The $20 million in new potential cuts proposed last week by Wake County school administrators got a pretty negative reaction from speakers at Tuesday's school board meeting.
As noted in today's article, several speakers complained about the reduction in the number of media specialists and in the 30 percent cut in extra-duty pay. Board members and staff repeatedly stressed that the new round of cuts hasn't been approved yet.
But the board might run out of options, especially if state funding is cut by 5 percent.
The $20 million in cuts were proposed in case the state cut is 3 percent.
The possible $2.9 million cut for media specialists would leave each elementary and middle school with one person and each high school with two people. Speakers on Tuesday said this would lead to the elimination of 40 positions.
Administrators have said that displaced media specialists could likely get other teaching jobs in the district, provided the state cuts is 3 percent.
Several media specialists argued they perform a valuable duty teaching classes in the media center.
"The thought of losing one librarian while serving 2,500 students is devastating," said Kerri Brown Parker, a media specialist at Millbrook High. "We might save money but it will come at a great cost."
Dwight Harrell, the athletic director of Garner High, said it's "ludicrous" to cut extra-duty pay by 30 percent. He said the pay scales haven't changed since 1987.
Extra-duty pay covers a wide range of positions, such as athletic coaches, band directors, band directors, department chairs and yearbook advisors.
Administrators said they had proposed extra-duty pay because it's not the primary income for teachers. They said they had proposed this $2.2 million cut as being a better option than laying off people.
Several school board members said they're not happy with this new list of possible cuts, which call for schools to absorb $16 million of the $20 million reduction.
"These are terrible options," said school board member Anne McLaurin. "I’m sorry."
School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said she's worried that reducing extra-duty pay could cause some teachers to give up these responsibilities. She said more needs to be cut out of Central Services before cuts are made in schools.
Chief Business Officer David Neter reiterated that they had already made significant cuts over the years in Central Servvices. He said that putting all $20 million in potential new cuts in Central Services would be the equivalent of cutting $80 million from schools.
Comments
Race to the bottom
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:57 — user12345"Given projected enrollment growth, Margiotta said, that means per-pupil spending will likely decline for the system of more than 140,000 students. "
......Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/04/21/447668/margiotta-opens-meeting-with-plea.html#ixzz0lk5SKrYQ
We can still beat Mississippi ...
"We can still beat
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 10:18 — CaryCurmudgeon"We can still beat Mississippi ..."
Or, our County Commissioners and State Legislators can step up to the plate and have the guts to act like leaders instead of politicians. I'd expect the school board to continue to explore more non-classroom expenditures for opportunities to reduce. I'd expect the County Commissioners to place a higher priority on funding education, same with the State Legisture (and Bev Perdue, who as recently as yesterday continues to punish kids with budget cuts). Heck, I'd expect Mayor Meeker to maybe reconsider kicking in some money for education. He thinks he has $700K to fund public art in the Lightner Center (which I think should be built, sans art), but no money to help pay for schools? If these government bodies go through those budget analyses and still can't fund education, then raise revenues so that they can.
Your "Race to the Bottom" is an issue with the commissioners and legislature. If you want to go fight that battle I'll be right there beside you.
That is a fight the BOE are
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 11:16 — user12345That is a fight the BOE are the generals for ... they lobby for our kids ... they use Tea Party meetings to convince people our kids need more ... are they up to the fight? ... or are they done now that they changed the calendar and ended diversity?
Keith Sutton is chair of the
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 12:29 — CaryCurmudgeonKeith Sutton is chair of the finance committee. Today he asked the county commissioners for more money. I see the school board doing their part, we'll see whether the commissioners and state legislature do theirs.
Agreed --- Kudos to
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 20:12 — ApexterAgreed --- Kudos to Sutton. I think he did a very good job today making his point to the commissioners.
Standing firm
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 14:44 — louiselee44I wanted to applaud him at the COW yesterday. He's really standing firm on not making cuts that will be a direct, hard blow to teachers and students.
impressed
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 22:08 — loriacI am impressed also with Mr. Sutton - he's taking a stand for the students and teachers. He obviously does his homework, and makes logical arguments. This is how the BOE should work - I may not always agree with him, but he's doing the work and I'm glad for his point of view. WTG.
I like Sutton--nice to hear
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 16:01 — jenmanI like Sutton--nice to hear this account of yesterday's COW.
Yup..
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 10:17 — Bob_SconceUnfortunate. But, many other states are having the same problem; we're all sinking together.
Thank God for Mississippi
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 10:14 — proudnativeLike we've always said here" Thank God for Mississippi and Alabama!" lol....(except it's not funny).
