Fitzgerald Administration Cuts 188 City Jobs

[Bill Call]

And nobody noticed:

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-count ... itzge.html

Expenditures have been cut about $5 million per year. If the previous administration made those cuts the City would have about $20 million in the bank. And, of course, it wouldn't be called the previous administration.

The PD made no mention of the $1 million per year saved by ending the Fire Fighters Sick Time Scam. They avoid that subject like the plague. Much like they avoid the DROP program.

[Bill Call]

If we go back to the Caine administration the total cuts amount to almost 300 employees.

This comment from former councilman Corrigan was informative:

FitzGerald and most council members advocated cutting the budget. Then-Mayor Thomas George's consistent response was that the budget had been "cut to the bone." But post-George budgets reveal that there was plenty of room for reduction.

The article:

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2010/ ... was_a.html

How over staffed is the school system?
Is it time for a school board that works for the citizens?

[Bill Call]

Which Ed Fitzgerald will show up for work on his first day as County Executive?

The Fitgerald that took bold action by:

cutting the fat from the City budget
challenging the sleepy culture of City Hall
holding managers responsible for the performance of their departments
ending the fire departments sick time scam

or

The Fitzgerald that opposed reform in County government
and is earning the support of the current power structure

or a combination of both?

The Plain Dealer, the non profit foundations, non profit boards, the eductional institutions and the entire secret power structure have their own agenda. What is Ed Fitzgeralds agenda?

To let himself be coopted by that power structure or
to use the greed and shorted sightedness of that power structure
to shake its foundations?

I'm betting on a shakeup.

Fitzgeralds ambitions will be ill served by a term in office marked by a desire to get along with the very institutions that have laid this town low.

[Tim Liston]

How overstaffed is the school system?

I remember some months back a couple press releases were posted here about some changes Lakewood public schools administration. From just those two press releases I was able to learn that the Lakewood school district….

….employs a Director of Teaching and Learning K-12.
….employs an Assistant Middle School Principal.
….employs a Middle School Student Activities Director.
….employs a High School Student Activities Director.
….employs a Coordinator of Teaching and Learning K-12.
….administers an MCREL walkthrough protocol.
….administers an Ohio School Improvement Process.
….administers writing accountability programs.
….administers a program for Ohio Diagnostics Assessment.
….employs Academic Coaches.
….administers a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in all elementary schools.
….administers a Supplemental Educational Services program.
….employs an Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education.
….employs a Coordinator for Teaching and Learning for secondary education.
….employs a Coordinator of Gifted/Talent Development and District Assessment.
….employs an Assistant Principal at Garfield Middle School.

Again, that’s just what I was able to glean from two short press releases.

My kids went to Ruffing Montessori (K-8) in Rocky River with about 300 other children. My wife teaches there. The school principal also teaches 8th grade. They have one full-time administrator. And a part-timer to help answer the phones. Oh and a janitor. That’s it. Tuition there is well under $8000 a year. And don’t say that they don’t take disadvantaged and special needs children because they do. Montessori makes a point of it. My wife has a child who has a medical condition that would probably keep him/her out of a typical public school classroom. But at Ruffing they are mainstreamed and often helped by other children.

The amount of money spent by public schools outside the classroom just takes my breath away. I guess that’s what happens when you are spending other people’s money and not your own.

[David Anderson]

Tim –

Are you certain that:

1. The 16 positions/responsibilities you’ve listed are performed by 16 different people?; and

2. Tuition is equal to per pupil expenditure? (Ruffing may have other sources of revenue to help keep tuition costs down a bit – an endowment, grants, public assistance, etc.)

[Christine Gordillo]

In regards to Mr. Liston's post, for the record the school district:

- Never employed a Middle School Activities Director
- No longer employs an Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, a Coordinator of Teaching and Learning, K-12, a Coordinator of Teaching & Learning for Secondary Education; a Coordinator of Gifted/Talented and Assessment

Christine Gordillo
Communications Specialist
Lakewood City Schools

[Danielle Masters]

Christine, thank you for posting that information. I knew some of those positions had been eliminated prior to the passage of the levy as cost cutting measures. I appreciate your clarification on which positions had been cut.

