Knowledge Café results are in—on what to cut and how to raise revenues
January 20, 2012
by Christine Yeres
With 36 comments since publication
In his draft budget for 2012-2013, Superintendent for Business John Chow provided a rollover figure—the increased cost of continuing the current program—of $2.8 million. Of that, the district is allowed a budget increase of around $1.4 million (labeled “tax cap limit” in Chow’s presentation), leaving administrators and board of ed members to find $1.3 million in reductions, which may include up to five full time teaching positions. Chow’s draft budget—not yet even a “proposed” budget, he emphasizes—also assumes the use of $3 million in reserves.
Not yet counted toward the reductions is the $500,000 in savings expected from the change in middle school schedule—with teachers of core subjects teaching more minutes in periods of 55 minutes. Those savings may be less now that administrators have found that an increase in the student population at Seven Bridges may require the hiring of two additional core subject teachers.
In the meantime, Superintendent Lyn McKay has released the results of the December 7 Knowledge Café at which 56 participants were asked to brainstorm on ways to reduce the district’s budget by around $1.8 million (now down to $1.3 in Chow’s draft budget), to suggest new sources of revenue, and to identify long-term budget concerns (these turn out to be, mainly, unfunded mandates and the paucity of commercial revenue sources in New Castle’s tax base).
As she promised she would, McKay has included not only the Budget Advisory Committee’s summary of the results (see below), but also two forms of raw data: the notes taken by facilitators at the Knowledge Cafe tables and the tablecloth jottings of the resident, parent, teacher and administrator participants (links are below). All these are provided below (and can also be found on the district’s website by clicking HERE):
Summary of December 7th Knowledge Café
The District held a Knowledge Café on December 7, 2011 with the following stated purposes:
1. To answer the Board of Education’s strategic question – “How can the District ensure continuing excellence in academic and extracurricular programs while developing a budget that is fiscally responsible?”
2. To engage the Chappaqua school community in exploring budgetary ideas.
Fifty-six members of the community and staff attended the Knowledge Café. The first hour was devoted to disseminating budget information to participants and the second hour was devoted to small group work sessions to solicit answers to the following three questions:
* Expenditures – What can we give up and what are the tradeoffs – give examples?
* Revenue – How else can we generate additional revenues to support the school budget?
* Long Term – What is a long-term financial issue that the school district must begin to address now? And, how?
The District’s Finance Advisory Committee was then charged with the responsibility of reviewing all comments and providing an executive summary. Below are highlights from the facilitator and tablecloth notes, which were collected at the Knowledge Café. The complete set of notes can be read at the following links:
Knowledge Cafe Facilitator Notes
Knowledge Cafe Tablecloth Notes
LONG TERM QUESTION
The comments from the Long Term Question encompass both expenditures and revenue. They present big challenges, not solvable by local Board of Education action alone. These are the issues, however, that drive the largest expenditures in the budget and can have the most impact on the tax levy.
State law constraints and mandates cause the greatest pressure on district spending. The pension contribution system, unfunded and under-funded state mandates, the tenure system and the Triborough Amendment were all repeatedly cited. It was suggested that the Board of Education and/or citizen groups lobby Albany both independently and in conjunction with other communities.
On the revenue side, the biggest long-term issue concerns the need to increase the commercial tax base. The town’s lack of a vibrant commercial tax base lowers the overall assessed value of the town and shifts a greater percentage of the tax burden to the residential properties. A coordinated effort by town and business groups to “lure” businesses to town is needed. The benefits will not be realized for many years, but the district/town must start exploring options at once.
REVENUE QUESTION
Various suggestions were made for increasing revenue. One important factor to consider is not to overuse one-shot revenue items. If the district is very successful at raising one-time funds in a given year, the short-term benefit may be a reduced tax levy for that year. Success at lowering the tax levy will have the perverse consequence of further limiting the expenditures for the following year.
In addition to the suggestion to raise the commercial tax base, the following items were suggested as possible sources of revenue for the district.
* Sell excess property
* Charge for use of facilities: Increase user fees, rent out excess space
* Reexamine busing – fees for longer routes, out-of-district routes
* Pay-to-play: Charging students for participation in athletics, theater and clubs. Legal question: Can the district still pay the salaries and other costs of the program, or do those costs have to be paid by a separate non-profit entity? If not, both revenue and expenditure get removed from the district budget. If the district wanted to restore district control of the program in the future, it would likely create a tax-cap issue. (Removal of expenditure probably lowers tax levy or is replaced by a different expenditure and can’t be added back under the cap.)
