Trumbull's Board of Education held a special meeting on Monday evening, called at the behest of member Loretta Chory to reconsider a motion she had made at the June 22 meeting that was not acted upon.
At the first meeting, board member Tom Kelly made a motion encompassing four line items that sought approval to request a supplemental appropriation of $477,056 from the Board of Finance to restore freshman sports, sophomore football and girls' club ice hockey; rehire three teachers at ; rehire two elementary school secretaries and rehire one custodian.
Chory then followed up with a motion to divide the question, an allowable act under Robert's Rules of Order. No second was offered and the chairman did not follow up, so her motion was not voted on and the board approved Kelly's motion 5-2.
Robert's Rules of Order state, "as a general rule, with the exceptions given below, every motion should be seconded."
Chairman Ted Lovely opened Monday's special meeting by acknowledging that Chory's motion went unseconded.
To revisit Chory's motion Monday, member Lisa Labella moved to rescind Kelly's motion. After a delay, Kelly offered a second when no other member spoke up to move for a re-vote.
Only the five yes voters on the first meeting's motion were eligible to vote to rescind. They voted 3-2 in favor.
Kelly then remade his motion, and Labella seconded it - with no other member speaking up.
Chory opened the discussion on the motion, saying "the $95,000 cost of freshman football was not in the budget."
Labella responded that "sports are not funded by [grade] level ... [while] pay-to-participate funds for all sports are shown as a single line item."
Supt. Ralph Iassogna said, "THS Director of Athletics Mike Herbst was asked to reduce the high school's athletic budget by $113,000," the cost of the sports targeted for elimination.
He did, Labella added, and "the amount was deducted from the Transportation account because there are no line items for freshman sports."
Member Mike Ward, who was silent during the discussion, said, "Can we vote on this motion?" The supplemental appropriation was motion was then adopted, 6–1.
Ward then noted that "if we don't get the appropriation, we're back where we started."
Iassogna replied that if the approval is for a lesser amount "we will have to set priorities." Kelly added that his motion was "based on parent feedback, that if we do have to prioritize, teaching positions take precedence over freshman sports."
He added that the Board of Finance will consider the request at its July 14 meeting. The Town Council will take it up on Aug. 1, or, the first selectman told Iassogna, at an earlier special meeting in order to facilitate planning for the upcoming school year.
Moving forward, I would expect that there will be a well choreographed strategy to portray him as less aggressive and less like a dictator leading up to election day. Maybe a letter will soon appear claimed to be written by an "ordinary citizen."
I am telling you that the CRC has exercised independent thinking, i.e. not rubber stamping items suggested for consideration by the first selectman. Since April 2010 there was much effort made to build concensus, as stated in the minority report. Some of that concensus was reached in party caucuses (I'm not naive enough to think that both parties didn't caucus) but most of it was reached in public session of the commission, including some ideas proposed by a member of the majority which were rejected. I believe there were compromises made by every member. Also, that all members respect, if not personally like, each member...just that we have different opinons regarding political party rights vs voter rights.
Now the Town Council finally said ENOUGH! It courageously stood up to the FS overreaching and his attempt to push through the radical changes to the charter have failed the CRC has failed. This is why Mr. Holden has started the spin that the FS was not the architect of these radical changes. After two years of the continuous divisiveness from this FS, I think we all see his hands at the steering wheel of this failure.
As for Mr. Herbst's recommendations, I am not trying to misstate anything, although I can see that my comments above are not clear. Mr. Herbst outlined a few things which he insisted he would recommend if the charter was reopened. Instead of a few things, he made 5 typewritten pages of recommendations, far exceeding what he and the Republicans campaigned on. That's what I am trying to say, and I regret if my statement was not clearly stated. Thanks.
Your "1993" research is only as complete as the story you read. Did you know that the change made in 2003 was a compromise proposal first produced by the late Arthur Kaiser-D (former Council Leader & Council Chairman as well as more recently BoE member) and Dale Radcliffe-R (former Council Leader, Council Chairman, State Representative and now Superior Court Judge)? They too seemed to believe that the public should decide who is elected to the BOE, rather than the respective town committees of the two major parties. These two distinguished gentlemen knew more about the process than any recent group of Councilmembers, IMO. What they & I missed is that the 2 year seat would be deemed a "different seat" and would have to appear as a separate position on the ballot. It was an opinion of a town attorney that held that the 4 yr seats would still be guaranteed seats and the only seat subject to voter preference would be the 2 yr seat. You feel that a BOE should be totally bipartisan. I disagree and believe a BOE should reflect the will of the voters, whatever that may be, especially when the BoE consumes as much of the Town budget as it does without any kind of line item or general category accountability.
