20 years ago there were about 4 administration positions in the main office of the school district.  Go to the website and count them now.  3 or 4 times as many positions are being paid and being paid highly. They have directors of everything you can think of but when they have a professional development for the staff they will pay someone to come in and do the instruction.  Any time they are questioned about  funding for any area the response is "it is being paid for by a grant". 

 

Look at the salaries in Sunday's paper.  There is an employee listed as a substitute teacher and she is making over $50,000.00 a year.  That person was hired into a job several years ago under incorrect procedures and when she could not do the job she was hired to do, they created a position for her.  This happens frequently in the school district.

 

At the April 4th school board meeting they are going to announce that they have now RIFFED the librarians, the hall monitors and more.  The positions that are filled by classified staff who make low wages but are there for the students. These people will never be hired back but those administrators who are riffed usually find their was back into the system under another job title.

 

A rumor is  going around that they are already planning to hire Debbie Alberico back under a different position title.  Remember when the school district was trying to pass a levy and there were so many complaints about the assistant superintendent?  They said they cut that position and the person.  Then they changed the title of the position to Senior Director of Learning and hired Betsy Carter.

 

The school board should be ashamed of themselves.

 

 

 

What the Democrats in Mass. did was just as wrong as what the Republicans did in Ohio. Wrong doesn't know political boundaries. The media is just as complicit in this finger pointing, holier than thou mentality. If it makes their point, they run it; if not, they ignore it.

 

Middletown's property values aren't half of what they were 7-10 years ago. Ask Dr. Pledger on daVinci about his once $ Mm home, that he can't sell for $500 Kk today, while paying $25 Kk in taxes. Only an idiot would vote for this levy, as the needle has been stuck on CI for years. I was a fool to support the renewal, but its time Middletown began acting like West Chester and Springboro and people look at the waste and overhead, and cut it to the bone.

 

They will try to sneak this in probably in May, but it must be shot down. The 'buzz' in Middletown is just a handful vote, that end up passing every levy, while the remaining 66% sit at home, because they can't afford to put gas in their car to go vote.  

 

Which I'll add is not uncommon for an experience communications/community relations professional in the prviate sector.

 

thanks for the post and giving me a shout out. I understand what your problem is with union representation. What you continue to say is that the free ride for public employees is over and I continue to point out that they didn't have a free ride. They spent years in school to qualify for the positions they got and have to spend more money for continuing their education and qualifications. What you continue to miss is that unions raise the bar for all employees. The advances that unions make do translate into the private sector. What you fail to grasp or simply won't acknowledge is that the wealthy owners of this country have private and public sector employees fighting for scraps while they enjoy unprecedented growth in their bottom line. While we bitch and moan that someone else has it better that me, that "better" gets smaller and smaller. It won't be long until this country is hit with a depression that will make the 30's look look like a small bump. When that happens, this dispute will seem very small. If you haven't caught on, the only people taking cuts in pay are the people who do the WORK!!! You don't see CEO's pay decreasing. As for the spokesperson job at MCSD, I'm in communications and I'd love to have a job like that!!! It's a good job if you can get it.

 

The non-union worker makes less because he doesn't have the clout that organizing provides!!! That's why employers will fire anyone who even talks about organizing!!! The non-union worker has indeed benefitted from union bargaining with better pay (although not at union scale) and benefits such as health care and retirement options. Do you think any employer would offer these things if they had an option? I did not say anything about non-union workers not having to educate themselves for their job. I pointed out that it is REQUIRED for teachers to have a degree in Education. I've held private sector jobs because I had a degree even though my degree was in no way related to the job; that doesn't happen in the education field. By the way, the union people are being asked to pay more because unions have been abandoned by the Democratic Party so there is no political cover for unions. Look at all the Republican union busting going on around the Midwest where private sector unions such as the UAW have lost the support of the Democrats. Unions used to have the clout to get good pay and benefit packages. I just don't understand the concept of cheering while workers rights are abused and hard-won benefits are taken by greedy corporations and public workers are demonized for all the ills of government. Taxes are at the lowest point at the Federal level since before the last depression. Government spends money at times very foolishly which is why you see such a backlash about taxes but the reality simply doesn't match the facts. The Bush tax cuts are in their 10th year; WHERE ARE THE JOBS!!!

 

Members of the Board of Education are paid $125 for each official public meeting of the board which we attend.  We are not paid for preparation time (reading materials, asking questions, etc), for meetings of board committees, for attending public functions in a ceremonial or public outreach role, for responding to phone calls and emails from parents and community members, or anything else. In my 6 years on the board, this has ranged between $3000 to $4500 per year, before taxes.  We do not receive any employee benefits.  There are 5 board members, so the total pay for the 5 BOE members is between $15,000 to $22,500 per year.  Whether or not that is too high or too low, changing it won't make any real difference to the $70 million budget.

 

Vet is also correct that I missed the humor in LMAO's post, if it was so intended. 

 

Yes, JSmith, it costs some money (not much) to set up sound and whatnot for the board meetings.  Would you rather we meet in private, like City Council?  No, board members are not reimbursed mileage for driving to and from meetings.  No, we don't have meals brought in for meetings, except in rare situations where we are meeting for an extended period of time including meal time. 

 

Yes, all non-union employees of the district will take the same pay cuts and increased benefits costs that the teachers agreed to.  That was announced at last night's board meeting.

 

Finally, while I will not rehash the issue of RIF'ing library managers (which I have posted about in another thread), I have never said that by cutting library managers we were "trimming the fat."  In fact, I have explained both publicly and privately that the board and administration believe that the cuts that were made this year were all cutting to the bone, cutting employees that were valuable to the district --any fat had already been cut in prior years.  Regardless, difficult decisions still had to be made, and the district will have to find ways to get the job done with the remaining staff --reorganizing job duties, restructuring the way things are done in the buildings, relying more on volunteers, etc.