In a March 6, 2009 Waterford Post article Dr. Nelson, the Waterford Graded School District (WGSD) Administrator, said that “there is no fluff” in the WGSD budget. She painted that same picture in an article that appeared in last week’s edition of the Waterford Post.
Dr. Nelson, the good people living in the Waterford Graded School District are too smart to buy your patronizing rhetoric.
Saying there isn’t any fat in the WGSD budget, is like saying that former Chicago Bears defensive lineman, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, has the figure of a fashion model gracing the runways of Paris or Milan.
We are in the most dire economic period since the great depression. People we know and love, right here in Waterford, are losing their homes and jobs. Many who have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs, have had their wages frozen or significantly reduced, while retirement and children’s college education savings are decimated. Families are being devastated by this crisis.
As families struggle to stay in their homes and provide for their children, the WGSD has rammed down our throats double-digit budget increases every year over the last many, many years. Those budget increases have well outpaced inflation and family income, while being particularly problematic for senior citizens living on fixed incomes.
I sat down with a cup of coffee and in five minutes came up with a laundry list of cost saving ideas and “fat” identification. Here they are in no particular order:
o 2 year pay freeze for every WGSD employee and repeal the 4% raise the administrators just received. In the alternative, administrators and principles who are on 12 month contracts could be laid off over the summer for whatever period of time it takes to make up any salary increase.
o All WGSD employees should be required to contribute 15% - 20% of the monthly health insurance premiums paid for by the taxpayers.
o Find a cheaper health insurance company than the WEAC insurance.
o Impose $1000 individual and $2500 family – out of pocket - annual insurance deductibles for every district employee (for those eligible for insurance).
o Require district residency for every WGSD employee. They are public employees, and should be living in and giving back to the community that employs them. I think you would have greater buy-in to the district’s mission and those employees would more likely be concerned about controlling costs.
o These are tough times…and enrollment is declining. Increase class sizes and layoff teachers. Class size (number of students/teacher) is largely about lightening the load for the teacher and has little to do with student learning.
o Eliminate all Aides. You have more than enough teachers to get the job done!
o Eliminate each “principal’s secretary.” The principals can answer their own phones and type their own letters.
o Each of the schools are bloated with janitorial / grounds keeping staff. Eliminate all but one janitorial position (he can do grounds keeping too). Administrators, principals and teachers should be expected to clean (sweep / vacuum / mop etc.) their own work areas and take out their own garbage. At least one of the schools employs four janitors and one grounds keeper!!!!
o Another alternative would be to hire a cleaning service. Eliminate the janitorial staff and contract with a private cleaning company to clean the buildings. There would be significant savings by being able to forgo health insurance premiums, retirement costs, etc.
o Do we really (come on) need “guidance counselors” in grade school and middle school?
o Eliminate the Curriculum Director position….isn’t that what the District Administrator is supposed to do!
o Eliminate the Technology Director. Contract with a private vendor on a time & materials basis for any maintenance / upgrade to the district computer network.
o Do we really need Library media specialists, library aides and technology curriculum integrators in our schools?
o How many classes does a teacher teach in the day. Do we need both a 7th Grade Science teacher and an 8th Grade Science teacher? Can’t one “science teacher” teach both 7th and 8th grade science?
o Are the nurses district employees who get health insurance and retirement benefits, or are they nurses from a private company contracted by the district to save money?
o Eliminate all travel and conferences that require overnight travel or are out of state.
o Eliminate any district funded teacher/staff luncheons, parties, etc.
o Sell off some of the current land owned by the district. I realize there is some ridiculous DPI guideline suggesting that every school have 30 acres, but it is just that – ridiculous. How is a school better, educationally, if it has 30 acres v. 5 or 10 acres? The land, for example, to the south of Trailside between the school and the Pharmacy Station would be a great location for a small business or office building. There is plenty of green space behind Trailside for the kids to play. We don’t NEED all of this extra valuable acreage. Sell it!
I encourage district residents to go to the WGSD website at www.waterford.k12.wi.us. You can navigate to the page for the district and each of the individual schools, where you will see for yourself the number of administrators, teachers, aides and other support staff.
The taxpayers in the Waterford Graded School District expect a REDUCTION in the next budget, and will accept nothing short of a freeze.
21 comments:
You are either incredibly ignorant or naïve. You do realize that many of your "shot from the hip" suggestions require negotiation with the teachers? "Impose" deductibles? "Require district residency?" Seriously? You seriously lack any knowledge in a negotiation process -- you'd be slaughtered at arbitration. Or, more likely, you lack true knowledge of how a district operates, particularly WGSD. These are such unimaginative "ideas" it's laughable!
