Friday, March 18, 2011
Board discussion of budget
Well, the agenda review disposed of the budget issue in about 20 minutes! Board members agreed that they are "in a bind not of their own making;" that the things being cut are things they would love to have (like air conditioning and environmental upgrades) but not necessities (like fire alarms and roofs), and that was it.
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28 comments:
The budget does however seem to be serving as a useful explanation for unpopular decisions.
i guest now PPS will learn to have fisical responsibility when it comes to spending money meaning not just spending because you have
like they say you spend on things you NEED and not what you WANT.
money don't grow on TREES
before spending do a fact finding and research on why you need to spend x amount of dollars
It appears that all four (4) of the school board encumbents will face challengers in the May primaries this year. Perhaps that is why they are trying, without success, to cover their 'backsides.' As far as I am concerned, any mismanagement, misuse of public funds fall under their responsibility. They need to take ownership of the past 4+ years of their leadership.
Three out of the four encumbents crossed filed for the primary election to ensure their success. Bill Isler is the only one who did not.
Registered voters of these districts please remember, when you cast your vote at the polls this May, that the current board members did not represent you in their 'rubber stamping' decisions.
Please remember that the current board did not question any policies, their costs, or future impact on the District. Instead, they abdicated their responsibilities to a self-serving politician who did not have any teaching experience but did have political clout with private and public funding foundations. He was beholden to the corporations and foundations that backed him and not to the taxpayers or constituents he served.
He, and the board members, were beholden to the Broad foundation which certified him as superintent in weekend classes; whereas, past superintents had to have taught at least 5 years as a certified teacher and had already been certified as a superintent. Evidentally, the board members thought that it was a real emergency to certify him since they did not or could not take the time to find a superintent who had a track record. Forgive me, it would require research to find a veteran superintent with a good track record; something the board apparently does not believe in, research and/or a veteran superintent with a good track record.
Mark Roosevelt has systematically torn down the schools in the District to make way for Charter Schools that are runned by private, out of state corporations supported by public monies. As a result, he has opened the door for vouchers to help fiscally support these charters. Silly me for I thought that PUBLIC education was not for profit. However, it would seem that everyone involved in making policy and executing it are profiting except for the children.
Who do we have to thank for all this, but the current board members. Consider this when you are at the polls this May, Mark Roosevelt signed a contract to serve the District another 5 years and, before the ink had dried, he had signed a contract to serve as President of a failing out of state college (his modus operandi), and to this day, the taxpayers of the District are still paying him as well as his successor, Dr. Lane, to manage the District. Please tell me how we can afford this; especially in these times of economic turmoil?
If you are like me, struggling to pay the household bills, while the cost of living skyrockets, but your paycheck shrinks with every concession you make to keep a job that may or may not exist the next month, then vote the encumbents out. If you are happy with the status quo, then do us all a favor and don't vote.
Apparently, the current board members are happy with the status quo because they hired Mark Roosevelt's assitant superintent, Dr. Lane, as his successor without seriously considering any other candidates.
Many good points but it needs to be clear- Mark Roosevelt did not welcome charter schools, at least in Pittsburgh. Back when he was in Massachusetts and not running a competing district he apparently supported them, but resisted them at every step here. And for the charter schools doing well here, such as the Environmental Charter, he could find little good to say about them.
Please excuse the repost of my comments. This revision includes grammatical and spelling mistakes.
It appears that all four (4) of the school board incumbents will face challengers in the May primaries this year. Perhaps that is why they are trying, without success, to cover their 'backsides.' As far as I am concerned, any mismanagement, misuse of public funds fall under their responsibility. They need to take ownership of the past 4+ years of their leadership.
Three out of the four incumbents crossed filed for the primary election to ensure their success. Bill Isler is the only one who did not.
Registered voters of these districts please remember, when you cast your vote at the polls this May, that the current board members did not represent you in their 'rubber stamping' decisions.
Please remember that the current board did not question any policies, their costs, or future impact on the District. Instead, they abdicated their responsibilities to a self-serving politician who did not have any teaching experience but did have political clout with private and public funding foundations. He was beholden to the corporations and foundations that backed him and not to the taxpayers or constituents he served.
He, and the board members, were beholden to the Broad foundation which certified him as superintendent in weekend classes; whereas, past superintendents had to have taught at least 5 years as a certified teacher and had already been certified as a superintendent. Evidently, the board members thought that it was a real emergency to certify him since they did not or could not take the time to find a superintendent who had a track record. Forgive me, it would require research to find a veteran superintendent; something the board apparently does not believe in, research and/or a veteran superintendent.
