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Thread: School Budget Failed

  1. #16
    Member literal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mnb811 View Post
    Quote Literal " I think the Board Clerk's head should be on the cutting block for the WRONG COUNT.

    First the news said the budget passed and then after a recount...it failed. Someone is VERY POOR at counting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gee, only off by 700+

    Time for a new board clerk!!!! Whatever happened to "INTEGRITY?????"


    If that was off by 700 what else was? BTW I would bet Leonetti's wife will be the new board clerk. Just watch!
    NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The previous Board Clerk (Dan) was there a LONG time. He was a gentleman and NEVER got into the politics of what he did. He respected the board and didn't "stir" the pot as the master cook does now! Playing both sides will hurt in the end.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  2. #17
    Member andreahaxton's Avatar
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    Post It Is All A Ploy Off The Backs Of OUR Babies! Some of their salaries would make you

    Quote Originally Posted by jenrose66 View Post
    I just discovered these boards last night while trying to find some more information about the failed school budget. I tried to vote at St. Michael's where I always vote and it didn't look like there was anyone there running the election...the usual voting room was set up for what looked like bingo...I then drove past the high school and Martin Rd. it would have been nice if there were signs out front that said "polling place" it was frustrating.

    Anyway, I'm against corruption and I know at some point a stand needs to be taken but why do the kids have to be a casualty. I heard that if this budget doesn't pass there will be no kindergarten or only half day kindergarten. My son is set to start kindergarten in September. He went thru Pre-K and now what?? He just stays home a year, or I need to go into debt to send him to OLV?

    Does anyone have any credible information about the consequences of not passing the budget? It seems so heartless to get rid of kindergarten.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    jenrose66, You are so right on!

    Failed Proposed 2011/12 Lackawanna School Budget $45,130,000
    Passed Contingency Budget $44,052,242
    Current Passed 2010/2011 Budget $44,000,000

    You can do the math......
    FYI, more to the story....I know there is yearly cost of living expenses BUT there is also MEGA surplus money hidden in their budget that they kept hush about.
    08/09' $6.3 million surplus
    09/10' $6.6 million surplus
    10/11' estimated $5.3 million
    **Un-needed Tax certiorari $1.2 million reserve (left-over) from the Bethlehem Steel/Mittal case.

    How dare them use OUR children's' education as a hostage! They are pros at using this gut-wrenching ploy as a political wedge between the parents/voters in order to get their needs met with the passing of their "family and friends club" payback budget!
    Makeyenko vehemently attacked like a pit bull the Board members that had the taxpayers AND children's best interest at heart last year when they did the Budget. This year he was silent about his mega-million dollar budget. WHY? ( He has been on the BOA since 1995 with only two or so years lapse due to term limits.) Another FYI, did you know there was a time that we were not even allowed to vote on OUR School Budget?

    If and when they hold a special election Budget re-vote it will cost taxpayers appr. another $15,000. that could be used toward keeping full-day Kindergarten! Makeyenko and the lawyers' recent trip to San Francisco on the school money could have been kept in the till too!
    Parents should be out-raged! Go to McKinley School and get a copy of the Budget and you will see the facts yourself.

    I do not post on here to cause anyone anything, I am hurt because OUR children rank at the bottom of other/most WNY schools and the drop-out rate is unacceptable. We all pretty much know the issues--it is time to get organized just as strong as the "Lackawanna Family and Friends Club" is in order to prevent the greed from further spoiling OUR City/School!

    Why don't all the employees in the school who make over $100,000/year voluntarily give a 10% donation to the school in order to keep Pre-K and Kindergarten? Many, many people live ok on a lot less, work much longer hours, and with the same education. Benevolence Lackawanna, start a trend!

  3. #18
    Member andreahaxton's Avatar
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    Post Fact:

    11/12' Failed Proposed Lackawanna School Teaching Com $35,177,943
    11/12' Passed Contingency Budget Teaching component $34,350,185
    10/11' Current Teaching Component in Budget $33,315,260

    The 2011/12' Contingency Budget "Program Component" (Teaching/Classroom Dollars), increased by over a million dollars anyway to educate OUR kids. It is only a difference of about $827,000 in the defeated Makeyenko MEGA-MILLION DOLLAR "Family and Friends Club" Budget. What were they planning to do different and.......
    so what's the problem? Were they going to implement some rocket science course or something? Bring back Driver-Ed and Wood Shop? Just the facts please.

    Again, the "hidden pork" which is the current approximate $5 mil budget surplus ON TOP of whatever million or so is in the bank from the un-used Bethlehem Steel lawsuit money ------IS WHERE? AND TO BE USED FOR WHAT? BIG MONEY BUDGET for 1866 kids! Why can't they educate OUR students on $44mil? Take the $800,000 difference out of the "pork money" and you are back in the saddle again if you are really worried about teaching OUR children. Again, what's the problem?--oh yeah, I forgot....is it the hiring freeze thing?

    Do the math, and we all know Business First figures do Not lie!