I think you should have taken more than 5 minutes to come up with some of these ideas. However, I do agree with some of the points you make. In these tough economic times I agree that the teachers and administrators should have a pay freeze and pay a portion of their health insurance. After all, a school district is just like any other business that needs to control costs. There are probably a lot of unemployed people that would have accepted this offer if it meant keeping their job. Unfortunately the teachers union is too strong and most likely would never accept concessions such as these. Getting rid of the teachers union (and all unions for that matter) is a better solution.
Some of your other ideas are just plain ludicrious! You either don't have any children or they are long out of the school system. Increasing class sizes is crazy. That would most certainly have a negative impact on the children. As a parent I have seen kids that have serious behavior issues and cause a lot of disruptions in class. The teacher ends of spending a lot of time disiplining that child and the rest of the class suffers for it. What impact do you think it would have if class sizes were increased and there are a dozen kids like this and only one teacher to handle them? The kids that are there to learn don't get that opportunity because the teachers are preoccupied with the problem kids. That's where an aide would be beneficial, but you don't believe there should be any of those either. And there is a real value to having guidance councelors in the grade school and middle school. Would you suggest that the kids that need the guidance not get it and then become juvenile delinquents and part of the court system subsequently costing us even more tax dollars!
When I read this "commentary" in the Waterford Post today I laughed. You obviously live in your own perfect world and can't think beyond your own slanted version of reality to see both sides of an issue. I do think that the WGSD budget needs to be controled but comments like this cause more harm than good. People will jump on this band wagon of bashing the administration instead of taking "5 minutes" to think of something constructive.
I agree with the first two posts: these ideas are laughable! While the district definitely needs to control spending, these aren't legitimate options. They actually sound more like ways to disparage the teachers' union and make them look like the bad guys. I mean, how exactly does requiring residency "cut the fat" in the budget? Or do you mean for WGSD to become MPS? Now THERE'S a scary thought!
The only way the district will be able to make progress here is with credible solutions, none of which are here. You suggest cheaper health insurance. Really? Where? What actual IDEAS do you have?
Eliminating secretaries, aides, counselors, and others is all fine and dandy -- what do you propose gets cut in the way of responsibilities then? People move to Waterford for the quality of education. Your proposals will cause an exodus putting an even larger burden on the residents, or perhaps you don't understand some basic economic principles.
Knowing some teachers in the district, travel has been extraordinarily reduced and the district hardly ever pays for luncheons anymore. In fact, most of the staff development is done in-house, cutting costs even further (at a risk of losing ground too, I might add).
Selling the land WGSD owns might be a good idea, but that's a one-time only increase in revenue. Sounds like a liberal knee-jerk reaction, to be honest.
Why do fiscal conservatives need to come across as tightwad morons instead of proposing some constructive alternatives? Honestly, it's no wonder the media has such an easy time portraying us in a negative light. Folks like this give them all the ammunition they need!
This is my first time on this blog and if this really is the attitude of the Waterford Taxpayers group or whatever they call themselves we're in trouble. This sounds like the small-minded drivel people come to expect from smaller towns. I hope the board makes some smarter decisions than this!
Wow, it seems the staff at WGSD has been busy blogging.
When I read the article I actually found many of these ideas interesting. I am sure the author realizes some of the suggestions would require negotiation or arbitration. So negotiate and arbitrate it. Not all of the employees are union members, and negotiation is not necessary. Start there.
Many of the suggestions do not require negotiation and seem worth exploring.
Employees should pay a portion for their health insurance, nearly every other working person does. This would be a significant savings.
Pay freezes are also an incredibly obvious solution. Why would/should employees of the school district get 4% raises at a time when many other people are losing their jobs or are having their own pay cut?
The first place to start with these ideas are those employees not in the teachers union. The district should impose the freeze and insurance co-payments on the administration, principals and others.
Guidance should come from parents, teachers, principals, clergy, etc.
I don't quite see how requiring the teachers and other staff to pay a portion of their health insurance bashes the administration or is disparaging to the teachers.
Privatizing services where possible also seems like an obvious no brainer.
In the age of email and voicemail I agree that the princapls don't need secretaries.
Well done.
Just an FYI - teachers DO PAY A PORTION OF THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE!!! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
What percentage premium contribution do they pay exactly?