Mark Roosevelt has systematically torn down the schools in the District to make way for Charter Schools that are run by private, out of state corporations supported by public monies. As a result, he has opened the door for vouchers to help fiscally support these charters. Silly me, I thought that PUBLIC education was not for profit. However, it would seem that everyone involved in making policy and executing it are profiting except for the children.
Who do we have to thank for all this, but the current board members? Consider this when you are at the polls this May, Mark Roosevelt signed a contract to serve the District another 5 years and, before the ink had dried, he had signed a contract to serve as President of a failing out of state college (his modus of operandi), and to this day, the taxpayers of the District are still paying him as well as his successor, Dr. Lane, to manage the District. Please tell me how we can afford this; especially in these times of economic turmoil?
If you are like me, struggling to pay the household bills, while the cost of living skyrockets, but your paycheck shrinks with every concession you make to keep a job that may or may not exist the next month, then vote the incumbents out. If you are happy with the status quo, then do us all a favor and don't vote.
Apparently, the current board members are happy with the status quo because they hired Mark Roosevelt's assistant superintendent, Dr. Lane, as his successor without seriously considering any other candidates.
Thank you Questioner for the clarification which only confirms the chameleon character of MR. It makes you wonder even more about his and the foundations true agenda.
Mark Roosevelt has systematically torn down the schools in the District to make way for Charter Schools that are runned by private, out of state corporations supported by public monies. As a result, he has opened the door for vouchers to help fiscally support these charters.
This doesn't quite make sense, for a couple of reasons. As Q pointed out above, the PPS has been very reticent about granting charters, which is, I think a good thing. The Environmental charter just proves that when you have a higher percentage of kids from middle class and above homes, with educated parents watching over the school's shoulder and making demands, the school does better. Of course, having an income helps make that a much easier task!
Secondly, if anything vouchers will hurt charters. Charters are free to the children attending because they are funded with (our local) public money. If other alternatives become cheap or free, charters may suffer.
Otherwise I totally agree about the vileness of running charter schools for profit off of public money.
Some of the folks we have elected do not have a full understanding of public education. When the voucher issue first came up it was surprising how many politicians thought vouchers would help create charters. Senate Bill 1 is a very incomplete piece of legislation. The budget will be pounded out and maybe we won't be the last state to pass again.
after PPS adjust their budget they
need to take a look at the monthly
income and exspenses of each month
number 1. so they know what's coming in and going out number 2. need to work closely with the accounting dept. meaning they can set up a monthly budget during the
school year this rate they can keep tabs on spending every month,
number 3. on capital projects they can budget it out base on what's coming in and if it is in the budget,in terms do research and fact finding before you allocate funding enlosing PPS is needs have a ongoing communication with the
BUDGET person,AUDITORS and ACCOUNTING staff to know what PPS
can AFFORD and cannot AFFORD!!!!!
it's called ACCOUNTABILITY****that's how you keep your finances in ORDER
How will these "default" assignments impact the PPS BUDGET?
Board Members,
This letter is a plea on behalf of large numbers of students in the Eastern Region of Pittsburgh who have been stripped of educational options by arbitrary assignment to Milliones U-Prep as the “default” school Students formerly assigned to Allderdice, Peabody and Westinghouse.
East Hills students have been re-assigned to Westinghouse Single-Gender.If they choose not to attend Single-Gender, they will be assigned (by default) to Milliones U-Prep.
Peabody students (not in Obama IB) are assigned to Westinghouse Single-Gender. If they choose not to attend, theyare assigned (by default) to U-Prep.
Students living West of Negley have been assigned to Milliones U-Prep as their feeder-pattern. This means that students from East Hills, Homewood, Lincoln-Larimer, Garfield, East Liberty, Highland Park, Stanton Heights, Morningside, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, and the HILL DISTRICT will be merged, (without alternative choices), to Milliones U-Prep in September, 2011.
Promises of a University Preparatory School at Milliones are broken. The Memorandum of Understanding with Pitt School of Education is violated.
The school year 2011-2012 is five months away. It is not possible, during that time, to prepare students, parents, teachers, administrators, communities, academic programs, professional development, nor school buildings for a huge influx of students from uninformed, unprepared, unwilling PPS citizenry who are learning that they have NO OPTIONS.
How many students, from this area, have not yet chosen a school? (The estimated number ranges from 700 to 1200.)