But, even if there were a partisan diide that reflected the will of the people, what is wrong with that? I don't want a few annointed people deciding how much my taxes will increase. The PTSA position, as I understand your comment, calls for the voters to have no voice in who will serve on a BoE.
As to the PTSA support for nonpartisan boards of education, I believe that the complete opposite of what you state is true. That is, the candidates would NOT be selected by the parties to run, and the candidates would run independently of party labels and party support, resulting in the voters having the entire say in who will serve on a BOE. Please also understand that this is being urged by the state PTSA, not any of our Trumbull PTAs or PTSAs at this time. And, as I stated above, this is something that I would like to look into to find out more information.
RE your PTSA proposal, any person or minority party can presently place on the ballot candidates to run for the BoE, resulting in the the voters have the entire say in who will serve on the BoE.
If I have that right, Mr. Holden is wrong in his assumptions. I proudly wear one of those "green buttons" (it says "Education is the Foundation") and I do think the increase in the BOE from 6 to 7 was a mistake. It made the Board more political than when a 3 to 3 split was the norm and compromise was essential for the BOE to function. However, I and the other "green button types" do oppose adding more politicians to the BOE. It is not defending the 7member Board just opposing making it 9. Just because a mistake was made in the past does not mean we should extend that mistake further. I would have been very supportive if the Charter Revision Commission either reduced the number back to 6 or raised it to 8 with neither party having more than 4 (3 if you went to 6). The BOE need to get back to being the Board of EDUCATION rather than the Board of Budget, a situation forced on them by the current configuration and the current political climate. Tom
As for the computer paras, yes, those are also very important positions, but the classroom teachers and the school librarian would be able to bring classes into the computer lab for lessons, so the equipment should not be sitting idle. Of course, that is not an optimal use of the computer equipment, nor is it a preferred method of teaching computer use to the students, but it is better than nothing and we will have to see how it works out.
One other point, I was among the few Democrats who would have let Mr. Herbst have the second secretary. He needs it just as Mr. Baldwin needed it. Mr. Herbst admitted he was in error when he cut it to part time. I believe when a person admits error he should be allowed to correct it. Tom Tesoro
..."Now the collective-bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. 'With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and, lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,"' says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust but saving substantial amounts of money. "Then there are work rules. 'In the collective-bargaining agreement, high-school teachers had to teach only five periods a day out of seven,' says Arnoldussen. 'Now they're going to teach six.' In addition, the collective-bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37-1/2 hours a week. Now it will be 40 hours. "The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes -- from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining."... "In the Kaukauna schools, the world is definitely not falling apart -- it's getting better." http://townhall.com/columnists/byronyork/2011/07/12/wisconsins_controversial_budget_law_begins_to_pay_off
And, as I stated before, your opinion as to priorities in spending is certainly a valid one.
And once again, your opinion is valid, but there are many differing opinions and I don't think anyone can say which is the "right" one.
I find your comments regarding the school secretaries as offensive- I too am often in the elementary schools volunteering time and have yet to see any of them "pencil pushing." When you refer to "greeting parents" I view that as keeping our hallways and our schools safe and secure. I for one, would like to know that someone is always aware of who is walking into the school and into our classrooms.This cost money. I also view these "pencil pushers" as the structure that allows our teachers and staff to not have to do so much of exactly that- would you rather our classroom teachers be pushing those pencils and xerox buttons or focusing on the educational needs of the students inside the classroom? It would be a more ineffective use of school funding to be paying our teachers to push those pencils, would it not? Furthermore, I would think it would disturb you to walk into a student bathroom and smell urine, or into a cafeteria and see and smell stale food, or through the classrooms and see pencil shavings and paper debris throughout the classrooms from a previous day. A clean, safe environment for my kids to learn in, is just as, if not more so important than any other. So do not discount the need for custodians. Anyone who is so bold to speak in such a way should consider walking in the shoes of anyone of these employees for a day before commenting from behind a budget allocating funds, where people become $$$ instead of the hard working people that they are.
I think you are badly misinformed. If you think a teachers day ends at 3:30pm, please think again. I have several teachers in my family and they all take home work, such as papers or tests to be corrected, they plan the next day's lessons etc. Every evening, after taking care of their families, they do this work and they do it virtually every day. Teachers earn every dollar they make and why shouldn't they be paid? They are professionals, many with advanced degrees and their job is to prepare the next generation to be productive and contributing citizens to our Nation. I happen to place a high value on that. I wonder when teachers became the enemy, probably when some venial politician found he could agitate the uninformed for his/her personal benefit. I can't speak for everyone but, other than my family, my teachers have had the greatest influence on my life. I thank them for it and I respect them for what they do. As for why some children do not pick up after themselves, that is not the fault of the teachers but it is a situation they have to deal with. Tom Tesoro