On the September "Start a new post" SolutionsRUs wrote:
"I did some rough calculations from the "How We got there" series. Had to do some rough estimates because actual dollar figures were missing from several items (whoever posted the series, is it possible to get the actual costs for all of the items in the series?).
So, from July 2005 to January 2009, PPS spent the following:
Consultants: $20.8M
Communications and Marketing: $3.1M
Increase in Central Admin: $6.1M
PELA program: $2.6M
Robotics move: $3M
Construction change orders: $5.9M
CEP: $12.5M
For a total of $54M
And that does not include the construction costs for Reizenstein, Sci Tech and Milliones...anyone have those numbers?
This is a travesty. Not one cent of this money was seen in the classroom. "
11 comments:
MR said "We just can't afford Schenley." Now we know why.
Not only was no money seen in the classroom, but on other threads people have talked about "what can we do?'( about some very needy studcents who have had life circumstances making school nearly impossible)
We need serious mental health help, behavior specialists in every school-- expensive but so ar the alternatives.
If we help a needy child- instead of of PELAs running about with laptops playing "gotcha" with the script--this is the only way we can get out of where we are.
Did anyone see this editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on Friday, September 30, 2011:
A silver lining in the belt-tightening forced upon public schools by budget realities is reduction or elimination of public relations specialists, whose self-serving spinning of districts' images is an obscene use of taxpayer dollars.
School districts -- and boroughs and townships, for that matter -- are government entities, accountable to those whose tax dollars fund them. Their results -- and their officials -- should speak for themselves. Yet they pay in-house spinmeisters and gatekeepers to filter the truth and insulate them from the public.
Let's call it what it is -- government propaganda. You're paying to be spun.
In fact, the more that local-level officials rely on such "flacks," the more reason the public has to suspect that those officials have something to hide.
That holds true regardless of what a particular school district, borough or township pays a particular PR person -- though the higher the salary, the greater the misuse of taxpayer money is. Every dollar that a school district or municipality spends on PR, after all, is a dollar not spent on the core functions it exists to perform.
Especially at the local level where school districts and municipalities operate, the fewer layers of bureaucracy -- and obfuscators of fact -- there are between the public and public servants, the better.
Read more: Government spinning ... With your money - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_759364.html#ixzz1ZXGTRFeb
Thank you Stan for posting the Trib's editorial on the effect of PR staff on school districts/municipalities.
When I read it, it made me think of all of the money wasted on Communications & Marketing documented in the "How we got where we are" series.
The strategic placement of a non-educator with little day to day responsibilities for anything - other than being the public face of the school district and controlling the flow of information - has been a cancer upon this district.
It is time to thank the Chief of Staff for her service and part ways.
It really is hard to believe that Pittsburgh places a higher priority on "the spin" than on providing interventions and resources that more directly change student outcomes.
In the face of a trend locally and across the state of paring back unnecessary spending, Pittsburgh hired an Archivist this summer.
Are you kidding me?
The passage of time will make the 40 point financial recovery plan provided to this blog and PPS by the Westinghouse Alumni Associations and Fiscal Friends of Pittsburgh only look wiser.
What a shame on two counts: 1) no response by PPS; 2) those of us sitting cozy in the north, south and west of Pittsburgh sat too long content to let the PURE Reform, WAA and others in the east end take up the fight for our children.
No more. It is time for caring and passionate folk citywide to step up to the plate and play on this team.
Yesterday's editorial on PR staff in school districts was a follow up to an article the Trib ran earlier in the week.
Here's an excerpt:
"Locally, layoffs or attrition have claimed public relations positions in Wilkinsburg, Plum, West Mifflin and Baldwin-Whitehall districts, to name a few. The jobs have swelled unemployment ranks that include teachers, bus drivers, aides and even administrators."
Read more: School districts struggling with the cost of communication - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_757759.html#ixzz1ZXKil1H0
From the article: WORDS of WISDOM:
"We've been doing fairly well," said Lawrence Korchnak, superintendent of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, where spokesman Jim O'Brien retired in November after 15 months on the job. "You make or break your own news. My guess is if we perform well, we do our job well and continue to do our jobs, then when that news gets out we're hoping the media picks up on it."
Thank you Dr. Korchnak. The PPS emphasis MUST be on "doing the job well." Not only will the media pick it up, but, parents and students will not false PR to attract them back to PPS.
Read more: School districts struggling with the cost of communication - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_757759.html#ixzz1ZXaKsLOE
Elementary schools have no librarians (really!) Paraprofessionals have been cut to the bare minimum, special subject teachers are at half time in those same places but we have money for everything else.....except for the children. So sad, I could go on but it is so depressing.
PPS needs an "Archivist" to keep good records on the expansion of Central Office and PR as well as the the diminution of Students and Achievement. Right?
Anon 6:14
Looks to me like there was already an Archivist working to catalog the execution of the Gates/Broad agenda by the Roosevelt/Lane/Fischetti/Weiss administration.
Don't miss a single edition of the "How we got where we are" series!
Speaking of unnecessary time and money spent on branding, what is that I hear about a committee to rename Westinghouse?
I understand that they are thinking about naming it Dick Cheney High, just to be fair.
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