Meetings this week, budget & Teachers' Union
A reminder that Monday's budget meeting will cover public works, finance & the library. Thursday's meeting will cover Social / Senior Services, Parks & Rec, the pool and Performing & Fine Arts.
And there's a Teacher Union meeting on Monday night. I understand that this is the notice that was sent home to parents via the PTAs:
I agree that it is appropriate for taxpayers to have a sense of the impact of changes to the Super's proposed budget. But it seems a bit ridiculous to state "The Town Council holds your last hope to preserve high-quality education in Cheshire." I mean... seriously?! There's NO other options out there?! Cuz in case they missed it... I could think of at least one other group - besides the Council - that has a role to play in this.
I figure there are about 20,000 adults in Cheshire. I wonder how many got 4.4% raises this year?
Tim White
28 comments:
Perhaps someone should send out a mass email to parents stating -
"The teachers are your last hope in maintaining a high quality education for your children. Join your fellow concerned parents and email your child's teacher and the EAC asking them to make concessions so that their fellow teachers keep their jobs and our educations system remains unchanged. The economic picture is bleak and will be worse next year. Please urge your teachers to make an honest offer of true savings in the budget. We need savings not loans."
So AIG and all the "private sector' boys get to run our economy into the ground and we blame the teachers
George sschrumm bush borrows millions of $4 spends it on the Iraq war for nothing and it is the teachers fault
Dr Florio makes that same observation last year and Ruocco flies off the hook trying to say it was not the fault of the private sector
And can we at least discuss as a full council the proposal by the teachers unions istead of having george W schrumm reject it as a one man "decider"
the Rep council will go down in Cheshire history as one of the most ineffective and do nothing but blame from white and his crazy notion of the town manager to schrum and his personal vendetta against the teachers bc he is jeolous of their success and professonalism
If you want movement with the teachers don't put the face of schrumm out there-heels dig in and he could care less -he is hurting the town
As one rather famous pol likes to say "Let me be clear..."
President Obama owns the wars now. Bush started them, but Obama ain't doing squat to stop them. He's like Bush on steroids... spend, spend, spend!... especially on war!
It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
"schrum and his personal vendetta against the teachers bc he is jeolous of their success and professonalism"
Your really crazy and I hope your not teaching our children.
Ask the union about the following perks:
- A teacher that has been laid off must be given preference if a position becomes available within 18 months after being laid off.
- A work year for teachers is 186 days (MAX). If the school year is increased, Cheshire must pay a fee schedule based on the number of days increased. Not sure what it is but its probably prorated based on salary.
- Length of the work day is 7.2 hrs which includes 2 hours per day for prep time. Actual work (classroom time) is less than 5 hrs per day. Lunch is included.
- Entitled to 15 paid sick days per school year (186 days). Up to 200 sick days can be accumulated.
The average annual increase from 2009 - 2012 is 4.4% per year (186 days). It somehow works out to 14.4% when its all said and done. This increase is only salary and doesn't include benefits increases, stipends, etc. Also doesn't include fully paid professional days, paid overtime, paid training & certification, paid training expenses, free life insurance, etc.
Someone asked what the incentive was for teachers to volunteer concessions...I think the answer speaks for itself.
Considering how well the taxpayers of Cheshire have taken great care and rewarded our teachers...we're not asking for much for three unpaid furlough days. But it appears the tenured teachers are more than happy throwing the non-tenured teachers under the layoff bus to save their own hides.
Tim, at the education budget review meeting, you were late and missed the part where Florio gave details about the cuts. Essentially, as the budget stands now, he said 10-15 teaching positions will be eliminated from Grades 1 - 12. Class sizes will increase +3 to 5 students per class (Grades 1 - 12).
He did state to reporters after the meeting that he wasn't going to touch special education but that may change depending on what came back from the TC. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
How can the union work with the PTA's and public schools to send home propaganda fliers like this? Can someone from the BOE elaborate if what the union/PTA/Principals did with distributing these letters via students' backpacks is a policy violation?
Here we go again, greedy teachers trying to scare parents and have them work for the very people that caused this budget problem.
When we're paying many of them over $90,000 a year for a part-time job, there is something really very wrong.
Face it, we have a 19th century education system delivered by highly over-paid union members.
Teaching is still the easiest college program except maybe for social work. I once heard a European scholar say" why do Americans put those people who take the easiest college program in charge of their children's education?"- well, years ago many very bright people went into Education because it was the only professional field available to them, besides nursing-and they did a good job, and were underpaid. The U.,S. still was in the top 5 in all areas of education. Then along came Albert Shankar and the Unions, and while compensation became relevant, everything eventually went over the top:pay, benefits, work load,the class size myth, binding arbitration, pensions, and a lot else. The word 'Professional" and "union" don't belong in the same sentence. And guess what happened in the last 40 years- The UP.SO. is approaching third world status in our educational proficiency-this is progress?
