Thursday, December 11, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Keep teachers, but tighten the District's belt
The news is official. Our country is in the midst of a recession and now the ORCSD needs to make tough budgetary decisions. Rather than cut a teacher or a valued program, why not explore other cost cutting options? Cutting teachers seems to be the easy way out and hurts our children by increasing class sizes, eliminating programs, etc.
In my letter to the ORCSD Board and Administration today, I proposed the District not eliminate the Oyster River High School Theater Arts teaching position, a position that truly supports the academic and intellectual enrichment of ORCSD students, and consider alternate budgetary action. Here are my suggestions:
* Freeze salary increases for District administrators with salaries over $80,000 for the 2009 -2010 school year
* Implement a temporary salary decrease (3% - 5%) for our Superintendent for the 2009-2010 school year; the salary will still be in line with peers from Dresden and Portsmouth school districts
* Consolidate and eliminate administrative positions where possible (e.g. examine the need for an assistant principal at the Middle School)
* Do not allow District employees to expense meals; brown bag time!
* Set up a task force to re-negotiate contracts and agreements for favorable pricing with suppliers
* Consolidate bus routes to eliminate transportation costs; students may have to walk a little farther to catch the bus
* Turn the heat down in our buildings to save energy costs
* Go paperless whenever possible
Some of these suggestions may seem radical or controversial. However, in the private sector, businesses go out of business without radical actions.
Preserving our precious teaching resources is paramount in these tough times. I hope our District has the courage and sensibility to seek alternate cost cutting initiatives.
Finally, I ask, what do we value?
ORHS to Cut Teacher Positions...
Please see below an email from a very concerned community member and please attend tonight's board meeting to help out!
> Hello All,
>
> You are receiving this email because you have been involved either
> with our family or in drama in some way. Today I learned that the
> principal of Oyster River High School has proposed a budget for
> next year which eliminates the 60% drama teaching position,
> currently held by Meredith Freeman-Caple. The proposed budget cuts
> will be presented at tomorrow evening's school board meeting. I
> plan to attend the meeting in order to express my support of
> maintaining Meredith Caple's position. I am writing to you in
> hopes that you too feel that eliminating Meredith's position is NOT
> in the best interest of ORHS, the community, or our children.
>
>
> The thing about eliminating Ms. Freeman-Caple's position is that it
> effectively eliminates the ORHS drama program entirely. Meredith
> not only teaches the drama classes at ORHS, but she also directs
> the fall play, the One Act play, coordinated the highly acclaimed
> Murder Mystery fundraising dinner last year, and coordinated the
> regional One Act play festival which ORHS hosted last spring.
> While Meredith was hired as a 60% paid position, the district has
> had the benefit of Meredith's husband and son, both of whom have
> donated hundreds of hours of their time and passion for the
> theater. Additionally, Dr. Mary McCrae, clinical psychologist and
> personal friend of Scott and Meredith, has provided countless hours
> helping the casts develop their characters and speech patterns (the
> last two plays included mentally ill and mentally handicapped
> characters).
>
>
> While we realize that budgets need to be cut in tough economic
> times, those cuts should be made in a manner that has the least
> negative impact on our children. We do not feel that cutting Ms.
> Freeman-Caple's position meets that objective. Having a quality
> drama program by funding a 60% position makes it highly cost
> effective and alternative approaches, such as the use of current
> English teachers to build a program, will not likely yield
> something nearing the quality that we have now.
>
>
> Please, please, please
>
> Attend the school board meeting at ORHS tomorrow night, Wednesday,
> December 3rd, at 7pm
>
>
> If you cannot attend the meeting, please do one of the following.
>
>
> 1. Send an email to the school board, letting them know that ORHS
> needs to keep Meredith Caple orcsdsb@orcsd.org
>
>
> 2. Call the superintendent's office and leave a message asking them
> to please keep Meredith Caple 868-5100 ext 20
>
>
> 3. Tell as many people as possible about this and ask them to do
> the same...PLEASE!!
>
>
>
>
>
> Thank you everyone!
> Hello All,
>
> You are receiving this email because you have been involved either
> with our family or in drama in some way. Today I learned that the
> principal of Oyster River High School has proposed a budget for
> next year which eliminates the 60% drama teaching position,
> currently held by Meredith Freeman-Caple. The proposed budget cuts
> will be presented at tomorrow evening's school board meeting. I
> plan to attend the meeting in order to express my support of
> maintaining Meredith Caple's position. I am writing to you in
> hopes that you too feel that eliminating Meredith's position is NOT
> in the best interest of ORHS, the community, or our children.
>
>
> The thing about eliminating Ms. Freeman-Caple's position is that it
> effectively eliminates the ORHS drama program entirely. Meredith
> not only teaches the drama classes at ORHS, but she also directs
> the fall play, the One Act play, coordinated the highly acclaimed
> Murder Mystery fundraising dinner last year, and coordinated the
> regional One Act play festival which ORHS hosted last spring.
> While Meredith was hired as a 60% paid position, the district has
> had the benefit of Meredith's husband and son, both of whom have
> donated hundreds of hours of their time and passion for the
> theater. Additionally, Dr. Mary McCrae, clinical psychologist and
> personal friend of Scott and Meredith, has provided countless hours
> helping the casts develop their characters and speech patterns (the
> last two plays included mentally ill and mentally handicapped
> characters).
>
>
> While we realize that budgets need to be cut in tough economic
> times, those cuts should be made in a manner that has the least
> negative impact on our children. We do not feel that cutting Ms.
> Freeman-Caple's position meets that objective. Having a quality
> drama program by funding a 60% position makes it highly cost
> effective and alternative approaches, such as the use of current
> English teachers to build a program, will not likely yield
> something nearing the quality that we have now.
>
>
> Please, please, please
>
> Attend the school board meeting at ORHS tomorrow night, Wednesday,
> December 3rd, at 7pm
>
>
> If you cannot attend the meeting, please do one of the following.
>
>
> 1. Send an email to the school board, letting them know that ORHS
> needs to keep Meredith Caple orcsdsb@orcsd.org
>
>
> 2. Call the superintendent's office and leave a message asking them
> to please keep Meredith Caple 868-5100 ext 20
>
>
> 3. Tell as many people as possible about this and ask them to do
> the same...PLEASE!!
>
>
>
>
>
> Thank you everyone!
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