This was a comment worthing of posting...
I've read this article several times, and here are a few comments that I would like to make:
Karen Brittain Sain: As a nurse, she is entrusted with patients' lives. As a board member, she'll be entrusted with students' lives.
This is a self-glamorizing statement. It is overkill and over-the-top.
Mr. Buff was asked: What will you do to restore respect to the board and the school system? He said: Continue to be accountable to the school system and the community; to be accountable and open and above board.
This is just a nothing statement directed at both the administrative and the classified levels as being ineffective.
Mr. Hairfield was asked: What will you do to provide support for the superintendent and principals? He said: Focus on accountability. There is ample money in the system to reallocate to principals to make sure they have the necessary resources. This will eliminate the need for student fundraisers.
What you say, Mr. Hairfield, is actually true - there is plenty of total money - but what you don’t understand or know is that there will never be a clean and efficient distribution of that money. School districts have little ability or total control – they are restricted by state, federal, and local laws – of how to allocate those funds. I’m sure our finance people do the best they can and firing Randall Brackett is not the answer, as much as you would like it to be.
But let’s not stop there – let’s be bold and list a few of the jobs that should be eliminated, like, One currently being advertised, EC Health Information Manager: What the heck is this?? We have OT’s, PT’s, Psychologists, Speech Personnel, Physical Educators, Behavioral Specialists, Interpreters, and now School Nurses. I’d like to know why this position will exist and for what purpose. It sounds to me like a job trying to be squeezed in before the new board takes its place.
Safety Director. Why do we need a Safety Director to send out 8x10 brochures telling us to be careful not to trip and fall in the winter, to turn out the lights and to remember to close the doors? Who actually reads the paperwork that comes from this particular office? And what’s the percentage of staff that then lie by signing our names to those questionnaires indicating that we do read them? Surely, Mr. Burleson wouldn’t mind attaching this information to a few of his current emails that he sends out to everyone, in effect accomplishing the same thing, and being more effective, efficient, and less wasteful of paper resources, in his approach!
Mr. ID Badge-Taker/Photographer: Why not put capable machines into the schools that secretaries or principals can use to create a badge for each of their faculty? And, equipping each school with a few cameras would take care of getting enough pictures. These are not hard things to do.
And finally, to address your comment about the need to eliminate student fundraisers-For years and years it has long been the battle cry, and is as common as the day is long, of incoming politicians to espouse the cause of cutting student fundraisers. Lots of people want to cut them out. It is a point stated all over the country all of the time. Why? Because it plays well with parents who hate fundraisers, teachers who get tired of handing out the packets, and all staff who see money wasted on frivolous things, such as paying board members or hiring unneeded positions or even, in some people's minds, purchasing textbooks that aren’t needed because everything is online these days. Do you really think that smart, highly educated and qualified teachers and principals would hold fundraisers in the first place if they weren’t needed? The fact is, they are needed and they do produce funding in order to help children’s education.
As a matter of fact, I'd like to see a list of the fundraisers, festivals, wreath and plant sales, bake sales, book fairs, voucher sales, restaurant discount booklets, cow patty bingo runs, raffle sales, dinner theatre sales, BBQ sales, the number of times that parents were asked to donate and why, how much money is made from yearbook sales, drink and food machines throughout the district, etc., along with a description of each, the total amounts that each one brought in PER SCHOOL for 2006-2007 and to date for the current school year as well.
Let’s also take a look at the number of charity events district-wide that have been asked of employees to do. How much money was brought into the district from those that students and staff were asked and encouraged to solicit for? What profit and time were in those?
In one of your previous letters to the Herald, Mr. Hairfield, you said, "This board, time and again, has snubbed their nose at the people once they were elected and have cow towed to anything the administrators say." Well, now's your chance. I'm the people, Sir and Ma'am! Please don't snub your nose or cow tow to me.
Hello, Board…you out there?
