How do you trim $7.6 million?

That's the question in front of this Board, and there are no easy answers. Even if we do eventually outsource support staff positions (we are still in negotiations with NESPA), we are likely to have some deficit for next year's budget. And, Heaven forbid, what do we do if we want to actually improve some of our programs, say elementary computer education? How will we pay for that?

During last night's meeting the Board reviewed a list of potential budget cuts. Nobody out there with any concern for our programs should dismiss this list assuming some 11th hour miracle solution will come along. But judging by the parent attendance, or lack thereof, at last night's meeting, that is exactly what this community is thinking. So please forward this post to every Neshaminy parent you know and tell them to get involved NOW. Start coming to meetings and help the Board determine which expenditures can be cut. Some sacrifices will be made, and with YOUR help we can do it with minimal impact to our students.

Don't pretend this problem doesn't exist. Don't ignore it. And whatever you do, don't show up at our last meeting in June and say that we never told you about potential cuts. Don't make me bring out Mr. Angry Eyes again!

You can read the Courier Times recap of last night's meeting by clicking here. The complete list of potential budget cuts discussed is summarized below:

1. Eliminate Middle School IOP

2. Eliminate Middles School Sports/Co-Curricular Activities

3. Close both remaining middle school pools

4. Middle School pools - Charge appropriate extra fee for use

5. Eliminate Elementary Guidance Counselors (8)

6. Eliminate Reading Specialists

7. Eliminate Elementary Librarians (8)

8. Eliminate Middle School Librarians

9. Close Alternative School and contract out service for existing students

10. Creation of activity fees

11. Special Ed Instructional Assistants - Reduce

12. Eliminate High School Co-op program

13. Middle School Librarians - Share in complex

14. Increase Facility Usage fees

15. Split Principals in Middle School/Elementary School Complexes

16. Increase Aquatic Program Usage Fees

17. Reduce or eliminate instrumental itinerant Music

18. Reduce per-pupil allocations for all schools

19. Eliminate Art/Music/Phys Ed teachers for each building - Use traveling specialists

20. Reduce or eliminate use of Department Heads in High School

21. Eliminate Sophomore Phys Ed

22. High School - Further increases in class size

23. Senior release time (shorten school day for seniors with sufficient grad credits)

24. Change Middle School concept to Jr. High concept

25. Eliminate Kindergarten

26. Eliminate Kindergarten specials (art, music, library, phys ed)

27. Eliminate 1 pre-first class

28. Eliminate/Reduce Family Consumer Science Classes in secondary schools

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Latest serving bids could save $1.5 million

In case you missed it, here is the Courier Times article on the latest outsourcing bids courtesy of Rachel Canelli . . .

Add another $1.5 million to the $30-plus million Neshaminy could save by outsourcing support staff jobs over the next five years. The latest bids for grounds keeping and food services released Monday would provide more than $1.5 million in savings over five years, according to administrators. Officials previously stated the district could save more than $30 million over the next five years if transportation and custodial services are outsourced.

"We're keeping the public informed so, hopefully, the community and the unions have an idea what the district has in front of it," said board President Ritchie Webb. "Our first obligation is to continue to negotiate, but we're also thinking about the $7.6 million deficit facing us and our commitment to the community to stay under Act 1 limitations and our own personal goal of a zero tax increase."

You can read the full article by clicking here.
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Updates and earthquakes

This definitely goes down in the books as the most difficult, challenging business trip I've ever been on. My plane was 90 minutes away from Santiago, Chile in the wee hours of Saturday morning when the pilot alerted us we were being diverted back to Lima, Peru due to an earthquake in Chile. After landing in Lima and learning the details of the tragedy, many of us breathed a sigh of relief that we had not landed in Santiago prior to the earthquake. The other passengers were upset and concerned over their families and loved ones who live in Chile. For their sakes, I hope everyone they knew is safe.

