School budget IV: support
Here's the fourth major category (of major six categories) in the school budget:
Please... dig in and offer some ideas. In the meantime, I have a suggestion for the BOE... see the highlighted parts:
Looking at "a/c 530 Telephone / online services," you'll see that every year for the past six years... the budget has exceeded actual expenditures by more than $50,000. Perhaps someone from the BOE could fight for the taxpayers and cut that seemingly perpetually overbudgeted account by $50,000?
And if you look at "a/c 590 - storage services," while the number may be considered small in relation to a $60,000,000 budget... doesn't that strike you as being intellectually dishonest? It's budgeted every year... yet never gets spent?
Some have said the town is run by financial wizards. Well... there's definitely some magic behind these numbers.
Last year the BOE provided some oversight of staff. And I gave them credit. I hope they continue performing their oversight function... and don't follow the "leadership" of other elected officials who appear to follow the motto:
"These are not the droids you're looking for. Move along."
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
17 comments:
I look at "A/c 531 Postage" and I think that is an area that can be cut. What percentage of parents in the Cheshire School systems have email addresses? I bet it's pretty high.
We have 2 kids in the same school and every summer we get 2 separate letters with what teachers they are getting. A lot of waste.
I am still looking at it so I may post again.
Good luck getting a change there.
The Council gets USPS mail from the schools every month... nine people... sometimes multiple letters.
A few years ago I contacted the other eight Council members and they (D&R) agreed that they could live with email instead of snail mail. So I conveyed that information to the Sptd and BOE.
Needless to say, we still get the snail mail.
these are not the droids you're looking for. move along.
On the flipside though with parents, it's been my experience that most people do not treat their email addresses like house addresses. That is, they often change without telling people.
So I'm guessing that any postal savings would probably be offset (to some extent) by an additional administrative cost in maintaining the email distribution list... though in the elementary schools... that may be different from CHS... as you probably have a stronger relationship between parents and teachers at the elementary school level... than you do at the CHS level.
Curious though... do you get any emails from the schools? If so, for what purpose?
That is insane. Do we need to tell them that we are in the 21st Century?
I guess we have to pay for the new post office some way, might as well let the Sptd. help.
What are BOE Services that they are budgeting $13,000 for this year, but never before?
Things that make you go Hmmm...
Send a letter to the editor or that comment was a tree falling in the woods.
letters@courant.com
letters@nhregister.com
letters@record-journal.com
news@cheshireherald.com
opinion@rep-am.com
Seriously... blogs are heard, but they don't reach nearly as many people as newsprint.
I get an email about my kids meal accounts for lunches, Thats how they communicate and let us know how much is in the account.
So that's probably coordinated at a school level. Though I'm guessing the email addresses are coordinated by teachers and not by cafeteria staff. And if my assumption is correct... there is a real organization there. And if an email bounces, does a school staffer followup and obtain a new email address?
If so, it seems that at least at your particular school... the entire mechanism is in place to begin emailing most everything to parents.
Personally, my hope would be to put the entire CHS class scheduling online... allowing parents to select classes (along with their kids). But my sister's experience at CHS (class of '88) was a nightmare in doing that. It was as if all that information was top secret... so ridiculous. My college wanted me to sign up for my own classes... to them it would've been a hassle to do.
And that's the other upside to online class scheduling... it would free up staff (mostly guidance counselors, I think) to do other more important things.
Generally though... the town government is highly averse to use of the internet. I mean... why aren't the meetings on web?
These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along.
Six years ago, Chapman School went electronic with all notices and newsletters. (I don't know if they still do.) Parents were asked to provide their email address and check off if they agreed to receive email correspondence for ALL notices, just PTA notices or NEITHER. There was an incredibly high percentage of people who opted for ALL. Years before that, the school went to a system of only the youngest child in the family rec'd paper notices. It took a bit of work in the beginning of the year but once set up, it was great. Today's families are very geared to hearing from coaches, managers, scout leaders etc about changes in schedules.
Currently, I receive a rare email from Dodd, ususally about PTA events. One email a week from CHS about math progress reports--which is awesome. Last year at CHS, I rec'd multiple copies because I had two kids there. Another thing that drives me crazy is that for every mailing at CHS, about 100+ letters go out to multiple households because parents are divorced. The notices should be sent electronically or just to the child's primary residence. The co-parents should learn to talk to each other. Or, at least require that if you want multiple mailings (for whatever reason), send in $5 per year to cover the add'l mailings.
The Director of Nutrition set up the email addresses for the lunch balance notification emails. If someone is not getting an email re: their child's lunch account, they can give their email address directly to the Office of Nutrition and it will get added. No teachers are involved in the email setup or sending of lunch balances.
sz
So why can't the BOE take some of that money budgeted for postage and figure this out. I know it isn't a lot of the money in the budget, but every little bit helps.
Guys...lets not get bogged down on the stamps. You want to gripe...count the staff increases.
Stamps are just the beginning, but you can pick a lot of smaller things out...you need to be careful about the staff increases. In order to have a good school system you need to have good administrators. If we don't pay them the going rate then they will go elsewhere or go into the private sector and get paid more. It is just the facts of life.
"In order to have a good school system you need to have good administrators."
I'd prefer to use the word "honest" administrators. Maybe one of these days we'll be lucky to find one!
A good school system is based on good administrators, a true statement. The Supt lives out of Town, should be made to live here to suffer the pain of taxation, instead he lives in Newington. The Dir of Curriculum is and old buddy the the Supt, he also came from Newington. The Principal of the high is questionable at best, she refuses to admit there is a problem with alcohol or drugs in the high school, that has been documented by emails written by her. The bathrooms mainly the boys in the high school have been closed all except for three due to a smoking problem. Why can't the teachers administrators stand outside or patrol a bathroom for this? It violates the teacher contract, that is why we have hallway monitors. Hallway monitor do not enter the bathrooms, that is why we need to budget for bathroom monitors, and we currently do not have any of these people on staff.
"we need to budget for bathroom monitors, and we currently do not have any of these people on staff."
We may not have any this year. But by next year, the budget may include a "5 yr history" of them.
Tim,
There is something to be said for snail mail.
1.My son in-law is a mailman.
2.I don't have to spend as much money on ink cartridges and paper.
3.I don't have to kill my eyes staring at a monitor.
4. Everyone doesn't have highspeed internet or DSL for downloading.
5. There is no delete key.
Do we have to bitch about everything?
TS...
:)
The USPS is a pretty amazing organization, considering its size... and $0.41 for a letter is not too expensive for me.
Nonetheless, whether Council members get mail from the USPS or not... taking advantages in improvements in technology is one of the easiest cost reductions available... and for me, I'd rather get an email than an envelope. But that's me. I'm not speaking for you.
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