Teaching cuts vs Central Office overhead
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:14 — proudnativeI believe Ms. Goldman stated in her comments yesterday that there were many more options for cutting Central Services [that had NOT been proposed by Central Services] and specifically mentioned the 3,000 cell phones that are currently provided. KUDOS to her for putting that out there. Specifically BLACKBERRIES and numerous NEXTELS. Do our Principals and Assistant Principals really NEED BLACKBERRIES???Other counties do without those. If they would ask the front line employees, the teachers, faculty and staff in the trenches, we could provide them with details of many, many MORE superfluous, luxury expenditures that would appall the tax payers. Do we really need 13 or more clerical staff in our front offices? Other counties have far, far fewer. Do we really need MULTIPLE headcount for numerous "at risK' programs at every single school? Other counties don't have these positions. We see very little bang for those bucks from year to year. Do we really need to dedicate a headcount to TESTING COORDINATOR? Other counties use their APs as their TESTING COORDINATOR. Do we really need a full time person to handle "SUBSTITUTES" at some schools? Wake County has spent $$$ creating an online automated sub system, why do we continue to need those positions? Do we really need to dedicate a 10 MOE position for high school students to take UNC-G "Ischool" college courses DURING THE SCHOOL DAY? We're having to DROP AP classes due to budget cuts but we can dedicate 3 full class sessions and a TEACHER to providing COLLEGE COURSES for the high school students??? Who is funding these positions?? All of the above were wonderful and we were happy to have them when times were flush with money. That's why so many people want to work in Wake County! We have EVERYTHING!! But in a recession we all know we have to cut out luxuries first! And there are FAR MORE LUXURIES that as yet, have not been identified to the public and apparently not to the schoolboard. The outcry would be unbelievable if you saw what we saw every day.
What's The PR Budget....
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 20:41 — JanisTangoI thought the 5 million they spent on public relations previously was over the top. What is the current figure...does anyone know?
Proudnative, I like the
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 20:11 — ApexterProudnative, I like the questions you're asking. I don't agree with all your answers, but I think you're definitely looking in the right places.
I don't think that all the Nextels are a luxury. A lot of them are for maintenance staff, who might be at Hunter Elementary in the morning and Ligon Middle in the afternoon. They might not see a desk all day, so they can't be reached by e-mail or desk phone in a timely manner. That's nowhere near 3000, though, so I don't know where the rest come from. (I do think it makes sense for principals and APs to have them, too, though, so that they can move throughout the school but still be reachable without having resort to an intercom call.
I don't know about the Ischools thing in Wake, but I have a friend who teaches in another county. One teacher may be overseeing a number of kids taking different Ischool classes at the same time --- they all have headphones, so a number of kids can be supervised at once. This is an effective way of letting kids get in advanced coursework that their school may not otherwise be able to offer --- particularly when teachers are getting laid off.
They are doing this all
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 10:02 — user12345They are doing this all wrong and getting confused in the details ... the BOE should just state a % for the budget - 70% teachers in the classroom, 20% support, 10% central office for example and let the administrators decide within those guidelines who gets cell phones and how nice they are .... if the BOE can not even give up 15 min to save 60 teachers they won't be able to decide on cell phones.
"They are doing this all
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 20:03 — Apexter"They are doing this all wrong and getting confused in the details ...
the BOE should just state a % for the budget - 70% teachers in the
classroom, 20% support, 10% central office for example and let the
administrators decide within those guidelines who gets cell phones and
how nice they are"
Well these simpletons need a
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 08:57 — user12345Well these simpletons need a starting place … if they get lost in who has a cell phone we will continue losing teachers … they just need to set the direction and let the staff figure out the details … Benchmarking is a powerful tool to negotiate complex problems like billion dollar budgets. Details matter but we don't need a character teacher, a volunteer firewomen and an unemployed boys club adminstrator wasting too much time on them on things the don't understand while we bleed teachers....
WCPSS has had a very
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 17:17 — aquaman4life68WCPSS has had a very serious issue with this for a long time. For one, yes it is a large school system, BUT the number of assistant supt., and all the individual departments, (their heads, and assistants, and secretaries) along with the all the APs, IRTs, Testing coord, Magnet office personel, and Magnet coord. at the individual magnet schools, mulitiple people up at the front office, the list goes on and on and on. NOT one of those things helps the teachers, in fact, I do believe that all of these EXTRA non-essential positions do not help the teacher it just adds more to their plates. It seems to me that so many positions basically balance each other out. What I mean by that, is like...3 positions rely on each other, and if you cut one then the other 2 are not needed. This needs to be done, and we could really cut out money from the budget without ever touching much of the money for the classroom and hopefully avoid laying off any teacher. That's my 2 cents!! :)
Serious issue ??
