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Romeo News

Back in Romeo… Politics as Usual

November 7, 2009

burned at the stake

It’s been forever since I’ve blogged about the debacle known as the Romeo School Board. Since I’m not a homeowner, resident, or parent of kids in the district I really don’t care all that much about what is going on.

But this news raised my eyebrow:

Recall efforts may proceed against three Romeo school board members, but two others were granted reprieves Friday by the Macomb County Election Commission. story link

What is going on is classically simple. Unions, who have completely bankrupted the district, are upset there there simply isn’t more money to steal from the children of the district. In 2006, they even forced a bond on the community to cover up to 103% of the budget so their employees could get guaranteed raises dispite diving home values, diving tax revenue, and diving test scores across the district.

Three individuals stood up to the unions and did their best to balance the budget. Yes, this involved letting some union employees go and hiring non-union contractors.

And now unions are leading a recall effort.

The joy of being a reformer is that you will be called a heretic. Hopefully, the people of Romeo will stand up and not see these three reformers burned at the stake.

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Croswell Charter School Grand Opening

May 6, 2009

welcome-to-croswell

SEPTEMBER 8TH, 2009 – ROMEO, MI- Today marks the opening day of a brand new school in the Village of Romeo. 350 excited faces greeted the staff of North Macomb’s newest charter school. “We can’t believe that this dream became a reality this fast!” That’s Todd Nelson, the school’s principal. Nelson is a 14 year veteran Principal who came to Romeo after being laid off in Hillsdale last June due to decreased enrollment. He’s referring to the miraculous creation of the new charter school, which sprang up just months ago when concerned parents realized they were left with few options. In May, when the Romeo Community School board voted to close Croswell Elementary School for alleged budgetary reasons, a group of parents met to create an alternative to the struggling school district. Tiffany Johnson, who lives on Tilson Street remarked, “What we love about Romeo is that our kids can walk to their neighborhood school. When we heard the school was starting and they had recruited the best teachers in Michigan who just happened to have been laid off because they didn’t have the seniority to keep their jobs in union school districts, we signed up our Susie right away.”

Of course that is fiction. Yet, I don’t think it’s impossible to believe this scenario is true for Fall 2009. Last Monday, the Romeo Community School board voted to close the centrally located, recently updated Croswell Elementary School because of their lack of foresight. They all balked, laughed even, when I presented them with 5 Money Saving Ideas just a year ago. Today I balk at their lack of foresight and mismanagement. Every member of that board should be recalled as they have failed to lead the district through tough times.

Their administrators all make money college administrators would dance over. Their staff all make too much money with guaranteed raises despite falling test scores and a deficit budget. While the district had the opportunity to negotiate with the unions last summer, they chose to deny the data they had and sign a new contract which completely bankrupted the district. With more than 91% of their overall spending going to employee salaries and benefits (more if you figure in the slush fund known as the Sinking Fund) they have fiscally robbed the education of the children they were voted and hired to serve.

croswell-charter-schoolWhile housing prices in the district slumped 50%, the board planned for an INCREASE in tax revenue from the state. While unemployment soared in the district, they projected that more students would move to Romeo. What we see from that district is backward thinking… it’s time for a fresh start.

Unlike some of my friends who go to school board meetings ready to argue, I think the wisest thing to do at this point is to let those silly elected officials have the district. Many are bankrolled with MEA union dollars or physically threatened into doing the will of contractors who get rich. It’s a tiring game of cat and mouse. They will not be satisfied until they have completely blead the district dry.

With prime real estate and a willing group of parents, the perfect time has arisen for a new option in Romeo education: Charter schools.

Here are the facts:

- A charter school would be entitled to the full per pupil income that RCS currently recieves. If Croswell attracted 300 elementary students, they would instantly generate roughly $2 million in revenue from the State of Michigan.

- A charter school could further get grants from the Federal government. President Obama is pro-charter school and anti-1950s era school failures like we see in Romeo.

- With unemployment hovering around 17% in Michigan and higher in Macomb County, hiring teachers at a fair wage would be a snap. I am convinced you’d have thousands of applicants for the 15-20 positions you’d need to fill.

- The rest of the needed positions, from janitors to food service, could be filled with community members looking for reasonable hourly work.

- There are hundreds of parents whose children are being displaced. Kids who once walked to school from the neighborhoods are now going to be required to ride buses. I’m guessing those parents would love the opportunity to experiment with a new school. In fact, I have no doubt that there are parents in surrounding communities willing to drive into Romeo to try something outside of the union box.

- There is plenty of data to back that a public charter school can provide an equal or better education. My own children attend one!

- Once a new charter is formed, they would be wise to hire a charter school company to run the school. Here’s a link to get you thinking.

- Other then procuring a rental/purchase agreement for the otherwise vacant property, the Romeo Community School board would have no say. It would truly be a new day for education in the village.

- All of this really could happen by September 8th 2009! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. A charter board would need to be created to start the paperwork immediately. It is plausible. E-mail me if interested and I’ll help get the group meeting!

Some may dismiss me and say, “Adam, why should we listen to you? You don’t even live here anymore?” True, I moved from the district in August. (sadly) But I continue to be concerned because this is an issue of justice. It sickens me to see reform-minded board members intimidated and threatened. It sickens me to see 1950s era unions having more say in the district then the parents. It sickens me that money is wasted on overpaid administrators while the education of the districts children continues to decline.

Someone has to encourage others in Romeo to stand up and scream outragiously “ENOUGH!” There is another way. There is a way where that coin is flipped and dollars are spent on education. There is a way which truly puts the kids first and the unions in their place. The time for school reform has passed. The time to take action and educate children in a responsible way has arisen.

