As loyal readers to this page know, I've become more involved in the educational system and the sausage-making of our Howard County school budget. And it IS sausage-making. Ugly.
Today, the Board of Education, a group I'm increasingly disenchanted with, voted to ignore the voices of the Howard County community and cut more than 60 paraeducator positions. They would say they're being "reallocated," but that's coded language. And for those of you who say, Hey KC, there was an election in November - I don't remember any candidate saying they wanted to cut dozens of jobs for a growing school district. Maybe I was focused on other things, but that doesn't ring a bell. Secondly, part of the Board was not up for election in November.
These cuts affect ALL children. If kindergarten has 4 teachers for 80 kids, 1 paraeducator makes the ratio fall from 20:1 to 16:1. That's a major difference, loyal readers! In high school, cutting the media service staff will prevent kids from getting research help in an everchanging environment. There are new tools and resources every year and trying to find the right one is frustrating. '
What can you do?
Thank heavens that the Board is NOT the final say on the budget. Or thank the county's previous legislators. The budget CAN be changed before it's implemented!
Send emails to County Executive Allan Kittleman, find your County Council member here, and contact them.
Interested in learning more? And having pizza too??? Here's some information from the dedicated team of the HCEA:
"Please
join HCEA for an open community meeting on Tuesday, March 3rd,
5PM in the Centennial HS cafeteria. We will clarify the impact
of the cuts and develop strategy for the next part of the process. RSVP here to give us an
idea of how much pizza we need!"
If you want to sustain, at the very least, the impressive school system we have, please find a way to advocate for our kids. Even if you don't have kids, your opinion can still make a difference.
Thanks for listening!
Showing posts with label budget cuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget cuts. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Chump Change at HCPSS
Howard County may be allowing a brain drain to occur & I'm perplexed as to the reason. Yes, our new County Executive, Allan Kittleman, has asked that county leaders trim 5% of their budgets to deal with a shortfall of $14 million. Fine.
While reading Tom's post regarding the loss of experienced teachers & staff and Julia's post, something struck me regarding these numbers.
This deal is projected to cover approximately 600 teachers and staff and potentially save $9 million. OVER FIVE YEARS. Based on the FY 2015 Budget of $758.8 million, that's roughly 0.2%. These positions are not disappearing though...less experienced, less expensive people still have to be hired.
Which leads me to my next point - if our experienced teachers leave, there is a lack of mentorship that can occur on the job.
For example, if several Instructional Team lead teachers leave one elementary school, that puts a lot more stress on the administration and the less-experienced teachers left behind. There's no question that a 25 year old teacher can be just as good as a 37 year old teacher, don't misread me. But that 37 year old teacher may have insight about that 5th grader because she taught her as a 1st grader.
These type of buyouts usually detract from institutional knowledge. Yes, it requires more people to step up, but I believe the majority of teachers and staff at HCPSS have been doing that already. And yes, buyouts happen in the corporate world but at 15 years? Who's even been at their corporate job for 15 years in this day & age? Tenure in the corporate world is not exactly comparable to government work.
But for less than even one percent of their annual operating budget? Yes, there are some people that complain about the "junket" to China that cost under $10,000 in total. I'm not one of them. This wasted study seems like a rounding error rather than an in-depth look at holding down operating costs.
Try again, HCPSS.
#hocopolitics
While reading Tom's post regarding the loss of experienced teachers & staff and Julia's post, something struck me regarding these numbers.
This deal is projected to cover approximately 600 teachers and staff and potentially save $9 million. OVER FIVE YEARS. Based on the FY 2015 Budget of $758.8 million, that's roughly 0.2%. These positions are not disappearing though...less experienced, less expensive people still have to be hired.
Which leads me to my next point - if our experienced teachers leave, there is a lack of mentorship that can occur on the job.
For example, if several Instructional Team lead teachers leave one elementary school, that puts a lot more stress on the administration and the less-experienced teachers left behind. There's no question that a 25 year old teacher can be just as good as a 37 year old teacher, don't misread me. But that 37 year old teacher may have insight about that 5th grader because she taught her as a 1st grader.
These type of buyouts usually detract from institutional knowledge. Yes, it requires more people to step up, but I believe the majority of teachers and staff at HCPSS have been doing that already. And yes, buyouts happen in the corporate world but at 15 years? Who's even been at their corporate job for 15 years in this day & age? Tenure in the corporate world is not exactly comparable to government work.
But for less than even one percent of their annual operating budget? Yes, there are some people that complain about the "junket" to China that cost under $10,000 in total. I'm not one of them. This wasted study seems like a rounding error rather than an in-depth look at holding down operating costs.
Try again, HCPSS.
#hocopolitics
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