County Council President Valerie Ervin’s Letter to Board of Education President Christopher Barclay on Funding of MCPS FY12 Budget
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ROCKVILLE, Md., June 6, 2011—Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin today sent a letter to Montgomery County Board of Education President Christopher Barclay asking if the board will go ahead with previously announced program cuts after, as she wrote, MCPS said late last week it “suddenly discovered millions of dollars in additional resources and intends to meet the Council’s approved FY12 budget level for MCPS without making changes to the employee cost-sharing required for health benefits.”
The complete text of Council President Ervin’s letter: June 6, 2011 TO: Christopher Barclay, President Montgomery County Board of Education FROM: Valerie Ervin, Council President SUBJECT: FY12 MCPS Budget The Council understands that the Board of Education has suddenly discovered millions of dollars in additional resources and intends to meet the Council’s approved FY12 budget level for MCPS without making changes to the employee cost-sharing required for health benefits. As you know, the Council’s budget action explicitly assumed a multi-million dollar reduction associated with a minor increase in school employee cost-sharing. The current share – 5% for employees in HMOs and 10% for others – is remarkably low. For example, federal employees on average pay 28%. If the Board now finds itself with these additional dollars, do you still intend to implement the program cuts you tentatively approved on May 23? These include cuts to media assistants, academic intervention teachers, reading recovery teachers, staff development teachers, counselors, para-educators, and lunch hour aides. Will the Board use the newly discovered savings to restore these positions, or will you inflict the cuts on schools to preserve the employee share of health benefits? In your May 19 statement to the community on the Council’s budget action, you said: “The Council has stated that they support the school system and that its cuts will not hurt the classroom. That simply isn’t true. Every school will feel the effects of these cuts.” On the contrary, the Council urged the Board to adjust employee health benefits explicitly to minimize cuts to the classroom and protect vital school services. The Council urges the Board to reconsider its apparent budget approach and redirect any additional resources to the employees and programs that directly benefit our children. The Council would expeditiously consider any categorical transfer that might be required to achieve this important outcome for our schools. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible on this matter. |
Consider this Valerie Ervin. You tried to micro-manage the Board of Education. You LOST. MCPS, thanks to the efforts of thousands of teachers and other staff, saved millions in healthcare costs in FY 11. These savings are going where they belong...to the employees who made it happen. Gee...instead of yet another pay cut (see the MD state teacher tax), MCPS employees get to pay only a little more in health care costs next year (the percentage share will be the same but the total cost will ride a bit).
ReplyDeleteHey Janis...weren't you the one beating the Promethean Board Expenditure drum? You know, the one where you explicitly claimed that the millions spent on Promethean Boards could have gone toward teacher salary increases? Surely you remember this attempt to win the favor of teachers. Why has your tune changed now Janis? If the potential savings from not purchasing Promethean Boards could have, as you suggested on more than one occassion, gone toward teacher raises, why is it not OK to use money saved by MCPS employees themselves in a similar fashion...to keep the cost share percentage the same? We're not even talking using this money for raises. Just keeping the cost share the SAME as it is now.
I'd love to see your comments about this comment Janis, that is if you actually post it.
Mr. Field,
ReplyDeleteNo mention of students in your rant.
Therein lies the problem. Who is the voice of students? No one. You are making that point loud and clear.
Your budget history needs some help. This is 2011, not 2008. In 2008, the unions weren't the voice of classroom teachers when they agreed to give up $20 million+ for no-bid Promethean Boards over raises. And again, this year the unions are not the voice of school based positions that actually interact with students. Budget issues are not the same from year to year. Is your point that it is acceptable to take from students this year because you allowed Promethean Boards to be purchased in 2008?
All of the $18 million was snapped up in secret without any public discussion. No opportunity for any of the positions mentioned above to be restored, no opportunity for programs like the Visual Arts Center at Einstein to be restored and the list goes on and on.
Who at the secret budget committee meetings advocates for students? We see the answer, no one.
Not one DIME of the $18 million was directed toward restoring services to students. The money was discussed and spent in secret.
Note: Council President Valerie Ervin has signed her name to a letter stating her position. If you have a comment on this letter, sign your name.
