Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The Superintendent's New Clothes
I am taking my lead from many of the comments posted here. It appears that the superintendent likes the title of her job, but isn't doing the job itself. It is a fact that the superintendent handed the Board of Ed a status quo budget and is letting these wonderful Board members spend their time coming up with the required cuts. Susan Marks, they don't get paid to do this. You are being paid as the superintendent. Let's see if Steve Colorassi should be paid $200,000 in salary (plus those annuities) or if you earn your salary. Let the comments on the budget continue here......
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Well said. Steve bailed her out last year and will have to do it again this year. What exactly is her job???
ReplyDeleteIt was people like you guys that bitched her out for being Fiscally responsible! Clearly the public was mad on what she presented - even her subordinates cried foul - so perhaps this year she present majority if the needs requested by all departments and she ran with it. There is more to cut - I can't wait to see the request made by the board?
ReplyDeleteAh, a red apple has entered the discussion. Last year, your 'leader' wanted to cut from the classrooms. The Board protected the students and overruled her. She's not fiscally responsible. In fact, I'm wondering if there is anything she is responsible for. As for fiscally responsible, ask her about the large severance pay she approved for someone who was with us only six months.
ReplyDeleteCuts do have to be made. Why does the high school with the bigger student population have fewer teachers and larger classes? Why are there still people in administrative positions who are frequently absent? Does anyone know that there are people who are teaching less than 80 students a day and are being paid a "Doctor's" Salary? Why are we not getting our money's worth? HhhhMMMM?
ReplyDeleteIt's the BoE's job to take care of the budget. From what I remember, Colarossi made a big deal about how he'd fix it if we elected him. So, he's doing the job he promised to do-- I'm not a huge fan of his, but I'll give him his due on the budget.
ReplyDeleteHave we sunk so low that we want to throw a parade for someone who gets elected and does what he promised the voters?
No, you are wrong. The Superintendent prepares the fiscal year 2013 budget and presents it to the Board of Education for consideration. According to the press release from her office, she is also supposed to hold meetings to search for savings and possible cuts. This is her responsibility. Yes, we should hold a parade for someone who is doing what should be the superintendent's job .....as well as for an elected official who actually does what he promised to do! Now it is time for the paid official to do SOMETHING she promised to do,
ReplyDeleteI'm just a parent and taxpayer, but I have to agree with 8:49 for a few reasons. The Budget Committee that the superintendent promised was going to look at the budget, didn't get started until November (you can look up their minutes if you want). The BoE all got completely revised pages Tuesday night because of all the typos and the mistakes about how many teachers were needed. Those are two really big errors that show that the superintendent was totally uninvolved or that she really doesn't have a handle on the whole process.
ReplyDeleteLet me try to refocus this debate so that we can all get into the deep digging necessary to try to mine an educationally-sound and taxpayer-fair budget from the reconciliation we'll be confronting in a few months:
ReplyDelete1. I did promise to improve the budget process if elected. Honoring that promise has meant scrutinizing not just individual line items but how assumptions are formed to create the budget and how planning is undertaken for departments to be more efficient. We are making progress in that regard.
2. Many of the problems we had during last year's budget process (such as not having impact statements and implementation plans for proposed cuts) have been addressed. Elio Longo and the Finance Department staff have taken a very pro-active role in reviewing and correcting the budget-- they all deserve a lot of credit for their hard work.
3. For me, one of the biggest concerns we will face is the prospect of a deficit in the current year's budget-- hopefully, we will learn from how that happened and work to develop the systems so that the same mistakes aren't repeated. One problem is that recommended cuts in the number of teaching positions simply were not tenable, leading the superintendent to hire more teachers over the summer than may have been budgeted. We will be addressing that issue over the next few months.
4. When we voted on the 2012-2013 Budget, I advocated for some common sense reductions because there is no way the city's taxpayers can absorb a 7% tax increase. We recognized that the work we did was just a start.
5. Even if the Superintendent does not make cut recommendations, the BoE can direct her to prepare impact statements and plans on the effect of cutting x-dollars from department "y". We can also collaborate on the types of information we will need to assess possible areas of reduction or consolidation (which is what we started to do at the Wednesday night Finance Committee meeting). 6. The budget process must be an on-going one which is started far sooner than November. Although I do not believe enough effort was expanded over the summer and fall to work on finding efficiencies, I think we are fortunate to be addressing those needs now and are working on developing the data that is needed for sound decision-making.
It seems like Colarossi has a plan, and that the first part of the plan had unanimous approval. So the rest of the Board is on board- safe to say?
ReplyDeleteGood signs for a healthy budget review, right?
Or does any one think that this is the calm before the storm?
Here's a thought- let's see what develops over the next few months. Maybe they'll be lots of good thinking and planning by the superintendent. All we can do for now is watch everything closely.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve! I'm impressed with you and thank you for your hard work. By any chance, would you like to apply for a superintendent's job? I'm hoping that a superintendent's job will be available in the very near future right in your city.
ReplyDeleteFolks,
ReplyDeleteMost of this budget is collectively bargained for salary increases and increased health care benefits. This isn't rocket science.
I disagree with you. If you consider that cuts will certainly have to be made to bring the budget in at a reasonable amount this year it just may be comparable to rocket science. We are talking about our children's futures. Is there anything more important than that? Don't be condescending and naive. I guess you are not one of the rocket scientists.........
ReplyDeleteWe all saw the horrific budget Rookie Marks brought to the public last year, right? For someone with a doctoral degree and loads of experience, she definitely presented something with all the grace of passing flautulence in church. So, maybe it is close to rocket science.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good sign that the BoE had a leader on the budget who came up with a much better approach.
But now we're in the same boat in rougher waters-- Concordia Captn. Marks hasn't made any tough calls yet, and she's probably looking to abandon ship before all the women and children are saved.