The next 24 hours was a little bit of Hell that I like to call "Escape from Lima". After spending 4 hours in a holding area awaiting some sort of update which would never come, we were sent to baggage claim to find our luggage. Yeah, good luck on that one. After four hours of sifting through bags from multiple flights jammed on the carousel, our bags never appeared. It took another hour for workers to figure out that our bags had been pulled earlier and put into a closet for no apparent reason. With our meeting in Santiago now cancelled, all efforts were spent on getting home. Many hours were required to find an available flight, and local customs and security people at Lima airport aren't exactly the friendliest or most competent. Long story short, we boarded a plane for home around midnight on Saturday. I'll be arriving home shortly, and will grab a shower and breakfast before catching up on my good old friend . . . sleep!

Now onto something a little more relevant to you. The School Board just released two more outsourcing bid results for Grounds Keeping and Food Services. As you might expect, there is still some substantial savings opportunities should the Board outsource Grounds Keeping, about $1.5 million over 5 years. And while Food Services is cost neutral for the district, one vendor guaranteed the District $55k in annual revenue which could be used for other District operational expenses.

You can see the details of both bid tabulations by going to the School Board's Negotiation website.

It's great to be home!

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The 10th Board member?

After two days of frustrating plane rides and 42 hours without sleep, I thought nothing could stop me from going straight to bed when I arrived home today. But after reading today’s Courier interview with incumbent Frank Farry, I had to delay the appointment with my pillow so I could reflect on why our State Representative is commenting on things over which he has no influence. Or did you all elect him to the school board while I was gone?

Let me be more direct – Why is Frank Farry interfering in our negotiations? Why is he even meeting with education special interest groups instead of fixing what's wrong with education funding?

According to Mr. Farry, he told our support staff union they need to "concede some" … SOME? Well Mr. Farry, what education programs shall we cut to make up for “some” of those concessions? Right now there is a $7.3 million deficit for next school year's budget. Even if the support union agreed to EVERYTHING the board offered that would only reduce expenses by $1 million. For every operational expense we don't reduce, that's another program that gets cut. What should we cut . . . sports? choir? after-school clubs? AE classes? I have asked that NESPA President Mindy Anderson answer these very same questions. Perhaps she and Mr. Farry can put their heads together and come up with the magic bullet.

Later in the interview, Farry says he’s concerned about what could happen if the District “privatizes” transportation services but he offers nothing to substantiate his fears. Why would he even be concerned that we would take these services back in-house? Do you think outsourcing will fail, Mr. Farry? Is it because it would cost too much ... even more than what we pay now? Don’t think so. Is it because the vendor’s drivers would be too dangerous? Not likely since First Student anticipates employing over 90% of our current drivers. So what is it you are basing your fears on?

Consider this: 86% of PA school districts outsource their transportation services. In Neshaminy’s case, following suit will save us an average of $3 million every year that will be used to maintain our education programs. Council Rock uses First Student and was happy enough with their service that they just renewed their contract. Sounds pretty successful to me. When your baseless gut feelings can stand up to that, let me know.

If you want to help us Mr. Farry, how about taking a leadership role in reforming state worker’s healthcare and retirement benefits? It’s a shame that you feel powerless to do anything about that, according to your own words in today’s article. I’m no political expert, but if you want to earn re-election this year, you might want to drop that whole “freshman legislator” tag and kick it into second gear.

When Farry opposed a Republican budget last July that would have cut education spending, I gave him a mention on this blog and I even wrote him an email thanking him for splitting with his party. That’s what he should be doing – take care of business in Harrisburg to the benefit of his constituents back here. But when he injects himself into local issues like this, he’s crossed a line.

Call me cynical, but I don’t like when election-year politicians start taking interest in things they shouldn’t be involved in. Why is Frank Farry even meeting with NESPA? The Board never asked him to intervene, and he certainly has no right to speak on our behalf. Even with good intentions, Frank Farry should have refrained from discussing contract issues with NESPA. But he didn’t, and that makes me question why?

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A few thoughts on the NESPA negotiations

Just some things I want to get off my chest. Blame it on too much caffeine this morning . . .

In today’s Courier is a letter from a Donald Brown raising concerns over outsourcing. Mr. Brown is a retired Neshaminy Facilities worker. First he blames Neshaminy’s economic woes over the raises given to Administration. My response to that is any negotiating unit that accepts the Board’s offer does get their raises but also has to start kicking in for benefits at a rate of 15% - 17% over three years. So as soon as NESPA accepts the Board’s offer (IF they accept the offer), they too will receive their salary increases along with a contribution to benefits – just like Administration. And the total dollar amount of raises paid to NESPA workers will dwarf what was paid out to Administration.