"Join your fellow concerned parents and email your child's teacher and the EAC asking them to make concessions so that their fellow teachers keep their jobs and our educations system remains unchanged."
Over the years my kids had more than a few teachers who can't teach and who in a couple of cases clearly didn't really have a command of what they were paid to be teaching. On the other hand they did have a couple of really good teachers too.
It's long past the time when the town needs to begin trimming its employee base back down to more manageable and affordable numbers. The teachers have taken the greatest share of tax dollars for their salaries so it is only fitting that the cutbacks begin with them.
Local taxes are already way too high. The BOE and Town Council need to begin doing less with less.
A 2% per year payraise for teachers would have been reasonable. The difference between that and the unreasonable 4.4% raise is 2.4% per year.
So since the teachers union won't make any concessions (oink oink), the Council should simply cut the difference of 2.4% per year from other parts of the education budget.
The whiners have no one else to blame but their own unreasonableness and greed.
I don't understand what the rationale is behind the union leadership's decision not to offer up concessions...real concessions. All other school districts have either negotiated a reduced raise, postponed increases and/or real furlough days. I don't think 2.2% is out of the question with Cheshire taxpayers.
The hard stance they've taken to not negotiate at all, at this point, is going to backfire on them. I'm willing to pay more in taxes if they are willing to make real concessions. Why should the taxpayers be the only party at the table that bears the brunt of this recession?
hey tim, the top grade teacher, about 50% of the teachers in town, got 2%. by the way, the last time i checked, unions don't get bonuses and big raises when the economy is good. if you hadn't killed north end development, the homeowners wouldn't be footing the whole bill.
The myth that our kids need smaller class sizes is a theme propagated by the teachers union to grow jobs, not intellect. Some of us can remember the 50's, 60's and 70's when class sizes were 30, sometimes approaching 40-and those kids did just fine-probably ready to face college where classes of 100-200 are normal in many subjects. It would be interesting to see how much more one-on-one time a teacher exercises in a class of 20 verses 25. I haven't heard that its gone up as class sizes decreased. In fact,the United States ranking in education has dropped from about 5th to 25th as the unions have taken over our education system-and another thing-why five times as many vice and assistant principals and department heads than 30 years ago-just more positions for teachers to fill.
RE: "if (Tim) hadn't killed north end development, the homeowners wouldn't be footing the whole bill."
First, NE development was killed by the economic slowdown. The town gave it all green lights. Second, the only time the council voted on it was to send it to PZC, and Tim voted in favor.
Sorry to throw truth on your lies.
RE: "The myth that our kids need smaller class sizes is a theme propagated by the teachers union to grow jobs, not intellect.'
I agree with your comments entirely (and Im a retired teacher).
Id only add that the primary reasons for student decline are the decline of overall parental involvement and discipline, and the insidious affects on kids of instant media 24/7.
Studies show that only 25% of American kids are growing up with fully engaged parents. For the rest of them, it's "here's 50 bucks, go to the mall". There are direct connections between the dumbing down of parenting and communications, and the dumbing down of most youth.
However, no politician, D or R, is going to blame the parents, who are the first teachers of children. So their mantras have become "fix the schools, fix the teachers, spend more money".
But it never was an issue of spending. African children sit on dirt floors with little more than chalk slates and manage to get into Oxford. It’s a matter of parental authority, focus, and motivation.
Here is a novel thought: instead of spending another $5 Million on the money pit, why don't we build another pool and make the one we have a summer only facility? We need to think outside the box and stop wasting more and more money on that waste of space.
"Tim, at the education budget review meeting, you were late and missed the part where Florio gave details about the cuts. Essentially, as the budget stands now, he said 10-15 teaching positions will be eliminated from Grades 1 - 12. Class sizes will increase +3 to 5 students per class (Grades 1 - 12)."
I think your quote is a bit incorrect. Florio would never use the word "will" (be eliminated) or "will" (increase 3). He never would state it as a definite b/c he knows he doesn't know the exact number of retirees and shifting of some teachers could effect class size.
Besides, if you haven't noticed, he always is vague and won't commit to anything until all is said and done.
As for policies prohibiting school employees from rallying support re: money spent in the budget, I believe there is such a policy. In fact, I remember the AD got called out on it for emailing parents on another issue effecting the budget. I'm sure there's a board member reading this now...please verify for all of us.
"As for policies prohibiting school employees from rallying support re: money spent in the budget, I believe there is such a policy. In fact, I remember the AD got called out on it for emailing parents on another issue effecting the budget. I'm sure there's a board member reading this now...please verify for all of us."
I've received complaints from a few folks about an alleged EAC letter going home with students. I say 'alleged' because I have not seen these letters myself. I have children in the school system and neither came home with this letter nor have my neighbors' children.
I followed up with Dr. Florio this morning and yes there is a policy: Dr. Florio must approve notices sent home with students.
