Fair & Equitable?

While on the school board, information was shared with me by another board member.
She claimed the district was keeping the daycare within our buildings to give the appearance of buildings being more populated than they actually are. She also shared, though many repairs are needed in our buildings, there was a long range plan that was suddenly made short. This too was for appearances. If more money was budget for more repairs in the upcoming year rather than five year plan, the district could claim a financial hardship due to unforeseen expenses. All these “appearances” would be for the sake of avoiding a 4% raise to the teachers, which they surely could afford. The tactic would be to cry poor and threaten overcrowding classrooms.

Admittedly, this was hearsay. What do the teachers and community hear and have to say about negotiations and giving our teachers a fair wage and a work environment conducive to educating the children in 131? We have the potential. Do we have the leadership?

Wishing the EA band a safe and enjoyable experience

I am currently out of town and unable to read the 100's of comments that has shown up on the blog. I scanned through and see some sincere dialog going on. I appreciate that. I am creating this new post just to shorten the scrolling for ongoing dialog.
I hope the students are too busy in FL to post but look forward to their return and comments about their experiences.

Till later..................

Farewell, Mrs. Nadel, thanks for the memories!

"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness." ~Maya Angelou

Lynne Nadel touched the lives of countless EA students. Many found "refuge" in her classroom. She went beyond the duties of her job as a choir director. Mrs. Nadel was an adviser and inspiration to her students. She listened to their woes, shared joy in their accomplishments. She will truly be missed.

Here's wishing Lynne the best in her new home and her next season of life!

Speaking of Board meetings

I know many people don't like the dead horse being beaten but I was curious, and felt like I hadn't gotten the end of the story. So I went to the Board meeting and commented.

"While sorting through papers I found an article. Aug 2006 the Beacon's “Our View” commented: Promises made should be promises kept. Referring to a promise of 8.3 acres of land to be donated to D131. One year later in July 2007 results were approx. 5 acres worth about $1 million.

Now, nearly 4 years later, I want to ask, have the improvements to connecting properties, sites & infrastructure been made? Since the agreement was reached in 2007 who has been paying the taxes, insurance and maintaining the property? What is the present appraised value?

I know recently the district compiled a list of property owned by the district and paid for either market analysis and/or defining the lines and amount of actual property in the districts possession. What is being done with all these properties, specifically the one that was used as a carrot to encourage voters to favor D131 plans and to justify demolishing the drive-in?"

Nothing new........

Just starting new post to shorten length of comment stream.
Sorry, no new post at this time.

What's more important-a good credit rating or high acheivment?

I looked for a D131 budget update. What I found on the website page for the Superintendents office were goals that have been re-dated for 2009-2010, but it if you look at the paragraph above you will see it was all written last school year and which is evidenced by his quarterly goals summary at the bottom of the page which shows his last summary as being the 2nd quarter of 2008-2009.

District 204 has twice as many schools and twice as many students as D131.
Yet D204 Superintendent is informing it‘s community:

“When you are forced to trim $21.4 million from your budget in a single year, it becomes impossible to not have an impact on our students.
We began looking for cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. This includes a plan to reduce 14.4 percent of our central office staff and 6 percent of our building level administrators. We are also proposing a pay freeze for all administrators next year and cutting all administrators' budgets.”

For the full text of the D204 Supt's letter:
http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/News.aspx?id=28616
or go to; http://www.ipsd.org and click: Superintendent's Budget Update

From D131 website: “prior to the passage of the referendum in 2008, the Board of Education and administration made nearly $7 million in budget cuts in order to balance the budget and improve the district’s overall financial landscape. In the midst of a struggling economy, East Aurora Schools made no budget reductions for the current school year, making it the only district in the county to do so. (”http://d131.org/ D131 Gets A+ Grade on Finances)

Last point: D204-Overall Meeting or Exceeding State Standards (ISAT): 93%
State Average: 79%

Refresh

I apologize to those who asked for information concerning the answers I received from my FOIA request of D131 and in response to questions presented at the board meeting concerning additional positions being added to the payroll.

It would not be feasible to post the questions and answers due to the length of content. If anyone wishes a copy, my email address is accessible from my blog profile. I will glady send a copy via USPS.

In the mean time, please continue to share your POV.