Friday, April 6, 2012
School Budget Update
Nathan Mayberg reports in today's Register-Star that Superintendent Jack Howe, who is retiring in two months, hopes that the newly discovered $1.2 shortfall in the school district budget can be "steadily worked down": "Howe hopeful budget gap can be reduced." According to Howe, the previously identified $1.3 million shortfall is being made up with a 2.78 percent increase in the tax levy. Meanwhile, the Hudson Teachers' Association is standing firm, stalwartly refusing to make any concessions in their benefits or their automatic annual raises.
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The HTA actually did offer concessions back in the fall, when they had the last bargaining session with the Board. The Board refused to consider anything but no across the board increases, no steps, and an increase in health insurance contributions and declared impasse.
ReplyDeleteGossips and the Register-Star covered the concessions Katie mentions, offered last fall by the HTA: http://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2011/08/state-of-education-in-hudson.htm and http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/08/10/news/doc4e420555c9b51733088273.txt.
DeleteThanks for the links, but I'm actually talking about another offer. I don't recall exactly what it was, but it involved only giving step increases to those about to retire among other changes. I don't remember it offhand but maybe someone else does. (And yes, I realize that's not helpful, heh. I'm just tired of people demanding concessions out of the teachers when the school board has no idea how much money it even needs).
Delete(I'm not sure if my repyl got eaten, so sorry if you get this twice.)
DeleteThank you for the links, but I'm actually referring to HTA's last offer, made in the fall, after the date of the article you posted. It involved no step increases for most of the staff, except those close to retirement. There were other cost savings but I don't recall what they were at this point. I realize that's not too helpful, but maybe someone else can fill in the details.
I only bring this up because I'm both surprised and disappointed at the harsh words and demands made of teachers. The Board and Administration have clearly grossly mismanaged the finances of the school. It's this late in the game and they don't even know what their budget gap is. Where is the oversight? Wasn't there a budget committee with people checking the figures? Has anyone asked how they were so easily able to cut almost $300k out of the transportation budget over the last year? Something is rotten in the City of Hudson and it's not the teachers.
Concessions? The HTA offered to "loan" the district money, at a higher interest rate than we could get from the local bank. Some concenssion. Sorry, Katie, but the HTA has been perfectly selfish throughout the negotiating process; in fact, it has done everything to impede the negotiating process. A simple pay freeze -- a real one! -- like so many people in the private sector have had to live with, would save the jobs of 8 people, including 5 teachers! -- now on the chopping block. We've experienced the worst recession since the Great Depression and still have a local unemployment rate of over 9 percent and the HTA doesn't seem to care. Unfortunately, it is killing the goose that laid its golden egg.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying they were great, I'm just saying that they didn't offer nothing and demanded only raises and more benefits.
DeleteI'm not going to pretend I know the ins and outs of HTA strategy and what happened behind closed doors. But what I see from reading the latest articles in the Register Star is that there was not enough oversight in the budgeting process. Someone dropped the ball. Whether it was a result of the unfortunate passing of Mr. Barrett or something more egregious, something went wrong, and the first reported words out of Mr. Howe's mouth is that there must be faculty cuts. How can the HTA rely on what the Board and Administration say they need when they ask for concessions when they clearly don't know themselves?
If I lived in the district (and at this point, despite knowing and respecting most of the staff there, I wouldn't dare move in) I would be more involved in this process. My only horse in this race is caring about the future of Hudson. But if these articles out of the RS have any hint of truth to them, the Board and Administration have failed the community and have spent more time pointing figures and arguing than getting to the root of the problems.
Katie, I'm not going to defend the board or the administration, but this time, the HTA is really holding the district hostage. We've squeezed several hundred thousand out of transportation and facilities, which no doubt will cause some folks to lose jobs. Administrators have taken salary freezes, as have other bargaining units. We laid off dozens of staff and last year and taxpayers were soaked with nearly a 10 percent poprerty tax increase. But the teachers kept getting their raises -- even as their colleagues were laid off. Everybody but the HTA has stepped up to the plate and sacrificed for this school. The HTA "concessions" were minor -- and they barely came to the bargaining table. It might be different if they were actually educating our kids (only 60% of our students make it to graduation; perhaps because barely 30 percent are grade level proficient in reading and math in 8th grade). Who do we blame for that? You hear the same story every year: at budget time we're supposed to pay teachers lots of money (Hudson now has one of the highest average teacher salary scale in the region and one of the worst academic records) because they are so important to our children's education; by June, when the test scores come out, it's all the parents' fault. We would be better off handing parents the $22,000 we're now spending per pupil, and let them educate their own kids. Sorry, but the HTA has finally shown its true colors. And they are not the blue and gold of the Hudson Bluehawks.
ReplyDelete