The question is, are there parents in Romeo willing to lead that charge? Or will 2009-2010 just be another year of fighting a battle against 1950s era unions?

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School Reform: The Time is Now!

April 7, 2009

About a year ago I wrote a post for our school district in Romeo, Michigan called, “5 Money Saving Ideas for RCS.” (Romeo Community Schools) Of course, it fell on deaf ears as they approved a budget that spent money the district didn’t have.

So here they are, a year later, and that budget exploded from their lack of foresight. The things I stood up and asked about 18 months ago have all come true:

- Declining home prices in the area means less tax raveneue, which means few dollars for the district.

- Hundreds of families (including my own) moved from Michigan to other states. That means, fewer students to educate, and fewer dollars for the district from the State of Michigan.

- The teacher’s union successfully negotiated for a contract which guaranteed money that didn’t exist. While the district deficit spent during the wealthiest 10 years in the town’s history… it was ill-prepared for the bubble to burst.

- The district spent $300,000 on a master plan which banked on 20 more years of growth. When in fact, the entire economy was built around the Ford Plant… a plant which produced an engine dealers couldn’t give away, much less sell. (The Ford F-150)

So, it’s with great sadness that I’m observing (from afar) the district on the verge of collapse. Test scores are diving, enrollment is diving, and maintanence/staffing costs are soaring. The next 12 months will see more of the same together with the loss of schools, lay-off’s of teaching staff, and the cessation of many of the things which attracted parents to the district in the first place.

So, here’s the point:

Nationwide, it is time to fundamentally change how education is funded. While teacher unions hold onto a 1980′s mindset (where 90% or more is spent on staffing), charter schools spring up everywhere. My children attend a non-union charter school… not only are they getting a fantastic education, they are doing it in a fiscally responsible way. Two things that teacher unions promise can’t happen in a non-union environment. I join the President in calling for more charter schools. In the end, this means that less funding should go to the district model of education and more to local charter schools.

Health care for teachers needs to be funded by the states. In fact, give them the same plans the state uses for the rest of its employees as they work for the state by proxy anyway. (Their credential comes from the state, the funding for their salaries comes from the state, testing is controlled by the state, etc.)

Right-to-work should be law for all state-funded employees. Just like the unions have broken (financially) the auto-industry in America, they are breaking the financial back of schools. It’s time to allow teachers, administrators, and other school employees to chose whether or not they will participate in a union. Forcing them to be a part of this relic from the 1930s-1950s is contrary to the free society our nation creates. Conditions which lead to the rise of unions a generation ago are not the same, it’s time to move on.

If anyone should organize in districts around the country it is parents and teachers. They should demand that more of the school funding go to educating children.

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RCS Approves Irresponsible Spending, Again

June 30, 2008

There is an assumption at the Romeo School board that if you don’t attend their 6 hour pointless meetings, that your opinion doesn’t count. I am certainly hoping that our community will wake up and start to see how members of the board are sitting by idly while Romeo Community School officials mismanage millions of taxpayer dollars. In November, our opinions are all that matter.

I’ve been very vocal about the sinking fund. This bond issue, the election of which was 90% financed by the companies awarded the contract, rewards the school district with an estimated $2.3 million for building maintenance. School board officials lied to the public and lied to the press when they assured everyone that if the bond passed the items the public deemed most needed would be completed. Here we are a few months later when the checks are being written and the priorities the public identified have been ignored. 

This appeared in last week’s Source newspaper:

 

Concerns were expressed by board members after a preliminary estimated budget for the total cost of all the projects for the next four years was released. The cost for all the projects, which the community compiled with the administration and the board, exceeded $14 million.

The sinking fund will only bring in approximately $9.2 million, or approximately $2.3 million a year. Schwark said this summer’s projects shouldn’t affect the district’s ability to complete most of the major projects on its want list. However, based on the early cost projections, she said some of the major projects for some of the buildings may not be accomplished during the next four years. (emphasis mine)

 

In other words… officials at the district will do whatever they want. In other words… the contractors who financed the bond election are getting to decide how to spend the $2.3 million according to their schedule!

 

And yet, there is no accountability. 

A couple months back I posted some ways the district could save money. In fact, I was talking about saving millions and millions of dollars by making some pretty simple choices. The easiest way to save money for the district was to make minor adjustments to the health care benefits, freeze raises, and renegotiate with teaches who had an open contract. Of course, the 4 members of the board whose elections are largely paid for by the unions would have nothing of that. (Wreford, Heir, Wilson, and Murray)

Vice President Kathy Wreford said everyone involved worked very hard to make sure the teachers’ contract was fair and appropriate. link

For whom? Giving teachers $278,000 in back pay isn’t fair to the district in any way. Giving teachers a pay increase and not adjusting the cost of health care to reflect current economic conditions is not fair or appropriate. While the teachers of the district work very hard and do an excellent job, it is irresponsible to not renegotiate an open contract in what Superintendent Joe Beck calls, “these toughest of financial times.” In the same action the Board praised itself for raising the fund equity balance (rainy day fund) it also spends from it while the public nods in agreement. Brilliant!

 

The school board is not leading. They simply refuse to take the districts finances to a place that is “fair and appropriate” for the times we live in to benefit the students. The unions and the contractors are leading the district. (Were they on the ballot? Did you see them? No, but they wrote the checks to get what they wanted passed!) They determine how the schools will spend money, what the curriculum will be, how the buildings are maintained, and how the districts employees will be managed. 

Let’s hope that brave people will be elected in November who will stand up for the children of this district and stop vowing their allegiance to a broken system. 

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