On Monday, Gossips alerted readers to the vote on the school budget and the election of members of the Board of Education, coming up on Tuesday, May 17: "HCSD Watch." That post prompted questions about the budget and the basis for the proposed increase. Those questions, among other things, prompted Ken Sheffer to write his commentary about the budget and the general state of things in the Hudson City School District a bit early this year.
Sheffer is the most dedicated and passionate observer and critic of HCSD's administration and Board of Education I know, and it has been my privilege to publish his observations and opinions on Gossips, in advance of the school district vote, in 2020 and 2021. Today, I publish his commentary on this year's proposed budget and the process by which it was created. Because of its length, Sheffer's commentary appears on a separate page: "HCSD's Board of Education and New Superintendent Need to 'Read the Room.'"
Thanks, Ken, for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI might add that I went to the School Board website to review the board meeting minutes and better acquaint myself with the justification for what seems such an obviously ill-timed tax hike. It looks like the current board has posted minutes of their meetings sporadically since August 2021, and not at all since December of 2021. None of the subcommittees, including the budget subcommittee, have posted any minutes for public access on their website.
I have called the district to ask for clarification and am awaiting a response. This, in combination with your description of board members and what I know of the current board's occasional penchant for enriching their household or business at taxpayer expense, gives rise to very valid concern about the board's sense of duty to the community and Hudson's youth.
John - Let me know if you want any of the papers I have. I can tell you though that Committee reports are rare but legally mandated. They just don't do them. And yes, the BOE has recently become more dysfunctional. But that is only a personal observation. Ken
ReplyDeleteI've been making do with the draft minutes of the full board (nothing available for the subcommittees) but I have no idea how accurate they are.
DeleteThis school board is clearly not a body that takes its responsibility to the community or taxpayer seriously. It's almost like the tourism board but with even more of your money.
No legally mandated minutes for Board or Committee Meetings since Dec 21? - Vote NO to any budget increase. How can they justify it?
ReplyDeleteVoter apathy seems to be the historic justification, though as last year's local elections demonstrated, Hudson is pretty tired of the bullshit.
DeleteThank you for this, Carole and Ken. When it comes to HCSD, all I can do is shake my head. It's a disgrace - that we all pay too much for.
ReplyDeleteThe full minutes are inaccurate and manipulated. I have challenged dozens of them. They will tel you to attend the BOE meetings....that is the solution. But that is a full time job. This year I left out my tally of how Hudson students compare to other schools around us....it is the same as lat year...BTW. I felt that discouraging to the kids and so left it out. But the current behavior of the BOE is disturbing and you are onto the right analogy. I think it crucial to get the BOE to withdraw this budget and scrape it back to zero increase. There is time. If not, Spindler must go. They have reached the tipping point. A community group should be brought in to replace the Board. I will publish the things they have asked for from the $5 million bucks they just got from our federal taxes. VOTE NO. Ken
ReplyDeletePeter Meyer here (my mother once told me not to let anyone call me Pete, but I don't know how to change that profile name.) I'll tell one quick story about Hudson Schools before recommending a Gossips essay I wrote in 2015 that is still relevant. Here's the story: more change came to HCSD than any other period since I've been here (fulltime: in 1997) when Lynn Slonneker (the only person in town who know more than me about education) was made a reporter for the Register Star and began going to School Board meetings. She was there the night that Vince Wallace, a Korean War vet who used to post VOTE NO signs all over town and was decried by all the liberals in town (about six at the time :)) for being an anti-school knucklehead. He came to the board meeting, as he often did, with statistics, showing the fact the other districts with the same and worse poverty levels (then--and now--the favorite scapegoat for all school problems) had much better academic scores than HCSD. Why was that? he asked the board. Lynn Slonneker was there to capture the answer, from HCSD's curriculum director. I paraphrase here: blacks, he said. Racism was no big secret to those who knew the district, but when the comment became a front-page headline in the RS, all hell broke loose. And when the Board president, at the next board meeting, apologized for the curriculum director's misstatement -- I paraphrase again, he meant to say certain ethnics didn't believe in education -- more hell broke loose when the RS put Slonneker's report of the apology on the front page again. I can't recall the year, but it was our Black Lives Matter moment.... Here's my Gossips essay from 2015: https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/search?q=hcsd andule pues... peter meyer
ReplyDeleteIf I may, the moral of the story above is that INFORMATION COUNTS. And we don't have it in Hudson. The Register Star, for better or worse, is our only local paper (apologies to Columbia) and it doesn't cover HCSD board meetings. With all due respect to Ken, John, Jennifer, and dozens of others whom I know care about our schools, we simply have no responsible news outlet covering this $55 million enterprise in our midst. It should be shocking. We have a community problem, not a school problem. We need a local newspaper that is going to cover our local schools! --peter meyer
ReplyDeleteFor as long as I've been a part of the Hudson community, Gossips has been the go-to source of local news. The Register-Star has had, in the past, some very good writers, but they seem to leave for better opportunities just as they start seeing through the bullshit from the 'activists' in town.
DeleteAlas, Carole is one person, and can only do so much. The county and school district are practically their own beats to cover. It's up to good people throughout the community to actively participate and engage with the issues, and a quick look at WGXC's programming schedule shows everyone how much they've dropped the ball.
My time on the Hudson Dems Committee showed me how important it was to some members of that committee to make sure Hudson voters got as little quality information as possible to make informed decisions. It seems the school district is taking a similar strategy. I wonder if, like the Tourism Board, the money just lines the pockets of their family and friends.
John, I'm not that cynical, but the fact that school budget votes in NYS are in May -- as far away from the popular votes in November, is not by accident: teachers unions lobbied for that, knowing that their best chances of passing school budgets was with pro-school voters. Remember also that "contingency budgets" give school boards the right to ignore public votes on the budget. (See here https://www.nyssba.org/news/2011/05/20/on-board-online-may-23-2011/a-primer-on-contingency-budgets/#:~:text=Contingency%20budget%20cap&text=120%20percent%20of%20the%20Consumer,over%20the%20prior%20year's%20budget) -- now that's cynical. The big question on this year's budget proposal is whether it's a "contingency budget" proposal; if it is, then our votes don't matter. Now that's a reason to be cynical. But I don't know that the proposed budget is a contingency budget or not. See here: https://www.nyssba.org/news/2011/05/20/on-board-online-may-23-2011/a-primer-on-contingency-budgets/#:~:text=Contingency%20budget%20cap&text=120%20percent%20of%20the%20Consumer,over%20the%20prior%20year's%20budget --peter meyer
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DeleteSetting aside the issue of the budget, the school board membership vote is still incredibly important. Having such a tone-deaf, non-responsive school board is unacceptable, and with so many seats up for vote, this year is a great opportunity to start turning things around.
DeleteThe last thing Hudson needs is another taxpayer-funded pork barrel buffet like the Tourism Board (a body to which several school board members seem connected.)
John, of course, it's important to get good board members. But you don't seem to understand the complexities associated with "running" a modern school district, one in which a third of the funds come from the feds, 2/3 from the state, and only (and barely) 1/3 from the local taxpayers. Even the best intentioned of board members (and very rarely do they know anything about education policies or pedagogy) have a complicated web of "bosses" to deal with. It is not "tone-deaf"; quite the contrary, it is hearing so much as to be confounded. You didn't seem interested in "contingency budget"; but you should be. You will learn a lot about the budget process. Of course, it's important to get good board members; but they are not -- and can't be -- substitutes for real community involvement. Read this if you want to know what they are up against: https://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/budgeting/handbook/appendixF.html
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