As president of Virginia's Association of School Superintendents, Dr. Liverman (Superintendent of Suffolk Public Schools) provided comments related to this year's budget.Click this link to read Dr. Liverman's speech.
Take a minute to read his comments and then share some of your own. Is this really a doomsday budget? Or is it just that the gravy train is over? Does Dr. Liverman's comments reflect those of our School Board or those of his as a representative of the group he represented? Are the requests by VASS a mirror image of the citizens to whom our elected school board members are held accountable? We have an elected school board in Suffolk and I'm not sure Dr. Liverman’s thoughts represent the direction for where the real accountability lies. Dr. Liverman's comments represent his opinions based on the VASS group – unless we hear otherwise from the school board. I only say this because of some of the other statements he made related to vouchers and the like. As a citizen, I was surprised at some of the comments he made - and wonder if they are indeed, supported by the School Board.
As a citizen, what might we expect when our education budget is cut? A fair process that includes all stakeholders? Cuts that are based on the priorities of the citizens and the school district? Priorities that ensure we have high student achievement at the classroom level? Dr. Liverman insists that if money goes, student achievement also goes. I say to keep the things that the district knows leads to high student achievement - and then work the budget from that priority.
7 comments:
The Gravy train is over, Milty.
How about this wild idea: get rid of programs that don't work, end programs that require funds that are already being used, and elimenate some of those 100k plus jobs (for 100k plus people) that are filled on main street so that the SPS system can put that money into the classroom and into the paychecks of teachers.
The Va-Pilot revealed on its website the salaries of the city/school employees of most localities in tidewater. While the private sector is bleeding jobs, our tax dollars - yours and mine are used as stimulus funds to give school board employees pay raises.
Yes, the private sector is in shambles and the public sector reaps the fruits of our labor. The school administration makes top dollar while our teachers make less that IOW teachers do, and IOW has less than half of the population!
This is outrageous! When the school board superintendent makes approx. 200k per year (salary, annuity, travel allotment, etc)and his hand-picked deputies all make well over 100k per year, one would think that SPS has money growing on trees. But wait- our teachers start out at 39k. And those teachers don't get cozy offices in Suffolk Proper. They are the ones that produce results.
Why not have all school board members forfit their pay for the rest of their terms to help pay for services that Liverman thinks will suffer?
And what about those people that I see every morning on 58 (Holland Road) driving old cars that say "School Board" on the side? They are older cars, some of them looking like old police cars. They are transporting students to school. Why is this? Are those students being "bused"? Can they not get along with other students? If so, they should lose the PRIVILEGE of riding on a city-supported vehicle.
Someone should look into this. How much does it cost for the city to operate this vehicles annually? Gas, insurance, salary for the drivers, etc. Has the SPS system upgraded its mode of transportation from buses to private cars?
My nephew goes to Lakeland and he told me they have - get this - plasma screen tvs in the cafeteria! 4 of them, I think! Woohoo, that's expensive! Who'd a thunk that SPS was facing hard times?
Deb should run for school board this year-seriously!
More blather, for more of our money! Liverman must go. This is getting old and is done every year, no matter the state of the economy or our ability to pay. I say fire every other admin person on the school payrol as a first step, then start cutting some of the fluff programs.
Why doesn't the good Doctor think he needs to make budget cuts, draconian if necessary, to restore the Suffolk Public School System to cost effective levels? He can't, because he has too much personal investment in hirings, administrative staff and necessary fluff to keep the School Board happy. He's worked far too long and hard to give up a shred his substantial empire. An empire that is larger than the City Council's. He would prefer to use mis-directed parents and teachers to do his bidding by calling and complaining. Being pro-active is obviously not in Dr. Liverman's play book. Now if a young smart individual would like to run in Chuckatuck Borough and rid us of pne room school house Whitley that would be a great signal to him that it's time to move on.
Its hard to blame Mr. Liverman for all the school problems. Every politician wants to give teachers a raise and give more money to the schools. All of them have something different they want, smaller classrooms, more special education, increased kindergarten, more after school asistance and etc.and as long as politicians throw money at schools they will find a way to spend it. If an extra 10 million is given to the schools they will spend it and if 10 million is taken away from the schools there will still be just as many graduates and just as many of them will become Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Carpenters, Plumbers ans Store Clerks.
The next time Doc Liverrman is on the public channel will someone please put sub-titles so I can understand what he's is saying. I failed Ebonics in High School, double talk and talking out the side of your mouth was not offered at the time.
If one out of four deliveries at Obici is to a teenage mother what does that say about the millions invested in sex education and free condoms? Dr. Liverman can't you even do that right?
A child born out of wedlock was called a Bastard. At the time it was frowned upon the mother and grandparents did what they could do. Today thanks to a "Progessive Society" teenagers are having illigitimate children kids at unpresidented levels. Perhaps the Moms have so little self-esteem or so little hope they believe their only significant contribution to society is to have a bastard. The sooner we return to the values that shaped this society that gave us gardrails how to live our lives the better world it will be for all of us. It takes two to make a child but a village to raise them doesn't cut it anymore.
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