New board minutes have been posted

It only took 2 months, but Board of Education minutes from meetings held on February 3rd and onwards have now been posted on the Indian River Central School District website.

I haven't posted anything about the current budget crisis lately because .. beh, what can be said? I attended the board meeting on March 31st. There was a positive buzz in the air, as Senator Wright had just informed IREA and the Board that in the freshly passed State Budget, (on time for the first time in 21 years! hooah!) additional funding had been procured for the school district. Of course, each time this news was discussed, a different figure was disclosed. It was not clear, to me at least, how the board planned to spend the extra money coming its way. The minutes from that particular meeting are not yet posted. Don't rush or anything .. it's not like anyone's jobs are on the line. {end sarcasm}

I won't pretend that I could do a better job of managing a large corporation with a huge budget. I don't want to be a mere heckler sitting in the peanut gallery. But during the aforementioned meeting on post last month, the superintendent used the old "tighten up the household budget" analogy to explain how the district intended to weather this financial storm. That's music to my ears. You need your household budget tweaked? I'm your hausfrau. I run a tight ship and this household is doing just fine, thankyouverymuch. While my husband's base pay remains constant, with annual increases given by grace of the Senate Armed Services committee, our actual income does fluctuate when DH is deployed or TDY. I do not build those allowances (overseas cost of living, family separation, etc) into the daily and monthly operating expenses of our family and household. Rather, those extra funds are earmarked for improvements to the house which, in turn, raise the value of our investment and/or decrease our household operating expenses. This hausfrau wonders why the same philosophy has not been applied to the fluctuating school budget. Just curious, that's all.

And while we're making analogies, here's one that's been bouncing around in my head:

In the Army, there's a saying that the system's organization is a series of concentric circles. The center of the circle is the "11 Bravo" - the infantryman. Everything else in the army exists to support the infantry. Based on my observations, the classroom teacher is the 11 Bravo of the school. No offense to any support staff. If I were the Queen of the Universe, classroom teaching positions would be the very last items cut from the budget .. only after all other avenues had been explored. However, according to the Budget Recommendations this is where the bulk of the savings will take place. Sigh .. I've seen this so many times before. The people in the expensive suits look at the "pie" and say .. "Hey! Look how big that piece of the pie is!" And then they get out their knives and start slashing. Nurses, teachers .. same song, different chorus.

Oh, and one more little tidbit of information. Last night, we were visiting friends who live in the village of Black River (Town of Leray, Carthage School District). Jimmy's school tax levy this year is about $24 per $1000 assessed value. That's an increase of about $6 per $1000, or 25%, since 2002 (latest figures available on the New York State Office of Real Property Services website.) Last September, our School Tax bill was a whopping $350, or about $6.60 per $1000. That's an increase of about 8 cents per thousand since 2002. Ouch. The local tax levy accounts for a very small portion of the district's budget - about $1.8 million last year. If my math is correct, a 10% increase in the local levy would generate about $180,000. That's equivalent to four classroom teachers (average salary + benefits = $45K) at a cost of $35 to this household. If my $35 is all that it would take to keep my son's classroom teacher employed by this district, I'll pony up right now. Would you like that in a check, or is cash all right?