* Special Education: Charge other districts to educate special needs students. To have economies of scale, these students might need to be housed in one building.
* Increase fees: admission to events, parking for HGHS Seniors
* Commercial sponsorships – buildings, fields; cell towers, cafeteria items, technology
* Create and sell curriculum to other districts, on-line courses
* Fundraisers: kids’ art auctions, branded credit cards, alumni donations, grants
* Tuition-based summer program
EXPENDITURE QUESTION
There are some small items that can be implemented to reduce expenditures by a small amount. Real savings won’t be achieved without changes in Albany (as discussed above) and/or major structural changes to how we deliver education in Chappaqua, e.g., eliminating programs, significantly increasing class size, eliminating teams, etc.
Items mentioned at the café include:
* Seek efficiencies in transportation, reduce number of buses, eliminate short routes. (environmental trade-off)
* Conserve resources, shutter some buildings on weekends
* ½ day kindergarten
* Seek Special Education efficiencies
* Reduce staff: increase class size, reduce course offerings, consolidate/reconfigure schools, on-line courses
* Reduce professional development
* Reduce number of administrators
* Hire retired staff (no pension pay-in)
* Reduce number of aides (use parent volunteers)
~ Prepared by the Finance Advisory Committee ~
We could do all of the above, or we could do the RIGHT things…but we will not because teachers and their union, putting themselves way ahead of the children and the citizens of New Castle, will not agree:
1. Have teachers pay 15% towards their healthcare, like all of us taxpayers do.
2. Have teachers fund their own retirement, with a match on their first 6% of contributions, like all of us taxpayers do.
3. Pay Gym teachers half what we pay AP Physics teachers.
4. Sell or lease one of the Middle Schools.
5. Fight to repeal the Triborough Amendment (Teachers, stand up to your union, the one you fund, and do the right thing!!).
The list of things the Committee came up with is almost all a “work-around” to accommodate the outrageous system protecting teachers from the real world, all at the expense of our kids and us taxpayers. Shame on them. This should infuriate all of us.
You are 100% correct!!
Totally agree with Clittle! And don’t forget eliminating tenure AND the step system AND implementing some kind of meaningful teacher evaluation system!
Clittle,
You are exactly on a point that I have been on for several years, which is that we for some inexplicable reason we separate “teachers” from the “teacher’s union”. We are angry with the union, but not with the teachers, when in fact the teachers ARE the union and they FUND the union as you point out. Teachers for their part hide behind the union and let it do their dirty work for them, and they stay clean.
We should demand of our teachers that they stand up to the union and do what’s right and fair. And I know, I know, the argument that “why should someone fight for reduction in their own benefits”? Well, the way I was raised I was taught to do the right thing, as we hope our teachers will do the right thing. They are hurting the children unquestionably, and while too many of them think we have bottomless pockets, they are putting incredible strain on a majority of taxpayers on this town.
Teachers, set an example, do what’s right. All we ask is that you do what is fair and reasonable. Handle this the way we hope you would teach our children to handle it.
Im afraid we are working on the edges while more fundamental change is required.
We are living in denial. If no one has noticed, the world is changing. We must change with it. The industries which have supported our tax base are shrinking dramatically. We built our school district on a bubble. The cost of living in our community is not sustainable. Our communty no longer provides a strong value proposition.
Look around. There are plenty of great districts out there in communities far more affordable.
We need to be talking about division here not just subtraction.
Cutiing $1MM here and another $1MM there is not going to address the likely permanent realities of a shrinking tax base, declining affordability & quality of life of our community.
We need to actually cut taxes and restore our community as an attractive value for its residents. The changes are going to need to be much more dramatic than I think anyone wants to acknowledge. Many other communities provide great public education for far less. We need to scale back the program. Acknowledge there will be limits to what a public education can provide. Focus on excellence in core areas. Its going to be painful.
We must embrace the world as it exists instead of trying to preserve a dream.
No one goes into teaching to get rich- but no one gets rich without a teacher’s help. Fund the schools and tighten your OWN belts!
You are CORRECT Clittle. Enough is enough. We can still value our teachers, respect them, and compensate them very fairly (our teachers get paid tops in the nation) and still ask them to contribute something more to their own healthcare and pension benefits. I am tired of asking for modest concessions and being labeled a “teacher basher”. I respect and admire the job they do and the importance they play in our children’s lives. But that doesn’t mean they get raises every year, guaranteed pensions and platinum healthcare on the tax payers’ dime. Not to mention tenure.
