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In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place. If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that! You see, I'm in the Red Queen's Race...
Update: A Franklin Citizen Questions the School Board
By Janet Evans
Monday, Jun 16 2008, 04:15 PM
Today I received a response from Mr. Jim Milzer regarding the questions and concerns (below) from a Franklin citizen that were brought up after the Committee of the Whole Meeting on June 4th.
I was not told who addressed specific questions/concerns.
The response is in .pdf format:
Response to Unidentified Citizen ç here
06/17/08
Response from From Unidentified Citizen:
I'm satisfied with the answers. I have no "axe to grind" with our district. I appreciate the response, and the time taken to explain.
Unidentified Citizen
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I received an email from a Franklin citizen who was in attendance at the Committee of the Whole meeting of the Franklin School Board, on June 4th. The individual does not feel comfortable contacting the Board members directly, for personal reasons, but would like answers to the following questions, and would also like to share these concerns.
I am posting the questions from the email, with permission, as I think they are interesting, along with forwarding them to the Board, Dr. Patz, Judy Mueller and Mr. Milzer. Hopefully the questions will get answered.
Here is a link to my report on the meeting, which has a link to the 1st draft of the 08-09 budget:
Franklin School Board 06-04-08 Committee of the Whole Meeting
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Email Questions/Concerns from Citizen Regarding 08-09 Budget:
I was very pleased with the school board asking to see the FTE posted next
to the staffing projections. I too am interested in those numbers.
I am also interested in why I was told at the meeting that no teachers had
been laid off. Tacked onto that statement was a comment that some hours in
art and music had been cut. According to the numbers quoted that would have
been .1 FTE. 1/10th of a position.
When I talked to representatives in those departments - they told me that
two part time teachers had been laid off, and that the total of the two
would have been around 1 FTE not .1. So I am interested in this discrepancy.
I am more interested in accuracy of the presentation than the bad news. I
want finance representatives who aren't going to gloss over a situation.
I also would like to know what areas were considered for strategic
abandonment and what the general strategy or order was. Were staffing
positions considered first because they are the largest budget area? Or were
teachers considered last due to student impact? Exactly what were the
underlying principles used to come to decisions.
Were all budget areas considered? And by that I don't mean "yes, staffing was
considered". I would like to know if all areas of staffing were considered.
I have heard that our district is top-heavy. I've heard it from a lot of
different sources, and there are things I see volunteering that support the
concept of too many chiefs, too few Indians. However, I am not overly
familiar with the structure at a district level. So I started researching.
A quick perusal of our own staff directory on the website shows that 34 out
of 393 employees work at ECC. 1 in 10 didn't strike me as a good number, but
I don't know what those people do, so I started comparing our numbers to
other numbers on the DPI website.
We have 1 administrator for every 246 students.
Greenfield has 1/264
Greendale has 1/208
MPS has 1/178
Oak Creek - Franklin has 1/301
The numbers say that we aren't really top heavy. Or, more likely, if we are,
so is the rest of the system. It also shows that there are school districts
out there who are similar in size that have fewer administrative positions.
Have we researched what districts like Oak Creek Franklin and Glendale
-River Hills, and South Milwaukee are doing to maintain a better
administrative ratio?
It might be expedient for a corresponding cut in administrative FTE to
balance that out cuts in teacher’s hours. Certainly a decreasing staff and
student body means that there is a corresponding decrease in administrative
duties somewhere along the line. That means if we cut 5 positions from our
teaching staff we should be looking to eliminate a part time position at the
district level. If nothing else even a few hours trimmed from the
administrative budget might go a long way in paving the way for better
teacher relations. If we are willing to reposition our teachers and assign
them new duties, maybe we need to consider that at the top too.
I do believe good administration is worth keeping and paying. Good
administration will also have the respect of those who work under them.
My suggestions/comments on the budget meeting:
1. An impact report on proposed budgetary cuts would be helpful. This report
should have an emphasis on what this will mean to the student population.
For instance, we were able to cut three elementary positions due to a
decrease in student populations. Thankfully, we were told that no one was
laid off. Yet there are other costs to the student in reorganization. This
might mean some large classes. It might mean teachers who are teaching new
grade-levels and curriculum. I fully understand that you do the best that
you can, but I also realize that there is more than one way to arrange what
gets cut, that different people are going to have different ideas on what is
important.
2. There was no mention at the meeting that administrative or support
positions had been looked at alongside of teaching staff for budget cuts. I
certainly hope that these were considered, but I have no real assurances
that they were
3. I was very happy to see the budget posted to the website. It is good to
see that the school board is trying to improve its relationship with the
community. Something to consider. When I get an e-mail inviting me to a
meeting on the day of that meeting, I start to wonder what is being covered
that someone wants to push through with little comment. A week in advance
for those notices would be much more appropriate.
4. I really would like a clear answer on how many teachers have been laid
off and what programs are affected. I am hoping to understand why I am
getting two different numbers from the teachers and from the district.
5. Mr. Milzer mentioned that out-sourcing payroll wouldn’t be a good idea due to loss in corporate knowledge in that area. I would love to see the same argument applied to moving our teachers around to fill different positions.
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