Posted by Much Bigger Issues on May 22, 2007 at 17:41:52 (EST):
In Reply to: ARMSTRONG COUNTY SCHOOLS posted by bob o' on May 22, 2007 at 16:31:33 (EST):
: I think it would be most informative to have feedback on the following questions. If you were the deciding vote, 1. How many high schools and elementaries should comprise the ASD? 2. What should be taught in each school? 3. How do you propose to keep costs down especially when we learn today the costs are going up about 3 million a year and revenues can't match this? Please come up with some serious ideas. Maybe you have that one idea that no one, including board members, has even pondered.
No matter what you are going to do, more funding is needed for the school districts, especially places like in Armstrong County. The feds and states put all these mandates into place and then the local districts have to find ways to pay for them.
If you want serious, then you know that teachers' salaries are not going to be cut. Even if a ground-swell of people wanted this in the local region, the people in the more affluent and wealthy districts have no problem paying these contracts.
Even if you consolidate into one high school or open 5 more community high schools, and through some miracle, costs would be cut to lower taxes, this would only be a temporary fix. The expenditures that are placed on the district are always going to exceed the revenue coming in. Look at other districts through the region, many of them are sinking under the expenses. If you think this is a problem that solely rests with Armstrong County, you are very much mistaken.
Like I said, you can only hack and cut so much no matter which route you go. The BOTTOM LINE is this area needs a better tax base. Plain and simple.
This is what I do not understand about some of these redundant posts. You can measure anything in so many ways, but the underlying premise is that this area is desperately in need of building up it's tax base.
So, you can bean-count all you want. It is creative, but it is not a long-term solution at all. Some things can be changed, and there are things that will give brief satisfaction to the taxpayer. Or, you can look at the WHOLE issue and see that the problem is bigger than community schools, bigger than consolidation, bigger than laying off a few cafeteria workers, etc. The solution to this all is much bigger.
We have special needs kids in schools who require a physical therapists to be in the school. We have all sorts of counselors, instead of just one guidance counselor. We have teacher assistants in the higher grade levels. I never had these things in school. I do not know if we need them or not, but I am sure they cost money. If you want to bean-count, then answer how we cut our costs with these types of things? These are costs that are going to be there no matter what we do, correct? I think this issue is much bigger than Armstrong County.