They’ve found last minute money for things they really wanted out of budget cycle before. It doesn’t build trust or transparency. This could and should have been handled better.

When leaders eat cake while custodians eat crackers, don’t expect us to just say thank you and mind our own business. //

There are seven people who not only won’t have to share the budget pain our employees face next year, they drastically improved their own economic condition in one fell swoop with magic math money that didn’t exist in the budget until that very day. [Or maybe it did. There was no explanation.] 12/

And the fact that some folks think it is says a lot.

The point is that we were all told the money wasn’t there for a lot of things. It was a bad budget year. Operating budget cuts, personnel cuts. The pain was spread as much as possible which makes it not hurt as much. Right? Except it wasn’t. 11/

3) The last issue is about money and scarcity. It doesn’t matter that this is “only” a ~$56,000 overall outside-of-budget-cycle addition to the budget. It doesn’t matter that it is less than the cost of one entire FTE or that this is ____% of the total budget. That’s not the point. 10/

Do they not do more because of low pay? Or are they doing more and most people are just unaware? If they are unaware, why, and how do you fix it? Those are fair questions to ask.

But don’t get your hackles up that the average taxpayer doesn’t know what you do. Tell them. And maybe do better. 9/

Folks would’ve been more understanding had they outlined the current duties and expectations of the board, the average hours a month it takes them, divided by the current and proposed salaries. We quantify every job in ACPS this way, the SB should too. Now it will just look like being defensive. 8/

Again, those are things that have been said by others, I don’t know how true they are. I don’t email the board often, but when I do, I typically get a response. 😆 But I am who I am. 7/

They rarely see the SB in our schools or events. Some board members don’t reply to emails. Five months a year the SB only has one public meeting. In the meetings they do have, there is little productive discussion and even fewer questions. Some board members miss 3+ meetings a year. 6/

2) My 2nd issue is justification. The truth is that no one knows how much time or work goes into being on the SB.

Strategically, it would’ve made sense for them to include some info about that in their presentation to head off common criticisms from staff and the public: 5/

They knew that, and did it anyway. Because they thought they were right.

Human connection researcher Brené Brown says “I’m not here to be right, I’m here to get it right.”

You can be “right” and lose the optics game all day long. Elected officials ignore that at their own peril. 4/

I warned them in my public comment. As someone very much in touch with staff, I knew immediately how it would be received by the staff losing their jobs AND the staff not getting reclassified (SPED TAs and Tport Assts) AND the staff only getting a 3% raise. 3/

We watched this board slice & dice our budget for nearly two months. The 45 FTEs that were cut- those are people, not just “positions.” 45 FTEs is the equivalent of 90 teaching assistants. Not once during Mar/Apr budget mtgs was SB pay mentioned or talk of that line item being adjusted. Why not? 2/

SB is nowhere near a full-time job. Not even the Chair. BOS, sure. The BOS gave themselves a 3% raise, and I believe could have justified more, but for various reasons chose not to.

I understand. I still believe it’s too much in a year where people lost their jobs because we didn’t have more money. A gradual raise toward their goal salary would have been more fiscally responsible and less insulting to the staff working their butts off for a 3% raise.

Oh we definitely will. And I said that in my public comment, while I understand that they need to raise their salaries, they shouldn’t have done such a huge leap all in one year- not in the face of all the cuts we just made. Hell, they could have spread it over 2-3 years!

It’s so true. And it’s really sad, because there is a lot going on in the education world around here that deserves coverage.