will fly

all I can say is shit runs down hill go after the ...

2010-03-05T12:12:02.766-05:00

all I can say is shit runs down hill go after the custodian easy target, I bet the new custodians cant afford to live in Matawan Aberdeen on a $8.00 an hour job or maybe they can if they live behind the 7 11 store on main street and the residents that lost there jobs wont see any tax relief by there dismissal but they will be on the foreclosure list , start at the top and lead by example 183,000 super and he needs a deputy 153,000 and he needs an assistant, and we gave a merit raise to the top board of ed officals for doing a good job , and refuse to give a cost of living raise and now are in a 6 million dollar hole why not give them another raise they did so good . Greed greed greed

Why dont you run a football program for free , fat...

2010-03-04T13:40:27.051-05:00

Why dont you run a football program for free , fat chance

Why dont the parents of the athletics pay for ther...

2010-03-04T13:22:08.163-05:00

Why dont the parents of the athletics pay for there kids coaches stipens , we the tax are here to pay for education not recreation . Cut the stipens and see how much you save these programs that pay stipens are an insult to the many volenteers at pop warner who pay to play and also volunteer there time

My friend is a teacher here in district. Called up...

2010-03-04T07:34:17.532-05:00

My friend is a teacher here in district. Called upset yesterday because Union is having teachers had a scary flyer to parents at conferences today. She says it is about the custodians and says that it will make parents think only criminal pediphiles will be cleaning schools. I said "If you don't like it, don't hand it out!". She said the pressure is too much and others will know if she does not do it. What is this the Mob? Disgusting when a teacher can't do what she feels is right because of "union big brother"!

Joey doesn't care about the janitors. They ar...

2010-03-04T07:25:28.926-05:00

Joey doesn't care about the janitors.

They are inferior to him.

Joey went to college, the janitors didn't. The janitors don't deserve to make a living because they didn't go to college.

So you'd rather fire more teachers. Okay, whi...

2010-03-04T07:19:52.972-05:00

So you'd rather fire more teachers.

Okay, which programs would you cut or would you simply increase class size to 30 students?

Outsourcing custodians is potentially a dangerous...

2010-03-03T23:30:12.138-05:00

Outsourcing custodians is potentially a dangerous proposition because:

1. They are unknown to our children.
2. Come from companies that do not do background checks or fingerprint.
3. Will steal anything not nailed down. (happened at my company)

The potential for theft/damage will cost the district more in the long run. And do you really want strangers from a company with high turnovers around our children? Who will be libel when something bad happens?

I thought our first priority was the students.

2010-03-03T22:46:27.751-05:00

I thought our first priority was the students.

I would eliminate the 10 teaching positions. This ...

2010-03-03T20:51:02.094-05:00

I would eliminate the 10 teaching positions. This is why.

The 10 teachers will be lower seniority teachers just starting out. They will either be called back as teachers retire, or will find jobs with other districts.
The janitors you want to eliminate, most of whom have been with the district 20 or more years will not recover. from the financial ruin that your proposal will cause them.
You want to freeze hiring of janitors, and privatize the new hires? Fine, but you should leave the existing janitors alone.

Tagliarini swallowed the kool aid is true. Will he...

2010-03-03T16:04:24.176-05:00

Tagliarini swallowed the kool aid is true. Will he be smart enough to not get jailed along with normy and all the rest.

That politically connected name or names in our to...

2010-03-03T10:34:46.052-05:00

That politically connected name or names in our towns have taken away opinions and budget cutting options all because our money hungry politicians used their names and influence to get their family members jobs. That means conflicts of interests exist that they can't be involved in any vote or reviews. FACT!

Recently elected members who magically showed up at the school board meeting the other night were sending a not so subtle message. FACT!

BY the way what is the deal with Tags and Bucc hanging out together? Then again they are both republicans. Right Tags?

Wait I forgot after being a R for all his life he swallowed the Kauff kool aid and now magically Tags is a D in 2009 election season.

They know no shame?.

Choose your poison. Outsource the custodial staff ...

2010-03-03T08:36:35.695-05:00

Choose your poison. Outsource the custodial staff or eliminate another 10 teaching positions.

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU WILL FIND A PRIVATE CLEANI...

2010-03-03T08:32:12.582-05:00

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU WILL FIND A PRIVATE CLEANING SERVICE TO CARE ABOUT ARE CHILDRENS SAFETY AND HEALTH (H1N1) AS TABLES DOORS ETC ARE SANITIZED EACH NIGHT.AS AN OBSERVER YOUR CUSTODIAL STAFF DOES AN EXCELLENT JOB

Just because employees have the same last names as...

