News-Record.com

"About $1 million in potential teacher raises are on the line, dependent upon what happens at the state level..."

Teacher raises should never be dependent on anything. What SHOULD be dependent on "what happens at the state level" is raises for the Superintendent and school board members. How disgusting that these are a sure thing even before the state budget is out.

Next they'll all want to go to Hawaii with our two esteemed commissioners.

Gotta go puke now

Absent from the agenda are pay raises for substitute teachers. They were left out and it seems noone cares. I asked that it be put on the agenda, but it appears that won't happen. I need help at the meeting to make the case. I hope someone will support me in getting raises for the sub teachers. Some subs get $57 and some get $75 per day depending on whether they are certified or not. The Greeter at Wallmart does better.

Joe,

Thank you, thank you for hanging in there for the subs. You are right that no one does seem to care.

Many folks are out of town on vacation including myself this month. Don't think there will be much turnout for summer meetings. You are a trooper.

It will be interesting to see what the new early meeting time brings and when the meetings are live.

Glad you posted about the greeter at Walmart. I bet they get some benefits too like a vacation and a store discount.

I am still bewildered by the earlier time. I know that the staff has to come to these meetings, but if they start at 5:30, when will they eat? Do they get to leave early so they can go have dinner? What about those of us (almost everyone) that have children? When are we suppose to feed our families? What if you have after school events? What if your job doesn't end till 6:oo? I have written and asked that they consider putting closed sessions first and then public comments at 6:45, but that hasn't been passed.
Too bad, makes it look like they don't want the public there. I might try to make it tonight and tell me just that!

Deb,

I feel you are right on the money with the earlier times and them not wanting the public there. This is no surprise. They have been pushing for this for a long time. The big push came after the standing room only meeting when parents came out in numbers to speak. This would definitely cut down on the numbers. Between that and televising live, it all makes sense.

Also I know they want out to get earlier.

Does this seem like they are putting their new raises given to them with taxpayer dollars to good use?

I commend you and Joe for hanging in there. But what many of us have been saying for a long time, it does it ever matter what we say. Do they even care to listen?

Here's the flip side of that, though: The board meetings have been running so late that there's no way anyone who has to work the next morning or who has to get their kids ready for school can stay. Some of these meetings haven't ended until 1 a.m.

By starting earlier, presumably folks would be able to stay while some of these big topics are being discussed. The old High Point school board used to meet during the day and people still found a way to show up there if they had something important to say.

My question is whether or not the board really needs to meet for six or seven hours at a time, twice (or more) per month. Are they using their time as efficiently as possible?

Bruce,

The answer is no. They do not run the meetings in an efficent manner. One of the problems is everything is decided at the last minute. In cases where they try to take up an issue months in advance, they string it out and revist it right up to the last possible minute. One thing would help if the size of the Board was reduced to 7 or even 9 members. I know of no Board in NC that has 11 members.

Another thing to save would time, would be to actually pass the consent agenda without comment; or take out the one of two items that people want to discuss. At almost every meeting the consent agenda is discussed for along time and then passed. I thought this was really just house keeping etc-- they get these things well before the meeting, and should be able to look at them. Six or seven hours are entirely too long. No one can pay that close attention and do a good job if they worked all day and then try to stay focused for 7 hours. If the BOE would ask questions and instruct staff to have the answers before the meeting, then they wouldn't have to revisit the same thing over and over!

Jennifer,

Sorry to get off this topic but, I am still waiting on a response from you about the lynching of a teacher at Southwest High School.

If you do not respond I can only assume that you to were a part of this orchestrated plan to promote the idea that racism is running rampant at Southwest.

I wish you would come out from behind the Shield that the N&R and Dr. Grier form around you.

If you ever want to be a real Journalist, stand on your own and investigate this obvious injustice that has been done to a very fine teacher at Southwest.

Ditto, ditto - Deborah and Joe

THEY DO NOT USE THEIR TIME EFFICIENTLY. DAH......!!!

Remember meeting after meeting to find a use for that elementary school; plan after plan presented; and in the end they did NOTHING.

Business meetings do not last this long. You have the agenda ready ahead of time. It could simply be emailed to them in amble time before the meeting. Also they could stay on task; not ramble; and keep the agenda shorter.

What is obvious is that public commentators who work will be stretched to get there on time if they want to speak.

And don't forget, if you are from High Point, you w/b driving to Greensboro to make your comments from now on...is it possible to take a credit on my property taxes for the cost of gas to get me to G'boro?

Amy,
I live in the county, so we have never had a meeting place since the merger. We have always been the people that had to drive somewhere, so on this I can't give any sympathy. It takes me 25-30 minutes to get to the G'boro meeting and 45-55 minutes to get to HP.... the worst thing that every happened to the systems is the joining of all three systems.

Bruce,

The explanation for the lengthy school board meetings is very clear, if anyone has ever attended a meeting. The simple fact is that these 11 elected representatives either can't make a decision or don't want to make a decision. They discuss a subject ad nauseum, and after an hour or two, still don't make a decision. What we need are 11 people on that board that are analytical and decisive. With some analytical abilities, they could look at some these issues and understand them. Once you understand the issue and have developed logical alternative solutions, you should be able to select the alternative that has the highest probabliity of success. None of these people possess either of these two skills. When will the voters begin to elect people who have the requisite skills for the job? Now that the jobs are highly-compensated, shouldn't we have the right to expect the people who occupy the positions to be qualified for the job?

The size of the Board needs to be reduced to 7.

Joe,

Do I dare ask which 4 of the 11 you would dismiss? It would be hard to narrow down my 6 top choices to just 4.

I say, let's reduce the size from 11 to 5.

Since their salaries have increased, maybe 6 are looking for a buy-out package.