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Board Member: "Teachers... Jerks", Human Resources: How to get the 2.5% back from teachers.I listened to the "PodCast" of the board meeting. You should too. If you would like my take and summary, here it is: Our teachers can rest comfortably knowing that at least one Board Member, Ms. Smith, thinks the majority of teachers are "Jerks" and their very own Human Resource Director, Renee Ellis, claims to have spoken prior to this meeting to the school's lawyers to investigate how best to legally take the teachers /parpros/ secretaries 2.5% raise. It's true, one of our esteemed Board Members, Ms. Smith, (living in a million dollar home) thinks any teacher who would not support the prospect of giving back the 2.5% raise is a "Jerk". (One hour and 33 minutes in to the podcast.) Podcast The Board Meeting of Jan. 5 The Human Resources director, Rene Ellis, ($105,000 salary and an $84,000 assistant) claims she had already spoken to lawyers (Mr. Hartley?) about how to take the 2.5% pay raise from the teachers. Does that mean she is the architect of this fiasco? It must feel nice to know as a teacher that these are your "supporters". (One hour and 36 minutes in to the podcast.) While they had for many minutes previously discussed benefit cuts and meandered through how they can make-up all of the cash shortfall via the school building and classroom teachers / personnel, they failed to discuss any alternative solution convinced that they must involve our teachers and students. (I think it is so interesting that the chief concern is that they penalize all of the teachers and administrators equitably. How considerate.) They worked equally as hard to try to re-open the enrollment period for 'benefits' so they can cut the current employee benefits even further and sooner. In fact, they argued and discussed about eliminating any job not required by the state (at the school level NOT county office of course) and eliminating the county contribution to teacher pay (local supplements). It seems that the "out of the box" thinking was actually "in the box". The box being the school itself of course. Perhaps we can find a way to look outside of the building. Here are a few ideas that I came up with while I listened to the podcast: If a household has more than three students there should be a $2,000 surcharge. ($8,500 x 3 students = $25,500/year is all you get folks.) Out of county students are not permitted unless they pay $10,000/yr. tuition. (Certificated Employees children can come for $8,000/yr.) People sending kids here illegally are pursued in court and charged the entire amount of expenditure to reimburse the tax-payer (i.e.,student attended three years w/o being caught - now owes $8,500 x 3 = $25,500 to the tax payers of Fayette County PER CHILD ATTENDING.) The over 100 special permission students at Whitewater high school (and of course all others will be withdrawn immediately) (100 x $8,500 = $850,000 of the 1.8 million shortfall) Have 25 year retirement in lieu of 30 year (The highest paid teachers could be replaced with younger newer teachers at a greatly reduced expense - also, the state would save 10% on the retirement pay for the teachers who retire at 25 years for the life of the teacher.) Make MAJOR Central Office Personnel cuts- not the school building until all other cuts are made: Combine Sam Sweat and CW Campbell's Job, Combine Fred Oliver and Len Wenzel's Job. Make all County Coordinators half time at the central office and half time at the school as a teacher. Train Parapros as substitute teachers save sub-pay and use them when needed, eliminate the Human Resources Assistant, Eliminate Public Relations and her secretary, Privatize Facility Services, Eliminate Middle School Athletics, Privatize Transportation, Privatize or have open campus or eliminate Food services, implement Pay to Play for all high school sports, I could go on and on and on..... but it's not my job and I think we have a school board and a building full of administrators who are responsible for making these decisions. Ms. Smith reminds us multiple times that Marion Key insists that she is receiving dozens and dozens of calls from teachers who want to give back their raise. It's nice to know Ms. Key's constituency isn't a bunch of "Jerks". MacTheKnife's blog | login to post comments![]() |