Not the Superintendent's Interests, Not Special Interests, but Your Interests
Comments to Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee
The truth is both our state and federal government are broke. We must face the fact that while there is a seemingly unlimited amount of money to spend bailing out banks and other financial institutions that caused the very economic collapse we are experiencing there will be no cavalry coming from either Albany or Washington to bail out our school or our taxpayers. We the people must arise to the occasion with some common sense ways to fix the problems our elected officials on all levels of government have created. If last year’s wake up call wasn’t enough, this year truly proves to us that this district can not afford to continue with business as usual. Out of desperation we must find inspiration and innovation if we are going to continue to provide the excellent education our community prides itself on.
The creation of this budget proposal undoubtedly must have been extremely difficult. We are losing aid from both the federal and state governments and we must create a budget that we as a community can actually afford. To me a budget we can afford means a budget that is fair and respectful to the taxpayer but also is fair and respectful to the teachers, students, and all those involved in our school district.
To be blunt I am offended by the way this district and some of our elected board members have discussed this budget proposal. I feel like we have been talked down to and have had our intelligence insulted. While I like any reasonable person understand the need for reductions, I also understand that reductions have consequences and simply repeating over and over that this budget will not harm students doesn’t make it true.
To be specific this budget proposes to cut special education teaching assistants, however if my information is correct these special education teaching assistants were added per the request of teachers, parents, and community members who said they were needed. Now we have been educating our students for years with these teaching assistants as part of our model, so either our students are going to noticeably and drastically suffer because of these cuts or these special education teaching assistants were never necessary and our board members and superintendent have been wasting millions of dollars on an unnecessary service. I personally believe teaching assistants offer an invaluable service and that is why last year I was venomously opposed to the draconian cuts of teaching assistants. Either way this district is not being honest about this budget proposal, and dishonesty is something I don’t appreciate or tolerate.
It seems to me that those who suffer most from this budget are the students and to me this is unjustifiable. We are taking teachers and teaching assistants out of the classroom, we are decimating extracurricular activities, we are cutting enrichment opportunities, we are pulling back on our efforts to combat bullying, we are removing aids who monitor the doors of our elementary schools to keep our children safe, and we are pulling the rug out from under some of our most vulnerable students.
However, I see virtually no reductions in administrative costs, except interestingly enough special education takes yet another hit with the loss of a special education administrator. Yet we still have all the same supervisors, and all the same principals all being paid their generous salaries. Now you have turned to the teachers and asked them to make concessions yet has this district asked our principals and supervisors who earn more than enough to voluntary reduce their pay or skip their raises? Or better yet have you considered applying some of the cuts to administration that you have to areas such as special education. When I was in Westmere Elementary School it wasn't administrators in the class helping me when I had questions it was teaching assistants. This budget also includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for conferences in a time when we are cutting away at some of our most cherished and successful programs.
I consider myself a reasonable person, and I understand that this budget like all decisions is a process of a give and take and that this year in particular we face historical challenges. However, at this time I simply can not support this budget as the reductions in this budget strike at what makes our district so unique. This budget will harm our students and consequently our district’s reputation. I along with many others voiced our deeply held concerns about the draconian cuts of teaching assistants among other things last year, and here we are again. This is a very slippery slope and if we allow this to continue I fear what the future holds.
Thank You
