THE BOARD’S OPINION OF YOU
by SCRGadmin on Oct.22, 2009, under Our School System
“No decisions on cuts were discussed as the the Board meeting focused on consequences the Board said may encourage voters to pass a school levy next May.” Local Media
…”until the community feels the pain they have no intention of voting yes.“ Superintendet Russ Jones, Update to BOE
”Why not put those things out there that are seriously going to impact the community?” Denny Mariola, President, BOE
”I need something that will say, ‘This is going to impact me’ (the voter), I think larger class sizes will affect more people than busing.” Karen Wright, BOE member
“Again, it’s to incentivize (a corporate-jargon non-word meaning “motivate”) the voter.” Catherine Bulgrin, District Treasurer
”Maybe closing a building would drive people…to the polls,” Pat Mathews, BOE Member
“It’s just a matter of rearranging your work schedule to accomodate transportation cuts.” Dick Spangler, BOE Member
5 Comments for this entry
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January 21st, 2010 on 2:35 am
Mike Harris said: “We all hate paying taxes, but the amount of our tax bill that goes toward supporting the school system is one of the best values that we get for our money. A 12 year private school tuition bill would be over $80,000. The owner of a $150,000 home in Stow pays about $1600 a year in taxes to the school system…….”
Mike, with all due respect, you aren’t getting it. The schools ARE NOT giving good value for the money . Did you not read here about the waste, fat, inefficiency, over-bloated salaries, and excessive PAID time off (while also paying for substitutes) that is rampant through-out the SMFs school system? We don’t mind paying for schools, but we DO mind paying for WASTE and EXCESS. We do mind this year after year begging, cajoling and blackmailing of us taxpayers (no buses, no lunches etc.) to make us feel the pain (as Superintendent Dr. Russell Jones stated) to force us into voting for the levy. It’s only a few cups a coffee a day. It’s only $100 a year for a person with a $100,000 house. Puleeze! These kinds of break-downs are political illusions designed to trick taxpayers into thinking the levy is going to hit them less hard than it really is. No amount of money is ever enough. As much money as they take in, they will rise to that level of spending and exceed it, and then come running back to us with their hand out for more. Our earning power doesn’t begin to keep up with the school’s spending power. People are losing their jobs, homes, pensions and retirement, but the school board goes blithely along like we are all making six figure salaries with generous raises and benefits packages like Dr. Jones.
You bring up private schools and drastically underestimate the cost of 12 years in private schools, many of which run about $20,000 a year and up. People who can afford to pay for expensive private schools do so to get their kids out of the public school system. There is a reason for this. Private schools do a far better job of educating our youth. But here’s the difference. Private schools receive tuition only from those who attend, and also receive additional funding in the form of donations, endowments and bequests from alumni. The public schools get money from every single home owner whether they have children in the schools or not. That’s every home owner in Stow. Do your math. Millions and millions of dollars go to the schools, some of it from retired people struggling to make it on fixed incomes, some from people who just lost their jobs, some from people who are underpaid, and lucky to receive a laughable 50 cent an hour cost of living raise per year, some from people struggling to pay their predatory mortgages. Most of us aren’t as fortunate as Dr. Jones and the school board. No one is handing us thousands of dollars a year in cost of living raises to help us pay for all these new taxes.
The public schools don’t begin to provide the kind of education a private school does, so do please don’t try to tell us what a bargain the public schools are.
January 21st, 2010 on 2:40 am
It’s time for everyone to give the Board of Education the input they want from us. I don’t care what they say. Four principals for one high school is unnecessary. I don’t care if it’s what everybody else is doing; this is a perfect example of how school budgets got out of control when two much money was given to them. Many of us are old enough to remember going to schools that weren’t top heavy with administrators. I went to a large urban high school with over 2,000 students, and we made out just fine with one Principle and two Vice Principals.
January 21st, 2010 on 2:54 am
I find it interesting that for years levy watches were all held at the High School, with an invitation extended to the public via the Sentry. Rather than trying to inspire community confidence, the school administration seems to be making every effort to disassociate themselves from the “rabble”. It would be interesting to find out who is footing the bill for these private festivities.
January 21st, 2010 on 2:58 am
We have our third child in the Stow school system, it has for the most part provided and prepared them adequately. As much fuss has been made, and much aggravation has been endured watching my dollars spent go to a system which has provided me NO greater value for each additional child as our cost for property taxes has grown greater than the time value of money.
We’ve listened to the whine for more money for a new high school (us long timer’s still call the high school “NEW”), I’ve listened to the whine about “now we need more money to run the a new high school” too : Oh, by the way , this may come as a shock to all you that gave us more money for a new high school, and more money to run the high school, but NOW, we need more money to fix the high school, complete with the leaking roof, busted sidewalks, the gym floor that’s trashed, which by the way , in MY opinion is a disgrace to “How to build a time lasting structure”!
The beginning of your spiral for us long time tax payers, is the culprits that should be answering to some of your crisis. It’s the previous parties that OK’d the MILLIONs of dollars we gave them out of the true need that our growing community much needed an upgraded High School , and some board, somewhere, approved a bleach brick building, with a sloped gravel roof, with two worthless bleach brick structures in front, and oh, won’t it be pretty if we put a drainage ditch in front , complete with Cat Tails ? That was an architect’s dream, not a time lasting High School.