Look at the uproar in NY and nationally just because people are waking up and want teacher evaluations. The teachers union are ready to sue over it because they don’t want their teachers judged. What’s wrong with paying good teachers more and average teachers less, and firing the bad teachers. Every vocation and every job has someone or some people making evaluations and determining pay. Why not teachers - because of union power - that’s why. Time for a change – NOW! But of course with Supt McKay and her cronies running the Knowledge Café how can we possibly get objective and constructive solutions. Look at her Café where she concluded there would be no change to Middle School…of course not she is protecting her own at taxpayer expense while our students get programs and curriculum cut.
At 99%,
I did not know that 99% of the population earn approximately
$145,000, including benefits, for working ten months of the year, which includes a health insurance policy costing almost $16,000 a year to which they contribute only 11%, a pension with a guaranteed 8% return regardless of market and investment conditions, all paid holidays, and a job guaranteed for life regardless of performance.
Wow, perhaps, things are not so bad for the 99% as we thought!
99%,
When will people like you stop it with this “Holier than Thou” B.S. and just realize that the taxes ARE TOO HIGH. It’s not about us trying to cut back because we’re overtaxed, (and trust me, a lot of us have had to do that) it’s about getting the taxes under control. What we want is to not have a tax increase…better yet, a decrease. But instead our district is looking for creative ways to make sure the inevitable tax increase won’t go over the tax cap. It’s tax hike insanity. Think. Can you take another tax increase? I’m just throwing in the towel if they increase taxes again. When will they (and you) ever learn?
I am so sick of your union playbook regarding 99%/1%. Wake up and accept the fact that our teachers are well into the 1% category. Good for them, they deserve. But stop the class war rhetoric. Do you know how much a defined benefit pension is worth? It is equivalent to many millions of savings. Do the math. Many of our teachers are retiring with near $100,000 per year pensions with an inflation protector. In a 0.5% interest rate environment, that $100k pension income is equal to having $20 million after-tax in the bank earning 0.5%. We would have had to earn $40 million pre-tax to have that saved. Face it, YOU ARE THE 1%!!! Instead of holding the taxpayer in contempt, just say thank you!!!
All of the political rhetoric these days, from our president to Occupy Wall St, is about rich vs poor, the haves and the have nots, the rich “paying their fair share”, etc etc. Based on any metric calculating wealth and income based on national averages the teachers in Chapp Central School District are in the 1%. Based on average salary of a teacher in district 10 years, they qualify as top 1%. Add in healthcare paid by taxpayers and a guaranteed retirement plan paid for by taxpayers and they are sitting pretty. That is based on 10 months worth of work. So if you extrapolate a 12 month working year like everybody else they seem to be not only top paid teachers in the country but top percentage of earners for all types of work.
Please lets remember this when we are asked to pay more in taxes while teachers salaries continue to escalate and their benefits continue to rise. Please lets remember these facts when some bleeding heart liberals claim that asking teachers to freeze salaries and contribute to their own benefits is teacher bashing. Our students have suffered enough thru cuts in field trips, athletic and performing arts , curriculum cuts, and class size adjustments. But teachers - the 1% - continue to get raises, steps, and tax payer funded benefits. Occupy CCSD….
First of all, I have read the Teachers’ Contract on the CCSD site and I haven’t found the salary figure quoted by Many Pockets.
Second, teachers earning the highest salaries have been there at least 25 years. Let’s focus on the majority who have been in the district between 5-10 years.
Third, none of these salaries from the highest to the lowest was earned by selling junk bonds and mortgages to anyone with a pulse: the 1%.
Fourth, it is your children’s future. Better than investing in the above, no?
Yes, teachers don’t acknowledge it, but they are “millionaires”. Most people I know have less than $1 million in their 401k’s, most of which they had to put in there themselves (usually with a small employer match). Teachers in Chappaqua, on the other hand, have the equivalent of $4-5 million in their taxpayer-funded retirement salary and benefits…paid for entirely by taxpayers.
And just to correct one comment from above, teachers do NOT work 10 months a year. Pull out your ccsd calendar and count the number of days off (to be overly fair, not including “teacher planning days”) and add in the fact they get 5-10 personal days (not sure how many) and you will find they work 37 weeks a year. 37 weeks. Teachers, when my fellow taxpayers see this they will realize they work 48 weeks a year—11 more weeks a year (almost 3 whole months more) than you do.
