COST OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS BAD ENOUGH; QUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM IS EVEN WORSE … A SOLUTION? A CHARTER SCHOOL FOR THE PITTS
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY FEB. 2, 2017) — With the discussion on how to save the city money, there’s no question about it: If the city is serious about it this time around, the coin has to come out of the Pittsfield School Department, which currently hogs nearly 75 cents of every public dollar.
The other thing the city might do is worry about improving quality in the classroom. For example, it could appeal to the state for permission to bring at least one more charter school the the county, to be located in Pittsfield. St. Joseph’s High School, soon to be empty, would make the perfect location.
THE PLANET repeats it again:
Charter schools are 100%, through and through, wall-to-wall public schools.
The fear mongers in Pittsfield’s derelict public school system tell a contradictory lie about this issue. One of the most blatant comes from Sheila Irvin, a budinsky member of the United Educators of Pittsfield. Irwin claims that expanding the number of charter schools would have “devastating” fiscal impacts on public schools. Not true.
As everyone should know and memorize, charter schools are public schools. Consequently, the funding going to charters goes to public education.
There will be no devastation owing from more charters. Irwin speaks in code. She’s so quick to employ The Big Lie because she wants to protect her gravy train from derailing. When she issues cynical panic talk of “devastation,” she’s crying to preserve her own contractual-but-greedy take from the public treasury. She’s comes off as another of those overpaid, underperforming public servants who love so well the destruction they are causing not only to the schools but the city itself.
Here are the facts on charters:
- State and local per-pupil public funding follows students who enroll in public charter schools.
- Charter schools ARE public schools.
- Charter schools are open to all students.
- Charter schools offer longer school days and more hours of learning time.
- Charter schools give pupils more individual attention.
- Charter schools have a proven record of success. The BART school in Adams runs at its capacity of 363 children with a growing waiting list.
- Charters free administration, teachers, and staff from the stifling union rules that have brought learning to a virtual halt in traditional public schools.
- Charter schools offer competition to traditional public schools. Competition drives down cost and increases quality.
- Charter schools narrow the achievement gap for kids trapped in failing public schools.
- The state legislature’s current cap on charter schools was set in an arbitrary manner at the behest of the teachers’ unions. That cap, therefore, is a fiction created entirely by politics, not by the academic “marketplace.”
Folks, you aren’t allowed to vote on the iniquitous budget of the Pittsfield School Department. You are expected to stand by helplessly as the politicians and school committee continue to keep the gravy train rolling on time. They didn’t let you vote on spending $121 million of money taxpayers don’t have for a new school the city doesn’t need. However …
However, two key events offer a chance for hope. First, Mayor Linda Tyer is now preparing her second municipal budget. You know the drill. Superintendent JIV and the administration, with the blessings of Kathy “Lady Boots” Yon (as in “con”) and stooges, will ask for the world, “settle” for the Northern Hemisphere, then complain that taxpayers are cheating them. Second, all city council and school committee seats are up for grabs in this year’s election. Both of these occasions offer citizens, taxpayers, and the electorate the chance to put the squeeze on selfish, arrogant politicians, bureaucrats, and apologists.
We saw what happened nationally when We The People became energized. It can happen in Pittsfield. Wake up! Put some heat on the bastards. Attend council meetings and budget hearings. Write to your “representatives.” Buttonhole them on the street. Ring them on the blower. Run for office. They should be in fear of you, not the other way around.
The only money to lose will be your own.
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“There are two aspects of man’s existence which are the special province and expression of his sense of life: love and art.” — Ayn Rand
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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Say a charter school opens up, where is the workforce full of competent educational professionals to be the teachers? If PPS schools lay off teachers and they go work at charter schools, the same villainous teachers that the bloggers here slander are going to be the teachers. A shrinking population does not lend itself to an education marketplace.
Matt give it a rest. stop complaining with no purpose
you bring nothing to this discussion, go away.
Personnel issues solve themselves in the case of charters. Pent up demand (seen though the waiting list at BART) will serve as the magnet for charters. These schools draw a more idealistic (though equally [or more] accomplished teacher pool. The monetary compensation isn’t the same as it is for public schools, but the psychological pay is off the charts. Your last sentence is true as it pertains to public schools, but with BART’s current waiting list, a Pittsfield branch would find a demand for its services.