  4. #19
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    Business First
    April 4, 2011

    Williamsville Central School District has WNY's most generous pay scale for teachers...Rounding out the TOP FIVE in teacher pay ratings are: North Tonawanda, Lackawanna, Sweet Home and Niagara Falls.

    Williamsville Median Teacher's Pay - $67,750

    Lackawanna Median Teacher's Pay - $65,747

    Sweet Home Median Teacher's Pay - $65,905

  5. #20
    Member literal's Avatar
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    And Lackawanna's Teachers Aides are the highest paid.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Caz5 View Post
    Business First
    April 4, 2011

    Williamsville Central School District has WNY's most generous pay scale for teachers...Rounding out the TOP FIVE in teacher pay ratings are: North Tonawanda, Lackawanna, Sweet Home and Niagara Falls.

    Williamsville Median Teacher's Pay - $67,750

    Lackawanna Median Teacher's Pay - $65,747

    Sweet Home Median Teacher's Pay - $65,905
    Now I remember why I try to ignore politics and try not to think about the school system.

    I graduated in 2000. I hated everything about Lackawanna. I hated that there were no extracurriculars besides sports and no advanced placement courses. I hated that we were treated like we were in prison. The bathrooms were always locked. You literally couldn't pee between classes, you had to wait until class was in session 10 minutes, then interrupt the teacher to ask her to sign your pass so you could walk to a tiny two stall bathroom by the lunchroom that was nowhere near your class.

    My final average was a 97% or something like that and I think I missed about 38 days of school. I probably should have failed but my homeroom teacher didn't bother marking me absent...He probably thought I was in the band room or something, that was my only place of refuge in that otherwise hellish environment.

    The teachers taught to the lowest common denominator. I can't really blame the students though because they are kids. We were treated like we were worth nothing so no one really had any self esteem. In my senior year in English we spent an entire quarter working on a diarama. Seriously, a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds gluing pictures to a shoebox! All I wanted to do was write a paper.

    I was young and dumb and bought a house in Lackawanna with my husband because all our family lives here and my mortgage is cheaper than most rents elsewhere, even with the 600 flood insurance premium. We'd always assumed we'd move before we had kids. Then all of the sudden there were 3 kids in 5 years, my college degree is collecting dust while I stay home raising babies and we are dirt poor

    What can I do, I'm now putting my oldest son into a system that I've despised since I was about in 6th grade. I have to admit though.. I'm impressed with the Pre-K program. The teacher is really nice and the principal at Truman is great. She really cares about the kids. I guess the problems start in the elementary school.

    With all the money that our district has and the salaries of these teachers our district should be on par with West Seneca, or Hamburg, or anywhere else. It's a shame that can't seem to get back on track. I had hoped things had changed in the last ten years but now I see that they haven't.

  7. #22
    Member literal's Avatar
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    Well. I would say that the previous post is VERY common. Thank you for writing your feelings so well and I am truly sorry. You can send your child to a Charter School.....there may be HOPE!

    How truly sad that the school district has had such poor leadership over decades and has been able to get away with subservient standards!!!


    A $45 million dollar school budget??? REALLY?

    I DO NOT believe the WHOLE CITY is worth 45 million.....
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

  8. #23
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    Getting smart about how to afford schools
    By Donn Esmonde

    News Columnist

    Published:
    May 18, 2011, 12:00 AM





    If Western New York one day collapses into Lake Erie under the collective weight of overtaxation, overlapping layers of government and an abundance of school districts, there is one thing I know: You couldn’t blame Kevin Gaughan.

    The self-appointed, unsalaried crusader for smaller, saner government does not — unlike many politicians and so-called civic leaders — merely talk about what’s wrong. He does something about it.

    While the rest of us were cocooning last winter, Gaughan — the stick-skinny, Harvard-bred attorney — surveyed the national school district landscape and curled up with law books. He then did what any of our 212 state legislators should have: wrote a proposed nine-page bill that would let voters merge school districts. He takes it to Albany next week, hoping to enlist the governor and legislators.

    Erie County has 29 school districts — more than any like-size county in America (outside of district-crazed New York State), Gaughan said. The only people it makes sense to are the superintendents and administrators who collect six-figure salaries. The cost of the unneeded bureaucracy hurts more than ever. Under new governor Andrew Cuomo, Albany cut $1.2 billion from its payout to schools. Look no further for fallout than Tuesday’s proposed school budgets. Once-bulletproof suburban districts are counting casualties.

    Orchard Park jettisoned 29 teaching positions. Williamsville raised taxes, cut programs and ate $10 million in reserve funds. Cheektowaga raised taxes and cut 22 positions. And on and on.

    The loss of programs and teachers stands against the backdrop of highly paid, unnecessary administrators who preside over our cavalcade of school districts. Cheektowaga parents funnel their kids to six school districts, each with its own superintendent, deputies and staff. Amherst contains three school districts. The North Collins district has barely 600 students — less than half as many as Orchard Park High School. The prime conversation should be about merging districts, not about pink-slipping teachers.

    No matter how large or small, Gaughan said, most districts have a similar number of central office administrators. It would be funny if we were not picking up the check.

    “Before we send one more teacher home,” Gaughan told me Monday, “we should consolidate school district administrations. We could reap substantial savings.”