And here we sit, cutting programs for our kids, raising our school taxes (mine doubled in 7 years, and are set to double again over the next 5). And the “millionaire” teachers of Chappaqua stand by and demand more, more, more…with no merit pay system, no performance evaluations, no contributions to retirement and healthcare. Ugh!
As clittle says, wouldn’t it be refreshing for one teacher, just one teacher, to stand up and say how wrong this is?
Instead, we must “tighten our belts” as 99 says above….while 99 has to do the opposite and let his out a few inches.
To The Millionaire Faculty and Administrators:
We want not just a wage freeze for teachers and administrators, but a DECREASE in salaries, and 50% contribution to their health insurance.
Let our CCSD Superintendent lead the way, as her colleagues have in other districts, and volunteer a pay cut to set a good example. She is receiving $339,000 per annum including benefits. That is twice as much as the Governer of New York State. Gov. Cuomo has questioned why school administrators are making more than he is in his position. He believes it is unconscionable. Well our administrator makes twice as much. She needs to set an example and show some leadership.
@Huh!
We are not investing in our children’s future when we pay such exhorbitant costs mandated by your union that we can’t afford to maintain curriculum, programs, music and the other arts, etc., but keep cutting, cutting, cutting, to line your pockets and give you multi-million dollar pensions, pick up 90% of your cadillac health plans, guarantee all of you jobs for life whether you are any good or not. How about repealing LIFO and getting rid of some of the teachers who are impeding our children’s future success?
We must make definite demands in negotiating the teachers’ contract and stick to them. Current salaries, steps and raises, health cost contributions all have to be revised or this district is heading for disaster. Our reserve fund is just about finished and there will soon be an alarming escalation in taxes if we do not take action now. Our board has blinders on, they are not looking ahead.
We want a better contract than the one we have now. Certainly, not one that is worse. In addition, it takes only 50% of the vote to vote down the budget instead of the old 60% according to the new state law.
Therefore, let us stick to our guns and demand the board not approve any contract that is not a substantial improvement over the existing one.
Although said in jest, occupy CCSD is not a bad idea. If the board fails us once again, then we should “occupy” every school board meeting, executive and public sessions, and that is only a start!
Will the Board once again duck their responsibilities, and hire a consultant to negotiate a new teachers’ contract? I have been involved with such negotiations, including one with the United Steel Workers of America (quite a serious bunch).
As a beleaguered Chappaqua school taxpayer here is my determination regarding the new contract (at no charge!):
1. Wage freeze for three years
2. Contribution to health benefits: 33%
3. (There is no 3)
Take it or leave it!
For the 2011/12 school year, knowledge cafés, coffees, and closed committees were added to collect more community input. Thus far, the input is not new. There is no significant middle school right-sizing improvement planned, and the new teacher/principal evaluation process is still in test mode. The majority of CEFF committee members are CCSD employees and the composition of the finance advisory committee has not been revealed to the public.
For the 2012/13 CCSD budget cycle, we need to skip the procrastination, fear of change, scare tactics, cronyism, hokey jargon, and PR games. Due to our high school taxes, we need a 2012/13 public school budget with a 0% tax levy increase. Reduce the administration head count, cut department budget requests, and use $4.0 million in reserves. Until we get NYS mandate relief and union concessions, CCSD fund raising groups can collaborate to pay for “nice to haves” cut from school budgets.
I’m always concerned when I read these posts about our teachers, and when I write my own posts about them, that we give the impression that we don’t respect and appreciate our teachers and the teaching profession. I believe that most of us who are fighting for sanity in our New Castle system do respect and appreciate our teachers. I know I do, and want to emphasize that.
That said, I am very angry and disappointed with our teachers for being silent on what is happening. There is absolutely no way to rationalize what is happening and how out of whack things are (read their occasional responses out here, they are nonsensical). Our teachers, at our kids and our expense, silently hide and cash our ever-increasing checks…and fight even the most minor workplace concepts (e.g. evaluations)that apply to the rest of the working world.
When I think of this, separating my respect for their profession, I must say I become very upset with them. I end up thinking they are using me and my family’s money, they are knowingly being unfair and letting it happen despite its consequences, simply because it benefits them personally. And because not one of them ever speaks up for reason, it makes me disrespect them as people.
