Sioux City Journal

Public school students deserve better

Posted: Sunday, December 02, 2007

SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City School District is considering rearranging the entire school day for thousands of its students in order to cut down on vehicle maintenance and the jobs of some part-time bus drivers for savings the district claims would be significant. Nothing wrong in being frugal, especially with the taxpayer dollar.

But a closer examination is merited. Is this the same district which has expensive administrator after administrator downtown with titles seemingly out of a George Orwell novel or Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. satire � Director of Equity (and Assistant Director of Equity), Director of Assessments, Professional Development Coordinator? While the district will claim that you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, there are some rather large turnips hidden downtown. Meanwhile, at the high school, students use old textbooks, lack science equipment, and have had faculty lounges and computer labs converted into ever-tightening classroom space.

Three inevitabilities follow: 1. The district will justify ad nauseum the meaningless positions with platitudes about equality and the need for professional development in this age of assessments. 2. Without a guarantee of where the $400,000 savings will go, the leadership will be tempted by adding more positions downtown, maybe Director of Differentiated Instruction, Director of Esteem Enablement, etc. 3. The board will again raise property taxes on our tax-poor district.

To cut some low- to middle-class family jobs, to continue so top-heavy with administrators, and to act as if our students do not have funding is a moral issue. Our children in Sioux City public schools deserve better. -- Jeremy Taylor

Story Comments

sdg wrote on Dec 9, 2007 9:41 PM:

" Perhaps this is beginning of some much-needed dialogue between the community and the district. There are many positions in the administrative office that could easily be cut into part-time: equity, the literacy coordinator position, school-to-work, etc. I haven't heard anything positive about the professional development that staff take every Monday. Perhaps that needs to be looked at as well. "

Is this true? wrote on Dec 9, 2007 8:06 PM:

" New books are being bought when the old ones haven't been used? More paper-pushing positions added downtown instead of teachers in the classroom? A consulting firm hired find a new supt? Why isn't the school board find in the new supt? Why isn't it using the HR director to help? I've heard that Dr. Madison is good and knows her stuff. Why don't they just promote her and let her run the district? She's in charge when LW is out of town and she's done a good job so far. It would certainly save time and money plus she 's up to speed on the needs of the district. Time for the BOE to act financial responsible, for a change. "

M. S. Language Arts Teacher wrote on Dec 9, 2007 7:59 PM:

" The books being purchased are not needed. I agree this is a complete waste of money. So was the "professional development" time we used to look at the various options. Taxpayer money flushed away again as the entire collection of middle school and high school teachers looked at unneeded basal texts, with snacks provided (I am not sure if the taxpayers bought those or not.) "

If the public only knew! wrote on Dec 8, 2007 10:55 AM:

" I agree that downtown has too many useless redundant positions. You can include "Special Ed teacher on special assignmnet" to your list of worthless positions and SCCSD has two of them. Do the taxpayers know that new textbooks are being bought, AGAIN, for the reading and english classrooms? What is new in reading or writing that new books are needed? Some of the last ones haven't even been opened but new ones are being bought? We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent AGAIN. You don't even need textbooks to teach these subjects. Books from the library and paper to write on is all you need. Taxpayers, wake up and stop this cycle of spending!! "

North High Parent wrote on Dec 8, 2007 9:40 AM:

" I find it interesting that because JT gives "his opinion" on the issue of busing and a top heavy administration in the SSCSD he is personally attacked. Both of my children have had Mr. Taylor as a teacher, and both of them enjoyed his teaching style and his expectation of excellence in the classroom. It will be interesting to see how the district responds to JT's editorial. Although teacher's pay taxes and have kids in this district, they are not expected to have an opinion on the quality of education and where the money is being spent. Watch out Jeremy - The witch hunt is on. "