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Mood: Angry ]
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Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
So, as you may or may not know, I am a teacher. Well, my school board is facing a budget crunch and they are looking to cut where they can. One of the trustees got on the radio and said that they should charge teachers for parking, since most other employers do. (They don’t, BTW). She tried to package it as a green measure and one that would improve health, but since her interview kept refering back to the budget crisis, her argument didn’t hold water.
My take on parking? Absolutely. Not a problem. Unfortunatey since I am on a limited budget, that money is going to have to come from somewhere. I can’t run a deficit like the board has been doing for years. So I guess it will come from the thousand or so dollars I spend on classroom supplies and resources every year. Novel sets, stickers, resource books and art supplies will all have to be cut back on. As will the pizza parties I use to reward successes. Remember, no provincial auditor is going to come to my house and help me find savings.
This trustee also said that there wasn’t much left to cut. Ummm – yes there is. Other boards in this city have rationalized their delivery in the last few years. They have bit the bullet and closed schools. This has allowed them the leeway to experiment with new types of program delievery. The OCDSB has not done that. Every time they even think about closing schools, the parents start rallying and the board caves. Perhaps if they stood up to the parents the way they are pretending to stand up to the fat cat teachers we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Example: In my area alone there are five K to 8 schools. One of them doesn’t have a kindergarden anymore because population in my area is dropping due to the cost of housing. One of the schools needs to go. But a teacher in that school proudly boasted that her school would never close because their parents wouldn’t let it happen.
See the problem?
With leaders like this trustee, is it any wonder we have a deficit?
Yesterday