IT IS TIME ONCE AGAIN, TO VOTE NO ON THE REGION ONE BUDGET
With your NO vote we can send a vote of NO CONFIDENCE on Pam Vogel!
With your NO vote we can send a message of NO CONFIDENCE in the way the new grading system has been implemented!
With your NO vote we can send a message of NO CONFIDENCE on the new schedules
With your NO vote we can send a message to get rid of consent agendas which HIDE what is going on in Region One!
With you NO vote we can ask for cuts in the Central Office Budget and restore that money to EDUCATING our children!
Taxpayers can not afford to not vote NO on this budget at this time!!!
This budget vote is the last resort for public involvement in the educational future of students, teachers and taxpayers in Region One.
The Regional budget must be voted down. If (according to state law) that means cuts must be made, and a new budget presented, so be it! (Dollars are not the issue- leadership is.)
BUT we must make certain that future cuts are not directed at students. This budget already cuts teachers and includes savings in teacher health insurance. Yet the board proudly proclaims a “zero %” overall increase? Where are the increases then? More Central Office initiatives? It includes new positions in non certified technology expenditures, a bloated Central Office (What do all these high salaried positions produce?), what are our CABE expenditures? Please carefully look at this budget and ask questions. Questions about this budget abound. (Answers are few and far between.
The budget hearings were quietly pushed through much like the board’s CABE endorsed “consent agenda. NOW is the time to address all this with a NO VOTE!
Today’s local news includes another taxpayer subsidized entity. “Ed Advance,” has designated hundreds of thousands of dollars for expansion into a new Torrington facility. I believe much of their income may come from hidden expenditures in our Regional budget. Many of the “experts” Central Office brings in to promote their agenda seem to be on an “Ed Advance” payroll. I may be wrong, but this is certainly the type of question that an open budget process would address.
If I were in Manufacturing and I want to Produce more product, ( educated students ) I would be looking at better machines for more product per hour, and then of course the people to run it. Any money the board suggest for ANY REASON, must be to the product ( Student ) . If we have learned anything from China trips,,,,,it is their Heritage, and EDUCATION of their population. And just how many days do they go to school a week??? So, how do we compete with that? Focus on the students. Feed the students more information, not food at Interlake for those that believe they deserve it. The students deserve better. There is only one way you get more production (Knowledge), have the man power to deliver it. Please redo your expense’s your students are hungry for knowledge. How about that Metal shop, wood shop, any A.I. technology? More A.G., Oh,,,God forbid I say jr. R.O.T.C.. Isn’t it YOUR saying,,,,” A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”? Now people have my attention.
Some “Zero %” budget increase highlights…
Superintendent Expenditures: salary= $180,250.00 (this includes a $5,250.00 raise), Superintendent “annuity” = $7,210.00, Superintendent benefits, reimbursements, and health care= enough to make Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi green with envy
Student Expenditures= The Shaft
So in one (1) arena of non interaction of educating , I can spend $12,460 in better metal shop machine, better wood working tools, better A.I. education. . Just what is the total of money being accounted for in non educated first hand use? The trades are why OLIVER WOOLCOTT is expanding, and we are shrinking? Ummm, is that what we call progressing? I’m not complain about the way it is taught,,,I’m complaining about the how much is available to be taught.