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Post by pedgeneeds on Feb 19, 2007 10:14:37 GMT -5
From what they rushed over at the last meetings. The aren't replacing an administrator that is taking another position, but they are hiring 3 lead teachers at the elementary schools. The 3 lead teachers will basically have the same responsibilities as the administrator. Why not one lead teacher for the 3 schools so all curriculum's are the exact same? More creative book keeping !!!! Where is our BOE ??
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Feb 19, 2007 14:34:50 GMT -5
I have said this in past years and still will say it again. We are being set up by the administration. They ALWAYS start with a high number and then lower it to make it seem like they cut back a lot. However, the goal is to get the approval of the percentage they cut back to in the first place. It makes it seem like they did something for us.
If Dr. Spin already knows that 13.6 % is too high (as he mentions in his email), then why bother letting us know? It's a classic word spin and mind game that, quite frankly, is getting old.
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Post by patriot2415 on Feb 19, 2007 16:29:38 GMT -5
Scare tactic!!
He is trying to show that all this work was done over the past few months and they came up with an 8.62% budget and a 13.65% tax increase so they can say... Look where we are, how can we bring back anything more!!!!
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Feb 19, 2007 17:18:43 GMT -5
Scare tactic!! He is trying to show that all this work was done over the past few months and they came up with an 8.62% budget and a 13.65% tax increase so they can say... Look where we are, how can we bring back anything more!!!! Exactly! He denies doing it every year, but year after year sends out these lame emails.
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Post by plainedgeammo on Feb 20, 2007 17:01:47 GMT -5
Has anyone thought of SABOTAGE? Why would any intelligent person send an email such as that to the community? Is it possible that he was trying to awaken the NO VOTERS to come out in protest? I can not think of one rational reason why he would publicly acknowledge that his staff built FAT into the budget they presented to the BOE. Unless, your looking to give P-town a farewell gift we will never FORGET!!!!
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Post by patriot2415 on Feb 20, 2007 19:42:53 GMT -5
AMMO
I'm starting to like you !!!!!!!
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Feb 20, 2007 22:06:14 GMT -5
Has anyone thought of SABOTAGE? Why would any intelligent person send an email such as that to the community? Is it possible that he was trying to awaken the NO VOTERS to come out in protest? I can not think of one rational reason why he would publicly acknowledge that his staff built FAT into the budget they presented to the BOE. Unless, your looking to give P-town a farewell gift we will never FORGET!!!! Yep! Just Facts used to say it all the time. Ed would tell us that this guy will leave us with a bill we will be paying off for years to come.
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Post by supportstudents on Feb 20, 2007 22:06:24 GMT -5
I thought it was time to throw my two cents in about this administration and some of the members of this board. I am firmly of the belief that they do not care about sports or any extracurricular activities outside of academics. We all agree that academics are # 1 but not the only important part of the full student. Any parent who has gone thru the college search process knows that the well rounded student which includes academics, athletics, clubs, honor societies, etc. are the type of kid the good solid college is looking for. As a community and a school district, we needand are entitled to it all. I understand baby steps are necessary at this time and we can't have it all but a complete athletic program starting at the youth club, into the middle school then onto JV and Varsity is the continuity needed to keep the student athlete ahead in the learning curve. My middle child suffered from the austerity budget and lost a full year of middle school sports last year. I saw the difference in both the level of play and INTEREST losing out on that year. The high school program will see that difference in the level of play in years to come. We need to restore the full athletic program along with other extracurricular programs such as sprint asap.
An idea to put further pressure on the Administration and BOE is to have our college children come back to speak at upcoming Board meetings to stress the importance of the well rounded student. Our kids will be returning home for spring break during March and maybe some can speak at the upcoming meetings. Just an idea. The fight is on again.
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Post by Go Plainedge! on Feb 20, 2007 22:13:48 GMT -5
The high school program will see that difference in the level of play in years to come. We need to restore the full athletic program along with other extracurricular programs such as sprint asap. Adding more confusion to the middle school sports decision....isn't Dr. Spin trying to get the HS into a higher class of sports? With no "Farm system" (the middle school athletes) the high school teams will be weak, especially in a higher class.
