{"id":6781,"date":"2012-03-21T23:41:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T04:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=6781"},"modified":"2012-03-21T23:49:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T04:49:16","slug":"speaking-of-idiocy-no-smart-mouth-this-infuriates-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=6781","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of idiocy sans my smart mouth &#8211; this infuriates me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Be prepared. Next year will be worse <a href=\"http:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/event\/article\/id\/226305\/\">than this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Duluth school district classroom sizes are again set to grow larger with teaching ranks expected to shrink next school year after a Tuesday School Board vote that tentatively approved about $4 million in cuts to its 2013 budget.<\/p>\n<p>That could mean between 25 and 30 jobs, Superintendent Bill Gronseth said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Reductions include:<\/p>\n<p>Moving from seven class periods to six at Lincoln Park and Ordean East middle schools to save about $1.1 million, while maintaining the time spent at school<br \/>\nIncreasing the student\/teacher staffing ratio to save nearly $1 million<br \/>\nCutting middle school music lesson teachers to save $180,000<br \/>\nReducing special education service expenses to save $634,500<br \/>\nEliminating courses to save $180,000<br \/>\nRealizing $126,000 in savings from the need for fewer intervention classes for at-risk students<br \/>\nA reduction in English as a second language staff for $45,000<br \/>\nEliminating the teen parent program for $110,000, and a kindergarten program for $18,000<br \/>\nLimiting freshmen to six courses, with no zero-hour option, to save $90,000<br \/>\nReduce administrative staff at schools to save $154,000<br \/>\nCut out $82,000 from the technology budget<br \/>\nMaintain fewer buses to save $180,000 (school start times will remain the same)<br \/>\nEliminate a business services position to save $64,200 (due to a retirement)<br \/>\nEliminate legal counsel at board meetings to save $6,300<br \/>\nRevise an intervention program to save $90,000<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This story suggests that the School Board has the authority to simply raise money through a levy increase. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Art Johnston asked the board to stop paying $4.5 million each year from the general fund to offset Red Plan debt. The move would raise taxes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If it was this simple to raise money I&#8217;m amazed that Seliga-Punyko and Wasson haven&#8217;t gone ahead and bitten the bullet and the taxpayers and just done it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Be prepared. Next year will be worse than this: Duluth school district classroom sizes are again set to grow larger with teaching ranks expected&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,35,102,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duluth-schools","category-education","category-jci","category-red-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6781"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6788,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6781\/revisions\/6788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}