Occupy CCSD….an intersting idea as well as a possible solution to two nagging issues. First, this might solve the problem of low attendance at BOE meetings. More important, it would force all of the anonymous posters on NCN to finally reveal themselves and begin participating in a public discussion about the issues that are facing our school district and our community. Unfortunately, I doubt this will ever happen. To quote a favorite New Yorker cartoon:
One dog at a computer, to another dog, sitting below:
“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”
@Huh..your information is wrong. the average teacher salary in Chapp is almost $111,000. The CCSD website states it clearly and indicates that is for 10 months work. When healthcare and pension is added back in - because teachers pay less than 10 cents on every dollar- avg salary is closer to $130,000. Again, this is average. Teachers in district the 25 years you claim are making upwards of $140,000 not including benefits. The average administrators salary is $165k - also from CCSD website. My children have programs cut, curriculum scaled back, and classes get bigger all while we pay teachers raises? If you are sincere about your concern for our children’s future than I suggest you recognize that 75% of our school budget goes to teachers and administrators. Then add in 5% to service our debt - thank you for 7 Bridges Middle School and its associated bond debt, and only 20% is left. From that 20% we make capital improvements to schools, buy computers, books, supplies, fund athletics, performing arts, special education, and maintain our facilities. Lets not forget BOCES.
So when you point out we should be investing in our children’s future and you see that almost 80% of our budget goes to pay for teachers and their entitlements ...that’s not enough for you? For me and many others it’s too much and it time to take back our children’s future from the teachers union.
To assume that all of us who work and live in Chappaqua are all “rich” and all sell high yield bonds or mortgages is just ignorant. I hope you are simply a New Castle limousine liberal and not a angry teacher, as I would be horrified to find out your are educating our students.
Bailouts? Bonuses? How many young teachers live here? Zero. How many Older teachers live here? Two? Three?
Sure, let’s save YOU money so that YOU can afford to live here! And while we are at, let’s go after the Rec department, garbage pickup, road maintenance, and police so that YOU can maintain YOUR lifestyle.
How did we earn the money to live here?
We have earned our place in society, and many of us are known in our fields, because we have arduously pursued the extensive education or training, and have excelled educationally and professionally to the point that our services are sought and highly rewarded.
We are judged on performance, unlike our teachers. The name of the game is merit.
The good teachers should be getting bonuses and the poorly performing ones should go. But the mediocre prevail in your union and protect their own interests to the detriment of the talented teachers whom we are not allowed to reward. That is a shame.
Time to get rid of certain teachers who are exhibiting their envy and venting their hostility on our children, usually the entrenched, poorly performing ones.
Fortunately, it’s easy to spot who they are from their attitude at meetings, in the classroom and other school venues. It’s always interesting to observe the malcontents.
Where did you get your sense of entitlement?
We’re always puzzled why those who resent and exhibit such a strong dislike for our community continue working here. Surely, you can find a more congenial environment that meets with your approval?
But who is qualified to judge what is a good teacher is? The least expensive? That’s the one with the fewest years in the district. Is that how you pick your surgeon, lawyer, or contractor? If your kid is not successful in his/her class but the rest are, are you going to say that the teacher is unqualified? Do you know any profession that you are asking to say “I understand that I am expensive to you, so I am happy to earn less?” If a house burns to the ground, do you blame the firefighters? If one crime is committed do you blame the police? Give me a break. This is about you and your pocketbook. I will find a way to pay for what it takes for my children to get a great education and not be an armchair educator.
“Not a Teacher”, all I can say is, thank goodness you aren’t. That is such a twisted view of how we think and how our society works.
The answer to your question of how to identify a good teacher is simple: evaluations, evaluations, evaluations. That is what Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo have insisted on and which your union has vigorously opposed.
The students and we parents also know the deadwood. It is common knowledge. The students are resigned to suffering the bad teachers.
Did I say that the lowest paid are necessarily the best teachers or did I say reward the good teachers with more money, award them bonuses?!
You are obviously one of the questionable ones hanging on with tenure. Your level of discomfort and ire plainly reveal that fact.
Do you really want us to believe that you, “Not a teacher,” are not one of the poorer performing tenured teachers holding on to your job because of the onerous mandate of tenure and LIFO?
Your reaction reveals your stake in this game.
But I have never been asked by anyone to earn less, because they can’t afford my fee. And it is high, because I have 25 years of experience in my field. I didn’t start out that way straight out of college.. I assume that those who can’t afford my services either find a way, or look elsewhere. I have no lack of business so it seems that I am doing things reasonably.
And if the merit system is so great, then what if all -or the majority-of our teachers’ ratings come in as excellent? (By the way, for the most part, I think they are). Then you will have to pay them the merit pay you are proposing.