Do they have the same setup as the High School teachers where they pay a tiny 3% of their insurance BUT then get that 3% BACK in an annuity?
What is the annual out of pocket deductible for district employees?
I too thought the article presented some very good ideas. This school district certainly needs to tighten its belt, and it is not unreasonable, given the current economy, that teachers and administrators take a wage freeze.
It is also not unreasonable to expect district employees to pay a larger portion of their health insurance costs to bring them more in line with the private sector.
This is a very interesting list indeed. Some easier to implement than others. All of them worth a serious look.
To suggest that these ideas are laughable is just, to be frank, dumb.
The pay freeze and insurance contribution ideas I think would play very well in an arbitration. The district could easily make the case in arbitration, given the economic times and the comparison to what is happening to wages and insurance cost sharing in the real world, that teacher wage increases and sharing a larger portion of the insurance cost is very reasonable. How could an arbitrator give the teachers a pass in the face of what is happening to workers in every other aspect of our society? Would he ignore the wage cuts and lost jobs in the private sector and not take that into consideration? I think not.
As for anon 4:22 who said "Eliminating secretaries, aides, counselors, and others is all fine and dandy -- what do you propose gets cut in the way of responsibilities then?" No responsibilities would get cut. The teachers and administrators would have to work harder, maybe even a full days worth of work.
Let's have the teachers and principals decide. They can pick one of two options.
Option #1 Accept a two year pay freeze and permanent 20% monthly insurance premium contribution, with an annual out-of-pocket $2500 deductible.
OR
Option #2 Get your pay raises and status quo on benefits. But, class sizes will be increased, aides, secretaries and teachers will be laid off until the reduction in personnel costs equals the savings from option #1.
Are they willing, in tough economic times, to make a very reasonable concession and have their wage increases and insurance contributions like the real world....or do they not really care "about the children" and want to keep screwing the district taxpayers.
Surely you realize that in Wisconsin arbitration has gone in favor of the teachers' unions the vast majority of the time. Someone so informed clearly understands the implication here: propose a package like this and an arbitrator is likely to give the union whatever it wants, putting the district in even more financial peril. That's why this set of "ideas" is laughable. And that's why WASB (look it up if you don't know the organization) has urged districts to hold off on negotiating with unions. But again, you knew that already.
And maybe it's different at the other buildings, but the principal at my kids' school is usually there before 6:30 and rarely leaves by 6:00. That's probably far longer hours that most of us work.
I am a senior citizen living on a fixed income. I have grandchildren who go to school in Waterford. I appreciate the job the teachers and principals do.
It seems to me though, that many of these ideas have some considerable merit. In the private sector, and even much of the public sector, employees are making concessions and I for one expect that our teachers and other school staff should make similar concessions.
The big reason people are leaving Waterford, and others are not coming to Waterford is the high taxes.
For the district to keep thumbing their noses at us and say that they are going to keep on business as usual is just plain wrong, in so many ways. The suggestion that there is absolutely no place to cut is what is out of line. Who is kidding who. Surely there is some room to find savings.
I don't think any of the posts suggested that the budget shouldn't be adjusted -- in fact, many of the posts that criticized the original article suggest just the opposite. As a teacher myself, I can speak for many that believe if the budget needs to be adjusted we'll do what we can. But to suggest that teachers, who also have families to raise, mouths to feed, and kids to send to college, should take sacrifices that can only be summed up as draconian is hard to swallow. It's as if the author doesn't believe that teachers are struggling too. We have spouses who have lost jobs, retirements that will have to be deferred, mortgages we struggle to pay, and kids who will have to work several jobs to help pay for their own tuition at college. To think otherwise is either ignorant or hateful.
And remember, who picks up the pieces at school when a home is broken? Teachers. We are more than aware of the trouble in our society and economy. We've seen it long before the rest of you.
But these "suggestions" are nothing more than rhetoric themselves to wind up the taxpayers. There's very little constructive here, little that could provide both some degree of fiscal relief in the district while ensuring that the quality of education (quality, mind you, that ranks very high in the state) remains strong. Does he even understand the true consequences of what he proposes? I suggest not.
And before one other neophyte suggests that teachers take pay or benefit cuts out of a "love for the kids," think about what that statement truly means. Not only is it counterproductive, it's ignorant and blind as well. I'd suggest teachers -- the same ones who work hours on end, take home crates of work every night and often ignore their own families' needs to lesson plan and grade papers, work a second or third job to make ends meet, take graduate class upon graduate class to better their craft, and often makes as good (or better) a connection with a child as the child's own parents -- show much more love for the students than many, many other facets of society.
