How serious was that Budget Savings Plan?
Here is the ad running on The Washington Post today. Division of Construction - Civil Engineer - Starting Salary up to $83,415 - Genereous BenefitsDo you see this position on the list of MCPS positions that are exempt from the hiring freeze in the Budget Savings Plan?
It was just 72 hours ago that Superintendent Jerry Weast was pleading with the Board of Education to close Monocacy Elementary School and cut 11 teaching and school based positions because of dire economic times.
At a starting salary of $48,870 for teachers, the compensation being advertised for the position above could provide about 1.7 teaching positions.
Does the hiring freeze only apply to classrooms? That is, will budget cuts be made FIRST to classrooms and then to administrative positions?
I'm not surprised. Didn't Jerry Weast propose a "robust" capital improvements plan? Doesn't he think MCPS is entitled to "half" of all the Montgomery County bonds that will be issued? Didn't Jerry Weast say that now is the time to "go for it" in terms of school construction?
ReplyDeleteDamn the taxpayers....full speed ahead!
While the construction industry is getting hammered by the economy, government facility projects have been comoing in ahead of schedule and underbudget.
ReplyDeleteThis SHOULD be a year Montgomery (and all other governments) cash in on the upside of a crummy economy. Should we wait for the economy to improve when construction companies are busy and can't be bothered to become a government lowest bidder?
That said, making taxpayers feel pain as quickly as possible is a time-tested tool of both school board and county council to dissuade taxpayers from demanding more cuts. It precedes Weast, if that's what's happening here.
@WilliamJacobs - Taxpayers? No, these are children. Very young children just starting out in school. Building the foundation for their lives. They are the ones punished by these types of staffing decisions. They are the ones put in overcrowded classrooms, denied specialized services to address their learning issues, and struggling to learn without a trained teacher in the classroom. A substitute with 2 days orientation isn't the same as a full-time highly qualified teacher. We know that.
ReplyDeleteThose kids don't know anything about "time-tested" budget tricks. To deny them their education as a "budget trick"...please.