At last night's BOE budget meeting there was lot of line by line cuts in the schools but NONE in the district office or of administrators. Many community members spoke about top heaviness of the district's administration and wondered why no cuts were being made in this area.
PLEASE EVERYONE: Write, Call, E-mail the BOE & the Superintendent RIGHT NOW and tell them:
Copy & Paste - add your own message if you want:
The Rondout BOE needs to allow for a committee to be formed that focuses on administrative consolidation. This committee must include individuals familiar with district administration but who are not currently serving in our district, community members, and teachers. This committee's charge should be to analyze the administration and identify consolidation options in this area. It is crucial that the BOE make the informed decisions as we work on keeping our district strong through these difficult economic times. Failure to take immediate action on forming this committee and using it to it's full potential will be sending a message to us, the residents of Rondout, that the BOE prefers protecting the interests of the administration over protecting the interest of the tax payers and the children of our district.
Gail Hutchins ghutchins@rondout.k12.ny.us
Rosario Agostaro ragostaro@rondout.k12.ny.us, 687-2400 x 4802/4803
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE WHO YOU KNOW CARE!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
How we can save 2 million dollars?
They are already getting rid of the jobs in the elementary school. I figured I would use this and some other areas to cut to see how much I can save. I did not cut any HS teachers since I am uninformed about what is happening there. Given the decline in the Middle School I imagine closer to 4 teachers could be cut. However, I propose keeping two MS teachers on who can spend the year developing and implementing an innovative plan for the Middle School.
| Model 13 - baseline | ||||
| 5 Elementary Teachers | $482,468.00 | |||
| 6 Elementary Teacher Assistants | $237,056.00 | |||
| 3 Elementary Greeters | $99,045.00 | |||
| 3 Guidance Counselors reduced to 10 month | $64,872.00 | |||
| $883,441.00 | ||||
| 2 Assistant Principles | $250,000.00 | |||
| 2 District Administrators | $300,000.00 | |||
| 2 Middle School teachers | $192,987.00 | |||
| total | $1,626,428.00 | |||
| 10% raise | $162,642.80 | |||
| 6% fica/ss/med | $97,585.68 | |||
| health/401k 6% | $97,585.68 | |||
| $1,984,242.16 | ||||
PLEASE SPEAK OUT TONIGHT AT THE 5:30 BOE MEETING
Other considerations:
1. 3 optional budgets for the community to vote on, not a simple yes/no on the proposed 2%. While a high levy is difficult, having this many people from our community lose their jobs is also an economic strain on everyone. New Paltz and other districts routinely put a few optional budgets out there for a vote: what a 2% increase would look like, 4%, etc. We will probably be mandated to a 2% increase in 2012, so this is our last possible chance to have a higher budget. If it could save a school for a year, people might vote for a higher levy and shouldn't this be a choice for the voters, not just the school board? More time would really help us to plan in a thorough, thoughtful way, and possibly come up with creative solutions.
3. Related to the post below: We should look at cuts in the central administration (not the building admins, who I think have actually been key to the innovative programs that we want to support at the secondary level.) Could we, for example, combine the Technology director with another admin position, combine the two special ed director positions, combine the positions under the Curriculum department (or reinstate teacher-coordinator positions, which are much cheaper), contract out more of our business office?
1. 3 optional budgets for the community to vote on, not a simple yes/no on the proposed 2%. While a high levy is difficult, having this many people from our community lose their jobs is also an economic strain on everyone. New Paltz and other districts routinely put a few optional budgets out there for a vote: what a 2% increase would look like, 4%, etc. We will probably be mandated to a 2% increase in 2012, so this is our last possible chance to have a higher budget. If it could save a school for a year, people might vote for a higher levy and shouldn't this be a choice for the voters, not just the school board? More time would really help us to plan in a thorough, thoughtful way, and possibly come up with creative solutions.
3. Related to the post below: We should look at cuts in the central administration (not the building admins, who I think have actually been key to the innovative programs that we want to support at the secondary level.) Could we, for example, combine the Technology director with another admin position, combine the two special ed director positions, combine the positions under the Curriculum department (or reinstate teacher-coordinator positions, which are much cheaper), contract out more of our business office?
For the BOE today
There are two primary issues the budgetary committee has yet to satisfactorily provide.
