[seul-edu] Re: [school-discuss] our saga continues in jefferson parish

["tompoe@renonevada.net" <tompoe@renonevada.net>]

Hi: What's the M$ license cost for Jefferson Parish?  If it's more than 
$1 million, they probably want to listen to Open Source and it's 
beautiful melody.  <grin>
Thanks,
Tom Poe
Open Studios
Reno, NV

mike eschman wrote:
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> East Jefferson News
> 
> School Board gets creative in calculations
> 
> 08/14/02
> 
> By Mark Waller
> East Jefferson bureau/The Times-Picayune
> 
> Jefferson Parish School Board members searched Tuesday afternoon for money to 
> curtail a rise in class sizes. And they found it, but only on paper.
> 
> Rather than cutting cash for existing services or dipping into dollars bound 
> for its reserve fund, the board directed administrators to increase their 
> estimates of how much the school system will save under a recent decision to 
> eliminate, reduce and combine some teacher jobs.
> 
> Superintendent Elton Lagasse was against the approach. "It's a calculation," 
> he told board members during a special meeting called to revise a budget 
> approved last week. "It's not an additional source of money."
> 
> As part of a round of cuts designed to meet rising health insurance costs and 
> other growing expenses, the board last week eliminated teacher jobs by 
> merging some special-education classes, cutting teachers for students 
> learning to speak English and increasing class sizes in upper grades.
> 
> In all, administrators said those moves would save more than $5.5 million to 
> help patch a budget shortfall of $9 million. They used starting teacher pay 
> to calculate the savings, even though teachers in some of the positions being 
> eliminated have reached higher salary levels.
> 
> School administrators said the conservative estimates gave the district extra 
> room in the budget in case enrollment is higher than expected and the 
> district has to hire more teachers.
> 
> Board members argued that the system's financial planners did not need to use 
> such conservative projections of how much money the job cuts will generate 
> and said recalculating the numbers could reveal as much as $1.2 million for 
> smaller classes.
> 
> "I do believe they will save more money" than first projected, said board 
> member Julie Quinn, "not because they were being sneaky, but because they 
> were being fiscally conservative and responsible. That is a chief financial 
> officer's job, to be fiscally conservative and responsible. A School Board 
> member's job is to be fiscally responsible, but not always conservative."
> 
> Last week, class sizes in middle, junior high and high schools climbed to a 
> ratio of 30 students per teacher. Board members wanted to revisit the move, 
> however, arguing it hurts learning. So they came together Tuesday looking for 
> ways to hold the ratio at 29-to-1. The figure is up from 28 students last 
> year.
> 
> In practice, a 29-to-1 ratio means more than 29 students in many classes 
> because the number includes educators such as librarians and counselors who 
> do not work in classrooms.
> 
> To avoid the 30-student level, board members first discussed using $800,000 
> that Lagasse set aside to fortify the system's shrinking reserve fund. The 
> current reserve, at almost $5 million, is an inadequate emergency cushion in 
> desperate need of reviving, Lagasse argued.
> 
> "We are a school system that is in financial trouble if we do not have some 
> semblance of a fund balance to fall back on," Lagasse said, "if, God forbid, 
> something happens that is beyond our control."
> 
> Board members then looked around for other options.
> 
> Member Chris Roberts suggested cutting school-based administrator jobs, a move 
> discussed previously. But member Ray St. Pierre argued against it, saying the 
> administrators help maintain school safety.
> 
> Another idea, to have administrators teach some classes, also drew fire from 
> St. Pierre, who said that would be too taxing for those employees.
> 
> "We will have ineffective administrators and ineffective substitutes in 
> class," St. Pierre said. As a former school administrator himself, he said, 
> "I'd tell you to take this job and shove it."
> 
> Board member Martin Marino s
> 


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