ReplyDeleteTwo years ago our contract that MCPS teachers voted on in which we were supposed to receive a 5% COLA was backed out on, while we were given our step increases (those who were eligible). This BROKE our contract! The teachers were understanding because we knew it was tough economic times. One year ago we were told not only would we get NO step (which we are contractually owed, whether you agree with this form of compensation or not), but we were given a choice...no step, BUT we will preserve the same cost sharing formula for FIVE years. Well, that was ONE year ago. This year we will once again get NO step (a HUGE COST SAVING MEASURE given up by the teachers to ensure that the STUDENTS will see more of the money!)and we are told that our health sharing formula, the one we ratified last year for FIVE years, could be renegotiated next year (after only TWO years). The teachers are already giving up 2% additional take home pay to go towards pensions, many veteran teachers (think over 10-15 years in the classroom) are starting to look for part-time work to supplement income which has been lost both to that 2% "teacher tax" AND the possibility that our cost sharing formula will increase next year. This DOES affect the students because it is less time that teachers will have to make engaging lessons that reach ALL the students in our classroom and a variety of levels.
ReplyDeleteMCPS has worked to reduce the actual cost of our healthcare, where even though the county pays 90% it is actually LESS dollar-wise, than the other plans where it pays only 70%. Are you suggesting that the cost saving measures shouldn't go back to the people who helped them?
The blog is about getting the best for MCPS students. The teachers are working hard for that, one piece of evidence is the highest graduation rate. Working as a teacher is a hard job, although the majority of us love it, which in turn means that we want to see YOUR children succeed just as much as you do. The vitriol that is expressed against the teachers on this blog is disheartening. If teachers are continued to be treated in this manner from the parents, who do you think will be teaching in 5-10 years from now? Certainly not teachers who can find jobs in other counties that are more teacher-friendly or even in other professions where hard work is recognized.
The last point I would like to make is that continually it has been pointed out that we "voted" for MCEA representation so we should live with what was done. Well, I'll turn it around...MoCo citizens voted for the Board of Education to run the schools. They are repesentative of you...you'll have to live with their decisions, until there is another election. That's the way it works in democracy.
@NCBT - You are smarter than that. 2 years ago was NOT "tough economic times" when ONE MCPS administrator could go out and spend $20 million +/- with out any vote of the Board of Education!
ReplyDeleteReally, wake up!
If teachers want their contract honored then get smart about the budget. Your union traded away $20 million +/- at the secret budget table and you paid the price for that secret decision.
And, oh yes, you are very correct about the Board of Education. The citizens of Montgomery County VOTED for this crowd. Why? Because they support and honor TEACHERS and YOU told US to vote for them with your Apple Ballot. The entire county has supported teachers for years by supporting YOUR PICKS.
The Board of Education and County Council are YOUR creation. What's disheartening is that the teacher's OWN UNION has traded away school based positions and benefits in secret. The money was there, but the choice was to pay for perks for administrators and secret multi-million dollar procurements.
Let's remind everyone that Media Specialists (School Librarians) were sold out this year without a word. Who did that? Certainly not this "blog." The union representatives at the secret MCPS table did that!
Wake up and smell the coffee. This blog has brought sunlight to a budget that hadn't seen the light of day. It's your choice to either wake up or sit back and take what the secret MCPS budget committee doles out.
@NCBT - Do you just regurgitate MCPS spin? Highest graduation rate in Maryland? Not hardly.
ReplyDeleteFor those that like fact based discussions:
ReplyDeleteMCPS 8th out of 24 Counties in Graduation rate for 2010
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/10/mcps-8th-out-of-24-counties-in.html
By the way Janis, did you see Mr. Barclay's response to Ms. Ervin? She's toast! Time for her to resign. She can't manage her own finances, and she clearly can't manage the County's finances. Bye-bye Ms. Ervin.
ReplyDeleteWell she was an Apple pick, just like most of the other elected officials in the County. The elected officials in the news right now are all Apple picks.
ReplyDeleteSo the moral of the story is that the mess the County is in is thanks to the Apple Ballot.