Many issues have been raised about 1) safety, 2) educational quality, 3) transportation, 4) border-crossing,, 5) combining 6-12 students in the eastern regions (and nowhere else), 6) inadequate building capacity at Milliones, (where the original design was for an open-spaced Middle School with small spaces closed off now with walls,) 7) lack of equity of resources, 8) lack of equity of choice, 9) disenfranchisement, and 10) lack cohesiveness, cooperation, collaboration, commitment, and cultural capital _____ in this “default” situation.
What will happen to the U-Prep academic program and its requirements?
What will happen with the status of agreement with the University of Pittsburgh?
What will happen in the few months remaining that will provide answers to these additional questions:
How will the District provide a curriculum that addresses the academic challenges that have left this population of students largely unsuccessful in meeting “proficiency” standards? (Check the data on this population and you will see that they are 20 to 30 to 40 points below the Pennsylvania “Proficiency” targets.)
How will the District select the teachers, identify the needs of teachers, provide the Professional Development necessary to meet the needs of this group of students in ways the will allow achievement to rise, students to recover success, standards to be aligned with teaching, learning and assessment, provide the culturally-relevant, culturally-sensitive, culturally-defined best practices for this population?
Is the PPS School Board prepared to deal with the unintended consequences of this egregious state of unpreparedness?
Please, Board Members, vote to retract, delay, postpone and seriously rethink the September 2011 opening of Milliones U-Prep (and related reconfigured schools) until there is a substantive plan that will succeed in raising the achievement of these ‘defaulted’ students, the majority of whom are not currently far from “proficiency” targets in both Reading and Math?
I trust that doing “something” that is so fraught with potential problems and does not articulate any specific academic advantages for these children CAN and WILL BE SET ASIDE until there is agreement on a PLAN that can engender “belief” in its likelihood for success.
In the East reagion, any 9-12 student not in the Allderdice feeder defaults to U Prep unless he/she chooses and is accepted as a magnet. Westinghouse students and those east of Negley receive preference for the Westinghouse magnet.
We're hearing that most Peabody area students are choosing U Prep, while about half the Westinghouse area students are choosing U Prep.
Sending half the Westinghouse students to U Prep will not do anything to address the enrollment problem at Westinghouse. Meanwhile, U Prep (already just a jr hs building) will be very overcrowded. Where's the logic in all this?
Over three years ago we ASKED for a comprehensive plan (complete with feeder patterns and expected numbers of students for each school) for the very reason of avoiding this kind of result.
Notes from 2:45:
1) The text (2:45) had to be shortened to fit the blog requirements; thus, many words were deleted (here) from the original letter to Board members.
2) Milliones U-Prep is now the "default" school for former Allderdice (re-districted East Hills students), Peabody students, and Westinghouse students who do not choose a Single Gender Academy at Westinghouse.
3) Testimony on these issues would be welcomed at the Board's Public Hearing tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM.
U-Prep was a Jr. High when it was Herron Hill. It was then completely remodeled as a open-space Margaret Milliones Middle School. Ceilings are low, halls are narrow, classrooms are very small and closed-in, windows are limited; but the new auditorium is gorgeous!
But, the auditorium seems to be set off from the rest of the school and not really part of the every day life of the school.
You also have to wonder why U Prep needed an expensive new auditorium when the sci tech school was losing its auditorium in order to make room for an early childcare center and a multi-purpose room.
It's going to be interested to see how this all unfolds. Perhaps I am wrong, but it would seem to me that any parent of an achieving, aspiring kid currently at Peabody or of one who was to go there for 9th grade would look to Obama rather than sending their kid to U-Prep or into the unknown of a single gender school in a bad location. I guess the natural response would be that this kind of parent didn't have his kid going to Peabody anyway...
Pretty as that auditorium might, is it enough to attract students? HA! Allderdice may want to add staff in its main office to process kids who suddenly want to attend there rather than their assigned schools.
You had to go there, Questioner??????
James says: "if one who was to go there for 9th grade would look to Obama rather than sending their kid to U-Prep or into the unknown of a single gender school in a bad location."
Yup. That's why the 9th grade at Obama next year is going to have a large majority (yes, more than half, a lot more than half) of students who were not there for 6-8th grade.
There are a couple of things that tells you:
-- many current 8th graders didn't choose to continue at Obama (this should be a concern, but is being hidden by the fact that they were able to fill the class)
-- many of the new students will have little interest in the IB philosophy or program. They do though have parents motivated enough to avoid UPrep (old experiment) and Westinghouse (new experiment) which is a good sign.
