The ballots must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9, so some of you may have already marked your ballot and mailed it in. If you haven't done so yet, this article may be of interest: "More Spending, Fewer Kids: Mapping NY School Budget Proposals."
The article points out: "Districts outside New York's five largest cities plan to spend an average of $27,203 per student during the school year 2020-2021, a 2.3 percent increase." There is no information about the anticipated number of students in the Hudson City School District in the 2020-2021 school year, but according to SchoolDigger, the current number of students is 1,712. In the academic year just ending, the $49.8 million budget worked out to $29,084 per student. With the $50.7 million budget being proposed for 2020-2021, it $29,605 per student--$2,402 more than the average. That's only a 1.18 percent increase, but that's also assuming the number of students remains at the current level of 1,712.
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It would be interesting to see a list of the salaries posted, that doesn't seem to be included in the school data mailed out. It is public money, where is a list of every school district employees salary, bonuses, retirement benefits etc.? I just heard a talk on youtube where custodians in one school district were getting paid over $200,000 due to union contracts. Where is the money going? It must be available somewhere.
ReplyDeleteGo to SeeThroughNY: https://www.seethroughny.net/payrolls. It doesn't tell you what people will be paid in 2020-2021, but it does tell you what they were paid in 2019. Gossips did a post that touched on salaries and provided the link to SeeThroughNY on May 27.
DeleteP.Winslow, the numbers are all on SeeThroughNY. It is an excellent site. The taxpayers have no chance against this list of employees, all of whom vote yes without question. In essence the HCSD operates in total secrecy to protect these vested interests. And then again, have you seen the academic test scores at HCSD? Those of us who haven't fled the District are gonna get hit again with another unaffordable school tax bill this year. Along with the 3-year extension of the failed Otty/Suttmeier team. VOTE NO! DEMAND A REAL PUBLIC HEARING! Write in MC Smith as a protest vote. The growing numbers and failure are stomach churning for sure. Take your Dramamine on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteAs one veteran educator once told me, "We get the schools we deserve." And one of the fundamental truths about our public school district is how little the community knows about what is happening in our schools. (That means, as Ken points out, that the school community (parents of students and school employees) rules.) The biggest problem is ignorance: on a local level, the Register Star doesn't even "cover" education; on a national level, bad education beliefs prevail. It's not an impossible challenge, but the community has to care. It does take a village.
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