[Tim Liston]

David….

As regards your item 1), I never asserted that 16 different people fulfilled these various posts/responsibilities. I merely gleaned that stuff from just two press releases and thought WOW that’s probably a lot of stuff that may not need to be done. Which apparently was the case because a few of those positions I guess were recently eliminated. Which was not made clear in the press releases.

But I have subsequently learned that Lakewood schools also has a Communications Specialist. Hopefully that will be eliminated and teachers can just use email like my wife does.

As regards your item 2), Ruffing does not have an endowment or really any other significant sources of revenue except tuition. They do a fund raiser every year I know because my wife chaired it twice. It brings in about $300 per child/year. One is also expected to contribute to the annual fund but that amount is build into my sub-$8000 figure.

If we could just (1) eliminate the Dept. of Education, (2) eliminate all school districts, (3) make all schools charter schools and (4) provide government money to families instead of bureaucrats, schools would become immediately more effective and efficient.

Tim

[Bill Call]

The County is in the midst of a reduction in force that has reduced total employment by about 1,500. No one noticed. The County is doing nothing to publisize that accomplishment. Why not?

Two reasons come to mind.

One, those reductions have come at the cost of tens of millions of dollars in lump some buyouts. If the public became aware of those buyouts there would be even more disgust with county government. I've sent numerous requests for information about those buyouts. So far I'm just getting the run around.

I might have to waste $50 and have my attorney pursue this matter.

Second, pay attention Stan, if those RIFs had occurred 10 years ago the County would have saved $1,125,000,000 in salaries and benefits over the last 10 years.


Guys like Tim Hagen have argued that government jobs actually create wealth and that the $1,125,000,000 spent on salaries and benefits is money well spent. Of course, I see it differently.

What if instead of spending that $1,125,000,000 on 1,500 government employees we used that money to:

Build the Opportunity Cooridor - $300 million

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/projects/Cle ... fault.aspx

Build the Shoreway project - $60 million

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01 ... s_a_b.html

Build the Medical Mart - $425 million

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/06 ... lands.html

If that decision was made ten years ago all of these projects would now be complete using our own resources without an increase in taxes. Some of you are horrified. What!!! develoment before people!!

By the way you would have $340 million left over for (insert your project here).

The same reasoning applies to the school system. When school boards aske for more money they are not asking for more resources or more time spent in the class room. They are asking for more money for more raises for earlier retirement with better health plans for the government workforce.

[Stan Austin]

Bill--- I did notice but didn't really pay attention. When you take a government action to presumably illustrate a certain fecklessness, then apply elementary school flash card multiplications to exaggerate dollar amounts, and then link those dollar amounts to some unrelated projects (some of which you philosophically objected to), then I just sort of add that to the sort of illogic that calls for elimination of public education and demands accountability for public education as posted by other similar visionaries.
But, I do appreciate your thinking of me, Bill!
Stan

[Bryan Schwegler]

But I have subsequently learned that Lakewood schools also has a Communications Specialist. Hopefully that will be eliminated and teachers can just use email like my wife does.

Tim,
A Communications Specialist is often used as a title for a person who handles Public Relations. What they do is in no way the same as what a teacher using email does.

And I'm sure your wife's school may not need a PR person because it's just a single school, but a district the size of Lakewood most certainly does.

f we could just (1) eliminate the Dept. of Education, (2) eliminate all school districts, (3) make all schools charter schools and (4) provide government money to families instead of bureaucrats, schools would become immediately more effective and efficient.

I fail to see how this would solve any issues. The history of charter schools is more checkered and their results are just as varied, if not more, than public schools. Even if you followed this idea, you wouldn't be able to eliminate the Dept. of Education or potentially even school boards, since some organization would be needed to set standards, ensure compliance, and measure success.

Ultimately all you do in that case is replace bureaucrats with corporations that probably care even less about the welfare of the kids than the bogey man of the teacher's union.

