Here’s part of Laura Petelle’s rationale for voting to close a high school:
These planned 43 staff reductions will total approximately $2.7 million in savings. [emphasis added]
An additional $800,000-$900,000 in savings may be realized by shuttering a building for the year and not paying operating costs (operating costs are somewhat, but not astronomically, higher at Woodruff than at Peoria High).
These are lower-end estimates. [emphasis added] There may be more job cuts to be found, and there may be more savings from those initial 43 cuts. May.
Now, I’m not trying to pick on Laura. Lord knows she does her homework. She did more due diligence and was more transparent about her justification than any other board member now or in recent memory.
But imagine my surprise last night when I heard on the news that closing a high school would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.” I could hardly believe my ears. I wasn’t home to watch the meeting, but I taped it, so I pulled out the tape of the meeting and, sure enough, there was Superintendent Ken Hinton saying that closing Woodruff would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.”
I’ve been following this issue pretty closely lately, and I can tell you that I never heard an estimate lower than $2.7 million. Maybe they said it before, since I don’t hear everything. But I don’t remember it. And considering that Laura — who’s on the board — said that $2.7 million was a “lower-end estimate” just a week before the vote, I’m inclined to say that this new range of figures is brand new information, brought forth at the last moment from Mr. Hinton.
This raises several questions, none of which are very comfortable:
- How are these numbers derived? That’s a huge range. The difference between $1.5 and $2.7 million is $1.2 million.
- Why can’t the administration narrow down the savings more than that? Was it not based on 43 staff reductions as Laura’s blog post stated? What has changed?
- Is this an indication that Mr. Hinton has already started spending the projected savings (i.e., begun making plans to keep teachers/administrators on the payroll for other purposes), and is trying to mask it by lowering the savings estimate for closing the school?
- Would board members have been as inclined to close a school if they knew the savings might only be $1.5 million, or would they have looked for other cuts that total that amount (canceling the Edison contract gets you half way there instantly, for example)?
- Why wasn’t this new savings range made available sooner? Were the board members informed of the change in estimates before Hinton’s report Monday night?
This is the reason citizens don’t believe any numbers that come out of 3202 N. Wisconsin Ave. It always appears that the numbers are either (a) pulled out of a hat, or (b) deliberately manipulated to elicit the vote the administration desires. Or both.
Here’s one more question: Is anyone going to tabulate the actual savings next year after all is said and done to see if it matches the estimates? Considering they haven’t done that for any other school closing, my guess would be “no.”
Free for all – I understand–didn’t mean to be as hard on you individually as I came off. But why make people beg for health care–face it charity is a form of begging when peope are at the mercy of others’ giving? I am no paragon of virtue when it comes to giving, but I have a hard time living with myself when I have such good insurance when others have none–especially, those (as I said) who work just as hard as I did–harder when it comes to manual labor–and do not get a living wage or benefits. I even believe that my own insurance might suffer if national insurance for all were in place–but I would feel very guilty if I weren’t willing to share my good fortune. Quite some time ago, it was decided that all children were entitled to a public education–kindergarten through high school. That’s not an inalienable right but because we live in a democracy it was deemed a good idea. Selfishly, I think that it is in the best interest of all to have an educated and healthy society. I think there is room for compromise, but I hope that we end up with a health care plan with which we all can “live” before Obama’s term ends.
Oh and spending money on important items like health care is soooo easy to say.
I hope it doesn’t turn into another social security/medicare/medicaid nightmare for our children to clean up. As a society, we owe it to our children to do better than this!
When s.s. and medicare were introduced, the life expectancy was not what it is today. Again, not the fault of people collecting it today, but those paying for it now is US. I don’t expect to see a penny left when I retire-that’s almost laughable, I won’t ever be able to afford to retire….
“another social security/medicare/medicaid nightmare”
What’s the nightmare? That everyone should be covered? That one’s wealth can’t buy them “special” treatment under the system? oooooh scary.
Kcdad, of course, I agree. I am now the happy beneficiary of medicare (which I supplement with insurance for which I pay with part of my retirement money) and I get $194 in SS a month because teachers can’t draw full SS–in fact, younger teachers won’t be able to draw SS at all. Why wouldn’t I want other people to enjoy what I have? In fact, I believe if something isn’t done about health care soon even those of us who now have good insurance will be paying much, much more or we will have it taken away.
Maybe tomorrow we can bring our comments on this post back to the 150 topic.
And could we maybe also return to the question of “When, again, are we going to call for a vote of no confidence in administration and the BOE?”
How would such a vote be cast? The 150 Administration is not elected, the School Board is only up for election in fits and spurts… is more than 1 position elected at any given time?
Who would vote and where?
How about this one…
The district has posted a job for an Arabic teacher at Lindbergh MS. Do we need to teach another foreign language when half of the current high school and middle school students can barely speak English? At least an understood English.
Kcdad: A believe a no-confidence vote was taken by the union against Kay Royster and then a simple majority of board members agreed and she was fired. The BOE does have the final say–they are the employers of the administration.
Right… the BOE can vote about the administration (the administration they hired)… how can we give a no-confidence vote about the BOE?
Remember Godfather’s on Sunday, October 4–there is still much to be discussed.
Sharon – what’s the agenda?
Jim, I honestly don’t know, but you are welcome to come–in fact, as I said during our phone conversations this week, all of us who care about District 150 really need to find ways to cooperative to find the solutions to the problems in 150. In fact, Terry said that Laura comes to our meetings and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t come also. Certainly, I know that you and I agree more than we disagree. I imagine there will be some discussion about the decision to close Woodruff, especially, in light of the $1.5 figure that had never been mentioned before until after the vote. Frankly, we often discuss who’s going to speak about what at board meetings. We have no secret agendas. You have the answers to many of the questions that many people will want to ask. You know that my concern will always be the discipline problems and the desperate need for an alternative school–and I know you agree. I’ll sit between you and Terry. 🙂 The meeting at Godfather’s is at 6 p.m.