Re “Would a Sixth Furlough Day Work for the District in the Name of Closing Gap?”
There are just a few statements on the School Board article (Sept. 15) that puzzle me:
• What hiring freeze? There have been hires approved at nearly every Board meeting for the past four months, and even more over the three years that the Board voted (including previous Boards) to have such a freeze.
• We are spending valuable time and resources with the same firm that brought us former Supt. Myrna Cote; the same firm that “found” her her new position and now is working to find CCUSD a new Superintendent.
• By the way, the best qualified candidate is the Interim Superintendent, Patricia Jaffe! What a waste of money looking, when she is already here!
The “savings” from the furlough days is not $1 million, but is $750,000. This makes all of the other hypothetical savings cited in the article meaningless. The School District and the Board like to banter around the million, but the District is still responsible for the “fringe benefits” for its employees, even when they are not paid to be at work. We found that out in June during the budget approval process, when the savings number was listed at $750,000 and not the million the Board told the teachers it would be!
It's great that Board member Scott Zeidman loves the $165,000 in interest income that the District received. The amount comes at the expense of outrageously dangerous athletic fields. The Board has taken no action to use over $7 million in “restricted funds” that it has held on to for years.
I think it is safe to say that hundreds of requests for repairs to the facilities have gone unheeded. Take a good look at the football field. Can no one in Maintenance see that water is missing in several brown areas? How difficult would that be to fix? Parents would be happy to make the repairs, but because of union rules, they are not allowed to do so! Three years ago, every school site was given an opportunity to make a 'wish list” of repairs, improvements or replacement items.
More than 250 suggestions came in. Nearly every item was taken care of by Maintenance, or at Board direction EXCEPT athletic facilities. The previous Board felt it best to handle all of the needed repairs as a bundle.
Three years later, nothing has been done. Bear in mind, for many years prior to this, there have been numerous requests for repairs and improvements. And after 19 years, the Board still wants to discuss a Natatorium! Study after study has shown that it is not economically feasible to reopen the pool. The last study revealed an estimated $300,000 operating loss each year.
A viable alternative to a Natatorium was discussed over two years ago, and shelved. But there is hope. The Board has asked for the Natatorium to be agendized as an information item at the Oct.12 meeting. Also to be discussed will be the application of artificial turf for the football field. Anyone who has had, or will have, a child playing soccer, football or any other sport on the field needs to be there to prod the Board into action. Adding another furlough day is not a good idea for our teachers. While I am no fan of the teachers' union, I can get behind their being adamantly opposed to further cuts. How are students not affected by days when there are no teachers? No one mentions that there are only 177 instructional days in 2010/2011 compared to the 180 last school year. The Board needs to find ways to generate more revenue. Many suggestions have been made by the now-defunct Community Budget Advisory Committee. One of the easiest ways for this to happen would be to install artificial turf on the athletic fields (all of them).
While there may not be massive amounts of maintenance savings, the income from that investment would make the $165,000 in interest income look like peanuts.
Ms. Chabola may be contacted at janetchabola@yahoo.com
