Watch your wallets – here comes D11
In 2000, School District 11 came to the voters and asked for a mill levy override. Give us the money, the district said, and we promise you that we will use it to improve performance across the district. The business community told the district to agree to a set of performance objectives in return for business community support. In 2000, the community passed this mill levy question, and the tax payers voluntarily raised their taxes, hoping for their kids’ sake that the district would keep its promise to improve performance.
As part of the mill levy question, a performance review of D11 is conducted every 2 years by an independent organization. Independent is used loosely here since the group is composed of ex-educators, and educators rarely criticize one another no matter how poor the performance.
In 2004, the review of D11 showed that of the 11 performance objectives that were directed by the mill levy question, D11 had achieved only 2. Give us more time, the administration begged, and we will show the community that we really will meet our obligation to improve. In 2006, the review showed the same result. No improvements were noted. While the D11 administration and anti-reform board members blamed “lack of time” for the continuing lack-luster performance of the district in 2004, in 2006, they blamed this stale performance on “too much pressure” from pro-parent/pro-reform board members. Quit asking us to do our jobs, they begged, because that was simply too much pressure for a 6-figure earning administrator to bear.
In 2004, the D11 community rejected a bond request by D11. In 2005, the administration begged the community to grant the bond request, pointing out that all it would take for D11 to improve was for the community to provide more funds for better buildings. Better buildings, we were told, result in better performance. The bond question passed, and the D11 community voluntarily raised their property tax rates.
Since 1997, the student population of D11 has steadily declined. The population of El Paso County and Colorado Springs has risen steadily in this time period, but parents have chosen to live in school districts that tend to focus on educating kids a bit better than does D11. Despite the mill levy increase in 2000, and despite the bond passage in 2005, D11 has failed to show improvement. Despite the declining enrollment, the labor union has insisted that the district maintain its teacher count. Despite an administrative hiring freeze ordered by the reformers in 2005, the administration has continued to add central administrative employees to its roles.
Is D11 facing a budget dilemma? Yes, it is. Is it going to cut staff to match the declining enrollment and associated declining budget? No, that is not the plan. In fact, hold on to your wallets, because Terry Bishop and his obedient sheep on the school board have decided that it is time, once again, to raise your taxes. The goal, of course, won’t have anything to do with raising student achievement; the goal is to maintain the high salaries and high standard of living for the ever-growing administration. The obvious answer to solving a declining budget would be for D11 to perform at a level that would attract parents and students. That is apparently too much like work. The easier route to solve a declining budget is to ask for the community to raise their taxes yet again.
You can be sure that with this tax increase request from D11 will come the typical promises (and threats). We promise that we will improve if you just give us a little more money, they will say. This time we mean it. We promise that we will be responsive to the community if you just grant us this request, just one more time. It’s all for the kids. Seriously, it’s all for the kids. If you don’t grant us this request, we will probably have to cut extra curricular activities. We really don’t want to hurt the children, but we just don’t have the money to do all of the wonderful things we need to do to bring us into the 21st Century. ½ billion dollars a year just doesn’t allow us to educate kids.
According to D11 employees, Bishop and his staff believe that this is a good year to ask for yet more money since it is a presidential election year. They feel that liberal voters, who typically enjoy high taxes, will vote in large numbers this November, so the chances of getting the voters to turn over more of their incomes to a lethargic district will be fairly high.
As D11 prepares to come to the community to ask tax payers to tighten their belts once again, you can be certain that there will be no belt tightening down at Central Admin. You can be sure that as you work harder to make up for your higher taxes, the administration will grow larger with the extra funds that it receives. More money has never improved performance in the past, and it won’t improve it this time, either.
As part of the mill levy question, a performance review of D11 is conducted every 2 years by an independent organization. Independent is used loosely here since the group is composed of ex-educators, and educators rarely criticize one another no matter how poor the performance.
In 2004, the review of D11 showed that of the 11 performance objectives that were directed by the mill levy question, D11 had achieved only 2. Give us more time, the administration begged, and we will show the community that we really will meet our obligation to improve. In 2006, the review showed the same result. No improvements were noted. While the D11 administration and anti-reform board members blamed “lack of time” for the continuing lack-luster performance of the district in 2004, in 2006, they blamed this stale performance on “too much pressure” from pro-parent/pro-reform board members. Quit asking us to do our jobs, they begged, because that was simply too much pressure for a 6-figure earning administrator to bear.
In 2004, the D11 community rejected a bond request by D11. In 2005, the administration begged the community to grant the bond request, pointing out that all it would take for D11 to improve was for the community to provide more funds for better buildings. Better buildings, we were told, result in better performance. The bond question passed, and the D11 community voluntarily raised their property tax rates.
Since 1997, the student population of D11 has steadily declined. The population of El Paso County and Colorado Springs has risen steadily in this time period, but parents have chosen to live in school districts that tend to focus on educating kids a bit better than does D11. Despite the mill levy increase in 2000, and despite the bond passage in 2005, D11 has failed to show improvement. Despite the declining enrollment, the labor union has insisted that the district maintain its teacher count. Despite an administrative hiring freeze ordered by the reformers in 2005, the administration has continued to add central administrative employees to its roles.
Is D11 facing a budget dilemma? Yes, it is. Is it going to cut staff to match the declining enrollment and associated declining budget? No, that is not the plan. In fact, hold on to your wallets, because Terry Bishop and his obedient sheep on the school board have decided that it is time, once again, to raise your taxes. The goal, of course, won’t have anything to do with raising student achievement; the goal is to maintain the high salaries and high standard of living for the ever-growing administration. The obvious answer to solving a declining budget would be for D11 to perform at a level that would attract parents and students. That is apparently too much like work. The easier route to solve a declining budget is to ask for the community to raise their taxes yet again.
You can be sure that with this tax increase request from D11 will come the typical promises (and threats). We promise that we will improve if you just give us a little more money, they will say. This time we mean it. We promise that we will be responsive to the community if you just grant us this request, just one more time. It’s all for the kids. Seriously, it’s all for the kids. If you don’t grant us this request, we will probably have to cut extra curricular activities. We really don’t want to hurt the children, but we just don’t have the money to do all of the wonderful things we need to do to bring us into the 21st Century. ½ billion dollars a year just doesn’t allow us to educate kids.
According to D11 employees, Bishop and his staff believe that this is a good year to ask for yet more money since it is a presidential election year. They feel that liberal voters, who typically enjoy high taxes, will vote in large numbers this November, so the chances of getting the voters to turn over more of their incomes to a lethargic district will be fairly high.
As D11 prepares to come to the community to ask tax payers to tighten their belts once again, you can be certain that there will be no belt tightening down at Central Admin. You can be sure that as you work harder to make up for your higher taxes, the administration will grow larger with the extra funds that it receives. More money has never improved performance in the past, and it won’t improve it this time, either.
posted by Craig Cox | 9:37 PM
1 Comments:
My biggest problem with the way Math is being taught in most of our schools is the lack of practical application. I think of all the wonderful dreams our children have: music, finance, art, agriculture, medicine, business, chef, architecture, construction, communications & electronics and etcetera that will all need Math. Surely our Math teachers can use real world examples that students can find an interest and really understand Math. Thank you for listening.
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