THANK YOU WARD 4 ! !
FOR ELECTING ME TO MANCHESTER'S
SCHOOL BOARD
BULLETIN BOARD
Feb. 20, 2012: 2013 BUDGET PROPOSALS:
The Manchester School Board (Board of School Committee,) is currently going through the process of attempting to make the preliminary 2013 Needs Budget (the amount needed to fulfill the 2012 Budget, plus the required and necessary increases in order to continue functioning essentially at the current level,) fit into the newly passed Tax Cap. That Tax Cap requires an approximate $7,000,000 reduction to that Needs Budget.
Doing this becomes very difficult to do, for approximately 96% of the School budget is fixed, plus annual increases, which, for the most part, have been Federally and State mandated, or are fixed expenses by Union contract.
The entire Board and Administration are currently searching for ways to cut items from that remaining 4% other than having to lay off teachers. Much of that 4% cannot be cut entirely, if at all, so the best that can be done is to cut small pieces here and there. The bulk of that $7,000,oo0 that the Tax Cap has imposed simply has to come from laying off teachers. Further, once the Board and the Administration have adjusted the budget to fit the imposed Tax Cap, it must be sent to the Aldermen who may send it back with less funds allocated to us than even what the Tax Cap reduces. No matter how many teacher positions can be saved by cutting elsewhere, it is estimated that 200 teacher positions, or more, will have to be cut.
While this is a difficult measure to contemplate, it means that we all will have to consider how we can innovate wherever possible to continue to assure the best education possible for all students.
Please view the list of education articles on our CONTACT US page. In particular, regarding the idea of innovating, are these 3 articles:
- "MORE SPENDING DOESN'T IMPROVE SCHOOLS," by John Stossel
- "BIG EASY'S SCHOOL REVOLUTION"
- "MOORESVILLE'S SHINING EXAMPLE"
Please complete the log-in information on theCONTACT US page and request any articles listed there. Also, please let us know of any informative articles that I can list here for others.
NEXT: When the 2013 Budget has been completed, I will report on the Manchester School of Technology, a very innovative and advanced educational program that all should know about and be very proud of.
Please
look around my website, and contact me with
any ideas, comments, questions, or requests for any Educational Articles posted on the
"Contact
Us" page.
Please let me hear from you!!
