kitchen table math, the sequel: money tree

Saturday, November 20, 2010

money tree

Irvington School District's Financial Challenges

and: a new administrator at no extra cost to the district
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5 comments:

le radical galoisien said...

Principals cost that much?

They earn more than my revered (highly-rated) chemistry professor does.

A curriculum administrator is investment though, if there is serious reform to be done.

A cheaper fee perhaps, the school could also hire a professional consultancy firm that specialises in curricula. They would then give a set of recommendations (perhaps with repeated visits) that an assembled group of teachers (paid a few bonuses, if successful) would then implement.

Since outsourcing is so hot these days.

In fact, I am unaware of my high school ever hiring outside expertise to "audit" the school's performance, in a sense.

What does a curriculum administrator actually do? How well would he/she connect with teachers, and fit into the work management system?

Or did the School Board simply emerge from a meeting one day, declaring "we need a curriculum administrator"?

November 20, 2010 at 11:19 PM
lgm said...

Catherine,
Do you have details on the medical plan? I'm wondering if it's major medical or HMO. What is the cap per person per year?

In my district, the contract signed last year was the first time employees had to contribute to their medical. They were given a grid raise so that the net paycheck would not decrease with the minus for the medical.

Should the school tax on apt bldgs rise? Is it equivalent to that of the single family homeowner?

In my area, there is a business contacting each homeowner with the offer of representing the homeowner for the tax certs. The cost charged is half the savings.

November 21, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

lgm - tax law on condos & apartment buildings is a mess; it would have to be changed in Albany. They get special protection.

Single-family homeowners are in major trouble in New York.

As to medical insurance, we suddenly, this year, changed to some other plan (are there only 2 plans that sell to school districts??) & saved money.

Why didn't we do this before?

No financial crisis, so no need to spend taxpayers' money wisely.

November 30, 2010 at 1:36 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

Curriculum directors are ELA/social studies teachers who adopt constructivist math programs over the objections of parents and mathematicians.

November 30, 2010 at 1:37 PM
lgm said...

>>Why didn't we do this before?

The voters have many incentives to vote yes.

Why vote 'no' when

a) your family benefits from the 5% annual raise the district gives as well as the low cost health insurance (I'll bet no one in my district has figured out the cost effect of adding all the young 20somethings to the parents' insurance).

b) your family has numerous exemptions and rebates on their property so the monthly tax increase on the McMansion is about as much as your morning gourmet coffee

It's clear: I need to obtain enough animals to qualify for a farm exemption, put the house in the grandparents' name to get the 50% senior reduction, convert it into a rental then go condo after I pay off the zoning board, and then I can take my kid out of study hall and dual enroll him with the savings. In the meantime I can vote 'yes' and raise the taxes on my neighbors who are so busy working overtime that they'll never think to raise the issue of bizarrely unequal tax rates. LOL. They don't call NY the Empire State for nothing.

December 1, 2010 at 6:18 AM

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