"Our aim, to swat liars and leeches, hypocrites & humbugs, demagogs & dastards"
-- The Yellow Jacket
Moravian Falls, N.C., 1919
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Mill levy doom?
I have yet to encounter a single soul not actually serving on the Billings school board who thinks the mill levies have a chance to pass. Anybody here heard different?
ditto...and the district's attempt to hold Crossroads hostage as leverage to get a mill levy passed reminds me of the BEA holding our kids hostage a few years ago. But... it's not about teacher salaries, it's all about the kids...right???
Holding Crossroads hostage and the "carrot in front of the horse," of maybe to reopening Beartooth school is not unusual for SD2 in trying to leverage yet more of the taxpayer's hard earned money "For the kids." Would that we all had such an excuse to enhance our own funding. Remember a few years ago when the threat, if their mill levies didn't pass, of laying off 68 Custodians? Mothers all over the district imagined their kids wading through the halls, hip deep in old sandwich wrappers and milk cartons. But, they just don't get the flick that until they demonstrate some fiscal responsibility by trying to live within their means without constantly going to, what they consider to be, a bottomless well of taxpayer funding, the voting citizenry will remain in a surley mood, rejecting other SD2 funding "needs!" Especially in view of the fact of the cost to the taxpayers of SD2's "special elections." To paraphrase a recent statement by one of their board members who, at a school meeting, was asked what she felt the chances of the mill levies passing, "There's a chance if the old people who vote stay home and the teachers get out and vote." Questions. Will they ever think they have enough? Do any of the 495 teachers earning a salary of $60,000 for nine months work, still think they're underpaid? Do the "Administrators" with salaries even higher than that, still believe they should be given a 3% raise? During the "teacher's strike" that I believe led to a considerable eye opener for taxpayers by the revelations of teacher and administrator salaries, I think the best comment or quotation of the whole mess was by a guy driving by a Teacher's picket line saying, "I have to work two jobs." And, the hiring of a new Superintendant who raised enough hell to get the recent 3.2 million state funding increase for "Education," promises more of the same cries for "needs." Make that "wants!" Vote NO!
In response to Ms Kami Strong's whiney letter in the April 25th Gazette regarding her burden as a teacher, I would remind her that many people work as hard or harder than you do! Many people have to work outside the office at night and weekends, many don't even have retirement much less full medical benefits and most, if not all,also contribute to those benefits! Many volunteer and join committees with no salary. As for your assertion of "Only taxes." merely adding a few dollars to property tax bills, if we add up all the "only taxes", especially those added by SD2 over the last ten years, it becomes large, not "small" potatoes! And as far as "concern for education" is concerned, when 70% of our taxes go for education which includes your salary and benefits for but 9 months of work, I'd suggest you climb over those ivy covered walls you've been living behind and get a dose of the real world! The revelations of teachers and administrator's salaries during and since the strike have done more to enlightened the voters than anything else, one of the many reasons SD2 levies are being voted down. Paraphrasing a SD2 Board Member's recent comments during a meeting where she was asked if the mill levies would pass, her response was, "They will if the old people that vote stay home and the teachers get out and vote." The "carrot" being held out of the possibility of reopening Beartooth School and the "threat" of closing Crossroads is typical of SD2 tactics. And, before all is setteled and we go to the polls, the "Administrators" "want" and not "need" another 3% payraise. I find in hard to emphathize with the 495 SD2 teachers earning $60,000 a school year who feel they're overworked, underpaid and under loved/appreciated when someone even making double minimum eage at $10 an hour only earns 1/3 that over 12 months! I'm voting NO and I urge all those other "Old People" to get out and do the same!
5 comments:
It's doomed.
Toast
ditto...and the district's attempt to hold Crossroads hostage as leverage to get a mill levy passed reminds me of the BEA holding our kids hostage a few years ago. But... it's not about teacher salaries, it's all about the kids...right???
Holding Crossroads hostage and the "carrot in front of the horse," of maybe to reopening Beartooth school is not unusual for SD2 in trying to leverage yet more of the taxpayer's hard earned money "For the kids." Would that we all had such an excuse to enhance our own funding. Remember a few years ago when the threat, if their mill levies didn't pass, of laying off 68 Custodians? Mothers all over the district imagined their kids wading through the halls, hip deep in old sandwich wrappers and milk cartons. But, they just don't get the flick that until they demonstrate some fiscal responsibility by trying to live within their means without constantly going to, what they consider to be, a bottomless well of taxpayer funding, the voting citizenry will remain in a surley mood, rejecting other SD2 funding "needs!" Especially in view of the fact of the cost to the taxpayers of SD2's "special elections." To paraphrase a recent statement by one of their board members who, at a school meeting, was asked what she felt the chances of the mill levies passing, "There's a chance if the old people who vote stay home and the teachers get out and vote." Questions. Will they ever think they have enough? Do any of the 495 teachers earning a salary of $60,000 for nine months work, still think they're underpaid? Do the "Administrators" with salaries even higher than that, still believe they should be given a 3% raise? During the "teacher's strike" that I believe led to a considerable eye opener for taxpayers by the revelations of teacher and administrator salaries, I think the best comment or quotation of the whole mess was by a guy driving by a Teacher's picket line saying, "I have to work two jobs." And, the hiring of a new Superintendant who raised enough hell to get the recent 3.2 million state funding increase for "Education," promises more of the same cries for "needs." Make that "wants!" Vote NO!
In response to Ms Kami Strong's whiney letter in the April 25th Gazette regarding her burden as a teacher, I would remind her that many people work as hard or harder than you do! Many people have to work outside the office at night and weekends, many don't even have retirement much less full medical benefits and most, if not all,also contribute to those benefits! Many volunteer and join committees with no salary. As for your assertion of "Only taxes." merely adding a few dollars to property tax bills, if we add up all the "only taxes", especially those added by SD2 over the last ten years, it becomes large, not "small" potatoes! And as far as "concern for education" is concerned, when 70% of our taxes go for education which includes your salary and benefits for but 9 months of work, I'd suggest you climb over those ivy covered walls you've been living behind and get a dose of the real world! The revelations of teachers and administrator's salaries during and since the strike have done more to enlightened the voters than anything else, one of the many reasons SD2 levies are being voted down. Paraphrasing a SD2 Board Member's recent comments during a meeting where she was asked if the mill levies would pass, her response was, "They will if the old people that vote stay home and the teachers get out and vote." The "carrot" being held out of the possibility of reopening Beartooth School and the "threat" of closing Crossroads is typical of SD2 tactics. And, before all is setteled and we go to the polls, the "Administrators" "want" and not "need" another 3% payraise. I find in hard to emphathize with the 495 SD2 teachers earning $60,000 a school year who feel they're overworked, underpaid and under loved/appreciated when someone even making double minimum eage at $10 an hour only earns 1/3 that over 12 months! I'm voting NO and I urge all those other "Old People" to get out and do the same!
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