- The real break down of estimations that led to the decision of consolidation as the only alternative to program cuts (said by Len, budget chair). We were told that they have been looking at this for months prior to informing the public of a potential school closing. We have asked numerous times to see the work they have done, the spread sheets, and the meeting minutes. Is it true that no one speculated the transportation costs yet? When will they make this information available for the public to see? What is the reason for the delay?
- We appear to be administration heavy in the District office and the middle and high schools. At a Marbletown meeting, when Rosario was asked about this in comparison to other Ulster County school districts, he said this was like comparing apples to oranges. Why is it different in Rondout? Why do we need 11 people on our administrative team when Kingston, which is more than 3 times larger needs only 7? Why do we need 2 Assistance principles in our Middle School and High School when New Paltz (which is the same size) has only one in each? Cutting out district office down to 7 and one AP off for MS & HS would be well over a $700,000 savings. Are they carefully considering this?
BOE Meeting Today
Due to the urgent need for as many people as possible to participate in the budget conversations, we are canceling this week's Parents for Innovation meeting and instead urging everyone to go to the Budget Meeting today (Tuesday), Feb 15 at 5:30 at the district office.
It has come to our attention that the Board needs to hear MORE from MORE parents about the need to aggressively pursue other costcutting options beyond cutting teachers. The word is that teacher layoffs is what still gets the most focus in budget talks. But other options that have been suggested include:
It has come to our attention that the Board needs to hear MORE from MORE parents about the need to aggressively pursue other costcutting options beyond cutting teachers. The word is that teacher layoffs is what still gets the most focus in budget talks. But other options that have been suggested include:
- Cutting/combining district-level admin positions (at the last Reconfiguration meeting, a 40 percent growth in administration was reported during the same period that enrollment declined)
- Changing to bio-diesel fuel
- Rethinking bus routes
- Contracting out business office or other services
- Closing the administration building and putting administrators into the schools
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Some Math that Does not Add Up
Rosario reported that currently we have 42 teaching classrooms combined in the three schools.
He also said that there are a total of 73 total classrooms.
This would mean that currently we have 31 empty classrooms in the three schools combined right now.
Last time I was in Rosendale, I certainly did not notice 10 available/empty/extra rooms. Where are these supposed available classes????
He also said that there are a total of 73 total classrooms.
This would mean that currently we have 31 empty classrooms in the three schools combined right now.
Last time I was in Rosendale, I certainly did not notice 10 available/empty/extra rooms. Where are these supposed available classes????
An Error in Their Enrollment Estimates?
I spent time looking at the enrollment estimates - crazy I know since we were forced to look at them for hours yesterday. Anyway, I found that what has driven the reduced enrollments over the past 5 years occurs in the Middle and High Schools not the Elementary Schools. In fact, in the elementary schools, over the past five years, enrollment has remained steady or increased as often as it decreased. Therefore to apply a district wide loss to all schools is erroneous (wrong). I, instead calculated the five year average for the elementary schools. In statistics, this is what we do when data fluctuates to get a more accurate picture. I found that rather than the 753 predicted to next year's elementary schools, we should be prepared for 800 kids. While we may not see 800 next year, data suggests that this is the average we should expect. I should add that if I used a 6 year average this number would be a bit higher.
If you smooth the data, It seems that since 2008, our elementary enrollment has already plateaued. So it seems just as probable (if not more) that the future sees a larger elementary school enrollment than a smaller one.
| Year | KES | MES | RES | MS | HS | District Total |
| 2005-06 | 327 | 293 | 260 | 880 | 959 | 2719 |
| 2006-07 | 313 | 276 | 254 | 817 | 983 | 2643 |
| 2007-08 | 294 | 283 | 249 | 738 | 1002 | 2566 |
| 2008-09 | 293 | 257 | 226 | 683 | 926 | 2385 |
| 2009-10 | 284 | 257 | 231 | 675 | 853 | 2300 |
| 2010-11 | 294 | 271 | 217 | 645 | 802 | 2229 |
| 5-year average | 296 | 269 | 235 | 712 | 913 | 2425 |
| (2006-2011) | ||||||
| Elementary Pop 5yr Average | 800 |
If you smooth the data, It seems that since 2008, our elementary enrollment has already plateaued. So it seems just as probable (if not more) that the future sees a larger elementary school enrollment than a smaller one.
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