The Common Council and the Board of Education members will be holding a Budget Hearing in the New Britain High School Lecture Hall at 6 P. M. tonight.
Hopefully, many of our membership will be there to voice our group's concerns over the proposed Seven Per Cent tax increase.
Please be there and Speak Up.
I have not been made aware that the BOE was invited to join the Common Council at the public hearing on the budget. If BOE members wish to be there and offer suggestions to the Council from the audience, that is fine. But right at this point, it is the Council's duty to adopt a budget for the City.
ReplyDeleteYou tell em Lou; STAY THE HELL AWAY AND STAY OUT OF IT!!!
ReplyDeleteGo Get em Lou, make them regret they ever ran for school board!
Sounds like Lou sees the handwriting on the wall with the school board's latest attempt to blame the city council and the mayor for their need to lay off 200 teachers, instead of accepting the blame where it belongs on the school board failing to control out of control bloated salaries and teachers who don't have to do anything because they are protected by their precious tenure.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame the school board, blame the binding arbitration in state laws. The BOE has no control in how much salaries have skyrocketed since the late 80s. As a district, New Britain spends less than 140 of 160 districts in the state when calculated per pupil. We need the state to step up and fund their constitutional requirement to educate Connecticut's students.
ReplyDeleteA major expense seems to be these special education teachers that get a 6 figure salary, and then you have to pay them more for teaching an extra student. According to one report, just one teacher was awarded over $80,000 in extra pay--bringing his annual total to an estimated $200,000!
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to cite other school districts, why not do what many other Connecticut school districts do with these special ed students and contract them out to one of the specialty schools.
We even have one here in New Britain--the Oak Hill School--which advertises that they provide the teaching in public schools. The students could stay right in the schools where they are, and Oak Hill or another of many contractors could supply the teachers at a much lower expense to the taxpayers.
Instead of paying a "tenured" teacher to barely lift a finger for 5 students, you will get a caring private teacher who will actually care about teaching the students for probably half the cost. Since the teachers still are required to have the same state certifications, the only difference is the cost--despite all the rhetoric you will no doubt hear from the union bosses.
The students win, and so do the taxpayers!
The only loser seems to be the power hungry unions!