Education is not that much different than industry. There are widget makers, that would be the people who instruct, and management, that would be the people who don’t. If your product is widgets, and you need to produce more to stay competitive then you don’t cut the widget makers. So Kimmel has it right when he says:
Board member Bruce Kimmel said he would favor combining central office positions and not the assistant principals, because they are in the schools.
“My view is the schools are touched last,” Kimmel said.
. . .
Kimmel said officials should look at things in a different way because the improvement has been “steady but not spectacular.”
“Let’s be a little bit creative here, take a few risks and see what happens,” he said.
Yet also, Burnett has it right when he says:
After the meeting, school board member Greg Burnett said he was “taken aback” by the board’s response.
“As we were going through all of these discussions at the Budget Committee level, the board members should have been following along and should have brought these requests forward much earlier so we could research them (and) avoid this last-minute crunch,” Burnett said.
So, while we note here that improved communication has manifested itself with this BOE, it seems like more communication is needed. The purpose of committees is to work out the details to present to the full board. That means the full board should be engaged with what the committee is working on. The meeting is tonight at 7:30 in room A300, City Hall.
source: Advocate, Board differs with Corda on budget moves, By Lisa Chamoff, 06/26/2008