2010-03-02T10:39:26.363-05:00

Just because employees have the same last names as former or current officials, doesn't mean that the employees aren't plenty qualified for their current positions. Some of the mentioned names have been a wonderful asset to our educational system. It would be a tremendous loss to our children if a last name was the determining factor.

Sports teams under the budget axe? Come on that mi...

2010-03-01T19:43:55.671-05:00

Sports teams under the budget axe? Come on that million dollar plus sports activity alone must be good for what ten scholarships a year. List for us the number of scholarships for sports Mr. Warren. Then maybe someone can list for me the number of pro athletes that came back and did something for the town that educated them. I have not seen the Jim Jeffcoat funded Park or the Charlie Rodgers funded soup kitchen or youth center. Then again Rogers has been a little busy availing himself of our court system and the legal process. It is good to have *friends* to help you navigate and maybe minimize the court system penalties, isn't that right Coach Rodgers? Coach Rodgers? It should have been inmate Rodgers long ago.

Well, if this were Texas, gutting your athletics p...

2010-03-01T12:55:11.710-05:00

Well, if this were Texas, gutting your athletics program would pretty much mean boarding up the school - if it doesn't have Friday night football, nobody's going there!

Back to places that aren't Texas, I think that's a bit too general a question to get an honest answer. What exactly do you mean by "gutting"? Canceling everything? Everything except the most popular? Everything except those that can get million dollar salaries in the pros? What are those 4 teachers teaching? What is it doing to class sizes - is it 2 more kids per class, or 10? Are we eliminating some positions where the people were useless / needed to retire/be fired anyway?

You may have seen that there's a school in Rhode Island that decided the answer to this question was to fire every single teacher and start over. That should tell you that nothing should be off the table.

I'm not as adamantly anti-ceramics as you are, but I would definitely look there before I look at the sports teams. There are (or should be) vocational schools for those who wish to make a career out of it; and for those that strive to be well rounded, I would like to see the same offerings be available across any given 4-year span, just 1/4 of them each year instead of all of them every year.

Jim, I read all the comments though I don't r...

2010-03-01T12:12:16.203-05:00

Jim,

I read all the comments though I don't remember them all. :)

You've got some good ideas, though I'd have to disagree on the college/sports equation. Even without college, a good education is more likely to payoff in the long run than a good athletics program. However, a good athletics program can lead to a good education through character development and scholarships.

As for cutting costs, let me ask you this. Which is likely to garner more public outrage? Gutting the athletics program or firing four teachers?

Actually, 1/3rd of HS seniors completing a 4-yr co...

2010-03-01T12:03:51.381-05:00

Actually, 1/3rd of HS seniors completing a 4-yr college degree isn't all that bad. There are many colleges who would love to see that kind of success rate among their freshmen, so in that sense we may actually be above the curve.

For those without an academic future, sports is often their next best chance to have a successful life (no matter how slim that may be). I would caution against cutting too deeply into those kinds of programs. I did make a recommendation in the 1000 cuts post, but you may not have seen that as I'm not sure when you stop following comments on a post. Essentially, I recommended that a uniform standard be applied to personal equipment for everything from football to dance, and that the parents of the participants bear most of the burden with the district helping by negotiating costs with a supplier and by contributing a certain percentage. I do not know how far away we are from that reality, but it seems fair enough.

If it's within your power to negotiate an across-the-board 50% cut to stipends, by all means, go for it. I don't see it happening, however. Surgically removing individual stipends would seem to be a long and arduous task to add up to real dollar amounts, and be met by near-unanimous opposition simply because everyone is likely to have a program they support in that list.

A 4% raise in salary is certainly appropriate, given no increase (or decrease!) in benefits, if cost of living also increased by 4%. You may be better served by indexing automatic raises to inflation and allowing merit raises on top of that, but again, that may not be within your power.

I don't know what the cuts are, exactly, excep...

2010-03-01T10:50:03.845-05:00

I don't know what the cuts are, exactly, except to say I don't think any programs are being cut. Instead, I think we'll be nitpicking. For example, one less coach here, some fewer crowd control and ticket takers there, maybe fewer night games so we don't have to pay as much overtime to the police.

I'm not certain, but I think that's the direction we're heading in.

However, I believe a few student clubs that have low participation rates may be cut. I have mixed feelings here. I don't want the programs to be cut but the cost per student for some of them are too high. Unfortunately, the stipends and such are contractual so it's an all or nothing deal.

Aberdeener, What clubs and what athletic programs...

2010-03-01T09:38:53.109-05:00

Aberdeener,
What clubs and what athletic programs will be cut to save the $32,270 for stipends and why isn't the athletic budget for equipment cut instead? Do you agree with the budget cuts that have been presented and shouldn't the public know what the outcome of these cuts will be?