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Post by pedgeneeds on Mar 4, 2007 14:30:54 GMT -5
Patriot,
Have you received the bus line item information from the administration yet? It is going on 3 weeks correct?
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Post by patriot2415 on Mar 4, 2007 16:15:16 GMT -5
Pneeds,
Although I am still trying, I have not received any information on this topic. I do not believe the BOE has either which baffles me.
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Post by patriot2415 on Mar 7, 2007 11:15:54 GMT -5
The district budget meetings start tonight March 7, 7:30 pm at the HS.
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Post by workingmom on Mar 8, 2007 7:45:41 GMT -5
Many people attended last night's BOE Budget Meeting. For those who were unable to attend, here is a summary of what I heard:
1. Budget was reduced to about 67.9 million from 68.3 million due to the decision to lease to buy as opposed to outright purchases of 5 new buses.
2. This is a 6.97% increase over last year's budget, resulting in a 11.32% tax levy increase BEFORE Star.
3. Competitive Middle School Sports was put into the budget - the previously proposed developmental program was eliminated. There will be 6 competitive teams in the Middle School for an additional cost of almost 5,000 less than the proposed Developmental program - this was a unanimous vote against the recommendations of the administration. a. The administration was concerned with the fact that Plainedge would not be compliant with Title 9 in this scenario (and we would have been compliant under the developmental program). It should be noted that Plainedge was not in compliance with Title 9 prior to austerity. There was discussion on developing a plan to bring us into compliance with Title 9 over time and what the cost/plan would be to do that. b. 120 students will be able to be involved in these 6 teams as opposed to 240 under the developmental program. c. Frank and Alan pointed out that we would need an additional $115,000 to return to the level of Middle School competitive sports we had prior to Austerity.
4. Buses: The administration presented a cost benefit analysis comparing the annual costs to purchase, lease to buy or contract for the buses. a. Contracting was a high cost - at 65,000 per bus route per year. No state aid in future years to offset the cost. b. Purchasing was a one time expense of 85,000 per bus in this year's budget with a 50% state aid return in future years (spread over 5 years). c. Lease to buy was a 17,000 annual expense per bus spread over 5 years with a 50% state aid return, also spread over 5 years. The end cost to lease to buy was just the interest on the lease, about 3,000.
The BOE voted unanimously to lease to buy at the recommendation of the administration. This saved about 337,000 in next year's budget. There will now be a fixed budget cost for buses for the next 5 years of $88,000.
5. A lively discussion regarding whether any academic or athletic programs should be added to the budget ensued. The BOE questioned if an increase of between the current 6.97% to 7.5% would be palatable to the community or if they should be looking to reduce the expenditures even more. a. Dr. Richman indicated that almost half of the Plainedge households earn less than 80,000 per year, which was of great concern to some Board members (Pat in particular) in evaluating whether the community could afford any additional increases. b. The BOE acknowledged the core of 2,000 NO voters in the district and that they want to be sure not to push any YES voters to the NO side. c. Clarification of the interpretation of the BOE's instructions to the administration was also discussed as it related to what academic items the administration would want to bring back if the decision to hold the budget increase to 7.25% over last year. d. There were a number of items on the administration's "wish list" that were reviewed. In particular, a desire to restore the late buses seemed to be the one item the administration and many of the BOE members were interested in.
6. State Aid: Spitzer's methodology in awarding state aid is an improvement over last year - he has a foundation aid program to award at least as much as was awarded last year. The battle between wealthy suburbia and upstate continues and the LI Senatorial Republican delegation is weaker than it has been in previous years, thus less effective. It is hard to do a line by line comparison on the state aid from year to year as the state shifts what is in and what is out by line. So overall it seems Plainedge received a 3% increase over last year. It only seems like a decrease due to the building aid (about 500,000) that we don't have this year that we had last year.
Dr. Richman also explained that Plainedge is among the lowest spending district in Nassau County. However, we are the highest taxed district when looking at taxes per $1,000 worth of income. Levittown and Farmingdale are right behind us. So we spend $69.23 dollars per $1,000 of income on school taxes.
