[EBH]

Hmmmm...maybe they won't have the time to work on those indoctrination classes after all.

Worried about the big block of time? Are they saying the school really was just a tax payer day care?

[EBH]

Garfield Heights Parents Demand Answers from School Board Over Cuts
http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-garfield-heights-parents-question-school-board-txt,0,1684869.story

“The first lady is always talking about get moving, and physical education is so important to our kids. We have so many obese kids and now that’s one of the things you are looking at cutting!” said Katrina Hairston-Taylor, a concerned parent.

Due to the shortened day, students who qualify for free lunches will get those lunches at the end of the day in a brown bagged lunch to go.

“It’s getting to the point where we might just have to take our kids academic future in our own hands. There are other choices. But we believe the Garfield Heights School system and we love this community,” said Mike Sajovie, a parent.

School officials hope residents take that belief to the polls in March, for another levy.

[EBH]

I thought this was an interesting turn of events.

[Clintonfatigued]

Some school employees are so arrogant. Metmom, you know what to do.

[RetiredTexasVet]

I’m sure all this action was taken after the teachers union scaled back wages 30%, started paying 50% of their health care costs, and upped their retirement contributions by 50% .... you know for the chillin’s sake!

[jocon307]

An entire “news story” with no information, just complaints.

[netmilsmom]

>>”What are kids gonna do with that big window of time when their parents are still working and all that idle time that they still have, to do God knows what?” parent Jeff Bodziony said. <<

Oooops Jeff, guess you’ll have to pay for latch key or do what the Homeschooling parents do, split your shifts so one of you is home with the kids.

It all comes down to, now you’ll have to parent. OMG!!!

[Psycho_Bunny]

Want some easy levy cash? Let’s see your books.

[hometoroost]

"programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone and libraries are closed."

Programs like bloated administrative staffs; fat pensions; high wages; tenure; paid sick days; etc. are still intact.

[Paladin2]

What about a MUCH lower Administrative overhead/headcount? Larger class size? Lower teacher salaries and fringes?

[SaraJohnson]

Give them vouchers. The public school can not manage it’s money.

[meyer]

Us west-siders used to call it “Garbage Heights”. :-)

Seriously, the shortened day is simply taxpayer blackmail. They could cut out 2 or 3 levels of administratium instead of shortening the school day, but their goal is to get more tax money from the citizens, not to educate the kids.

[G Larry]

Get rid of Teacher’s Unions and the associated dues.
Cut “administrators” numbers by 60%.
Cut the number of useless elective classes by half.
Now, get back to work and teach our kids the skills necessary to be productive citizens.

[upchuck]

From the article:

Parents Fox 8 News spoke with are not blaming the school district, but rather the voters who did not approve levies that would have given the school district money.

Obviously the voters decided the school district didn't need the money. If this is a typical district, they are way heavy in administrators. Maybe a 30% cut there would help?

I suspect these "hardships" are the district's way of fighting back against the stingy taxpayers.

[hinckley buzzard]

Garfield Heights is one of those declining transitional almost-inner ring suburbs with a huge overhang of pensions and medical insurance for teachers who have been there forever.

It is a poster child for why Kasich sought relief through what became known as Issue 2. The unions have caused this strangulation of the educational process, but the peeps over there in GH are too stupid to recognize the connection between their votes (against issue 2 and against local levies) and the school's actions.

[Kickass Conservative]

Since when do you get an Apple AND a Pickle?

[max americana]

“In fact, lunch is a thing of the past.”

We never had lunches in my school. Bring your own or starve. Now how hard is to grasp that concept?

[eclecticEel]

No, no; the indoctrination classes take up the first 4 hours of the day as always. It’s all that unnecessary learning stuff that’s been phased out.

[Vince Ferrer]

As of Tuesday, programs like elementary music, art and physical education are gone

I would have done the opposite. I would send the kids home to learn math, science, language, etc, via computer based training, but the schools would be open for art, music, sports, and other activities where there is social learning involved.

Oh, and I would have cut the administrative overhead first.

[TonyInOhio]

The Garfield Heights City Schools paid 515 employees in 2011, one of whom, Linda Reid, was paid $182,802. A quick perusal of the salary data shows many, many staff members making in excess of $76,000 per year for 185 days of paid work, or the equivalent of $102,000 per year in the private sector. In addition, most of those employees are eligible for a lifetime pension upon retirement of the better part of $1,000,000, assuming average life expectancy. The majority of those employees also receive a generous package of benefits, all courtesy of the taxpayers.

The average salary for jobs in Garfield Heights, Ohio is approximately $31,000.

Read it for yourself, if you can stomach it, at the Buckeye Institute's website.

[traditional1]

How about we cut teachers, eliminate the Teachers' Union, and have them contribute to their retirement and healthcare costs?

Same problem in EVERY state that has Union extortion going on.