Where does it say that one should make enough money to live in the community one works? We all make choices. I commute an hour each way into NYC everyday to support my family. My wife also works. We can’t afford a midtown residence for 3 children so we chose this lifestyle. A teacher chooses too. $110k per year average for 10 months work. AND those 10 months include 1 week off for Xmas/ holiday break,1 week off for Feb break, 1week off for Spring break plus 5 personal days and as many as 20 paid sick days. And teachers pay only 10 cents on the dollar for their healthcare and have a guaranteed pension. Should we really cry for them because they may not afford a house in Chapp?
And what’s so hard about evaluating/judging teacher performance? Who is qualified to judge you ask. This isn’t rocket science. Who pays and judges a nurse or an accountant? Who judges a Dr or a plumber? Who judges a pilot or a landscaper? Teachers seve a valuable important role but goodness sake we can identify the bad ones and get rid of them and reward the good ones.
Not-a-teacher,
In essence the issue is not us being able to “afford your fee”, it is how your fee is determined. Automatically. Indiscriminately. Regardless of quality or production or results. Across the board. Via contracts we can’t negotiate because your union has bribed politicians in Albany with gigantic campaign contributions.
Your pay and benefits are completely disconnected from value delivered. We would be more than happy to pay your fee if it was connected to that value (high, or low, or in-between). Please explain to us why the rules that apply to every single citizen in this town and state and country that is not in the teacher’s union don’t apply to you? What is it that makes you so special?
Why do we have to pay for our retirement accounts AND yours? Why don’t YOU have to pay for yours? Why do we have to contribute to our medical benefits at triple the rate you do? Why? Why do you get paid as if you work 48 weeks a year when you work 37, when we have to work all 48? Why? Why if you are lousy at what you do you get job security and automatic raises every year anyway, and if we are lousy we never get a raise, and if we don’t improve we get fired?
Whats the difference if you work as a truck driver or teacher? Is there a special pedestal that makes teachers better people because they chose to work with children. Its a job! Everyone seeks to get paid as much money as one can get. No one in there right mind would turn down more money, better benefits and more time off of work. Teachers are wage earners providing for their families. It’s simply tough if you don’t have those pay and perks! The only way taxpayers can get a break and keep more money in our own pocket is to get past the “special people” status teachers seem to hold over taxpaying parents. Same with Doctor’s - how many do you know who are in it for the money- not the primary desire to serve hunanity. Its pure business- we need to reduce our cost of being taxpayers. Teachers salaries and benefits need to go on the block for chopping back.
Your argument makes no sense. You work in the private sector where people have choice. This is a school district where everything is mandated - compensation, tenure, LIFO, pension, etc. People cannot choose to pay you based on price - we do not have that option. I also bitterly object to your premise that continuing to pay large tax increases is equal to commitment to education general. Simply because people can no longer continue to earn at the pace you do does not mean they are not commited to their children’s education. They are simply tapped out! Other than the unions, who else ia getting double-digit increases in compensation in thua economy year after year. You have no empathy for the vast majority of residents who are hurting. You appear to be a classic limousine liberal - you rich, so why can’t i affor it to..
We have low attendance at BOE meetings because the BOE is ineffective. They lack leadership and strategic focus. They are disconnected from many district taxpayers.
Hiring an inexperienced superintendent/CEO was a BOE mistake. The clichés that charmed the BOE will not help us negotiate better union contracts. As we have seen, our CEO protects insiders and the status quo. Will this inclination affect the new teacher/principal performance evaluation process?
For years, residents have urged the BOE to lobby for mandate relief yet in July 2011 a BOE member since 2009 still had to study the “mandate matter”. Another BOE member used a dismissive tone while referring residents to a New Castle group for mandate information.
The BOE has abdicated its responsibilities. Why was the BOE so aloof during the middle school discussion? The BOE’s lack of meeting preparation revealed the BOCES mess. BOE advisory committees have been replaced by the superintendent’s closed committees. As I expected, community input at BOE meetings declined once the superintendent added the Knowledge Café PR events to manage perceptions. Is the superintendent the de facto BOE president?
There’s been a steep increase in school spending and school taxes since 2000. When BOE meeting attendees question spending or suggest improvements, they are often treated with disdain. I stopped e-mailing the BOE due to the terse unsatisfactory replies.
Each year, the BOE goes along with the administration’s larger school budget proposals with no cost reduction / containment plans. The BOE has no qualms about increasing school taxes. If the 2012/13 budget meetings go in this direction, the community should have no qualms about starting a petition to recall and replace the BOE.