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 17:34 — Solon77I am not saying that there is not opportunity to reduce costs - there always is. However, to suggest that there are millions of $ of waste in the Central office is unfounded. One of the reasons we have the structure we do is to leverage administrative costs. WCPSS admin costs per student stacks up very favorably to the majority of school districts and is a fraction of the what one would see in the North. At some point we are going to have to suck it up and pay a little more to make sure we have a quality school system.
By the way - why did Tedesco and Malone vote no ? I am just catching up.
If
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 01:26 — TrailerParkGirlIf you are talking about No to the reduction in force per WRAL interview, Tedesco felt there were too many cuts to intervention and other direct student services and not enough in top level administrative positions.
N&O says 4%
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:28 — Dove314The front page mentions Perdue has set a 4% cut to education spending. Very little detail beyond this number is provided.
But seems like at least some of the additional suggested cuts will need to be implemented.
Given they would not budge
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:03 — user12345Given they would not budge on 15 minutes, I do not see the choices getting any easier.
Project Enlightenment
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:17 — earlyeducatorAs sympathetic as I am to coaches and as much as I value their service, the conversation about their stipend is hard to stomach when Project Enlightenment lost their entire parent education component last night with the Reduction in Force. This is a huge blow to an agency that has served this community for 40 years with high quality intervention services to our youngest and most vulnerable members.
Agreed
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 22:28 — CaryCurmudgeonProject Enlightenment is exactly the kind of program which should NOT be cut. They help students with learning disabilities, and their families too. I have not seen the video of the meeting yet. I am told that John Tedesco voted against cutting this project. Can you tell me how the others voted?
Note to User: This was a bad decision, but I believe a bad bi-partisan decision.
That is just
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 21:26 — ktherrienThat is just heartbreaking. We went through Project's Parents as Teachers program when our firstborn was first identified with learning disabilities in preschool. It was invaluable to us as parents learning to maneuver through the world of a learning disabled child. It gave us the understanding of the system, resources available to us and the confidence to ask and fight for our child's needs.
I agree but it just shows
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 21:49 — user12345I agree but it just shows the real priorities ... these groups don't have PACs, Website, donate, or have TV time like the calandar and YR folks who can get their way with politicians. It is so much cheaper to address the problem early on than in HS but we can not seem to learn that lesson.
I agree, but it also takes
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 22:44 — ktherrienI agree, but it also takes engaged parents. The program gave us the basic skills, knowledge and confidence to understand and maneuver through the system, but we do the ongoing day to day work to make sure our child is successful. And just to note, our learning disabled third grader passed his CogATs, finished the ITBS (attempted all questions, which is a huge success in and of itself), is scoring 3 and 3* on his report card, joined the running club and is socially engaged with classmates. Project gave us the skills, but it is our efforts that ensure the success.
Congratulations to your
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 08:56 — user12345Congratulations to your child ...
Time for them to seek grant
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 20:12 — DrActualFactualTime for them to seek grant funding from elsewhere, at least they have that option.
yes
Thu, 04/22/2010 - 08:16 — louiselee44I agree. This is a huge
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 19:59 — ApexterI agree. This is a huge loss.
Considering all the talk
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:22 — magnetParentConsidering all the talk about how parental involvement is key to a childs education, how could they remove this component? I do not understand this.
Look at the bright
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:23 — danofncLook at the bright side....at least little Susie will be able to get to her dance class.
30% to board
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 07:23 — openmindHow about cutting the board's salaries by 30%? It isn't their primary salary is it? The do get paid to do this.
This was suggested same time
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:53 — CaryCurmudgeonThis was suggested same time last year (before the elections). There was a huge outcry from board supporters that these positions were underpaid anyway, and that cutting the meager pay would only further discourage qualified candidates from running.
And, thanks to a group of vindictive busing supporters, school board salary IS the only money Tedesco has coming in.
Will you not be happy until John is living at the YMCA?
job
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 17:19 — stepbystepI trust that the BBBS Board of Directors could fairly evaluate John's performance as their fund raising director, or whatever his job was. I suspect there is more that meets the eye when it comes to what happened between John and his former employer. Or carycurmudgeon, have you spoken with BBBS board members who said they were intimidated by folks who support a healthy school system?
Wow
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:07 — supportwcpssNever took you for being so melodramatic Joe. That was his choice.
But I do agree cutting Board salaries is a useless exercise.
John Tedesco Comments
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 08:57 — HereWeGoHe siad is would be willing to live out of his car.
I'm sure that will make your
Wed, 04/21/2010 - 09:02 — CaryCurmudgeonI'm sure that will make your day.