EMSD#63 administrators regularly remind us that dozens of foreign languages are spoken throughout the District. By their own account the District has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to accommodate this segment of the Districts population; without, in my opinion, that much success.
Maybe it’s time for EMSD#63 leadership to rethink its ESL goals and strategies. What do you think?
Nobody likes a cheat; or at least that’s the way things were for most of my 65 years. But something has changed. Some kids and some of their teachers see things a little differently!
I wrote a post back on March 3rd titled: Not All Future Jobs Require a College Degree….... I believed then as I do now, that a college degree is not always required to have a successful and happy life.
It appears I’m not the only one who thinks this way!
I’m not sure I agree with the video’s producers on purchasing silver or gold at this time but I sure agree with their findings on the outrageous cost of a college “education”.
By this time, some of you’ve already noticed 11 new posts; each an individual EMSD#63 Final Budget Report for a given year, starting in school-year 2000-2001.
The reason for these entries is this. I will be using facts derived from those documents in an upcoming blog series featuring EMSD#63’s Budget History. I will also be using these same documents on my new blog:Butterly on School Budgets…. scheduled to officially appear later this month.
Trust but verify!
When it comes to reviewing budgets, I follow former President Ronald Reagan’s sage advice: “Trust but verify!” And I hope you do too!
Now, there’s a lot of information packed within those budget documents. Too too much for the casual observer. So, to help make processing this much information less daunting and more understandable, I will be presenting EMSD#63’s Budget History data in differing report formats. Each report is designed to answer one or more questions. The questions we will ask are the same questions any competent School Board would ask, and the reports designed to answer those questions are the same type of reports a competent administration would provide.
Today’s post then, is to serve notice of the new series, provide easy access to the source documents and to ask the first question:
Question #1: So where’s the money?
Between School-Years 2000-2001 and 2010-2011, EMSD#63 is expected to have spent close to $16 million more than it has taken in. We’re not even talking “budgeting” yet. That number reflect the actual dollars received for disbursement and the actual dollars disbursed based upon EMSD#63’s official documents.
The two primary components of the budget are REVENUE (dollars-in) and EXPENSES (dollars-out). The District Officials can only guess the number of dollars-in. District Administrators and Board however, have full control of the amount dollars-out!
Let me remind the reader of EMSD#63 Budget-making goal.
Budget Overview Page (9) – 2010-2011 Budget
The District’s budget goals and objectives are to provide an optimum educational program for all of the children of the school district in line with the district’s educational philosophy, consistent with efforts to achieve a balanced budget and the taxpayers ability to support such a program.
EMSD#63’s budget goals and objectives are obviously not being met by a wide margin which reflects at best, in my opinion, willful non-adherence or incompetence!
In the mean time, if you are curious and wish to start reviewing the FOIA’d Budget Reports used for the upcoming posts, click the year.
On March 28th this year, I wrote an Open letter to EMEA President, Hilary Liese. There, I urged Ms. Liese and her union membership to demand a reciprocal gesture of some magnitude from EMSD#63 management and to be cognizant of their role in co-creating and resolving the District’s financial dilemma.
Comments to that post included:
Anon: April 02, 2011 10:42 AM
“Hilary put in for retirement so she is on the 6% plan until she is gone. She does not care anymore.”
Dr. Clay’s experiment in international relations dressed up as a self-created ESL Bilingual Teacher crises, will end In 40+ days. I’m sorry it didn’t work; not for Dr. Clay or Ms. Glickman or Ms. Centanni, who’s actions received “Kudos” from Dr. Clay for “successfully addressing a staffing challenge through this no cost recruitment option”, but for the brave Spaniard's who came from Southern Spain to our cold clime to aid us in our time of pedagogical need, the kids and finally, the taxpayers, who are once again, the big losers here.
If you’re new to this subject, I urge you to read:
Dr. Clay, in “Visiting Teachers” stated that these new recruits would “commit to 1 – 3 years of teaching in EMSD63”. Why? Why only one-year? As education professionals, Dr. Clay and his staff by now clearly understand what all other teachers seem to know; it takes at least two full seasons to settle-in and become cost effective. Surely these Administrators haven’t been out of the class room that long!
And what are they actively doing to eliminate this new problem?
