The LuLac Edition #3216, May 24th, 2016
WILKES BARRE AREA:
THE BEST DANG SCHOOL BOARD IN AMERICA!!!
(logo photo: William Vaughan company)
So last night the best dang school board in America made the decision to not only raises taxes again but make cuts in education of more than 4 million dollars. That will affect 37 educators. But wait as they say in the infomercials, there’s more. The District decided to raise property taxes by 3.5 percent. Once more property owners in Wilkes Barre can’t get a break.
The Vote was 8 to 1 with Ned Evans voting no because he was “moved” by the testimonials by residents, especially students. But Evans was not moved enough to come up with any new ideas.
The cuts are going to be in things like Art, Life Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Technology which includes science, engineering and math. Subjects that the school board seems to think are a luxury. With many lower income students in the District, to me this is puzzling. If we are to build a better more informed citizen, we should start with aspirational courses that can carry students through life.
Here’s what WASN’T cut:
Athletics, football especially.
Administration. Last year the administrators got a raise of $10,000 bucks each!
THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS DISTRICT NOT MAKING 10,000 DOLLARS A YEAR.
Did this board who gave those raises last year not have a plan?
After all, they are the best dang school board in America.
How many administrators do you think will lose their jobs?
NONE.
A caller to WILK today made a very good point about some of the other district employees. Janitors and Secretaries making more than teachers because they had a connection and might have been too stupid to survive in private industry BUT smart enough to get a gig and keep a low profile. No chaperoning middle school dances for those folks. If you look at the names, you’ll see the connections to school boards of yore.
Something drastically needs to be done. The Governor who I supported wants to baby tenured teachers and not support merit retention. The Legislature with a few exceptions is full of shit and scared, or as they say in Larksville, “ah scared” of the teachers union. There has been very little property tax relief because a bunch of power hungry GOP leaders won’t work with anyone. So pretty much there’s not a lot of hope.
But here’s a few suggestions.
1. Hire a new superintendent that has no ties to this area. Let’s not have the same debacle that happened in Scranton where they hired a double dipper feeding off the public teat in the Lac.
2. Fire three quarters of the administrators. They have pensions, more than you and I make combined. They’ll be fine.
3. Put a freeze on all salaries. Rethink the unions.
4. Hire and fire on merit.
5. Set up a contingency fund for the lawsuits bound to come.
6. If you insist on having football games, hire people other than school teachers, janitors and secretaries employed by the district to even skim more public money.
7. Put a user tax on school services for all parents and guardians of students who don’t own property. It could be $25.00 bucks a quarter, 100 a year. Everyone would have skin in the game. And don’t give me the garbage that “the poor” can’t afford a hundred bucks a year.
If the parents valued education……………like parents of previous generations, they’ll find a way.
The District should outsource a company to categorize and collect the money. Nobody’s cousin or brother in law in charge either, thank you.
Property owners need relief. The people carrying the load are dying, moving or just giving up.
Innovative ideas and daring, gutsy changes are needed.
But unfortunately we’re stuck with the best dang School Board in America.
Hke!
WHAT HILLARY SHOULD SAY TO DONALD IN THE DEBATE
Trump and Clinton. (Photo: US Magazine).
Today Donald Trump brought up the late Vince Foster. He is out of control now. The other day he put a video up again talking about Bill Clinton’s infidelities. If Trump is stupid enough to bring it up in the debate, (and if I were Clinton, I’d ignore him) but if she does debate him, when he talks about Bill, Hillary should just say:
“Donald, my husband is not running for President. I am.
If you want to fight him in a back alley and argue about how big your hands are, go for it.
But I want to talk about the future of America and not about sex from 20 years ago.
You might have the fascination of a sixth grade boy with all this sex stuff. Go home to Marla, or whoever your trophy wife is now…..but please let Americans pick a President.
Just shut up.
posted by David Yonki @ 9:31 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Well Hilary kind of put Bill on the ticket with a previous statement.
As far as the "infidelities" many of us are more concerned with the sexual assaults and rapes, but you Clinton acolytes keep calling it infidelities, eventually, as with Bill Cosby, which had been spoken about many times over the years, one loud voice will finally see the proper attention turned against the Clintons and justice for the victims.
I know Yonk, it isn't rape or sexual assault if a dem does it
" Put a user tax on school services for all parents and guardians of students who don’t own property. It could be $25.00 bucks a quarter, 100 a year. Everyone would have skin in the game. And don’t give me the garbage that “the poor” can’t afford a hundred bucks a year.
If the parents valued education……………like parents of previous generations, they’ll find a way. "
I always find it amazing when you idiots think renters don't pay. Every time property taxes go up, what do you think happens to rent? Rent goes up. So you want to double hit the renters?
And, why is it that everyone attacks sports programs. At least with sports programs the students want to be there, they are not being forced into an art class in which they have neither the talent nor interest. They are exercising their bodies as well as their brains, and for most, it is keeping them out of trouble by being part of a team and participating in after school activities.
Yes, we need to save the programs that have been cut, we must find another way to finance education, but when you attack sports and renters, you show you didn't receive much of an education yourself.
With ever increasing DEMAND for higher minimum wage this was/is inevitable:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/building-robot-mcdonalds-staff-cheaper-8044106
Now if we could only replace our teachers, politicians and spouses!
I know I am in the minority, but I never saw the point to art or shop. I didn't have, nor do I have any artistic talent, I can't even draw a stick figure.
Art was torturous for me, and anything I may have learned in either art or shop doesn't even register on my memory.
They were colossal wastes of time and effort.
@1:13 You got me thinking about art and shop. I must be older and I must admit to remembering little detail of art or shop, or P.E. Or Health for that matter. Even Driver Ed! Thing is I think the experience provided a certain unquantifiable confidence/understanding of things. Enough to recognize/identify concepts. Later on I remember concluding "damn, everything's a concept". What I wrote off as a waste of time revealed itself when I least expected it. So much so that there are times I find myself thinking "shoulda taken welding". Weird, heyna?
Thanks for bringing it up. Bet Yonk has something to add.
YONKI ... YONKI ... YONKI ...
You hit the proverbial nail on the head with your rant on the W-B School District. Too bad no one in the higherarchy give a shit to what anyone else thinks. They're gonna do what they have been doing for generations past. I don't think things will ever change. Maybe some sort of band aid, but in the long run, no ... they'll have their fingers back in the pot when the heat blows over.
8:59, I took art appreciation as an elective in college, and loved it and gained much from it. I think a more appreciation type class for those not artistically inclined in the school system may be a better idea.
It appears that like every other industry, politics is being changed by 2 disrupters: Donald and Bernie. On reflection you must agree that Barrack was the flashpoint eight years ago. We missed it then and ignored the signs since. We are beyond the point of no return in the process so it is time Mr. Yonki to recognize the change, get up to speed and at least catch up before you can anticipate. This goes beyond "changing of the guard". It goes beyond analytics and Facebook. Look how immediate these two guys are. Hillary "lumbers along" out of breath while these two guys run rings around her. She is stuck on email while ducking tweets. Even though vinyl records will always have buyers those who create and get it into the stream provide an immediacy and impact never before seen.
I welcome a major disruption in our education system. One I hope based on performance and satisfying the needs of our kids growing up knowing how to stream, access and evaluate. Authentic learning with authentic evaluation. Spend some time with a cross section of kids playing video games, competing and growing, and tell me we can't replicate the energy for education. Leave Gates and the gang out of it, their time is over.
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