Monday, October 10, 2011

Central Office, left hand side

It was brought up in a recent post that there is only one person in Central Office who handles insurance benefits, retirements,etc. Is this a problem? Staffing at Central Office should really be discussed according to the two sides of the building. There is the curriculum department and the administrative side. Does the administrative side get short shrift when discussing the budget? How do you feel about how benefits are handled? Teachers and administrators, can you add some insight here? Are you satisfied with the services provided, given only one person is provided for the entire system? Please keep in mind that this is not an evaluation of the person doing the job. It is a question of whether there are enough employees on the left hand side of Central Office.

16 comments:

  1. I don't know if any parent (me included) wanted the clerks and admins in the Central Office to have double and triple the workload. Most of us are in the same boat in the private sector so we know how unfair it is.
    We didn't want our kids' programs hurt because we knew that would be a problem for their educations. We had to ask the BoE to make some tough choices.
    We know that things won't run as smoothly as they did in the Central Office. But as parents, we can't apologize for fighting for our kids.
    Maybe if Supt. Marks had offered some compromises to the BoE, she wouldn't have pitted parents against central office staff.

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  2. The greatest cry during the Budget season was the amount of personnel in Central Office. Steve C, finance chair cried about this all the time. The unions argued about this too - wanting to remove even more people. You can't expect the pace to pick up when your personnel is limited...what next - Dr. Marks to be blamed for the lack of response / performance by Central Office...C'mon! You get what you get when you get short changed.

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  3. You gotta love the Don't-Blame-Susan-Marks-Gang is already looking for a new scapegoat.

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  4. 4:49, I totally agree with you. Thanks for posting what I was thinking.

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  5. You have to believe that the real thorn in the Fan Club's side is that Susan Marks had NO SUPPORT to save her Director of Elementary Ed. Very thankful Steve and Artie stood up for our kids and cut out a job that just wasn't working and used those greenbacks to keep first grade aides.

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  6. Absolutely, 12:50PM, and then she appeared to stage the 'I am going to leave' threat to try to get the money anyway. Why is she supposedly sticking her neck out so far to save this woman? what is with that?
    Well, at least the fan club is known for what they really are. Too bad.
    I also want to join in and thank Steve and Artie for staying the course and doing what is good for kids.

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  7. Ok, Ok. We get the point. Susan Marks Bad. Steve C. and Artie K. Good.

    Glad to see such an elucidating debate.

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  8. Sorry to belabor the point but agree with the last few posts. Steve and Artie seem to be the only ones that are willing to stand up and do the right thing even If it means pissing off their own party.

    The kids come first!

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  9. Yikes, 4:17- get into the debate and tell us something different.
    Did you support Susan Marks' budget plan? Do you think a Dir. of Elem Ed is worth cutting out Middle School Academically Talented for?
    Do you think cuts to the Central Office were made maliciously?
    Do you like REDApples?

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  10. I have got to be missing something-- a central office administrator posts some complaints about the budget cuts (guess he/she wasn't one of the Marks' faves who got a secret raise).
    The person gets shot down here but doesn't argue back. What's happening? Do they not care enough to fight for what they believe in? Do they believe (really, truly and deeply) that Barbis and Burnett will get elected and save them?

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  11. Maybe it's just me and my adult-issue-deficit disorder, but can we switch topics? Puh-leez? Would enjoy hearing if anyone has met any of the district board of education candidates and what they think of them.

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  12. What is the deal with RedApples that they are constantly being 'bagged' for? Most of these comments point them out to be a bad thing - what is the deal? I'm clearly missing something.

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  13. Some of you must have really nothing btter to do with your lives, other than negative blogging all day. I man thats what these blog are created for isnt it? To tear apart marks, and her "fan club".

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    1. Don't like the truth about what is happening in our school system? Because what you read here is the truth! Guess the Apples got together and decided to slam the blog. Too bad they didn't plan their attack better so that everyone didn't criticize on the same day. How obvious!

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  14. Just take a walk through the 3rd floor at city hall and it will be easy for you to see where the waste and flunkies remain. On the administrative side, not counting Dr. Marks & her assistant, you have Longo & Morris who share one secretary, Gorian and his facilities secretary, followed by a finance department stuffed to the rafters with 8 people. No you didn't hear me wrong....A STAFF OF EIGHT! It's one of the biggest scams going on the third floor. They have one person who can't even make it to work half the time and ends up taking time off without pay. Now logic (which is void in the finance department)would imply that if a person on your staff can't make it to work 30 to 50 percent of the time, for whatever reason, do you really need that position filled full time? Then they have a person retire, whose main responsibility was school rentals. So they give that work to the purchasing agent (George Ginnitta) because hs doesn't have enough work to do, but don't eliminate the position where the retirement occurred. Now don't forget the person who never shows up to work, because that person gets promoted to the purchasing department to help George G. But it isn't over yet.....remember the person that retired? She did the school rentals before George G. took over and received help from the person that never showed up for work? Well that position continues to be filled by a temporary person until a permanent replacement is hired. Had enough? But wait.....The finance person that does the grant accounting which is a duplication of the grant accounting person they have in Tony Dadonna's department) has beenout on long term illness and the finance department hires a temporary person to sit at her desk until she returns. Top this all off with a three year interim finance budget director who retired from being a housemaster at McMahon (that that really qualifies one for the job) and a finance department secretary who thinks she is the budget and department director and what do you get? A donation of $500,000 in salary costs and probably over $150,000 in benifes. Well done BOE!

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    1. Just a suggestion..You might want to post on a current thread. I'm noy sure readers will go back to read your comments on a thread that was originally posted 10/11. You obviously put much time and effort into your post. It would be ashamed to see it ignored. Try copying and pasting the content from here to a new reply box on the open topic thread, if you want. Thanks for being a part of the blog!

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