BOE Budget Meeting Tonight @ 7:30 at H.S.

If you can make it tonight to the BOE budget meeting you should. If you want to talk about something you should.

As a background:
School Closing: The BOE will get the advisory committee's report on 3/15. However, Gail and a few others have been at many meetings. Gail said last night, "She was optimistic about the data showing that we can close a school." This comment which comes a week before she has even been given the report is a cause for concern. BOE members need to understand that the 5 meetings yielded data about savings which are fragile and incomplete. We do not have the information to identify the real savings (if any). The 2 million rhetoric must end but it must not be replaced with the 1.7 million dollar claim either since there are many unknowns.

Consolidation of District Administration:
Before Eileen became the Superintendent we had five administrators now we have ten. Rosario says this is all due to unfunded mandates. While it is true that there are a lot of these mandates I am having trouble, as I go through this list understanding how these support the idea that no administrator can go. Most relate to the school being required to have policies in place which either probably existed or were created for the mandate and now the policy exists. Many other mandates, such a needing four contractors for construction, seat belts and fire inspections are costly but not in the form of administrators. I am sure some mandates need an administrator to comply but which ones? How many? Can one administrator tackle multiple mandates? Rosario should present the mandates that he NEEDS administrators for and show us that every administrator is needed. By the way, there are no technology reporting mandates but there are a bunch of health mandates. Perhaps the BOE should consider this.