Interesting Huffington Post piece raises the question, ” What if we approach the medical profession the way we are currently addressing education in America? “Worth a read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shaun-johnson/treating-doctors-like-teachers_b_812096.html
Reading through the above posts I see one from Ms. Lafortezza lamenting that we are not putting our names on our posts. I understand her point, and respect her for being willing to post her name. But as I have done before, let me explain why I don’t put my married name/real name on these, and I’ll bet why others don’t.
I have 2 children in the Chappaqua school system. I am absolutely convinced that if I put my name on these posts that one or some teachers would retaliate on my children. I know it sounds bad to say, but I am convinced that within this group of teachers who gladly accept ridiculous, burdensome-to-us pay increases and benefits who allow their union which they fund to bribe politicians for their pay, are those who would retaliate.
So if you are writing in favor of teachers, post your names all you want, it may actually help your kids. For me, I’m not willing to take the chance. As I’ve said previously, my respect for our teachers (not the teaching profession) is as low as you can go. They are behaving shamefully and selfishly, at the expense of our children and us, and to their own enrichment.
Heather Lafortezza,
I greatly respect that you have the courage to post your name with your comment. For many of us, it is not that simple. I must confess that I am part of the PTA and you know who I am. The challenge is that if I were to post what I think and use my name, there would be severe repercussions from my many of my fellow PTA members and their friends. I can tell you that many of us agree with much of what has been posted here and are afraid to publicly admit it out of fear of retailiation for our kids and us. Many of the PTA members are affluent and equate education with higher spending and taxes. The more you spend, the better it is. Honestly, many of us cannot keep up. That does not mean we do not care about education, as we care deeply. I attended the PTA-hosted event last year where the Greeley departments went up and complained about potential cuts to their staff. I was horrified to hear that the staff cuts were due to 12% raises in salaries and benefits compensation for many of the teachers. Why was that not mentioned at the meeting by our fellow PTA members? How can you complain about cutting your colleagues jobs and then take such high raises? Not one dollar of the budget increase was going for our kids in terms of books, curriculum, equipment and new class offerings. This is a disgrace and offends many of us. I hope our organization will stop blindly supporting the current union system and start working the community to tackle this hard facts instead of just behaving like a “pro-tax increase group” that has vies our residents that cannot keep up as the enemy..I am not the enemy!!!
School days in most other districts (where taxes are lower and teachers salaries are less) are 30 minutes longer - why wasn’t this considered before changing our language program to every other day? This is another example of how the boe is taking the easy way out
Teaching is an INDUSTRY - dominated by the unions and the stronghold it has on the tax system.
Unions do not work for the taxpayers - or their children, they work for the union members, as any union does.
Their are wonderful individuals who work hard in this profession, but for the public to continue it’s self inflicted brainwashing coupled with the learned guilt—that if you question the industry’s compensation system you are somehow against the teachers therefore your own children.
I visited with a family member over the weekend who is a well respected teacher and a hard worker. She provides a good education for her students in the classroom. However, she mentioned that since her children are off on their own she is going back for a Ph.D. When asked why she decided on this now, her reply was,
” It will bring me to the top tier for my salary and I intend to get every nickel out of the system before I retire”.
I understand that it is my husband and I that - ARE - the retirement system and will have to come up with a way in our retirement to fund her top tier strategy.
I also understand that many teachers are married to other teachers and will guide their own children through the process to enter this lucrative industry. They know the path, have made connections and understand the system. Teaching has become for many a “family type industry”.
When the tax payers are tapped out and academic services to students are cut in order to provide for the industry compensation—it is clear taxpayers are getting hosed by this industry.
Don’t look for “like kind” to lead the way in fixing an industry that serves the members so well.
Time for taxpayers to make a stand and demand change. Unions feeling some hurt does not translate to hurting your own children. It WILL help them in the long run when they become the taxpayers!
Good grief! Look at the title of the article. “What to cut”
Obviously the only cutting that needs to be done is the union compensation package!
It is simply glutanous!
How many household can afford more tax increases.
What more do our students need cut from the school day!
How many taxpayers go to work each week and hope their job will be there come the end of the week?
Are teachers also complaining about being evaluated? Who’s job isn’t?
When did teachers become a unique and protected species in our community? Do they work harder than anyone else? Are they simply better people!
We work very hard in my household and provide an important function to our community. My husband is often called in to work in the middle of the night and weekends, no excuses!