Anonymous said... You had to go there, Questioner??????
Go where?
First of all the idea that this budget problem "is not one our making" as was stated in the legislative meeting is smoke and mirrors to keep the heat off of the School Board. The School Board is responsible for voting and approving every expense. They were very shortsighted when the Federal Govt. was handing out stimulus money and assumed that there would be more where that came from.
Secondly Dr. Lanes feeble attampt at showing her "fiscal discipline" is a sham. For years now, non educational departments within the District have been forced to make cuts in their operating budget with no reduction in the amount work expected by that department. The employees that are remaining have to assume more duties and responsibilities and NEVER are given additional salary to compensate. But when cuts are made in the Central Office, the remaining executives are compensated. Also, if two positions at this level are being cut, including benefits, the savings should be greater than $141,000. Personnaly I think that these "leaders" should be ashamed at what their salaries are when the majority of the taxpayers in this school district don't even come close to this amount of money!
Why is the District keeping buildings open that are designed for capacities at twice or even three times what the current enrollment is. The District is constantly talking about the number of students in the District reducing but there is no plan for school consolidation. The District has entire buildings open for only the Early Childhood Centers. The cost of utilities alone in these buildings outweighs the cost of the ECC.
One last item, I do understand the need for a quality education for our children, but, Pittsburgh has some of the highest paid teachers in the state and with a dwindling student population when will we see the teachers union take a hit, as I am writing this there is a project in motion to spend more money to construct a teacher's Academy. No other department in the District is subsidized to further education.
Anon 8:20,
You made some good points, but I do not know where you get your facts on teacher pay. PSS teachers were perhaps the highest paid decades ago; however, teacher salaries in other Districts have since surpassed the salaries in PPS. In fact, PPS teachers salaries have significantly been reduced. Teachers have been deceived by the UNIONS for decades. Teachers are not the problem, Administration is. Teachers are the greatest educational resource and should be treated as such.
As far as Early Child Care, more resources should be allocated to the program. The development of a child is crucial within the first 4 years of his/her life. It is the early years that determine the child's success.
Early childcare is great, but it should not be placed in space needed by a 6-12 school.
anon 8:20 and others, Mr. Roosevelt expected PPS to be a winner in The Race to the Top contests that would keep funds flowing for new and improved educational programs. It was a logical assumption since PPS was successful in putting together the plan and presentation that brought PPS the Gates Award. Education is all about optimism, even when the players are truly pessimists.
Many who have lived through previous school consolidations in both parochial and public schools know that it is a "survivable" situation, yet mention any school being on the chopping block and you will likley see protest from previously uninvolved families.
Watching only the progress of the latest phase of high school reform, especially the UPrep and Westinghouse Acadmies piece, makes me think that student/parent choice will determine which schools remain operationally viable. Consolidation will be driven by consumer choice and population. There should never be schools kept open when they drive up the overall cost per student as we saw with buildings like Bon Air. That is actually unfortunte since it might be best for ECCs to be away from the pace and chaos of buildings houseing older students.
Survivable if well planned and executed.
And survivable if not being sent to a failing school. Moving from one bad situation to another just as bad or worse just can't be seen as an improvement.
Back when UPrep was just a gleam in their eyes, parents were told that it was much too hard to reform a school that was already in place (referring to the HSs that were doing poorly but not being closed). It was said that it had to be a new program, preferably in a different building.
I guess all those things are no longer true?!
Anon 3/12 7:45
Even Positive Pollyanna would give the PPS board and administration an 'F' on their report card.
Little Orphan Annie believes the sun will come out when the board incumbents are voted out.
Ziggy blames Mark Roosevelt and his Broadie groupies for the dark cloud hanging over his head.
Ziggy credits PPS for the lessons he learned at Millones U-Prep assemblies.
Teachers are over Paid?
PPS Teachers are some of the lowest paid teachers in this area. We are paid much less than our suburban counter parts, but they have real unions, the PFT is a joke.
1.5% a year is way below inflation once you reach top step
Teachers Academy? That program should be first to be scraped, our district can not graduate students, and know they whant to certify teachers?
U-Prep (Great Name) Horrible leadership, horrible idea.
U-Prep situation is only going to get worse, BOOOOOOOOOOOO
Cut positions at S. Belfield, how many management positions were created during MR's tenure. Do we still need a Principle/ Pela program?
The Ivory Tower types have doubled or trippled in last 5 years, trim the fat. My building loses teacher positions every year, but the Board is hiring more people who never work with children.
Insanity?
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