Don't Wait For The Stimulus

The results are in and the ideas for cutting costs are great! Twenty four replies have been received, evaluated, researched, and validated. The ideas have shown a tremendous amount of creativity and logical thinking, unlike anything the school board could ever design in their meager minds.

Before I get to the proposals I could not believe some of the policies the school board is considering. Besides the fact the board is “policy happy” with some of the most ridiculous and unnecessary policies, the members step on personal liberties with wreckless abandon. Not withstanding the fact that the policies could never stand a court test, they are just plain paranoid.
Consider this “new” policy that a Roanoke civil rights attorney stated was not only illegal but “….shows a severe case of paranoia that begs to ask what are they hiding?” Here is the policy:

“The Board prohibits employee use of cameras, camera phones, tape recorders, or other recording (audio or video) devices in the workplace.
Accordingly, employees are prohibited from using such devices in the workplace, unless specific advanced written authorization has been obtained from their immediate supervisor. This includes a prohibition on using the audio and video features commonly found on cellular phones.”
Paging Dr. Paranoid ! So now they not only won’t give you anything in writing but you’re not allowed to record their comments either. So what lie was one of them caught in that prompted this policy?

Meanwhile back to the submitted cost cutting ideas. After a careful review I am posting the ones that received the most votes from the responding individuals. And the winners are………….(Someone has to do it since the district has been silent about any ideas about cutting costs even though surrounding districts and cities have been discussing their proposals for weeks.)

Reduce Central Office Garbage Without a doubt this was mentioned most often as a way to cut costs. Some were specific (seven people in human resources?) and some were general ( get rid of anyone retired from North Carolina). Basically the cuts were:
-get rid of all curriculum planners (Comment: “Teachers don’t need to be e-mailed to death about useless information.)
-cut positions from human resources (Comment: “All those people and they still can’t get my icense straight.”
-cut IT/Curriculum people (Comment: “Never around, never do anything, ship them out….”)
-reduce secretarial positions (Comment: “Even secretaries have secretaries.”)
-cut the Asst Superintendent for Administrative Services (Comment: Mentioned on 85% of all responses.)

Close a School With the population steadily declining in the schools it makes sense to close another school. Votes were running about even with Glenwood and Woodrow being the most mentioned. This would result in significant savings in personnel, maintenance, transportation, etc.

Reduce Unnecessary Copying Several people mentioned the waste by teachers and administrators of paper for “personal” use. Seems like every church bulletin in Danville is printed on a school machine! Many questioned the need of so many color printers.

Stop Ridiculous Wasteful Spending Wow was this mentioned over and over! Examples given were i-phones for central office people, a $3,000 TV for the superintendents office, ridiculous work orders, and a decorator budget that would make Oprah blush!

Reduce Salaries by 3% Though this one was the most unpopular it was mentioned as a viable alternative ONLY if the central office did their share of cutting (like that’s going to happen…..)

Reduce and Control Energy Costs Many people mentioned HVAC systems running into the late evenings, after school use of facilities, and generally no policy to control energy costs. (Central office wired for individual desk heating units?)

So there it is school board members. Since you can’t seem to do the job yourself the employees have done it for you. So put those thinking caps on those very small brains and come up with some ideas. Its time to wake up and go to work! Oh but that’s right you’re too busy writing another policy….. As my granddaughter said, “Don’t those people know how to do anything?” No hunny, they don’t.

The Race Is On

Well the responses to the blog concerning budget cuts for next year has been great. So far 16 replies with suggestions for reductions. Not bad. Some suggestions were very thought out and some were of the "I hate that person or program so cut it " variety. I will wait one more week then put the ideas together and post them. Maybe the school board will read it and actually do their job but I doubt it. They seem to be infactuated with their policy revisions and don't see anything else around them. They keep nodding their heads at the Queen from the Concrete Palace and waiting like lightening to strike. Or they may even wake up at a meeting.