He caught wind of this last week and contacted the teachers union to notify them they couldn't do this. The union stated they didn't.
However, I did receive an email via PTA/PTO about the meeting this evening. The email was a completely different tone than the letter Tim posted here. As I understand it, PTO/PTAs can email communications such as these to parents. And, the following was emailed via some PTA/PTO groups:
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 7:23 PM
Subject: Please forward: Important Parent Meeting with EAC at Dodd School Mar 22, 7PM
If you are concerned about the recent news stories related to the Town Budget and Education Budget, there will be a meeting with the Education Association of Cheshire at Dodd Middle School in the Cafeteria/Auditorium on March 22 at 7PM. All concerned town residents, parents, grandparents, students, are welcome.
I thought the above email was appropriate as the PTO/PTA groups routinely invites the EAC to meetings.
Anyone at the EAC meeting tonight can see how whatever party (EAC or BOE/TC) can twist things to support what they want. However, if Mr. Falvey could have flipped many more times we might have had a circus. "We don't give money to schools." "We give a dollar amount to the BOE." It's time for ALL parties to work toward a logical end for the kids of Cheshire. It appeared that the teachers have already given a lot. Reportedly over the years the BOE and town of Cheshire have gotten a lot (for a little amount). One question that was not answered was where did the $600,000/950,000 amount come from with the BOE's cut?
"Reportedly over the years the BOE and town of Cheshire have gotten a lot (for a little amount)."
Each year the money spent on education increases. Is $60 million not enough?? Is $60 million a "little amount"??
Time for some shared sacraficing.
Tony - It seems that Steve Harris, a teacher at CHS, also sent that same email out to many recipients. Not sure if that was appropriate.
I saw the CEA's top lobbyist where I eat lunch in Hartford. Smug haughty wiseguy. They think they have a divine right to pay raises. So what if the state is insolvent
It was nice to hear some truth about the whole thing tonight and that many town leaders agreed with the presentation. I agree with the poster above that Falvey was flip flopping all over in his responses. It was also good to hear what teachers gave up in the last contract out there. Sacrifices clearly seem to have been made by both parties already.
It was frightening to see that still no one, mr. brittingham or mr. falvey, or the silent mr. white, knows where this money is supposed to come from. This isn't a small amount! It 950,000! Its irresponsible leadership not to know. The position that its not the TC job to know this is simply irresponsible.
Town leaders should be embarassed that they don't know or don't care to find out. Also, I hope the words spoken tonight about listening are actually true. Lets see people actually listen on April 5 unlike last year. The officials there tonight kept saying no decisions have been made. Prove it. Show us how open minded you are. Clearly you saw a resoundingly strong opinion for the 950,000 to be reinstated and for their to be increased taxes from a whole room of people tonight!
I also heard people asking if the teachers' union was coming back to the table. But then we heard a bunch of legal-ease from the lawyer about "risks."
Yes, he's right. There is a risk that discussing the contract would result in a lower increase in wages.
11:16. what planet are you living on?
I am an unionized state employee. My union already has given back more than the Cheshire teachers are being asked to give. And , woo woo, they can gin up a crowd asking me to pay higher taxes when I get no raise this year and a bunch of unpaid furlough days. Was Mr. Leake there. you know, the genius who insisted Cheshire was the one place the global depression missed?
I've got a real small violin for the likes of them. My kid is in the schools, too. Obviously their wallets are more important than his future.
502 * * * "and Im a retired teacher).
Id only add that the primary reasons for student decline are the decline of overall parental involvement and discipline, and the insidious affects on kids of instant media 24/7."
You seem to have missed the root cause of declining parental involvement. Our politicians, and it's mostly through the long term efforts of the D's have generated social policies which seem to encourage pregnancy without marriage and increasing teenage pregnancy at that. The system allows for teens to get pregnant and raise their babies while the fathers get off free and clear. More and more young Americans have been put into this situation through no fault of their own and when teachers confront it what do they do? Blame the parents as if even in the beginning these children actually had 2 parents in attendance 24/7.
This town is fortunate that currently a large proportion of the town's children come from 2 parent homes. Sure there are a few parents who don't put in the necessary effort raising their children but to suggest that in Cheshire this is a significant issue is just absurd but I am not surprised that this is what a teacher would identify. Blaming others for failure is an employee behavior which can often be found in many bureaucratic institutions which are failing.
My children have had more than their fair share of town teachers who performed poorly. There were some good ones but I suspect that most of the really high potential good ones flee public education after less than 5 years on the job. Union politics in CT school systems is a real turnoff to those who can perform well in a job situation, including tax paying parents, students, and high potential teachers.
Where is the money comming from? We have $250,000 more to spend than last year without raising taxes. If this was your household budget can you figure it out? Get a raise or part-time job(Cheshire raises taxes),take money out of your savings (Cheshire rainy day fund which is extra taxes collected in previous years) or cut spending. It appears that we need to do a little of each to make it fair for all.
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