I also pretty much guarantee you an innercity charter school using a 100 year-old building with a minority student body will not cost as little as a school of predominantly white upper-middle class students. So trying to compare your wife's private school to entire school districts isn't really an accurate way to assess reality.

[David Anderson]

David….

As regards your item 1), I never asserted that 16 different people fulfilled these various posts/responsibilities. I merely gleaned that stuff from just two press releases and thought WOW that’s probably a lot of stuff that may not need to be done. Which apparently was the case because a few of those positions I guess were recently eliminated. Which was not made clear in the press releases.

But I have subsequently learned that Lakewood schools also has a Communications Specialist. Hopefully that will be eliminated and teachers can just use email like my wife does.

As regards your item 2), Ruffing does not have an endowment or really any other significant sources of revenue except tuition. They do a fund raiser every year I know because my wife chaired it twice. It brings in about $300 per child/year. One is also expected to contribute to the annual fund but that amount is build into my sub-$8000 figure.

If we could just (1) eliminate the Dept. of Education, (2) eliminate all school districts, (3) make all schools charter schools and (4) provide government money to families instead of bureaucrats, schools would become immediately more effective and efficient.

I am glad that Ms. Gordillo corrected some of the details in your post listing the various responsibilities Lakewood "employs" individuals to do. It appears as though some restructuring has taken place to either combine or eliminate jobs at our BOE. This is a good thing but you believe more is needed because your wife uses email. Okay.

Cleveland's schools are mandated to provide transportation to students needing to get to charter schools in Cleveland. I don't know whether Rocky River has yellow school buses (we know Lakewood does not), but, if it does, are students transported to Ruffing via RR yellow buses?

Regarding your opinion to close the Dept. of Ed., how about these two steps instead: First, declare illegal all private and charter schools. Then, assign students to public schools within a geographic zone, crossing city boundaries, via a random lottery.

[Will Brown]

But I have subsequently learned that Lakewood schools also has a Communications Specialist. Hopefully that will be eliminated and teachers can just use email like my wife does.

Tim,
A Communications Specialist is often used as a title for a person who handles Public Relations. What they do is in no way the same as what a teacher using email does.

And I'm sure your wife's school may not need a PR person because it's just a single school, but a district the size of Lakewood most certainly does.

f we could just (1) eliminate the Dept. of Education, (2) eliminate all school districts, (3) make all schools charter schools and (4) provide government money to families instead of bureaucrats, schools would become immediately more effective and efficient.

I fail to see how this would solve any issues. The history of charter schools is more checkered and their results are just as varied, if not more, than public schools. Even if you followed this idea, you wouldn't be able to eliminate the Dept. of Education or potentially even school boards, since some organization would be needed to set standards, ensure compliance, and measure success.

Ultimately all you do in that case is replace bureaucrats with corporations that probably care even less about the welfare of the kids than the bogey man of the teacher's union.

I also pretty much guarantee you an innercity charter school using a 100 year-old building with a minority student body will not cost as little as a school of predominantly white upper-middle class students. So trying to compare your wife's private school to entire school districts isn't really an accurate way to assess reality.

I'd be interested in knowing why a small school system needs a public relations specialist, but then I think of a public relations specialist as a person who throws out smoke to try and cover up any problems before they become public knowledge. Just what does this person do that cannot be done as effectively by the school publications, and even email or flyers from the teachers?

Your painting of charter schools as having a checkered history is somewhat misleading. Some are good, some are not, but the advantage is that the parents have the capability to opt out of a bad charter school, something that has been denied to parents of public school parents for many years, until the NCLB act forced it upon largely unwilling school boards. You also seem to equate charter schools with private schools, but the private schools generally have a very good reputation, at least with respect to college prep.

And I think you are making an emotional argument when you say that corporations will replace bureaucrats in making decisions, since a true believer knows that corporations are evil capitalists. But in fact, there is no reason a charter or private school could not be run as a non-profit institution, and many are.

As to economies, if you read enough about the subject you will find that there are charter schools in old buildings serving minority students that excel. I think I read of one in Cleveland, even, but I don't remember the name. Of course, charter schools enjoy the advantage of serving relatively concerned parents; the unconcerned parents won't have gone to the trouble of finding a good school and transferring their child, and the public school have the burden of dealing with such parents.

