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Karl's avatar

I’m leery of getting hit with a major tax increase to level up 65 salaries, but I feel as though continuity might be key for the state of education in this city and consolidation could create that.

If I were king, I would start with clearing the Board out with new people who want radical change with a focus on fiscal responsibility and improvement. I’d hire a new super with previous experience. Maybe drag someone out of retirement who is old school and not enamored with new and expensive curricula and “best practices”. I’d be looking for someone who wants to strip it bare and build it back only as big as needed. Let’s go Little House on the Prairie style education- minus the student beatings. Slash the JEH staff in half. Salaries cut. I’m not worried about “will we be competitive if we don’t pay a ton?” Number one- people will work for us. Great people work in jobs where they possibly could make more elsewhere. Number two- folks are leaving this district in droves anyway. Zero tolerance for the constant consulting $$$ contracts. Do it in house or forget about it. Obvious exceptions are ok. Number three- maybe we principal and admin staff share. Each school has VP/AP, principals oversee two schools. New focus on bare bones learning. Renewed focus on expected behavior and repercussions. Students and teachers deserve to feel safe. Zero tolerance. Or .5 tolerance. Put parents on warning- talk to your kids about behavior, we aren’t playing anymore. If your kid acts up, you come and get them. You have to miss work? Well, we aren’t a day care and we cannot afford disruption! Let teachers be free to create units to fulfill learning requirements. This is what they are good at. Focus on 3Rs. Slash and burn because we need all excess funds to repair buildings (and to pay for the ridiculous building that we can’t afford and now apparently won’t be much nicer than any other building)- I digress. Move to year round schooling. It’s radical, but if someone is correct that only 50% of Kingsley 1st graders can read- are we not in need of radical change??? Move to mandatory after school tutoring programs for anyone not meeting grade level requirements. Slashing and burning and eliminating everything not essential can help pay for this. The reality is most families supplement extracurricular arts and sports anyway, and this town is rife with scholarships. We are in crisis, and this can be a five year plan for improvement, not forever.

I know this is radical/crazy and would be difficult, and there are union considerations, etc. Again, it’s if I were king.

Frankly, we should be so disgusted with the performance of this district that we should be willing to open charter schools which could operate this way. The first one could open in the BR building. We should be so disgusted with the performance of this district that we demand vouchers. Private schools can do it better and everyone should have the option, not just the rich. There is no excuse for why so many kids are so behind. Even considering that indeed- the absolute biggest factor of success is home environment. If the home sucks, then we need to keep the kids in school as much of the time as possible. Year round, 8 hours a day, etc. I mean, our society literally depends on us not producing uneducated masses. And our kids deserve better.

The Hayden School of Jazz Charter School could be visionary.

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Tom Hayden's avatar

One quick note: They couldn't create a 20% increase in taxes even if they wanted to. Both Districts are statutorily bound to a maximum 5% increase per year. So it would have to happen over a period of time. I actually think a consolidation could slow the bleeding of both districts asking for 5% year over year for the rest of time, as they fund duplicate administrative apparatuses.

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