 Messages |
Topics |
Attachments
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - nhibbard
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 ... 23
46
« on: January 28, 2015, 06:36:13 PM »
Was the volume of business the issue or something else?
47
« on: January 26, 2015, 08:31:01 PM »
Anyone want to post the link to look at? I haven't even seen the resolution. I'm also not sure what both sides are offering at the table.
48
« on: January 20, 2015, 05:56:20 PM »
49
« on: January 19, 2015, 06:50:54 AM »
We should get rid of the LC-142 form for the renters rebate and give a state tax credit for housing in it's place. I honestly don't think the rebate should exist at all but if it does, cut the admin cost on landlords, renters and state employees by making it a credit based on purely income.
50
« on: January 12, 2015, 05:54:35 PM »
Thanks for the update. I appreciate you letting us know your vote and going with the community choice. What kind of things do they allow you access to to help with all your new decisions? (Do you get a staffer?)
51
« on: January 09, 2015, 10:13:32 AM »
Maybe now this won't be an annual debate and we can move on to making sure the next contract for the teachers is well considered since that is really the only item that can cause a problem.
52
« on: December 20, 2014, 11:19:57 AM »
Get that salt out too. Slippy
53
« on: December 17, 2014, 10:20:17 PM »
I'll run if I feel I can commit to it. But I took a picture at the post office today. The meeting for the 1st and15th were there. Nothing about the 3rd. It had to be noticed 24 hours prior for that meeting and there was no notice posted. Unless you put them up, I'd check with whoever did. The post office, library and town offices are the public places designated by the board. The posting of the minutes is a state requirement of 5 days to allow the public to be informed. This was a vacancy of an elected position. I don't care who got it. I care how little the public knew and how quickly this replacement was done with no regard for state rules. I like to stay informed and involved, not just find out after the fact.
54
« on: December 17, 2014, 01:19:17 PM »
Ther minutes are supposed to be posted 5 days after a meeting, not after the approval of the minutes. And the recordings and other minutes were not up before that meeting. My issue is there was no clear notice for anyone to give interest who wasn't at the meeting on the 1st. And unless it was posted at the post office on the 2nd, the was not correct notice. There was not another meeting until the 15th so this did not need to be filled within two days. The statute put no expression of how soon a position must be filled.
There is also nothing I see in the minutes of the 1st that led to any discussion about this. Maybe they're just very incomplete minutes.
55
« on: December 16, 2014, 09:02:07 PM »
Another question. Does anyone know when the minutes of the 12/3/2014 meeting were posted. I swear they were not up there the other day. They were supposed to be posted by the 8th.
56
« on: December 16, 2014, 08:56:36 PM »
A letter of resignation has been received from Chris Santee. A letter of
interest has been received from a resident asking to be considered for
appointment to the Selectboard in a temporary position until the next
election.
*Peter made the motion to accept Ms. Fisher’s request for appointment to the
Selectboard in a temporary position until the next election/Town Meeting.
Leebeth seconded the motion. The motion carried with a vote of 4-0.
When did they accept letters of interest? Did anyone hear of this? How would
anyone know there was a vacancy if this was the meeting where they were noting receiving the letter
of resignation?
There is a posted agenda and minutes now, but I was just at the Post Office on Sunday and saw plenty of other prior notices. Was this meeting even
properly noticed in two public places. I just find the whole notice process interesting. How can the town give informed input if they're not given
the chance. Especially when it comes to un-elected appointments to elected positions.
57
« on: December 16, 2014, 08:03:52 PM »
The Board missed on their legal obligation to notify the town that the position was open. It wan't hard to find since it was in the same place they found that they could fill the position. They did not have to fill the position prior to receiving the formal resignation, or prior to noticing the town. I'm also confused about when they filled this since it wasn't on any agenda that I saw. There was no need for an emergency meeting so it should have been noticed.
I just find it interesting how long it takes to get some things done but others that should be more carefully done are finished up before they even start.
58
« on: December 13, 2014, 05:16:38 PM »
The man can write. Great pictures too. Maybe he should write a nice narrative to the budget. Anatomy of an SU who won't even entertain local busing.