Some of your statements are likely fair and could be supported. Job satisfaction only goes so far and does take particular situations to work. There does seem to be a fairly even supply/demand for teachers in the Berkshires.
If a charter school were to enter Pittsfield, it would behoove the community to examine how a public/semi-public partnership could consolidate students out of surplus space at an elementary school or two and lease that space back to a charter operation. In spite of oversimplified assumptions, the Pittsfield schools do spend a lot of money to operate buildings. When a consolidated school is emptied, there remains an extensive price for maintaining the property.
The city can’t GIVE away some of its older properties it’s mothballed. They should use some of their brownfield tax credit leverage (which I believe is through the Federal EPA to an extent) to demolish these older buildings and at least have vacant land open for development as a clean and ready to build site.
Here’s the difference. IF they are that horrible, they will be fired. No union thugs to force them back into their jobs (see: Pamela Farron)
If you have a problem with the labor agreements not being enforced, than hold management accountable.
I was a union steward for years and the laws are very specific about how we follow contracts.
Blaming the workers for shitty management is pretty unfair don’t you think?
Everyone is accountable for their own crappy performances. As for the schools, there are too many teachers who hit that tenure and tread water. There are too many managers, I agree, that don’t want to put the time and effort into collecting data to get those teachers removed. It’s despicable.
Before retirement I worked at in schools in the Berkshires and also out east in the 91 corridor. I have also worked at Charter schools. While this doesn’t count for ALL teachers or EVERY school, I can honestly say the Berkshires take the cake when it comes to crud teachers who sit on their laurels…with PPS at the top of that list. PHS is a dump. Go to any SPED program and you’ll see teachers paying bills and reading the paper while students text and play games on their phones. Never saw such entitled do nothings who whined about how bad they had it non-stop
Parents were both Union presidents (non-schools) and a current in-law is a Union rep. Ironically enough the school union rep openly laughs at the ridiculous benefits they get. I am not anti-union by any means… but the union has destroyed public education or at least had a major hand in it.
The School Committee rubber stamps the contract every year. It could have a killing baby clause and they’d do it
Can you describe a moment prior to your retirement where you protested to management or a board about the behavior you saw and what the outcome was?
LGM–Well said and right-on…..The main reason the Pittsfield school department is under-performing is that teachers are not held accountable for student performance due to contractual restraints that keep bad teachers on the payroll until retirement. In fact, the main reason the statewide teacher’s union objects to any type of standardized testing is that it provides evidence of the lack of performance by teachers as the result of having no accountability. Any type of statewide proposal that would hold teachers more accountable for student performance becomes the immediate target of a multi-million dollar marketing and lobbying campaign by the MTA under the guise of “for the children” As does any new proposal for new charter schools, whose test scores prove performance based job security is far better for children than tenured educators who care only about their paychecks and benefits.
I was transferred out of my program after filing numerous grievances against a co-worker who was at the time dating an administrator. Same basic program, different school within the district.
Interesting.
I’m not familiar with the contract terms you were working under, but filing a grievance does not seem like the proper course of action to resolve that situation, at least not wholly, although we don’t need to get into specifics.
Seems like the kind of improper relationship that personnel standards related to management would apply, not a grievance where the union was protesting an event or circumstance under the contract.
Grievances aren’t filed against other union members, they are filed on behalf of the union, to management as a due process issue regarding a matter contained in the collective bargaining agreement.
As a matter of protocol, many unions have internal procedures and even the ability to file charges against other union members. I honestly don’t think what you were trying to grieve was covered under the contract, and likely not against any law like harassment, but is contrary to the school districts internal administrative HR law/rules/policy.
I’ve even seen in a union where a complainant like yourself had union participatory rights stripped for wasting union resources on grudges that were not a part of the contract.
You may be lucky all you got was a transfer. Reality is management should have removed their representative if their HR policies prohibited that kind of relationship.
Essentially I saw it as ” you complained, you’re gone”. You are right, I am lucky it was a transfer. My complaint was against both a direct colleague and my immediate supervisor for brushing it under the rug.
It was easy to send me a message than handle the grievance.
I don’t disagree with you at all that management is a huge part of it
This mayor and city council, like other self serving mayors and city councils before them, simply do not have the backbone to do what needs to be done, which is make the school dept pay more for their insurance and otherwise stop giving away the store. They should freeze all salaries and get some givebacks on the perks.
