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Pepperdog
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« Reply #17 on: 03 April 2010, 04:31:21 » |
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As pasionate as the subject, as important this is to the children of our town and to our town's economic viability (MUSD is the towns largest employer) No amount of emotional pleas are going to solve any of the problems in our schools. This is a state funding issue and is hitting the states' public school system equally. We are talking about 20-25% budget reductions. Do people really think there is that much fat in school budgets? Really?
MUSD last year made quite a few adjustments. Many vacant positions were left vacant, especially within the district administration. More will be cut from that building before this ends. That is the area cut the hardest and will have its impact. We can all debate about what level of administration is needed and at what cost but no one can say that you can live without it You need someone in charge and with 9 schools you need an admin staff. I think I saw on the list somewhere near 20 admin positions cut and this is in addition to the non hires last year. It is not pretty at all. I hear talk about pay cutting....well this district already pays about 10% less than the state average. Keep cutting that and those left that are good at what they do will go elsewhere. So you will not only lose numbers but you will lose your best people. When times get better you will have a very difficult tiime recruiting too due to the low pay.
There will be 90 or so teachers given notice that they will likely not have a job next year. This is the worst case scenario but is stunning. Even at half these losses this is a huge impact as no one is predicting less students. So you will have less teachers teaching more kids....Again this is statewide and again thanks to our legislatures spending decisions. They think this was the safest way to go. I believe NO ONE is looking at is the significant economic impact this will have accross the state. We will ALL feel this as these teachers, and the teachers all over the state who are given pink slips (it is in the thousands) will likely not find another teaching job in this state. This is the largest employer in town. How many will stay? Every business in town will feel this. Has anyone heard how our city leaders are taking this news? Any hear anything about plans? Do they even think there is a problem?
The teacher cuts are big and so are the admin cuts but there are still more. There will likely be no more security guards, no more janitors, none. The will be a lot less bus drivers, aides, nurses, groundscrew, maitenance workers, librarians, clerks, subs, paras, secretaries, and so on. Most of whom live here. Say what you want about previous budgets and fat or whatever but next year there will not be enough of these people to get the job done and again this is state-wide. You think this is a good thing that we are "cutting the fat?" What do you think this will do to our local and state economies....? In this job market how many will find equivelatnt work? 1in 4? 1 in 3? again this is statewide. Are you really happy about this? This is not a comprehensive list.....Athletics, band, drama, etc will have to be self funded as will food serivce....(our currently pays for itself) and again this is statewide.
The decision to cut school funding to the bone, beyond the bone, will be a nightmare. It is sad in this day and age that this is how we treat our children. At a time when there are more adults per child than ever, this is how we treat our children. Every generation has always born the cost of educating the next one until now. Well we will get exactly what we pay for.
This is not about the over-ride either. Granted that had it passed there would be a million more in revenue that would have saved about 22 teachers. It would be significantly better but its effect is small compared to state funding. Our legislature has even gone so far as to suspend the AIMS writing test. Our state leaders have decided that it is too costly to determine if our kids are even performing to standards.....Our politicians believe that they will not be affected by this in the comming election. They believe that this is what their constituents want. I am disgusted with them and my own party for what they are doing to our children.
As for the buildings......I hope everyone of you are aware that those were not put in by this administration and this board. Those were built by bond monies the were decided by election. I am not sure how much the district had control over the actual construction and costs as they were built with heavy state involvement but these buildings were not, and still not part of the school district's budget. I agree the the admin building is overlarge, the rest are not. I would really like to know who thought we needed a district office for 15k students at a time when there was less than 5k. That was a bad decision, but those were construction costs that are not repetitive and more importantly those funds by law cannot be used to run the district. It is not a single pot of funds. If the district were to sell off excess, unused land those sales proceeds could not, by law, go to running the district. The district cannot use current building funds to replace the state cuts, again by law. They solely rely on specific state funding (and some federal) for the day to day operations of the district including salary and expenses. Funding controled by the state legislature and Governor.
To those of you who think the proposals by the budget commitee are insane........they are in their scope, they have to be.
To those of you who think that the schools cannot run with all these cuts......they have to, there is no choice.....
To those of you who think that solidarity and fight will keep those jobs........it won't, there is just no money.
There are some minor decisions which can save maybe a dozen jobs on paper. The reality though is that if the district goes to 1/2 day kinder it will lose more students to every surrounding district who is keeping it, each and everyone including the Charter schools.....and with more student drain that means less funding which means......yup.....less teachers, less staff....so again on paper it looks to save jobs but in reality it won't and the long term damage to the district when these kinders start in other schools will never be recovered. The loss of 300 hundred and some odd hours a year of instruction will lower the performance of kinder kids in 1/2 as compared to our surrounding nieghbors and will cause even more exodus of students as our test scores will fall low again. Such are the decisions this district is being faced with due to the severe reductions of funding. It is truely a nightmare.
The closing of Maricopa Wells will happen one way or another. It is one bad year away from state intervention and with all the chaos that occured this year with the principals many people in the district don't believe the performance will pass the muster. There is "hope" they will improve but that hope has been around since that school opened and hasn't yet manifested itself. If the state intervened then 1/2 the teachers will be removed anyways. Closing it is the smart move for the district. It can be re-opened if and when the funding returns. There are some good teachers who I hope will be moved over though I am not sure how that can be helped. Again this is not something anyone is high-fiving. It is the best solution for this nightmare available. Again this is a statewide problem. There are schools closing all over. Closed schools never help the nieghborhoods they are in either so this will just be one more negative economic impact on our city. So remember that the next time you see an over-ride. I assure you that the money you saved in voting no will be taken from you in other ways singularly based on what is happening to our local schools. That 5 to 8 million less in funding that passed through the district will be significantly felt in this town.
Call your legislature representative. tell them your schools are important to you. They can do more.
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