Fairfax School Board Agenda for Special Budget Meeting Monday, 4/28

[Franklin West SU]

[Chris Santee]

and the wheels on the bus go bump, bump, bump

[nhibbard]

And no information provided to educate prior to meeting. I'm glad they want funds for technology and education but can't use either to let me know what they will suggest changing.

[RidgeRunner]

That's because no decisions were made until tonight. 

[mkr]

Ridgerunner, do you know what the changes were?

[RidgeRunner]

The latest budget represents a 2% increase from last years budget and a reduction of approximately $285,000.  Getting down to 2% was acheived by many areas tightening the belt.  The big changes were as follows:

Removing the Special Education Administrator from the budget
Changing the replacement plans for IPADs from a three year cycle to a four year cycle
Removal of 4 paraeducator positions (A required time to personnel assesment was completed which showed the school was over staffed with paraeducators)

There is a budget presentation set for May 21st and the revote will take place on May 28th

[mkr]

Thank you so much for the information!!

[nhibbard]

Great work on this. Thank you for looking hard and making the meaningful choices to keep the increase minimal. Looking forward to the vote.

[Henry]

I have no children or grandchildren going to school here, but as a retiree on a flat income, can only vote for what I think is necessary.  I am happy to see where they made the cuts & appear to be sincerely trying not to go overboard.  I plan to vote yes for the school budget on May 28th & encourage all of you to get out & vote.  As was evidenced this year, every vote counts.  Also, if there is any doubt about your ability to get down & vote, absentee ballots are very easy for any registered voter to obtain & utilize.  Should be no excuse for anyone not to vote.

[tfence]

Thank you for hearing us and coming up with a reasonable budget. The public should be kept informed when the next union contract negotiations are coming up and there should be a lot of community input at that time being one of the biggest items in the budget.

[trussell]

Is it possible for a committee to be formed specifically pertaining to the union contract and negotiations? Perhaps overseen by the school board but comprised of interested residents? I would consider being a part of it and I bet Tom would too

[vtoutdoorguymb]

Now get out and vote people!

[mkr]

Great Question Trevor!  Count me in.

[RidgeRunner]

Is it possible for a committee to be formed specifically pertaining to the union contract and negotiations? Perhaps overseen by the school board but comprised of interested residents? I would consider being a part of it and I bet Tom would too

I am not certain what the definitive answer on this is but will try find out.  Personally I think this should be left in the hands of the board, this is one of the task that you elected them to do and they do it and do it in a way that represents the town.  There are a lot of particulars that are discussed during negotiations which have second and third order effects on school business and town people may or may not  be tuned in on those. Also having too many people involved in any negotiation usually is a bad idea, kind of a too many cooks spoil the soup situation.  Just my thoughts...

[Watchman]

I believe that the teachers are the glue that holds the school together. Whether they are paid too much is a question I would rather not address. However there are other factors that effect the cost of education and let me add that the school board negotiates with teachers around salary and benefits. The best way to get involved in those discussion is to run for the school board and get elected. 
The current situation at the Burlington school district has nothing to do with teachers. The fact that the cost of education in Vermont is going up while the number of students goes down is not all attributable to teacher costs. The fact hat the local budget had another administrator included was not related to teacher costs. When the elementary principal announced her retirement in 2011-2012 there was a plan proposed to save money. The administrative responsibilities would be changed so that there would be a need for "3" administrators instead of the 3 there were in 2012-2113. The cost saving was from hiring an administrator with 0 experience and no administrative license. At the point of restructuring there was a plan to manage special education until the next budget plan (about 6 months give or take). At that point there "suddenly became a need for a special education administrator in the school, in spite of all the talk the previous year about the benefits of the administrative restructuring for the foreseeable future. This proposal came back again in the 2014-2015 budget. I leave it to the readers and the public to connect the dots as I am trying not to say too much.
Teachers are being asked to do more and more all the time. I believe this is typical of everyone out there. The main concern for all teachers is that all the extra work has little or nothing to do with the education and support of young people. What are the root causes of these increasing structural inefficiencies? I could offer 3 or 4 ideas but I will leave that for another time.