We don’t have perpetual employment protection and grand union compensation packages.
Holy cow! How can one group of people be so self serving.
I’m beginning to think the occupy wallstreeters should refocus on occupying the Superintendants office!
To understand how lopsided the education system has developed, consider Gov. Cuomo’s salary at Approx, $180,000.00 and Superin’t MacKay’s at $240,000.00.
Does anyone expect our lead administrator to seriously be at the forefront of change for the taxpayers?
It is an insult to any taxpayer when the Super’t starts ditteling around with minor budget cuts here and small schedule adjustments there as if any of her current posturing really adds up to more than a distraction.
Unless the big issue of union contracts are the Superintendent’s next big topic at the BOE meeting - and how she will work to cut back what we can no longer afford , will anyone still take her or the school board seriously?
I stopped going to the BOE meeting because I can’t stand to be in the same room with people that I feel are taking unfair advantage of my family’s income.
I also find in disgusting to hear my children come home with words of the week, like “community” and “respect” and know these words are meaningless to the BOE or Superintendant that take advantage of taxpayers.
Do nice people keep trying to take more from members of a community that are begging for tax relief help! How are parents respected when we feel preyed upon.
Dear Disgusted,
I’m with you on most of what you wrote, but let me challenge you on one thing and make an additional point. Superintendent MacKay’s salary does seem high, but at least we know it is competitive in the marketplace. It’s based on market rates—where if we didn’t pay that someone else would—so we have to do what we have to do. And we got to decide (kind of) whether or not we wanted MacKay, and the Board can fire MacKay.
Teacher pay in our district is NOT market-based in the least. It is based on numbers generated by a spreadsheet and a self-interested union that bribes politicians and indeed threatens politicians in order to get its way. It is, without exaggerating, more like organized crime than it is like free-market capitalism.
I guarantee you if we told the 50 highest paid teachers in New Castle we were posting their jobs for potential outside hires, and we listed the salaries for these jobs 40% lower than they are today (so about $110k) we would get 5,000 applications and fill 45 of the 50 jobs with better teachers than we have today. Our kids would be better educated and we would be paying far less.
I’m not advocating this approach given where we are, but am distinguishing between how we pay market rates for a superintendent, and bribery rates for our teachers.
If we had the right system, those 50 highest paid teachers in our district would be the 50 best, most valuable, most indispensable teachers and we would gladly pay them well. As it stands they are simply the ones that have hung around the longest and gamed the system the most effectively. Many of them cost us the MOST while they deliver the LEAST for our kids, and there is absolutely nothing we or their principles can do about it. Nothing. What a system.
Remember: Teachers ARE the union. There is no difference.
I agree with disgusted! I also find it hard to hold my temper when the word of the week is better understood by young children than by the BOE and school administrators.
It may be viewed as inappropriate to explain to my young ones the meaning of OPPORTUNIST but perhaps it is time they learned the meaning of this word as well. I was taught that life is a series of opportunities, however the moral dilemma implied by opportunism concerns the conflict of self interest with the interest of others.
When every facet of our community and country is struggling with finances and our economy, it is consistently the teachers union unwilling to make any real concession. Parents are still losing jobs,college grads are struggling, parents still have to support our young adults, families are seriously hurting and we continue to make real concessions daily to come up with the tax money. The teachers unions would rather see the last hired let go before they willingly make concession to keep others on a payroll while raises are still expected for those still teaching!
I understand the concept that teachers have earned these contracts over many years, but other members of a community have worked equally hard and do not have this type of sanctuary with these tremendous employment contracts.
Parents work very hard to keep our community solvent and businesses all over have to make concessions just to stay afloat. I just walked my school tax check into Town Hall and feel as if I am supporting an educated group of opportunists. It is really a shame, because of any group of individuals, they should know better!
I also don’t want my children learning false values from educators that have a lot to learn themselves about words like community and respect.
There are many people I come in contact with each day. Plumbers, electricians, nurses in my Dr’s office, bank tellers, deli workers,ect and for the most part, I am very satisfied with the level of commitment I see in my community from an array of individuals. Not everyone working in the community live here, but they are committed to doing really good work. Teachers do work diligently with our children, however after reading these posts I am feeling disappointed that so many feel let down even truly angry at these professionals. It is shocking to see several parent comments fearing retaliation by teachers toward students if parents are honest and open about their opinions.
No one should feel there child may become a target from a teacher for any reason.. What is happening to the caliber of integrity in the district?
Why is this not a concern of the district leaders?
