98% of Teachers Will Keep Jobs

I thought I would claify The Daily Sentinel's subheading last week that said ten teachers will keep jobs. Basically 10 out of 22 teachers that were given pink slips can tear them up. Of course, those ten are the newest and lowest paid teachers. They're probably the least financial burden on the 98% coverage health plan that Rome teachers have.

The property tax increase is currently stated as 2.5%. This is not the increase in the budget itself, which is still in the red by nearly $1 million. Based on my last estimate, the new budget increase amounts to over 8%. The contingency increase is 3%. The vote is in 38 days.

There's also a new website for Rome's insane bond issue of $72 million. The address is http://blogs.rny.com/romeschools/ and it uses the same terrible comment interface the Sentinel's website uses. Just remeber, don't contradict our betters because, according to the blog, "Anyone is welcome to read and those who wish to contribute positively may sign up to contribute to the discussion." I positively refuse to pay higher taxes.

School Board Follies

THIS time I've put a reminder clock up to remind us (me) of this year's budget vote. We can defeat it. It was so close last year. I see RTA is about 520 members, which means current average salary tops $60,000. At an hourly level, it's around $35 an hour. Being a union, the teachers making less that half that will be getting the ax if the School Board can't beg, borrow, bully or steal the difference in the money they have to the money they want.

I'm going to be brief since I have a backlog of newspapers as it it. School budget vote is May 15. If anyone knows what the general voting locations are, let me know.