The more I research the school district (and I have been doing this the past 7 years, and I have attended every board meeting the last 7 years, even their special meetings), the more frustrated and irritated I get. I have come to the realization that the BOE is clueless as to what they are doing in the district.

The teachers do not have as much, they pay into their STRS and the school chips in 14% for that.

I don't have a problem with the teachers pay, just that we have more teachers than we should. This also cuts into what raises the teachers could get if we had fewer of them.

They have non-IEP assistants that also do things like handing out the tests, watch the students take them and then collect the test and the whole time the teacher is at their desk in the same room playin solitaire on the computer. That is a waste of the assistants time and the districts money.

There are all kinds of things they spend money on a little goes towards books, technology and other items the students could use.

The more I find out however, the more it irks me.

The 100% board pickup was confirmed by our treasurer today in an email to me.

That is the way you do it. Go straight to the horses mouth if you want to find this stuff out. You should do it with your district or have someone outside of the district get the information to you. You may find your district is doing some unbeleivable things.

Ask for an Itemized Expense and Revenue Report, and Administrative Salary and Benefits expense report, find out how many students are on a free or reduced lunch program (we have 696 our of 2200 students), and any other kind of report you can think of.

Make sure your sitting down when you read them.

You have to contact the Food Service director to get how many students are on a free and reduced lunch program.

Good luck and I hope you don't have a coronary over it.

Martin Fleming

I must have been tired when I looked at the chart the first time. I cannot believe that they have 100% board pickup for ALL the administrators! Personally, I have never heard of such a thing. Where I work the super is the only one who has board pickup, no one else. That increases their take home by another 10%. The cost of family insurance plans of around 12 grand is not really out of line, but the 19 grand for the super is. You know that the board alone chose to give those people that pickup, it is not part of any bargaining unit contract, that is for sure. What a crock, I pay my own 10% for my retirement, why shouldn't they?

Martin, if I lived where you do I would be doing more than posting on here, I would be raising hell at those board meetings! Do they tape the meetings, then broadcast them on the local cable channel? Of course, they could edit out the asking of any questions by you that they did not like or want the rest of the community to hear.

Now that I have seen this chart, I would consider this probable cause to believe that they are wasting money in several other areas as well. Wish I could do more to help you, man, but I don't live in streetsboro. I am truly glad of that for the realizations I have come to in this weeklong discussion.

You have definitely convinced me that your side has is merits, and I truly hope the voting public thinks long and hard about checking yes or no for this new levy.

Very nice chart Martin! I will have to pass this out to those I know.

Thanks for comfirming my Employee Retirement question. That was how it sounded to me. Any idea whether we are also paying this for the teachers? Maybe at a lower percentage?

http://www.whizzards.net/levies/Admin.html

Hope this link takes.

Martin Fleming

I have updated the post concerning Administrative pay in the Streetsboro City School District.

After emailing the Treasurer I was informed that all amounts listed across the chart are paid by the district. The Administrator has none of the figures listed coming out of their pocket so all amounts shown come out of the Taxpayers pocket and the money comes from the General Fund.

The link to that page is: Http://www.whizzards.net/levies/Admin.html

I think all residents in Streetsboro should review this report to see what the administration costs the district.

I made it a little easier to read and follow.

As it turns out, the district not the employee pays the Employee Share Retirement Paid by Board which is actually the Taxpayers back pocket.

Thank you all.

Let's all make sure to thank the board for setting up these contracts.

Martin Fleming

Exactly, Martin. That is what we need to know, other districts admin pay and benefits. We could very well have the highest paid super in the county when all the benefits are added in!

Seriously - I was wondering the same thing about the super's health/life insurance cost! WOW!

It would be interesting to find out about the admin pay and benefits from all the other districts. I hope someone from each district (if not the record pub), goes and finds out this information and get it to me and I will publish it on the web for all to see. This is the real data that we all need to know. End the guesstimates and find the real data.

The true data is more disturbing then what anyone can guess or assume.

Martin Fleming

This is why you guys need the Treasuer's in your district to give you this information. Specially you guys in Field.

This is really some shocking info when you get to read it.

Sunshine law lets you get it. So make use of the darn thing. Don't let people speculate or assume for you. Go out and get that data.

I do and now you can see why I think the way I do.

Now you see why I am looking for alternative ways to educate the students and save communities funds that could be better spent.

It is not about me, or the teachers, it is about all the wasted funds that we could be using to get the children the materials, technology and other items the teachers really need to help the children.

Martin Fleming

Tell me about it. I find that even the teachers with 30+ years are only costing us around $4800.00 a year. Then you look at Admin and your eyes nearly pop out.

Our last superintendent said that it was cheaper for him to stay on for we wouldn't save $25,000 a year in medical costs if we kept him as a consultant. No one else caught that but me. I informed people but I guess they thought I was joking.

Go figure huh.

Those charts I posted did come from our Districts treasurer. I can't believe he would give me false information. It is unbelievable isn't it?

Martin Fleming

Thank you folks, that's Mariannegl and forthekids.

True we do have a few 30+ that are excited about teaching as new teachers are but there are some that do not care and are just hanging on. They have the ability to retire and do so with a good retirement pay. But there is a time when they should go, they know it and it would give new teachers who are very excited about teaching the opportunity.

I want to see younger teachers in the district for they grew up with computers around them and they are really adept at using them. They could introduce new things to students and help the students learn how to learn from the computers.

By no means should a computer be a substitute to a teacher, it should only supplement their ability to teach and be a tool for them.

Childrens interest in computers are nothing short of being phenominal (sp). There is so much available through them even things you don't have to pay for. Students jump at the chance to show you what they have found.

I put my grandkids on projects to research over the summer and they were beside themselves when I got back home. Each one couldn't wait to tell me what they found out about all kinds of subjects. They have never been that excited when they came home from school!

If my grandkids are like that then I would imagine other children would be the same way. There is no way they cannot help students.

They have a new device that is in the testing stage that can let you respond to someone without even touching the mouse or keyboard. Sensors are in a skull cap and you can communicate with the computer just by thinking. Imagine what it could do for the IEP students who are unable to use keyboards, mice or even verbally.

Yes, admin can be scaled down to state minimums that would provide additional funds for the district.

Costs have come down considerably in the last few years for computers and the software available to them.

Restricting user capabilities on them can also curb the cost to repair or fix them when things go wrong. Additional drives can be stored and replaced in a few minutes when software goes haywire. Notebook computer takes about 4 minutes to switch out a drive. Netbooks are solid state and can be re-imaged in about 15 minutes if that.

Service would be relatively easy. Even and LCD panel takes about 5 minutes to switch out. Eventually (within the next to years), they will use screens you can roll up into a roll which will make cracked screens a thing of the past.

If you are in a company where the everyday a notebook has to be worked on, it is because the user had too many rights that allowed them to install the junk to begin with or you have users that are going where they shouldn't. That is what really causes the problem. It is the user not the machine that is fault. That is a company user problem not a machine or software problem.

Get the users under control, if you can't do that, get rid of the users when in a business environment. That is the simple solution.

Martin Fleming