59
« on: December 13, 2014, 10:22:09 AM »
It should be posted in 3 places. But the spot was already filled. I'm not sure there was any notice given.
60
« on: December 12, 2014, 09:14:22 PM »
So let’s talk about the November 10th budget meeting. There was so much focus on broad talk about the drastic effect of the cost cutting needed to get to a 3% target that it wasn’t until the end there was talk about creative ways to cut down. One idea was to offer less attended classes less often, which makes perfect sense. How about some more talk like that? How about more talk about bulk purchases with other school if we’re not doing that? What about dropping programs that were grant funded rather than continuing to fund them out of the general budget? Well, if you don’t spend enough money you must be doing something wrong. That must be why having a low per pupil spending not always preferred. Instead of comparing graduates moving on to careers, tech schools, colleges or other such performance based goals, we are beat over the head with comparisons of per pupil spending. If we get too low per pupil we must be sacrificing something. Why? Maybe we made better decisions. Just because our spending is lower doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to keep it that way. Maybe it’s time to get more creative with cost sharing or innovative class designs to offer classes while not incurring extra costs. I took Accounting 2 with one other person. How could this be possible? Because we sat in with an Accounting 1 class and did structured self-study. No extra teaching costs. No extra classroom needed. No need to mess with schedules. Get creative.
There was also creative talk about how to bring in tuition students from other towns. That was interesting, not so much because it’s a great idea, but because the SI spoke against privatizing public school dollars. If you’re marketing what your product is, finding a way to bring in dollars by doing so and sending staff out to show your product, that’s an awful lot like private school. You’re sending guidance counselors who should be guiding your students to fairs to try and bring in new students. If everyone is so busy, why not work with the students, rather than working on the marketing.
On the subject of marketing, one smart person suggest a viral campaign based on recent sport successes and such. This is a perfect idea with the current tools available. The SI then pondered who would have time to work on this. I suggest the same person that made that beautiful blog post about how he spends his winter mornings pondering and educating himself on the weather to decide whether a snow day will occur. If you can take that time to find the pretty snow pictures and type up that, you sure can spend a few minutes to make these short posts for these things. I saw plenty of other perfectly short posts on his Twitter, so I think it would work out great.
Pre-K is going to be another great issue. Once we talked about the funds needed for that and how we’re just privatizing public funds, we skip over how we poured all those public dollars into Apple to fund the 1:1 iPad program. Seems to me that paying someone else to educate a child because you weren’t offering enough slots for parents who wanted the product is the same as paying for technology because it wasn’t fair that some kids have it and others don’t. If an iPad is a tool that enables education, why isn’t a teacher who has the capacity to offer a product that does the same thing? Getting irate about the State pushing out the initiative is showing a bit more about you’re misunderstanding of your product. You sell education, that’s clear from wanting to bring in more tuition students. Either find a way to keep the dollars and offer the product or look at it as helping you do your job and see if those private educators can supplement your Kindergarten programming. I’d take more actual education than iPads any day.
Then we have those tools. The great iPad which will make things more equal. But what about those other investments that don’t seem to have been planned or implemented well. What about those dollars that went into the online system for teachers and parents to interact where you can see you child’s work and assignments. That’s right, it doesn’t work so well so many teachers don’t use it. Now some teachers also use their own systems to interact with parents. But who vets all those systems for quality and privacy.
"The number is the number. If the number is lower, it can only be lower." Well folks, that’s the logic we should use. Let’s make a reasonable, responsible budget based on need and creativity. If we use those numbers, they can never be higher because as I’ve learned from Ned, the number can’t be higher, because the number is the number, or maybe it’s lower. Let’s just hope that number isn’t the FWSU budget, because if it’s that, we just tell everyone we found savings, use our surpluses and then ask for even more funds the next year.
I love public school. I'm the product of public schools. I'm a product of the great teaching I received there. I think creative staff making creative choices can find ways to efficiently deliver programs in a cost reasonable manner. No one is saying an increase isn't needed, but if the number is going up every year, you'd better expect to keep that number low.
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 ... 23
|
Show Posts
