FYI, I hope you will all find this budget satisfactory. I also hope you will all support it because it is responsible and

failing to do so may start impacting the students…who this is supposed to be about.

Feel free to email or call me with any questions.

On Budget, Region 1 School Board Takes On None of Topics Residents Raised in Workshops

Our questions are as follows:

When we interviewed Ms. Page’s lawyer, he stated that two of the charges are against the superintendent and two are personal charges against Pat Chamberlain. ( You can listen to the interview here http://podcasts.am1020whdd.com/~am1020wh/shows/play.php?id=22645 ). So (1) is the superintendent paying half of that? (2) Does the superintendent have her own lawyer for the two personal charges? (3) Why has the Region One Board Of Education not demanded, that the region be financially responsible for only the charges against the superintendent against her in the capacity of REgion One employee, and let Patricia hire her own lawyer to defend herself against the two personal charges?

These are questions that need to be pursued quickly by this board. Taxpayers should NOT be on the “hook” for a personal defense of the superintendent, period.

But before November, be sure and vote NO Tuesday June 25, let’s get the biggest voter turn out yet so the administration, The Regional Board of Education, the A.B.C., and the local boards know we mean business. And let Irene Hurlburt in Cornwall know, the responsibility for the cost of the additional two votes on the budget rests on the shoulders of a board of education that will NOT listen to the public, and keeps trying to “RAM” their vision of a budget down taxpayers throats.

Click on the picture, and then click again to enlarge to make it easier to read….

(Here is what was released on May 23, Laura you can feel free to copy this

Here’s a list I requested from the library media specialist of exactly what the $4,212 pays for:
1) Commencement video takes the first 15 to twenty hours
2) Weeding (assessing older materials and disposing of those that are:
a) no longer relevant/accurate; b) not circulating and not unique; c) redundant, in disrepair or in an outdated format).
3) Inventory of all materials.
4) Re-distribution of materials on shelves as various areas grow and diminish.
5) Introduction to new systems (for example, this summer we are supposed to change our video editing program from Sony Vegas to Avid, an industry standard. It needs to be purchased, installed, and we have to have a remedial knowledge of how to use it).
6) Requisitions, purchasing and meeting with salespeople from book and database companies.
7) Cataloging materials purchased over the summer.
8) Cleaning of the studio area, which is used by students all year without supervision and is a disaster area by May.

The first two years I was in the library, I requested more summer hours, because 80 hrs is not sufficient to get all of this done. We are behind on weeding, reading and redistributing of shelf space. The library assistant has more than she can handle in also doing inventory and handling all of the bookkeeping, as we continue to buy over the summer. These are tasks that cannot be performed when students and staff are here as our first priority is always to support and instruct the Housatonic community.

So, my questions are:
1) What is the administration’s plan for getting this work done next year?
2) How many other items are in the proposed budget that the superintendent – where the buck is supposed to stop – knows nothing about?
3) What else has the board majority cut from the proposed budget without knowing what they were eliminating?
4) Does the board majority intend to continue cutting budget items in ignorance of what they are cutting?

It was decided to keep the iPad minis.
It was decided to keep the tech support proposals.
It was decided to take a total of $20,000.00 out of the administration budget for training, workshops, etc….
It was decided to put back in the hours for summer for the library (a tie vote but weighted vote won) ( North Canaan, Kent, Cornwall voted no while Salisbury, Sharon and Falls Village voted yes)
The board decided not to re-visit asking the administration to re-open their contract (no vote here, just a shut down from the board chair)
And a motion was made to add back a teacher by Gale Toensing, but no one seconded the motion so it died on the floor
The budget will go back before the voters again….

More on the possible illegal actions of the Region One Board, in a following post.

Watch the meeting on this video

North Canaan taxes have gone up:
1 mill for property depreciation
1 mil for Region One High School.

So…even with the teachers gone…yes people, the taxes still went up.
Check your pay checks and see if that goes up enough to cover it.

It’s a simple truth…even with 4 teaching positions cut, and another not filled, that’s almost
10% of the Housatonic teaching staff…the cost per student stays the same! Check it out… there
is plenty of “slush”, “hidden agenda”, and wasteful overspending that is still included. Get rid of
that, cut the administrative costs, and watch that per pupil cost drop. But with this Region
One Board, and the current A.B.C. you won’t see that happen unless we back them into a corner
and keep defeating the budget. Now is the time for teachers, students and their parents, and taxpayers to regain control
of an administrative system that is out of control.