As hard as so many of our staff are working to make ISD 709 schools the best they can be I simply think they are under resourced. We have been transferring millions of dollars annually out of our General Fund Budget for years. Instead of the classroom it goes to pay off Red Plan bonds. While I think the bulk of these cuts are coming from bogus claims of Red Plan savings $20 million of the shortfall is coming from all the abandoned schools JCI told us we could sell for $23 million dollars. So far, we’ve unloaded about three properties and raised a hair over $3 million which is less than half of what those three were supposed to sell for. We can keep hanging on hopes like my Friend Deb Anderson’s in the previous post or we can cut bait.
Stories like the one on today’s editorial page are a new phenomenon and distressingly recurrent. This one was prompted by a letter-to-the editor from one of our students who has been bullied and her Mother. The Trib weighed in to support her. I have seen our District bend over backwards to address bullying since I rejoined the School Board. I believe we need more people power to prevent incidents like this from slipping through the cracks.
So here is one more story I can report that I hope makes clear my concerns for adequate funding. Before the last break I was contacted by someone who found a cell phone lying in the melting sun. When this person poked around in it to find out who it belonged to a video of kids fighting in one of our school bathrooms popped up. I asked for the video and took it to our new Assistant Superintendent, Amy Starzecki, who is a real gust of fresh air and, coincidentally, a social worker.
It will be dealt with now. The video was only 43 seconds long but it was full of a very short lived mayhem with about 20 seconds of fisticuffs and wrestling. It wasn’t a gang initiation and the combatants shook hands in front of the half dozen witnesses who were holding up cells to catch the action. I later learned it was “fight club” activity which I was told our administrators thought they had stamped out. Stamped out? I’d never been told this was a problem to begin with.
We need more eyes in our schools and firm gentle hands. Let’s sell Central. Please!
