There is a very important Regular School Board meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 6:30 PM. The Tuesday election caused the regular meeting to move to Thursday.
There are a number of items on the agenda, the most important are the final approval of $106 million in bonds for completing the red plan, and enslaving of our teaching staff for 20 years to over-crowded classrooms.
This meeting is really the worst of the worst offense for those school board members who say they are “for children.” Their actions this coming Thursday will put in place tax obligations that will drain critically needed salary money from the general fund to pay off the bond issue ($35 million) that REQUIRES money from the General Fund which could otherwise be used for teachers salaries and student services.
Along the same lines this the Board recently broke the law. Many of us have complained that the District is using operations money to pay (they say lend) to the construction of the Red Plan. I’ve asked Gary Glass what operations funds these “borrowed” funds were taken from but because the Administration hasn’t told anyone this he didn’t know.
Apparently they were taken from “staff development” funds which are mandated by the legislature to go to teacher training. If this is where the money came from there’s just one problem with it. It was an illegal use of these funds thus explaining why it was necessary to keep Gary in the dark about where they came from. (Public information isn’t even public to school board members!)
The only way a school district can use these funds for other purposes is if the teachers approve of its diversion for other purposes. When I was on the School Board the Board requested to use half of these funds to keep the seven hour day in place (or something like that). The teachers voted to approve the use of the funds.
There was no such vote this time. The Union let the teachers down on this and then strong armed (according to rumor) the teachers into endorsing the incumbent school board members who rubber stamp everything Dr. Dixon wants. Now teachers have to watch fearfully over both of their shoulders – for the union on one side and the administration on the other. Maybe that’s why I haven’t read a letter to the editor from any teachers gushing over the brilliance of the Red Plan for months now. Its hard to gush when two knives have been put to your throat.