Another school related failed decision, our youngest has been part of a new Math program, grand fathered into the 4th grade, (we’re now in Middle School with the same worthless Math) , that we’re told after months of, questioning, meetings, boards, deliberations, and debate that it is best for our youth. It stinks, did I say stinks, it is terrible. For those not familiar with the new math, it is so different than any concept you may have of math, I can’t describe, you’d had to have lived it. When you sit at the table as a father, college graduate, business owner, and family man, and call on your college age child (who is a Straight A Math Student, Trig Calc, Algebra, etc:) , to come to the kitchen table to help your middle school child with their math, and between all of us, we say ” what the heck are they talking about”, something may be wrong with the program. But, someone approved this new math program, and even after all the deliberation, opposition, and such, our child lives with yet another failed decision by someone in our overpriced school system.
Additionally, I keep hearing of the importance of class size kept to a certain student / teacher ratio, which makes me so tempted to contact the state college I attended, and ask them what the heck they were thinking putting me into that College Psych class with the other 200 kids ! How did they expect me to survive ?
Stow is a decent family community, and the schools have provided, but when asked why it has failed at 5 levies, there’s no more room for that question.
January 21st, 2010 on 3:11 am
On the Stow-Munroe Falls City School District website is a link to questions asked and answers given at the February 12, 2009 Community Meeting. The following question and answer appears:
o What are the board’s listing of recommendations about potential cuts..
That is one of the reasons we are engaging the community in this discussion. We
want to know the areas of budget reductions that the community feels would be
appropriate. The Board understands that decisions like these ultimately rest with
them but they want to make sure as many voices as possible are heard so that they
can make an informed decision. In the financial situation we are in, everything is on
the table as a possible reduction
If I understand this correctly, the superintendent and the Board of Education want to know what we think should be cut -given the forecast of budget shortfalls in the future.
They say that ” these (decisions) ultimately rest with them.” The superintendent has already set the parameters of any discussion. He was quoted in the Stow Sentry as saying that in May the Board will hold a large community meeting and “Shortly after…the Board will determine whether to go on the ballot for additional operating dollars or to implement major across the board reductions in all areas that will drastically reduce services that our community receives from the school district.”
Pay close attention to how the superintendent worded the Board’s actions in regards to “areas of budget reductions.” He says, “reduce services.” It appears he has already decided what type of “budget reductions” the Board will take: not reductions in expenditures, but reductions in services.
It appears he intends to make reductions that will impact the students and their parents because who else receives “services” from the district? It appears that he and the Board do not want to consider our opinions of “budget reductions” because they have already stated they will “reduce services.”
It also appears that the superintendent and the Board do not plan to reduce other expenditures because the Board just approved, on February 23, 2009, a new “Employment Contract of the Superintendent” for a term of four years at an increase to $118,705. In addition to that annual rate of pay, he will receive fees for travel, registration and expenses. He will see an increase in his vacation days from 20 in 2010-2011 to 25 in 2011-2012 (above the paid legal holidays.)
He will have the option of converting unused vacation days to the dollar equivalent and he receives up to 3 days of personal leave per year.
His “additional benefits” are “An additional term life insurance policy equal to the amount of the Superintendent’s annual salary, which shall result in a total of two times his annual or annualized salary.” He will get “Reimbursement for personal automobile use.” The Board “shall contribute one hundred percent to the State Teacher’s Retirement System (STRS) in lieu of the Superintendent paying such employee amounts.” In addition, “The Board shall pay one hundred percent of the employee’s portion of the Medicare tax for the Superintendent.” Furthermore, “The Superintendent will be awarded a $5000.00 merit pay stipend…” Lastly, “The Board agrees to pay to the Superintendent supplemental compensation each year of this agreement, which, at the discretion of the Superintendent may be contributed to a tax-deferred annuity or compensation plan selected by the Superintendent (tax-deferred contribution); or paid directly to the Superintendent as an allowance.”
What is the total cost to the taxpayers for this contract? We don’t know. The total cost was not printed or discussed at the time the Board voted to approve this contract.
What we do know is the School Board does not intend to reduce spending as it pertains to the Superintendent’s annual package. We do know from the Sentry article the Board intends to put a levy on the ballot or reduce “services.”
The Board says it will have a large community meeting in May and then decide either to go for a levy or make reductions. Employee are routinely notified by April of each year as to whether or not they will be offered a job for the upcoming year. For the Board to delay a decision on financial reductions until May appears to indicate the reductions will not affect employees.
What do you think about this? The Board has now increased the salaries of the Superintendent, the assistant treasurer and the administrative assistant to the treasurer, not to mention giving pick-up on pick-up to certain administrators. Are these the same people who criticized former Board action regarding a salary increase for the previous assistant treasurer? Yes.
Last but not least, the Board says “they want to make sure as many voices as possible are heard”, but it appears their actions belie their words. They have reduced 3 citizen opportunities to speak at a Board meeting to one opportunity. A citizen must arrive before the meeting begins and must fill out a yellow card. The Board president has stated citizen comments were without “direction” and he would curtail comments if it became a “forum”. It appears citizens are free to speak but keep your comments in the RIGHT directions and don’t say anything unpleasantly repetitive.