Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Why I Voted "No" on the Budget

Author:
Last night I was the lone dissenter on the School Board's proposed FY10 budget. I voted no because the now-adopted budget does not reflect the Board's stated priorities, which included a salary increase for employees. There are other ways in which the adopted budget did not conform to our adopted priorities, but the purpose of this post is not to enumerate them.

The irony is that when the Board voted on priorities, I voted for job preservation ahead of salary increases. But once the Board adopted its priorities, I supported them, I expected the Board to stick to them and I believe others had a right to expect that as well. Priorities can be changed, but they should be changed openly and purposefully, not simply by ignoring them.

The School Board needs long-term strategic direction. The School Board needs to adopt goals and priorities that it will commit to, and then it needs to stick with them. LCPS employees need goals and priorities that they can implement. The public needs to know what this Board stands for and what it intends to accomplish.

This Board lacks a map, a compass, and a rudder.
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7 comments:

  1. Thank you for voting "no." I think our community needs to see that some people will not simply follow the crowd! I think it's sad that it's not until 15% reduction that cuts start to directly impact downtown. Teacher are working harder and harder, and can't make ends meet. Start with a furlough at the Administrative level first--several schools have done this.
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  2. Thank you for your integrity. While I'm sure that no teacher wants to receive a salary increase or the salary step at the expense of a colleague's job, I think that most teachers were somewhat stunned at Dr. Hatrick's sudden "about face" with regard to salaries. A compromise consisting of no raise but keeping the step increase would have seemed more reasonable.
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  3. That is because leadership spends too much time talking about where we came from and responding to everything else that comes up at whim.

    Your point about lack of strategic planning covers all of LCPS with the possible exception of the planning/construction departments.

    We ask students to begin planning their future in grade 6 but offer nothing of ourselves in the planning arena, especially a coordinated strategy.

    Every department has its own mission and goals.

    There is no long term service delivery model for LCPS.

    There is little reflection on what needs improvement because there is no strategy.
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  4. I thank you for voting "no." In this expensive area, it is difficult to make ends meet and Dr. Hatrick's decision to go along with the other Virginia superintendents does not refelct that sad fact. As medical costs are increasing, I see teachers losing money rather than maintaining their current salaries.
    I believe there is definitely some fluff that can be cut and unfortunately it does involve jobs. These, however, are not essential to the education of Loudoun's students. Closer inspection of expensive commercial "programs" used by LCPS,and the FLES initiative, are just some examples of belt-tightening that can occur as opposed to freezing salaries.
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  6. The lack of oversight and planning is rearing its ugly head throughout our government. Until we get more folks to stand up for what is right and say "no", this situation will get worse. Our teachers are one of our most precious commodities and we should figure out a way to give them decent compensation for their hard work. We need to examine seriously the affect that the illegal population is having in our schools, our hospitals, and our welfare system. They have caused our homes to depreciate 200% and they have run down our communities, and are over working our enforcement system. We accommodate them by not requiring them to speak English and continue to allow them to remain in our communities. Teachers are over worked because they have too many students, and the system doesn't have the funds to accommodate the overcrowding. We are in a depression right now and we need to cut programs that we know we can do without, while retaining the integrity of our teacher's, their salaries, and try to meet their needs. I am all for cutting out unnecessary programs, but I am tired of seeing benefits cut due to overcrowding by illegals. I am sure if I had the opportunity and time to review the schools expenditures we could cut out a lot of fluff. But we cannot afford to furlough our good teachers or deny them a small raise. I would be interested in hearing what the students think we could do without.
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  7. Thank you for voting "no". I have to believe that the teachers are "stunned" at Dr. Hatrick's budget. Last year the teachers took only a step increase and this year they will have a pay freeze, health insurance increases, and a 3-day furlough. This ends up being around a 3% cut in salary. Other school systems have been furloughing the administration but that seems to have been omitted in this case.

    Anyway, this is a short-term solution to the budget issues. A new school is scheduled to open next year so they will need an even larger budget. Program cuts and/or administrative and teacher staffing cuts must be dealt with. I am sure that if an independent party reviewed the budget, they could find plenty of excess to be trimmed while still maintaining the integrity of a wonderful school system. And trimming needs to be done. These budget issues are likely to be with us for a few years to come. It is very sad that the teachers will be carrying the burden of an over-inflated budget on their backs. Many teachers barely make ends meet living in Loudoun and many can't even afford to live in Loudoun. I hope that the Board of Supervisors will seriously examine the budget and reject Dr. Hatrick's proposal. I am sure that there are much better alternative and long-term solutions to this budget.
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