The most important part here is that most teachers in Pittsfield reflect the disrespect and negative unqualified people working as principles who were given jobs to promote Jake Eberwiens sham programs that we are stuck with because his protégé is Joe Curtis and Judy Rush know nothing else.Joe is qualified to spend your money …millions.
Yon who is a retired English high school teacher relieves 52,000 per year to never say no to any request.She is incapable of cutting any money from the budget.Pittsfield mayor and council are looking for loopholes to raise more money…..the gentleman from the state suggested because of problems that 1 answer is to cut the budget. Who believes Kroll White Tyer Marchetti even heard him say this.The answer is there in front of their eyes.Cut your budget…cut your budget.
Our superintendent agrees that our local charter school is fantastic. They have earned the right to come in to Pittsfield and help our kids.The superintendent has got to take the blinders off about the effects regular folks have in paying for sale schools.Believe me his salary and Behnkes along with Curtis clouds the reality of world war.2 veterans trying to pay this bill….Mccandless has got to give them relief.He does not even understand that the new Taconic needs to be maintained by a large custodial staff to preserve our 125,000,000 investment.They are irresponsible when it comes to protecting this building for the future.
Couldn’t agree more, Pittsfield could use a Charter School. More choices for parents and students could only be a good thing. Time for Pittsfield Public to renegotiate half days too.
The city council and school committee operate with the best interests of the children…as long as their own pockets are lined with gold first. It is basic instinct for many to grab all you can get your hands on. Some teach their children at the Easter egg hunts to trample each other in an effort to grab the most eggs. And the most successful ones grow up to be politicians but some go on to work in school administration. If you look at the Pittsfield city council and school committee you can tell right off the bat which ones got the most eggs as kids.
Trump better realize the road to making America Great comes with consequences. Oher Countries Push Back!
Yeah, but the great part about President Trump, is he pushes back even harder. For the past eight years, these countries have gotten away with anything they and everything they want. So of course, they are going to test the waters.
Can any democRAT on these boards please explain to me why we gave billions of dollars to Iran?
We returned Iran’s money because it was assets we froze form the 1970’s, including deposits on weapons purchases from the Defense Department, with mutually agreed upon interest.
Should we decide just not to pay China back for the Trillions we’ve borrowed from them?
Of course you’d rather just be a thief and a crook, like your little handed idol.
Let’s now say a prayer for Kate, maybe she can get her head out of her ass.
Brace yourself for rude insults about my character or sexuality, because his post isn’t really about the issue, it is about being a jerk.
Matt stop defending the failed Barry administration
Facts please, trump is a fraud
I’m not sure why Shakes feels like I attack her character? I like debating Shakes on here, but I do know she gets her feathers ruffled when somebody exposes her pussy-hat, liberal views. Which is often.
Don’t worry Shakes, I’ll see in Dan can get you a counselor to talk to, I’ll bake you some chocolate chip cookies, and you can sit in your “decompress zone.”
*Don’t worry sugar, we’ll give you a few peaceful moments to try and get a hold of yourself.
Late I wouldn’t call your jibberish ‘debate’
Especially after they been bending over Obama for 8 years.
It is all Obama’s fault. Or Hillary’s. Or somebody else s. It is so much easier to blame someone else.
If only George Washington never crossed that damn river we would not be in this mess.
Duh??: Who is George Washington?
It’s Bush’s fault, sound familiar?
You dont have to tell us about school waste DV! We got a school janitor who spends all day on the Planet.
They should contract maintenance and janitorial services out to a private company to reduce long term personnel liabilities.
I am all in favor of a new charter school for Pittsfield as well as reducing school dept. budget. It can be done and quality of education improved at the same time.
I believe when the administration comes before the council to explain just how underfunded the teachers are we will see tears.Close a high school and Crosby building and give them 6 months to hand over a plan.Then spend the next 3 years to get it done…..People are begging for schools to make cuts.
The fix is in. Those on the school committee (with the exception of Elias who is somewhat neutral) have spent the past few years kissing each others behinds and strengthening their networks. They will vote for each other, and make sure their friends do the same.
I find it disgusting that Cutler isn’t called out on a conflict of interest when his wife works for the schools, Farron is a failed teacher that was forcefully rehired due to the union and Yon needs a casket at this point. Riello has no business doing anything but cleaning up the floors at a peep show.