He also explained that Spitzer plans on doubling the STAR rebate for families with under $80,000 annual income in future years. This is when he indicated that just under 50% of Plainedge families earn under 80,000.
Well, that is all I have for now - have to go to work!!!
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Post by thewildrover on Mar 8, 2007 8:23:31 GMT -5
2. This is a 6.97% increase over last year's budget, resulting in a 11.32% tax levy increase BEFORE Star. a. The administration was concerned with the fact that Plainedge would not be compliant with Title 9 in this scenario (and we would have been compliant under the developmental program). It should be noted that Plainedge was not in compliance with Title 9 prior to austerity. There was discussion on developing a plan to bring us into compliance with Title 9 over time and what the cost/plan would be to do that. Excellent reporting WM....thank you.... As for the ADMINISTRATION stating ANY tax levy increase accurately... at this point in time, is impossible!!!. The only reason that the very irresponsible, premature and inaccurate % figure was made public (find one instance where that % figure was published in any of last years handouts, I'll save you the trouble, you wont, the administration did not release it) The only reason it was published this year was to sabotage the efforts of the MS parents and their desire to have their sports re-instated. Thats right, i call it SABOTAGE!!!. Dr. Richman will put his own personal agenda before the will of the BOE and the community that put that BOE in place, and will stoop as low as he has to to see that he gets his way. If in his mind, he needs to trot out premature and inaccurate % numbers, so be it....EVEN IF IT MEANS THAT HE JEOPARDIZES THE BUDGET PASSAGE...it wont matter to Dr. Smugboy.....he got his way....AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR CHILDREN SUFFERING UNDER ANOTHER YEAR OF AUSTERITY...I call it SABOTAGE, plain and simple. The man cannot see the forest for the trees. As for Title IX, even with the poorly thought out developmental program. THE DISTRICT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN IN COMPLIANCE WITH TITLE IX !!!!!....It "would have brought us closer to complying". The fact of the matter is that there is not one school district on long island that is title ix compliant. This from the American University (Washington, DC) web site: Title IX was the first comprehensive federal law to prohibit sex discrimination against students and employees of educational institutions. Title IX benefits both males and females, and is at the heart of efforts to create gender equitable schools. The law requires educational institutions to maintain policies, practices and programs that do not discriminate against anyone based on sex. Under this law, males and females are expected to receive fair and equal treatment in all arenas of public schooling: recruitment, admissions, educational programs and activities, course offerings and access, counseling, financial aid, employment assistance, facilities and housing, health and insurance benefits, marital and parental status, scholarships, sexual harassment, and athletics. Basically the intent of title ix is to ensure that there are ample opportunities for members of both sexes, most especially on the college level, to participate in a desired activity. It is to protect the under-represented from discrimination. It dates back to the early 70's when females did not receive the same scholarship, recruitment and overall athletic opportunities as males The United States Office of Civil Rights investigates any cases brought to their attention. Again, Smugboy is throwing this ridiculous road block up to thwart the efforts of the MS parents....he is so blatantly making this personal... its sad.
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Post by thewildrover on Mar 8, 2007 9:47:38 GMT -5
I'm not done ranting......lol And another thing..........Not once, NOT ONCE!!!, was title ix a issue in any of the previous nine years, NINE YEARS, of Dr. Smugboys reign. We were in non-compliance since forever, as is every other district, why the issue now? The law is a good one and it protects those that need protecting. It is in place to ensure that discrimination does not occur. The intent is not to mandate that if you have 100 girls playing H.S. sports, you must have 100 boys playing sports. Its about providing a reasonably equal number of opportunities for each student. The original spirit and intent of Title IX is to listen to the students and to accommodate their interests and abilities. A practical application: If you have interest by girls in badminton but there is no interest sufficient to start a new boys team, you can start the girls badminton program without waiting for the boys. The likely result is that starting girls badminton will ignite interest in boys badminton. A win-win result: accommodate girls – encourage boys. And fully within the spirit of title ix. The whole issue is a smoke screen put up for the first time in 9 years to further a petty personal agenda at the expense of OUR children.
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