On another post Anonymous wrote:
"For a new post.. . .
Group urges Pittsburgh schools to
look harder at cutting ...
Tribune Review
A+ Schools released a report today urging Pittsburgh Public Schools to take a number of steps, including freezing the wages of non-union employees, to reach financial stability. The school district recently approved a budget that pared a projected ...
or
Report: Freeze wages for school workers not covered by contract
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette After studying Pittsburgh Public Schools finances, A+ Schools has concluded that the district has responded to "pressing financial challenges quickly and decisively" but recommended additional actions, ...
This is a little late-there should be a reopening of all school employees and Union contracted for pay cuts or freezes-instead of just headhunting teachers, etc. And rid all employees of bonuses. CRIs getting extra pay. Principal bonuses. The famed $1000 payment for top of the pay scale people making district AYP.
This call by A Plus is a little late –comparing Union contracts with other school districts-it is not the method. The Union will win. Where was A+ Schools when the contracts were up."
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19 comments:
Can someone post links?
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_782539.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12051/1211488-100.stm
Here are links-sorry.
This is a little late-there should be a reopening of all school employees and Union contracted for pay cuts or freezes-instead of just headhunting teachers, etc.
And rid all employees of bonuses. CRIs getting extra pay. Principal bonuses. The famed $1000 payment for top of the pay scale people making district AYP.
This call by A Plus is a late –comparing Union contracts with other school districts-it is not the method. The Union will win. Where was A+ Schools when the contracts were up.
How about cuts at the top at Bellefield?
Spin me! Spin me! So, A+ thinks the district is moving in the right direction. Hiring freeze? Was it a month or two ago that we saw that there were "positions opened" for substitute cleaners and was the number the same as the number just furloughed less than a year ago? "employees not covered by a collective bargaining contract" is the phrase used in the reporting, but did anyone ask how many people that might be? Seriously, the number might hit a couple dozen. Just who among staff is NOT covered by a collective bargaining contract? Admin maybe? I am only a taxpayer but I remember how Mr. Berdnik (sp?) used to practically float on air when he'd talk about getting the biggest bang for the buck in negotiating health care, utility costs, transportation costs, etc. Well, at least we no longer hear of paying relocation costs like we used to for people hired to come to Pittsburgh.
The rational and needed "cuts" in positions and salaries are at 341 Bellefield. To cut teachers and increase class size (when its not working as it exists) makes no sense at all. Really, it does not make sense.
For education to improve for all students, we need more teachers, more excellence in classrooms, and less students in classrooms and less people at central office. It makes no sense to exacerbate the problems that we already have identified.
Again, there is a long list of things that can be cut (most specifically consultants), but it should NOT be anything that affects teaching and learning in classrooms. This is why we have schools.
Oh, and there are 2000 teacher applicants on the waiting list; but Jody Spolar requested the hiring of a consultant agency to screen more teachers for the application process?
And the Board approved it!
Spinning is accurate web for board rationale. Adm at the Board are untouched from Chiefs sitting at the Board meeting table.
By the way who by dept are the layers as their Assistants? Where can we suggest cleaning? Let’s clean Bellefield out-more than less. HR needs cut the hiring staff but they are firing teachers-so retirement services must be busy.
February 20, 2012 2:40 PM
Thank you for mentioning the Gallup test-when will this be implemented? They do not need this.
Will this bring in the best teachers?
No-they have an Eligibility List that brings in better teachers? Nope-they do not think so..
We have teacher openings-unfilled. Some Retirees are daily filling in as a sub collecting extra cash which can be a negative for new teachers to get a job. Because the Brd is not hiring. We have emergency certifications given to full-time subs as favors to the Board or politicians’ relatives.
Yes, these are facts.
I am thinking A+ might mean cuts to lunch ladies. I do not think they are represented by a collective bargaining contract. The cafeteria manager is probably covered by a contract, but not the lunch ladies. We need to unite now to save the luch ladies.
Without lunch ladies-we can have teachers do lunch duties in elementary schools.
The lunch ladies clean up the tables after kids eat. Some our elementary schools will see the biggest budget cuts. So when are the regular or real cuts for this year to be announced from last November meeting-it is very silent as a mouse.
many elementary schools are losing all of the EA-1 ( ed assistants who in many schoold did lunch duty , hall duty, bus duty-- you name it. So now the teachers who are left will also be doing all this too--I remember when principals thought lunch was a major part of their day-- doubt that the PELAs will leave their laptops to clean tables.
A plus is a kiss butt trying to get brownie points with the disrict and fondations. We can see right through you A plus.
Aplus and PPS are founded by the same foundations and are told to work together if they want to keep getting funded. Havent you noticed that any and everytime Aplus ask Linda Lane to speak she is there quick fast and a hurry, while everyone else has to wait a year for here to talk to them.
Dont you see how APlus always starts there comments on how great PPS is doing before it give it a lightly once over critism. What a shame. If Aplus it going to be a true watch group tell it like it is and find another funding source so you will have some credabilty. Otherwise get out the game and leave it to the real experts.
Wasnt there a 40 point plan of some sort ont this blog introduced a while back that was a starting point for saving the district 100 million dollars? If Im not mistaken I notice the district use some of those ideas claiming to be the other of the thoughts them self. And they pay some some 50,000 a month to do just that and he just suggested the free ideas I saw here.
Bellefield and Dr. Lane is such a joke. If she wants to save money reduce the staff around her and not the teachers who are necessary to a affecttive school district. Why has their own union failed them?
Why would you want to cut the lunch ladies that are the least amoung us and make the least amount. We need to make cuts where the impact can be felt, and thats at 341 Bellefield. Start with Lippert, Otuwa, spolar.
Pete Carmarde has said privately many times that Dr. lane has no idea about the finances of the district. She does not understand budgets and the general funds from the grant funds. Pete is also confused as he was not ready to take over this post. He is so frustrated with Dr. Lanes unwillings to take suggestions and get him help that he consults with people on the side to help him make some since of all this.
Please Bring back Berdnick he was the one who warned of this budget crisses years ago. Does any one know where he has gone? Is he still in the city?
Hi it's me anon 2:21 from yesterday. I was being facetious with the lunch ladies comment and by no means want to lose a single person who carries the weight of keeping kids on track in terms of behavior. I now know there is little room for a moment of levity and I will stick to being serious.
10:49 Why would LL bring back Berdnik when she finalized MR's plan to bid him farewell? Yes, he warned and warned about the ongoing potential for the budget crisis before it exploded. That's why he's GONE!
MR didn't like the budget facts that Berdnik was reporting. So, when a soldier is not in step with the boss and speaks out, you get hammered. Berdnik was the most honest person that worked at Bellefield. The Board made a very bad mistake....they believed the MR / LL story and now PPS is paying dearly for MR's failure to contain budget expenditures.
You sense the problem the minute you walk into the buildings at S.Bellefield or Greenway: a total disconnect from the realities of schools.
Board offices should be moved into schools piece by piece. That way, perhaps the inner circle can get a whiff of the carnage they are creating through their incompetent actions.
That the bloat that IS NOT in classrooms is allowed to keep their jobs at taxpayer expense while 400 teachers are to be fired is unconscionable.
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