Next Mr. Brown goes on to say that outsourcing vendors trick you with low-ball initial bids, only to hike their rates massively in future years. That’s some trick. The vendors are guaranteeing us substantial savings for five (5) years. We’ll save millions if we go the route of outsourcing. Even if at the end of the five year term the outsource vendors raise their rates to astronomical levels (let’s say even as high as what our current costs for support services are), we will still have saved millions of dollars. At that point, we will re-bid the services to the lowest costing, qualified service provider anyway.

Lastly the author suggests that the District has squandered money away by repurposing funds not paid to the State workers’ pension for some seemingly nefarious reasons. Of course Mr. Brown offers no proof of this but rather just throws a theory out there with no regard to fact. After all, it’s easy to fight fact with fear. It’s just like a headline in the National Inquirer . . . how do you refute a rumor that’s just plucked out of thin air other than to say it’s not true? So Mr. Brown, it’s not true.

Ahhh, but there is more . . .

The District is not negotiating in good faith and is treating the Support Staff workers like “second class citizens” says NESPA President Mindy Anderson as quoted in a recent article appearing in The Advance.

For quite a while now I’ve been listening to Ms. Anderson accusing the Board of not caring about our employees, and even going as far as linking the Board’s position to lacking concern for the students – You see, in her world if we don’t back down, we are hurting the children. That is evident from her statement that “it’s not a question of dollars when the children are at stake.”

Ok Mindy, so I should assume that capitulating to NESPA’s demands will only help the children? Hmmm, I’m having a little problem with the math on that one.

Looking towards next school year, we have a $7.3 million deficit. Just to get within the State-mandated Act 1 inflationary limit, we must knock $3.9 million right off the top. If we give NESPA all that they have asked for, we won’t even make a dent into that number. That would leave us with only one realistic alternative: Cut student programs. Lots of them, a few million’s worth at least. Should we give NESPA what they ask for at the expense of our students’ education? According to Mindy Anderson, the answer is yes. She didn’t use those words, but that’s what will happen if we give her what she wants.

Perhaps the next time Ms. Anderson addresses us from the podium, she can provide specific suggestions as to what programs we should cut in order to cover the millions of dollars needed to pay for their contract demands. Should we eliminate Fine Arts? After-school clubs? Sports? How about cutting our AE classes? I would really appreciate some help here.

And I’ve gotta be honest, Mindy . . . this whole “second class citizen” thing is sooooo 15 minutes ago. Nobody is going for it. Can we please dispense with these clichés found in every negotiation playbook?

Look, you’ve had a great run. Your union got its members incredibly generous CBA’s in the past, but the windfall is over. It’s nothing personal. We simply cannot afford those inflated costs any more, and we are not willing to cut student programs. There just aren’t a whole lot of options left. For the sake of your entire rank and file, I hope you’ll reconsider the Board’s offer and will do so immediately. This isn’t a game to see who will blink first.

Ok, I’m good. Thanks for reading.

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US House Committee begins work to rewrite NCLB

This week Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Education and Labor Committee said that they intend to begin work next week to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) - currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee, John Kline (R-MN), the senior Republican of the committee, Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), the chairman of the subcommittee on elementary and secondary education, and Michael N. Castle (R-DE), the senior Republican of that subcommittee, issued the following joint statement:

"Today, we're announcing a bipartisan, open and transparent effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind - a law that we all agree is in need of major reform. It will start with a series of hearings in the coming weeks to explore the challenges and opportunities ahead as we work to ensure an excellent education is available to every student in America. With a real commitment to innovation, we invite all stakeholders who share our serious interest in building a world-class education system to email us their suggestions."

The committee's first hearing will focus on charter schools and will be held on next Wednesday, Feb.24. Beginning today, groups and stakeholders can send the committee their input and suggestions at eseacomments@mail.house.gov. The deadline for comments is March 26, 2010.

This information courtesy of a Washington Post article.
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