The Utica Observer-Dispatch reported March 2 that unions in the Rome City School District are voluntarily meeting with district administration to work on budget challenges together.
Faced with deep cuts, Rome revisits union contracts
By REBECCA CRONISERThree of six unions in the Rome City School District have agreed to reopen labor contracts to help the district reduce the number of cuts to programs and positions next year.
"We all recognize that public employees can no longer be immune from economic conditions that employees in the private industry have been hit with," Superintendent Jeffrey Simons said. "We're hoping we can revisit the contracts to see what we can do to protect programs and save what jobs we can."
Neither Simons nor union officials would talk about what would be on the table during the negotiations. The three unions coming back to the bargaining table are the teachers, administrators and custodians.
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"We want to see if there might be something available to both sides that might be mutually beneficial," Rome Teachers Association President Gene Terenzetti said.
The school district has a $6.8 million gap in its preliminary budget for the 2010-11 school year, Simons said. The governor's proposed cut in state aid makes up about $2.8 million of that while contractual and operational cost increases make up the rest.
If the governor's proposed budget is passed, Simons said the district will be forced to either cut 75 employees or impose a double digit tax increase on residents.
"The hope is that working together we can come up with a solution that might help us in this crisis," school board President Patricia Riedel said.
Terenzetti said the reason his union is reopening negotiations is because of "mutual respect" between teachers and administrators.
"It can only work with mutual respect," he said.
Senior administrators who have individual contracts, including Simons, have already agreed to forgo contractual raises for the next school year.
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AREA Schools post Budget info online but NOT NSD
The Poughkeepsie City SD has quite a bit of info for its taxpayers to review as the 2010-2011 budget process moves foward - http://www.poughkeepsieschools.org/administrative-offices/community-inpu...
Goshen Central SD - http://www.goshenschoolsny.org/District/BoardofEd/Budget1011/Budget1011....
Valley Central - http://www.vcsd.k12.ny.us/57129012171436/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=62158&5712Nav=|&NodeID=663
Is the BOE listening to special interest groups not Taxpayers?
The problem is that "special interest" groups, whether that includes parents of children attending school, the students, administrators and teachers are all looking at these "tough' decisions one at a time instead of at the entire or big picture. The teachers union among others has dug in its heels and won't acknowledge the seriousness of the financial problems and they are not going away, but will only get worse. Students and parents have grown to expect the schools to it all; spoerts, baby care, courses that go beyond needed courses, after school activities like a $40,000 debate club travel bill, social services, busing, and more. Students must think tgheir is a money fairy just for their wants. Parents feel it is up to the majority of us topay the bulk of all of these extras. Administrators are political creatures, not well trained managers and supervisors. The BOE is representatives of teachers (two retired teachers onthe BEO) and parent groups - special ed and PTAs. There is no one representing the overburdened, economically strapped TAXPAYER!
Parents are part of the high taxes, too!
It doesn't seem to matter what the public wants. The board does whatever parents want whether or not the rest of majority of taxpayers wants it done. Families with children are no longer the majority, many live in rental apts and never have seen a property tax bill but one would not know that from the way things are done with respect to the school taxes. Yet these parents put a show up at crying disaster if anything is cut. I'd like to know what parents will do once their children are grown or if a spouse loses their jobs and can't afford the taxes to pay for all the extras they view as part and parcel of an education. Schools are for education, not sports, not hobbies, and not meant to do the parents' job of raising children.
Please keep this in mind when the BOE puts forth its next budget.
Another area SD has REAL OPEN PUBLIC FORUMS - not NSD
Clarkstown school district seeks public input on budget - http://www.lohud.com/article/20100307/NEWS03/3070340/Clarkstown-school-d...
"The district has scheduled several events to allow the public to offer input. A community budget outreach committee, which comprises students, parent representatives, members of the community and representative s from the district 's unions, met Tuesday at the district office to discuss the budget. A similar meeting was held Feb. 22 and another is scheduled for Monday.
The Clarkstown Board of Education will hold its annual budget input meetings at three locations Wednesday where the public will be invited to ask questions and offer suggestions."
"The meetings will be held at the Clarkstown North High School library at 6:30 p.m., at the Clarkstown South High School library at 6:30 p.m. and at the Felix Festa Middle School black and white cafeteria at 8 p.m."
The NSD continues to hold such "workshops" at 5PM on a workday - This is a BOE that is out of touch from the working taxpayers. But then again they were elected to represent teachers and the politically connected and led around by a "status quo" and entrenched administration.
Goshen BE is listening to the Public, Why not NSD?
As reported in The Chronicle-
Residents of the Goshen Central School District are invited to a series of community forums on the district’s budget for the 2010-11 academic year.
They will be held at 7 p.m. on two Thursdays, March 11 and 25, in the board of education room at the Main Street Building, located at 227 Main St. in the village. Residents will learn more about the fiscal issues the district is facing and have an opportunity to share their values and priorities for education.
District officials will open the forum with a presentation about the budget, including basics such as district revenues and expenditures; and related topics such as state aid under the governor’s proposal, fund balances, and the impact of a contingency budget. Officials will also review the reductions made to the current year’s budget.
Participants will then break into small groups with assigned facilitators who will lead conversations about specific questions pertaining to key issues for the 2010-11 budget.
This will give residents the opportunity to brainstorm options for ensuring continued educational program integrity at Goshen, despite increasing costs and a significant loss in funding. Thoughts and ideas gathered from the small group discussion will then be shared
The entire article is at - http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2010/03/06/the_chronicle/news/5.txt
More Reason for both sides BOE/all staff to reduce Taxes!
Friday's Journal News headline, "Lower Hudson Valley hit hard by job losses"
The article states..."The Lower Hudson Valley's private sector shed a greater share of jobs than any other region statewide last year, according to revised data from the state Department of Labor. The news was especially discouraging for job seekers, considering the region's unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 percent in January from 6.9 percent in December.
That's compared to 6.6 percent in January 2009. "The region's job numbers are not getting any better — truly, that's an understatement," said Johny Nelson, market analyst with the Department of Labor. "Everything is coming up in the negative in terms of jobs." Turns out statewide unemployment figures also finished the year worse than initially estimated.
After final revisions, New York's average annual unemployment rate increased to 8.4 percent in 2009 from 5.3 percent in 2008. That marks the highest unemployment rate since 1992, with job losses striking across industries."
Read the details at - http://www.lohud.com/article/20103050340
PS Good posting, Keep it Up!
We are taking a hit, what about all staff?
The "actual real" numbers are much worse than we get reported! The under employed plus those that have aged out of the count and those who have given up add up to nearly 15-20%. If they ever gave us the real numbers there would be a greater countrywide panic. Add me into that mix coming up on 1 year after 28 years of solid business experience. Looks like getting either temp or part time job offerersin their mid fifties with experience is not happening. Our small severance is exhausted and $401K tapped. How we will pay our taxes is going to be tight at best.
The public sector can no longer sit back and be bystanders. The schools need to cut back not only expenses but salaries and benefits, but the fact so far is that civil servants, and union teachers won't give an inch. You're lucky if you can get them to cut out the overtime and stipend abuse never mind taking any cut in pay at all. Hell, they won't even agree to a pay freeze.
How about it Newburgh staff - beginning with the supt; freeze everyone's salaries, freeze spending (are you listening parents?) and cut back on the extras.