    Something needs to give. County population plummeted by 31,000 in the last 10 years. Our property taxes are among the highest in the country, inflated partly by ever-rising school levies. We’re paying more to educate fewer kids. Most counties across America do fine with fewer school districts. It underlines the folly of our abundance of bureaucracies.

    “By failing to act,” Gaughan said, “we accelerate our decline.”

    The glut of school districts is an obvious target for Gaughan, who proposed the district consolidation idea 12 years ago — after putting together a national conference on education at Chautauqua. We have 341 elected officials in this county, yet it took a hyperconcerned citizen to pick up the flag on this. The least that politicians who cash taxpayer-funded paychecks can do is rally around the cause.

    Most of them hid in the weeds as Gaughan’s crusade led to the shrinking of town and village boards. Now politicians have another chance to cut bureaucracy down to size.

    “I am asking state legislators to give citizens the right to vote on the size and number of school districts,” Gaughan said. “The same as we did with cutting county, town and village governments.”

    Then, as now, less is more. Going, going, Gaughan.

    desmonde@buffnews.com
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  9. #24
    Member Mr. Lackawanna's Avatar
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    What is correct vote total

    Quote Originally Posted by Caz5 View Post
    Buffalo News (5/19/11)

    In Western New York, school officials in Lackawanna, Iroquois, North Tonawanda, Batavia and Medina are trying to figure out why voters turned down their proposed budgets.

    The budget defeat in Lackawanna came as a surprise to school officials who Tuesday night had announced that the spending plan had received a thumbs-up by voters. After reviewing the vote totals, including absentee ballots, it was determined Wednesday evening that the plan had been defeated, 1,885 to 1,174.

    In today's Buffalo News (5-24-2011 page B5) they report that the budget was defeated by a total of 47 votes which is a lot less than the total vote reported above. Either Lackawanna officials cant count correctly or the Buffalo News has given a wrong vote differential on purpose.
    Russia didn't make me vote for Trump, Hillary did.

  10. #25
    Member cath829's Avatar
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    Another school budget vote slated for June 21st.......round 2!! Same budget.

  11. #26
    Member literal's Avatar
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    Guess they have a lot of money to waste...........

    Let us not forget..... they are "for the kids?"
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  12. #27
    Member mnb811's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by literal View Post
    Guess they have a lot of money to waste...........

    Let us not forget..... they are "for the kids?"
    You said that right all 44 million of it from last year and the 45 million they want this year. Instead of race to the top its race to the bottom with these guys. LOL

  13. #28
    Member CraftyExp's Avatar
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    School Budget Failed

    Let's hope everyone still goes out again and shows these idiots (who apparently can't even count) that there's no "do overs" in what the people want. We give little kids a "do over" so they can win a game or feel good about themselves.
    These politicians make a laughing stock out of our city.

  14. #29
    Member literal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CraftyExp View Post
    Let's hope everyone still goes out again and shows these idiots (who apparently can't even count) that there's no "do overs" in what the people want. We give little kids a "do over" so they can win a game or feel good about themselves.
    These politicians make a laughing stock out of our city.
    No, they are just desperate to pass the budget so they can have TOTAL POWER TO HIRE MORE PEOPLE!!!!

    Cut 30 jobs and maybe people will vote yes to a NEW budget!

    But no...that would mean the people and family they hired would be fired.Hmmmmmmmmm.

    Motyka, Miller and the list is long and filled with incompetence!!!

    Yes, the HOPE is people will show them they cannot do this a second time. But no matter what this will cost the taxpayers more $$$$ for putting it up again. UGH!
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  15. #30
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    School boards: No tax cap without mandate reliefStatement of NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer




    FOR RELEASE: May 24, 2011

    CONTACT: David Albert
    (518) 783-3716 or (518) 320-2221 cell

    Let’s be clear: a 2 percent tax cap on school districts fails to address the root causes of our ever-increasing tax burden.

    Politicians and special interest groups can trumpet the tax cap all they want, but homeowners across New York will find their taxes continuing to rise unless their elected officials get serious about relieving local schools of millions of dollars of costs tied up in state mandates that do nothing to advance student achievement.

    Unfortunately, lawmakers have focused strictly on limiting a school district’s ability to raise revenue. This will undoubtedly force officials to lay off employees and cut spending on classroom programs, sports and other extracurricular activities in order to pay for mandated costs.

    School boards should be able to invest every dollar they can into academic programs and services for students rather than outdated mandates, inflexible rules and expensive procedures.

    NYSSBA issued an online poll today regarding the tax cap in which an overwhelming 93 percent of the more than 300 school members who responded said that mandate relief needed to be addressed before a tax cap is considered.

    This includes reforming the state pension system, capping health insurance costs, reducing the cost of teacher disciplinary procedures, curtailing special education mandates, reforming the Triborough Amendment so school districts can freeze salaries after a contract expires, and allowing schools to use national purchasing cooperative contracts.

    In order to make a property tax cap have a positive impact, we urge Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Skelos to enact reforms that will once and for all address the true cost drivers that drive up local tax rates.
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