Last week a letter from Arlene Sullivan drew fire for misinformation about the intent of RICE notices which are required to be sent to employees when personnel reductions are discussed. Yesterday another email, which fortunately admitted the writer's confusion, went out to many in the community.
It is unfortunate that the need for RICE notices is either not understood or is being deliberately misstated.
Reducing staff size must be an option when the school budget is defeated.
Rice letters (whether a law or not) are sent out to scare townspeople into voting for a school budget, my wife is a teacher and has received plenty.
Here's the game ladies and gentleman: teachers AND administrators will get more money EVERY year, and their benefits (especially health coverage) will cost much more money every year.
It has been that way for a very long time, and will continue to be that way in some form for some time to come. Only now are towns smartening up and making new hires financially more responsible for some of their benefits. Montville should be bold enough to follow. So eventually, over the years, things theoretically should get better.
Talking about budgets (which I voted against at the risk of being labeled anti-children) I heard what may be a rumor that our own Super is negotiating a 5% to 8% pay raise! This after he was given a ton of more money to do the same job as the outgoing Super.
And this guy was REJECTED by Rockaway's school system, and they don't even have a high school! The salary for that position was in the $160s!
In his defense, the job in this town is thankless and people keep leaving the job, so what I say to him, ask for the moon buddy, they need you more than you need them.
Didn't our school drop from 13 to 60 something this year? Guess what? Everyone got raises anyway!!! The joke is on you (and me) the townspeople. Your taxes went up! So the kids got dumber (in theory) or the teachers didn't teach as good as they did the year before (you choose), we spent more money, and no one got fired. Only in America. And do not use the argument about the criteria used, because if you used the same criteria from the year we were ranked 13, we would have been even lower. Besides, shouldn't we rank high no matter the criteria?? This is Montville after all.
What takes the sting out of all this for me is that my wife (a very devoted professional) is a teacher, and she gets paid a lot of money with a ton of time off, and she gets a raise EVERY year, is tenured with almost 12 years seniority, so if she has to be let go due to budget cuts, that means there will be two teachers per school, so she is safe. By the way, in 12 years, not one teacher was ever let go.
At least my family gets something out this whole mess, which should make the rest of you (who agree with me and who are not teaching professionals) burn even more.
So what I say to all TC members, BOE members, and townspeople who keep doing it "for the children," keep up the good work because our Super needs a new swimming pool, our Principals need new cars (and do not tell me they work 12 months because during the summer it is one big party with 3-hour lunches), and mama (my wife) needs a new set of diamond earrings!!
EDUCATION IS NOT A TOOL REMEDIED WITH MONEY TO RAISE TEST SCORES, IT IS A VALUE THAT BEGINS IN THE HOME! FOR THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND, IT MEANS THAT IF YOU PLACE A HIGH VALUE ON AND GET INVOLVED IN YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION, HE OR SHE WILL DO WELL!
"Only now are towns smartening up and making new hires financially more responsible for some of their benefits. Montville should be bold enough to follow.
I fully agree with dmarino. Istead of cutting teachers, the TC and BOE should be looking at the huge overhead. The system is chuck full of overpaid administrators and underutilized middle managers. How about giving the 5 to 8 percent raise the superintendent wants to the students. And what does he do to justify such a large salary anyway?
Mr. Sandham is right also, looking at staff cuts is prudent, but he and his subcommittee should work their way down from the top and get rid of the wasteful management first. Cutting teachers should only be an absolute last resort. The superintendent may have to wait on his new pool.
Posted by
Anonymous
on
April 30, 2007 3:49 PM
AMEN! to dmarino. I had my salary frozen for 3 years due to budget cuts. I work for a consulting company and live in fear of 'losing the contract' every day, so poor performance is not an option.
