The annual BOE budget moves - 2006 / 2007
Here's the sixth installment of the annual June 30 BOE budget transfers:
Anyone know what's been happening at the BOE meetings this week? I've been reading that Wallingford wants to close a school and reduce their total number of teachers by 55.
Tim White
8 comments:
Not much happened at the first budget meeting last night. The Boe is taking the budget a section at a time. They went through the certified and non certified staff sections.
There were only a few people from the public there and a few teachers too.
There was no discussion about union concessions or givebacks.
Thursday they'll discuss medical benefits.
There weren't that many questions from the Board members either.
Most of the increase in the budget is for salaries & benefits.
Ii heard they wanted to turf on the outdoor learning classrooms at Highland and Dodd...
The only BOE member asking any detailed questions was Perugini. At least he tried but I think Massey tried to subdue him LOL. I think Pavano chimed in with a couple. The rest of the board seemed content at just sitting there and agreeing with Florio. What's the point of these administrative account reviews if Massey (yet again) won't allow detailed any detailed questions about them?
I did catch one important piece of information that I think most of the BOE didn't catch. Perugini asked Florio about class sizes, namely if Florio had any concerns with approaching size limits in certain grades/schools. Florio answered in general 'No'.
In other words, there's room for consolidation in certain grade levels. Maybe I'm being too optimistic but it sounded like a setup of what's to come.
I did ask one of the BOE members after the meeting about union talks and they couldn't comment but they expect an update from Florio next week.
These account reviews are useless, the real discussions start next week. Don't waste your time attending the review tonight.
Does the BOE want input or not? If they do then change the format of these meetings. You have the same old people following the same old steps. Give this up and start thinking of ways to engage more people for ideas and input. Don't wait until the last minute and blame the TC. How many people know about the dates of these meetings? I would bet very few.
Clearly it's the same old same old. The townspeople will be told what to think and the tax bills will just go out. And we have such a very high rate of collection - - -
It's way past time for free choice and a voucher system.
I believe you saw the straw bend in Nov and it will break with this budget if it passes. Something has got to give..
Wow...interesting comments, as always. Regarding my question on class sizes, no it wasn't a 'setup' or a sign of things to come but I am certainly looking into what the impact of increased class sizes would be on the quality of our education. It has to be looked at just as everything else in this budget must be scrutinized.
Peter did not try to subdue me, lol, but we did have a few side-bars on a few topics. Just normal discussions.
As for any stifling, it's simply not true. Anyone is welcome to come ask questions during the account review meetings and you can be as detailed as you want to be but the focus on this week's meetings has been to review the accounts and allowing anyone to ask questions about them.
Frankly, I'm not a fan of the account review format as it exists and I hope we will change that during my time on the BOE. This is not a knock against Peter but I'd like to see this part of the review process changed a bit.
There will be a final account review meeting on Tuesday 1/19 and the public will be allowed to comment on the overall budget. I expect we will have a big turnout on Tuesday night.
Additionally, the BOE finance committee (Massey, Dixon, myself) will be meeting soon to deliberate the Super's budget proposal. We're also accepting further public input during the finance committee meetings, something I've been pushing for and we all support. There should be another 2-3 opportunities for the public to address the BOE & Finance Committee before a budget is voted on and sent to the TC. I'll publish the meeting dates as soon as I get the final schedule tomorrow.
I come on here because I support Tim's effort to inform the public as well as accept input from the public. While I may not agree with some of the comments posted here at times, I do believe good ideas are offered here and I do my best to respond to those ideas and try to bring them to the table.
I can tell you that not every BOE member is going to read Tim's blog (go figure) but I do. Keep the ideas and feedback coming. I do thank those of you that have called/emailed me over the last couple of weeks. I also want to thank Bill for the documentation he gave me Tuesday night. It's been very helpful.
Don't get discouraged about this budget, as it stands today, we're only in the preliminary phases of budget discussions. We have a long way to go before a budget is forwarded to the TC.
I would like to see and read the definition of "quality of education." All too often this phrase gets thrown out and very few if any can properly define. How does an increase in class size reduce or negatively affect the "quality of education." Like the phrase "we moved here for the education", another one that is over used. Define it, clarify it but at least add to it, what constitutes quality of education in Cheshire. Would love to here people define it from their own perspective. The level of public safety and maintaing high home values is not the defintion of quality of edication.
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