Comments on: A Snowball’s Chance

By: Paul Bartomioli

Paul Bartomioli — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:38:50 +0000

Terry, just visited the Region 1 site. The job posting is gone.

By: Paul Bartomioli

Paul Bartomioli — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:36:16 +0000

Let’s start with the government in DC. The cabinet post was created by James Earl Carter, the peanut farmer, as a payoff to the NEA and the UFT. No one has been able to explain to me how it is more efficient to send our money to DC, run it through the sausage grinder, and send it back some place else. NCLB=more political BS.

Marshall, I personally think teachers are well paid for their jobs. BTW, I also believe that paying 10% of your healthcare premiums is a joke. I pay 40%, and my health plan is not contractually mandated platinum level. BTW, the teachers’ union has a few words for you about touching their golden calf.

Parents can organize: they need to do their job and VOTE. VOTE NO on the budget until cuts are made where they do not affect students and teachers.

The last time Mike Flint was on the air, the budget was voted down several times. It’s time, again.

Terry: the posting on the Region 1 web site appears to be a permanent posting. My guess is Mary Ann is not coming back after the baby is born.

Jake, no school board elections are people that go along to get along. we all hold hands and sing kumbaya, while voting unanimously on everything that we must vote on. Show up at a board meeting, either in your town or Region 1. Bring an airsick bag, maybe 2 if the budget is under discussion.

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:01:51 +0000

Jake, The boarding school you and I went to is clearly an Eaton wannabe, so your confusion with handball (â€œFives”) is understandable.

Re: unionizing the ‘rents and students, my proposal is really tongue-in-cheek, but clearly school board elections don’t elevate parents and students to an equal footing with faculty and staff. There may be no viable solution, other than to organize better.

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 15:40:37 +0000

Re the Eton Wall Game… I was confused on that. I told Terrence that I thought that if it was like Fives, you were the guy to talk to. Clearly it is not. It appears to be more like the game “Social Soccer” that David Stack used to organize have us play.

Re unionizing the parents and students, isn’t that what school board elections are about?

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:36:55 +0000

Terrence, I don’t recall anything about the Eton Wall Game, other than what I just read online. I think your story is precisely to the point. Unfortunately, the modern educational zeitgeist discourages competition, especially in the academic arena.
Paul, I knew the maternity leave had been filled but I wasn’t aware the job was “posted.” Do you mean a permanent or temporary posting?
Marshall, Great ideas but not a snowball’s chance.

By: Marshall Miles

Marshall Miles — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:28:09 +0000

The true road to getting a handle on education spending starts in Washington D.c., and in Hartford…

No federal unfunded mandates
No State unfunded mandates

Now, I know federal and state mandates, if they were funded, come from our taxes, but, they are still always going to collect our taxes, so lets put em to use here on the mandates that come from on high.

The road next leads to binding arbitration…

Lets dump binding arbitration, dump tenure, and pay a teacher/administrator what they are worth..if they are excellent teachers, lets pay them well, if not, show them the door….pay on performance like the rest of the world (except politicians of course!).

Finally, pass legislation so that when a budget is approved, money can not be transferred from one account to another accout without voter approval…ie, money in a line item stays in that line item, and does not get spent elswhere with out the publics approval…then we will see exactly where the money goes!

Just a few thoughts!

Marshall

By: Paul Bartomioli

Paul Bartomioli — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:42:15 +0000

Terry, I love numbers. Try this one:

The proposed budget for the PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE AT HOUSY IS $1000 PER STUDENT.

The cuts in this budget can be made in administration. The powers in the local teacher’s union are in lock step with their national politicos. There will be NO CHANCE, not even a snowball’s chance, of any sort of change. The major difference is that the money supply for this is never ending. This is not the real world. Unless you want to home school or private school your children, you are forced to use the current public education mess. This is not an ad agency that has to produce or die. Mr. McCarthy’s bold proposal would get him a chance to use the mental health portion of his gold teachers’ insurance benefits. In the real world, where results matter, Mr. McCarthy is what is needed, even in education.

Marshall and others make an excellent case for k-6 in each town, a regional middle school, plus housy. Never happening.

Interesting question about housy. The vice principal’s job is posted for hire. another teacher/administrator from one of the public schools is transferring to housy to cover maternity leave.

Question: IF this person is qualified to assume the vice principal’s job “temporarily,” why are we spending $$$$$$ for a search?

By: terry mccarthy

terry mccarthy — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:15:25 +0000

I was creative director for an an advertising agency in Hartford. The agency wasn’t doing real well. We’d lost some accounts, but had a chance to land a big bank headquartered in New Haven. I was due for a raise, but went in and talked to the guy whose name was on the door.

” Don’t give me a raise, ” I said to my boss. Give me nothing. But added that I wanted to knock the freakin’ socks off the marketing director of the bank we were pitching. The guy who was charged with making the call. If we got this one, it would save our asses.

The creative guys I managed and I worked long days and into the night. Came up with a campaign the bank in New Haven fell in love with. Long story short: We got the account. Our sorry asses were saved.

And I was given a twenty grand a year raise.

And one more thing. The Eton Wall Game. Jake says you might know something about that….

What’s the story?