As to the suggestion below that all charter and public schools be closed, it simply won't work, as concerned and resourceful parents will always find a way to get a better education for their children, whether it is home schooling, tutoring, or a school in Switzerland.

Last millennium, when I was young, I had many peers who were children of immigrants, if not immigrants themselves. While they might have spoken their native language in their homes or their churches, they also made substantial efforts to master English, and all my peers could speak English as well as you or me. But things have changed and now we have many immigrants who make little effort to learn English, and demand that our society and our schools cater to them. I think we don't have to spend a ton of money having our schools deal with this problem; we just have to make clear to the students and their parents that they will have to master English. Similarly, why should we spend extra money educating minorities; only certain minorities seem to have a problem, and that seems to derive from their environment. Asians, for example, don't seem to have a problem excelling. Perhaps we need residential facilities for those children whose home life is impairing their school performance.

And I get the impression that the schools are mandated to make the blind see and the deaf hear. No matter how much money the schools spend on this, it isn't going to succeed. Perhaps instead of individual instruction locally, we need facilities where such students can be educated with like students. I help support a charity, Guiding Eyes for the Blind, that trains guide dogs. The puppies are cared for at volunteers' homes until they are old enough to be trained. Then they go to the campus where they are trained. They don't deliver the dog to the ultimate user; the ultimate user comes to the campus and trains with the dog, then graduates and goes home. That seems to me a very efficient way to deal with a similar problem as the schools have with some students; a residential facility could provide a better trained and experienced faculty than individual schools can.

[Stan Austin]

Will---- I think you have injected a needed dose of sanity to this thread. A lot of us have backed ourselves into ideological cells that don't allow rational discussion.
Maybe we can discuss and debate rationally like Will has?
Stan

[Gary Rice]

Just a few reflections here...

As a retired Special Education teacher, I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of assisting special needs students to feel included, wanted, and to be as much a part of the regular school day as possible. True, as has been stated, there are excellent and very necessary off-site special needs facilities (as with service dog training) that may need to be used from time to time, but in the main, special needs students need to be with their regular education peers to "the maximum extent appropriate", and in fact, that philosophy remains the law of the land.

It's not so much a question of "miracle working" with special needs students, although frankly, there are many little miracles involved every day with helping them to adapt to this world of ours, and that's why helping them in a public school setting is so very important. They too, are entitled by law, to a free and appropriate education with their regular education peers.

Growing up having multiple special needs of my own put me in a very unique position to live through the difficult dichotomy of needing special help on the one hand, but also knowing the absolute necessity of being able to fit in with the rest of the world, on the other. The idea of special-needs children being segregated, concentration-camp like, into groups with "their own kind" any more time than would be absolutely necessary, is absolutely horrific to me. On a personal note, I left that "broom closet" room at the "end of the hall" years ago, and God willing, I will never, EVER return there again.

On a broader reflection:

It is so shocking to me, that something as fundamentally important as public education should even be called into question, these days. This is our America, after all, and our public schools are the very foundation of this country's potential for democratic greatness. It is my firm belief that when one goes after the fundamental concept of public education, I feel that they are questioning the very fabric of this country!

While I must, in this free country of ours, allow in my mind, the right of parents to pick their schooling needs for their children...(and by the way, Lakewood, and many, if not most public school districts, indeed do have open enrollment policies) I also firmly believe that free public schools for all must be available and supported, as being a fundamental part of our nation.

I would also add that it is indeed much more expensive to address the needs of some students, than others, and not merely special-needs students either. There are many mandates that public schools must address, that private schools do not have to.

Inner-ring schools often do have many more concerns than do suburban schools, for many reasons that we need not address here. Certainly second-language students and poverty situations, are but two examples that comprise but a few of the many issues that can involve increased funding needs.

I would invite anyone to visit any school district and try to find real waste and fluff.

It simply is not there.

...and as a final point:

I, for one, am very pleased to have Christine Gordillo as our Board's Communications Specialist. That is a very necessary position to have in a modern school district.