Yes, I'm willing to leverage that the budget might need work. But there's a far more productive, professional, intelligent way than this man suggests.
Why is it, anon 2:55 PM, that teachers shouldn't have to make sacrafices, while everyone else does?
Many, many people in Waterford who are not teachers have mouths to feed, and kids to send to college too!!!!!!! Yet they have sacraficed.
I respect the job teachers do and I thank you for it. Again, I respect and appreciate the job you do. I really do. But please tell me, honestly, why teachers should be uneffected by this downturn in the economy. Tell us why year after year we see double digit budget increases from the district when inflation runs between 2-3%.
Please tell us why teachers and other school staff shouldn't contribute more toward their health insurance, just like the private sector does?
Tell us why when virtualy everyone else is getting pay cuts or freezes, the teachers should get a raise?
If none of the ideas expressed by the man have any value, where do you believe the budget can be "adjusted" as you say?
This is a great list.
I do think we need to keep the curriculum director and some of the aides.
It is clear though, that the district is greatly over staffed in terms of aides and other support staff.
I also agree that wage freezes and insurance premium contributions in line with non-public employees is completely fair and appropriate.
I think class sizes of 30-32 is workable as well.
The only thing laughable is the WGSD employees on here trying to defend the bloated budget and their bloated salaries.
Teachers work 8 months out of the year. All summer off, two weeks at Christmas, and at least a week at Thanksgiving and Easter....you poor overworked people. Enjoy your last days of work for three months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The suggestion that teachers take crates of work home is a complete fabrication. All of us know teachers, have relatives or neighbors as teachers, etc. In an 8 hour day you teach 4 or 5 classes and have the rest of the time to yourself. 2 + 2 will always equal 4. How much lesson planning or prep do you need....
Just to set the record straight, I posted the second comment on May 22and I am not a teacher or work for the WGSD. I am a concerned taxpayer just like the author. As I stated, I agree with some of the points made. I do believe the teachers need to pay a portion of their health insurance and consider pay freezes to keep in line with what's happening to the private sector.
What I don't agree with is the writers "quick fixes" that have no merit that are said to merely create an uproar and attack some very hard working teachers and administrators. I think the current School Board is doing too much of that. Although I did vote for the current President, I am ashamed at some of his actions. Power in the wrong hands can be dangerous.
I just read the article after being out of town for the weekend and think there are some very good ideas here. Some better than others. I am surprised by some of the responses who say that he is taking shots at the teachers and administration.
I don't see any of the ideas as shots at anyone.
If we can get the same or similar service (janitorial service) by contracting with a private vendor, and save a great deal of money at the same time, that is a great idea.
I also agree that the principals don't need their own secretaries and that teachers and other staff could easily clean their classrooms or offices and take out their own gargabe. What is so terrible about that? And how is that attacking anyone?
I don't think we should get rid of all of the aides, but there are ceretainly way too many of them. A friend of my husband is an aide in the district and she laughs about how easy she has it and how she really doesn't do much of anything.
Pay freezes and insurance copayment is definately in order, not because I dislike the teachers (I think they do a good job) but because the spending at the district is out of control and teacher wage increases and insurance copayments should be in line with the private businesses.
I am a member of the WTA that was formed in response to concerning performance of the WGSB last year. As I read John’s letter in the post last week and the 18 blog response comments, I am glad we don't have to add the issue of dealing with the debt of a new school we never needed.
John's laundry list of ideas to remove waste contains many elements that private sector administrators are forced to look at in response to our current economic climate. I may not agree with all of John's suggestions, but I commend John for taking the time to start a list of things to consider. I am very disappointed that Dr. Nelson hasn't started a list and feels just in telling the board there is nothing to consider. In the private sector that would result in a performance issue on the part of the administrator and dealt with accordingly.
We all need to work together to come up with solutions and stop attacking each other. I also believe these responses would be a bit more responsible if they required more than "Anonymous". These issues need to be handled in the arena of the WGSB and our administration.
Can we remove the blog’s anonymous option? This blog is turning into a list of concerning writings and I think if folks really believe in what they are writing, they would be proud to sign their name.
There is only one problem with this list. It is too short!
Clearly, contrary to the asinine and wrong statements by anon 12:45 and anon 8:49, this is a perfect time to go to arbitration!!!!!
Given the current economic climate, arbitration clearly FAVORS the school district...not the teachers you morons!!!!
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