Posts tagged ‘Hastings on Hudson’
Petition Circulating to Rescind Appointment of Assistant Superintendent
Check it out:
Additional clarification: it should be noted that there has been a Director of Curriculum position for 2 years, which was included in the recently passed budget. This position is a tenure track position, with a salary allocated in the recent budget was $141 k.
The Asst. Supt. position replaces the Dir. of Curriculum position.
The Asst. Supt. position involves greater authority and $160 k salary, and a transfer of the time already accrued towards tenure (in the Director position) towards the Asst. Supt. position. (There are state laws that govern this; I am not familiar with them.) On Wednesday I requested job descriptions for the Director and the Asst. Supt.positions, as well as a copy of the organization charts and reporting structure before and after the appointment. I’ll publish them when I receive them from the school administration.
I glad to see that the discussion is focused on the public approval process and the priorities of our school system, as opposed to the individual in Dir. of Curriculum position. I want to reiterate that this discussion has nothing to do with her qualifications or capabilities, but rather the process and the priorities of our school district.
Posted by Jane Cody
Postings reflect opinion of poster
ONE OPINION: A QUALIFIED “YES” ON THE BUDGET
I will vote for this year’s budget because I want to support a Board that is presenting the lowest budget increase in recent memory. My support is qualified because I’m disappointed that last-minute stimulus funding was used to restore spending that originally had been cut from the budget. That sent the wrong message.
That said, the Board and the Superintendent are headed in the right direction, but they need to go further next year. I challenge them to declare budget reduction targets for next year, right now. I suggest a 5% decrease. There is a full year to get creative, make our dollars go further, achieve economies of scale through quad-village cooperation, and make thoughtful cuts.
Going forward, budget discussions need to better consider the entire community, including our seniors. The opportunity cost of escalating budgets is that many Hastings residents are being priced out of their own homes and voting with their feet. Next year more of these underrepresented citizens will be voting at the polls.
I encourage the Board and the community to begin now to forge a consensus around a budget that the community can afford. This community supports our schools, but not at any price.
–Posted by Jane Cody
Comments reflect the personal opinion of the poster
THINK ABOUT THIS BEFORE YOU VOTE
I cry at summer swim meets. Daddies in crisp shirts, sleeves rolled up, leave work early to make it to the pool in time to watch their skinny seven-year-old flail down the pool. The dads scream like mad—funny, since the kids can’t hear them. But the outpouring of unselfish, unselfconscious, wholehearted parental love just chokes me up.
I feel the same way about the Hastings High School spring concert. But it’s the graduating seniors who get to me when, after they’ve played or sung, they say their farewells to Mr. Jernigan, Mr.Kerness, and Mr. Rubino, who have taught some of them for almost half their lives. “You’ve been ‘a huge part of my adolescence’ or ‘like a second father’ and ‘shaped us as people,’” they say. For teenagers, tight extrafamilial relationships like these are conduits of adult wisdom that may not be acceptable coming from the mom or dad who drove their five-year-old selves to their first music lessons.
Last night at the coffee, Mr. Shaps emphasized the importance of maintaining the current tenor of student-teacher relationships as we face the future—it’s at the core of the learning experience. The seniors’ relationships with their music teachers perfectly illustrate how and why. The affection between students and their teachers, in addition, is one of the best parts of Hastings.
TIME FOR CHOICES
Now, with rising costs of funding federal and state mandates and generous teacher contracts in the context of widespread economic uncertainty, pressure is on the district to cut back.
I wonder what aspect of the music program on view tonight should be cut? Should it be the ten-person percussion ensemble that did the amazing all-clapping piece (perhaps inspired by composer Steve Reich’s)? Should it be the madrigals, with just sixteen kids? Mr. Shaps, who was bopping along to the jazz band, won’t want to cut any of it. He’ll certainly target swimming, golf, and wrestling, which nearly hit the budget cutting room floor this year because they were small programs attracting more limited numbers of students. Sports have been an inexplicably easy target in many communities.
What about having parents or students raise money or otherwise fund some or all of the costs of activities? The school’s well-reviewed theatrical production raised $14,000, according to my daughter. This is not to say that that’s 100% accurate, but there were five performances ; the auditorium was nearly filled for every one. All the parents who wanted to see their kids perform had to pay $10 to get in—and some of us saw Rent more than once.
Should taxes be raised instead? Music, theater, and sports have always been part of the school, supported by the whole community. Is it right for longtime residents, whose children have had the benefits of a school full of programs community-supported, to deny that access to others?
Under what circumstances is it acceptable? When the tax rate has gone up 50 percent? 100 percent? 300 percent?
Snip by snip, the board has pruned the current budget spreadsheet into acceptability—well, more or less, and I suppose it depends on what any given person considers acceptable. The point is that even getting this far took cutting jobs and dipping into the reserve fund. Next year, with the easier, more obvious cuts made and the reserve fund spent down, it won’t be possible to defer the harder decisions. And the budgeting process for 2010–2011 will start sooner than you think.
What do you want Mr. Shaps and the Board of Ed to know as they consider the options?
--Posted by Karen Cure
Opinions are those of the individual blogger
Join the Conversation About Our Taxes
The Hastings Alliance for Affordable Taxes was convened by Jane Cody, Naseem Jamali and Marlene Piturro. We hope all interested Hastings residents will join the conversation.
- Bookmark this page. We will be posting information and hosting a community conversation here.
- Send an email to hastingstaxes@gmail.com with the word subscribe in the subject line to receive email updates from the Hastings Alliance for Affordable Taxes.
- Take a look at the budget proposal on the Board of Education’s website: http://www.hastings.k12.ny.us/board_of_ed1.htm
- Take a look at the village of Hasting’s budget
http://village.hastings.ny.us
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