Who were those other two guys that ran last time? The young guy and the old crazy dude. The young guy could have and should have made it onto the committee if people paid attention and he had more recognition.
It is always the same when it comes to Pittsfield politics municipal budget! The lovely Linda Tyer will increase next fiscal year’s municipal budget by around 5%, including “free cash”. The public school system will take 4% of the budget increase, while the city side will get 1%.
When was this any different. It is as predictable as the Sun rising in the East and setting in the West each and everyday.
Then there is the capital budget, which is over $10 million every fiscal year. It was nearly $12 million for the current fiscal year.
That means the City of Pittsfield will spend between $16 million to $20 million in operational and capital budget increases for fiscal year 2018, which spans from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.
Get ready to open your wallets or pocket books, Pittsfield taxpayers!
– Jonathan Melle
Could a charter school save the viability for operating Stockbridge Elementary or the elementary school in Cheshire?
I believe both of those communities are looking at shuttering those schools.
Torch,
This is a conversation about Pittsfield schools. But for arguments sake. no, I don’t think Stockbridge or Cheshire could sustain a charter school. Those areas don’t have the population/tax-payer base to support schools there.
Now with that being said, I think a regional charter school serving multiple communities/towns could serve that purpose. Maybe future charter schools could serve as “magnet schools,” and teach those students who are actually in school to learn the three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Not Pittsfield’s current three R’s: Rolling blunts, Robbing people, Receiving Welfare.
As you said regional schools, and I know you aren’t geographically inclined, but from a regional perspective, the Berkshires are only as strong as Adams, North Adams, and Pittsfield are weak.
The support for the Adams charter school is form across a wide area.
Are you like 70? 3 R’s?
The town, with voters approval, renovated the former Stockbridge Elementary School. It now houses all town office, including police, and rents out office space to the private sector. It was a beautiful example of re-use.
Thanks for the update, I do realize I meant the arichmond school, not the Stockbridge one. But yes, the case you mentioned is creative.
I heard Superintendent “ Jake “ McCandless on the radio last week, cracks me up how he praised the Bart School, yet instead of welcoming a charter school in the Pitts. The entire elected class from the School Committee and City Council did everything and anything in their power the to defeat Question 2 last fall.
Crowne Plaza owes a lot of money in back taxes how can the city let that much money in taxes go unpaid and then raise our taxes. No wounder Pittsfield needs money to keep the city going when they let a bill like that to accumulate. This makes me wounder how many other business are delinquent in paying there taxes.
Their taxes, interest and penalty are inescapable and the City stands first in line before other creditors to collect those debts.
About 6,000,000.00 – that is all
Maybe they need a free boiler?
He had tattoos but he had a jacket on, It it was open at the neck, you could see the tattoos,maybe the license Boared should have had Barry Scheck consult on the tape at the incident involving the north st bar. Have we gone bananas as a city? The phony I Dand the result in a shooting is just as bad as the Lach’s incident, both should have the same outcome?
Not sure if this is wasted money, but it doesn’t make sense.
Christmas week, NO SCHOOL, plowable snow. School Department truck there at 5 am. Later on a Saturday no school again plowable snow. Truck plowing again at 5 am. Another Saturday no school. Started snowing at 9 am truck was plowing at 10 am. This week,school is on. Plowable snow, no truck. 2 hour delay. This is at Egremont school. What’s up with this?
They have the roll call on MassLive on which reps voted for their big 40% pay raise that Charlie Baker attempted to veto today, but was not successful. No shock that Tricia Farley-Bouvier is listed as voted yes to giving herself a big raise. Will she also be moving into a gated community like Mayor Tyer now that she has all of that extra money? Will she be working harder to help the struggling working class here in Berkshire County?
Big government equals big greed for all of these politicians. Term limits on all of them!!!
Patti cakes, you should run for office sweetie.
I couldn’t stand being a politician because of all of the phoniness.
Adam Hinds also voted for giving the big 40% pay increases.
He deserves the raise. All the hard work he’s done over the years.
Pittsfield needs to consolidate more staff and kids under one roof.Charters school pay their teachers less money teaching more kids.There is absolutely no need to pay a high school poliscience teacher 70 k a year.High school history teachers are a dime a dozen.