Given the controversies surrounding our schools, I recognize that the community is disappointed, but the budget should not suffer as a result. We do not want to see any more teachers lose their jobs or good programs eliminated.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
They mishandled the Raucci scandal, they mishandled the suicide scandal, they refuse to listen to the clear will of the people. Cut something! Fire some all useless "Deans "and "administrators". Close the pool. Get back to basics.
Not a penny more-not a red cent more for failures. If Maxine really cared she would have resigned. Everybody VOTE NO! Tuesday the 16th. NOON until 9pm. As always we meet at the polls at NOON.
All the gazette reported was that less than 24 people showed up and that 2 people got up to speak. I didn't recognize their names, but they didn't sound any newly elected member's names.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Living in an overassessed home in Rotterdam and having to pay Schenectady school taxes doesn't make for a great outlook for my checking account. The first Schenectady school budget was voted down. The board was shocked and blamed it on different reasons except the one that matters: cost. The board's answer was to add $480,000 to the budget and put it up for a vote again. “If you don't pass the budget, we will go to a contingency budget, with a 15.8 percent increase. Take that, people!” President Jeff Janiszewski states, “There are people on fixed incomes who just can't afford that." Ya think?
The proposed school budget should be adopted, not the contingency one. It is almost criminal the way Superintendent Eric Ely punched into the budget erroneous numbers of next year’s enrollment — and the current president of the school board is equally culpable. They both should be asked to resign. To lie to taxpayers to get a higher budget; most little people would be jailed for just lying on tax forms or property taxes. Gentlemen, resign.
It's a "use it or loose it" scenario......simple....fluff it and stuff it and then put it forth to the government machines and all discerning wisdom goes out the door.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE An eye on Sch’dy school budget vote Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
Naturally I’m curious how the people of Schenectady will vote this Tuesday on the latest version of a school budget to be offered them, after they rejected the fi rst version. The revised version is somewhat higher than the original one, which is strange enough, considering that school boards and school administrators, when they suffer one defeat, usually go back and make cuts for the second try, on the assumption that the first budget was too rich for the voters’ taste. The Schenectady school board made theirs higher by adding elementary school librarians back in after some people objected to their earlier elimination. But what’s really odd is that if this new revised budget gets voted down, the emergency fall-back budget that Superintendent Eric Ely has waiting for people is even higher, $5 million higher, and will raise taxes not 4.8 percent as the original budget would have, and not 5.8 percent as the revised budget would, but 15.8 percent. Yes! The supposedly bare-bones “contingency” budget, as it’s called, is higher than anything yet proposed. The reason, as I previously explained, is that Ely used an infl ated number for increased enrollment — a projected 471 new students, whom he admitted he does not expect to materialize and for whom he did not provide in his original budget. Those phantom students generate an extra $6 million in spending that has to be budgeted, or at least they do if you apply a simple rule of thumb and multiply new students by the average cost per student. Alas, as we have lately learned, the state advises not to do that. Charles Szuberla, coordinator of School Operations and Management Services for the state Education Department and the main authority on contingency budgets, writes in an article on the Education Department’s Web site that “districts should use cost-based approaches rather formula-driven approaches to calculate an expense for enrollment growth.” You shouldn’t just take a number and multiply it by the average cost per student. “Districts should examine and calculate specific costs associated with the projected enrollment increase,” he writes. Meaning Ely fudged not once but twice. First with the number of expected new students, which he took from a study without believing in it, and second with the method of calculating the cost of those students. Result: a backup budget guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of a taxpaying homeowner and probably cudgel him into voting “yes” on Ely’s revised budget, as the lesser of two evils. Can he get away with it? Most likely. The Education Department has no history of riding herd on local districts over their contingency budgets. A more entertaining question is, will the Schenectady school board passively adopt the bloated contingency budget in case the regular budget fails at the polls on Tuesday? My understanding is that the contingency budget does not take effect automatically in case of a defeat at the polls; the school board is required to adopt it by vote. If board members had any friskiness in them they would demand that Ely come back to them with an honest contingency budget, based on real numbers. Szuberla, author of the article referred to above, explained how to calculate a contingency budget and concluded, “the contingency budget adopted by the Board of Education would always be less than the proposed budget.” Which is pretty obvious. The Schenectady board could insist on that. They could say .............>>>>.............>>>>..........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....0&Continuation=1
Tuesday the worst School Bored in the State will get a message even those idiots can understand. VOTE NO!
Start cutting this bloated absurd school budget. Fire the entire HR department, fire Mrs. Jansiewski and all patronage hacks, close the pool, trash plans to close Howe School on Baker, slash busing. No school tax increase-stop using phony student projections. With the continuing City school circus many parents will be putting their kids into private/Catholic schools. Budget accordingly.
I still can't believe that the people in this school district aren't in front of the schools with pitchforks! I mean REALLY....this school district are holding the taxpayers hostage to a lie! They have manipulated the system and basically legally embezzled and screwed the people. Where is the outrage??? The residents should have been camped out every night since the last budget vote!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
...about 12 of them are upset and will vote. Apathy is killing America, especially in the cities. They MUST STAY CLOSE TO THE HERD, don't you know. And the herd is democrat all the way. Original thoughts could get them in trouble.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Pricier school budget up for vote today in Schenectady New plan restores elementary library positions Tuesday, June 16, 2009 By Michael Goot (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — The Schenectady City School District’s revised $160.6 million budget plan will be voted on by district residents from noon to 9 p.m. today. Polling places will be open from noon to 9 p.m. A list of polling places can be found on the district’s Web site at http://www.schenectady.k12.ny.us/2009-2010_Budget/pollingplaces2.htm. Anyone who needs assistance with locating the polling place may call 370-8100, ext. 150. The new budget plan is an increase of $480,000 from the proposal voters rejected on May 19 and would increase the tax levy by 5.8 percent. The only change is the restoration of six elementary librarian positions that had been cut in the May 19 budget. If this budget fails, district officials say they would be required by July 1 to adopt a contingency budget of $165.5 million, which would increase the tax levy by 15.8 percent................>>>>..........>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jun/16/0616_schoolbud/
maybe they should combine their library/librarians/computer tech classes/teachers.....that is what is new and upcoming..... library-kindle.....card catalog/computer etc etc.......media/library/computers......better get it together fast and now...... save $$ now and dont let it get behind......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Schenectady school budget defeated Tuesday, June 16, 2009
SCHENECTADY — The Schenectady City School District’s budget failed again Tuesday. This time by just six votes. Voters rejected the revised $160.6 million spending proposal by a vote of 955 against and 949 in favor. Superintendent Eric Ely said voter officials will do the normal double checking but he thinks the count will stick. The new 2009-2010 budget plan was $480,000 more than the previous proposal voters shot down last month by a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent. The Board of Education restored the positions of six elementary librarians that had been cut in the previous budget..............>>>>..........>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2009/jun/16/Budget_0616/