Tomorrow is the
Thompson School District Board of Education meeting and we will be presenting
the petition with over 200 signatures!!
Start: 6pm with
the public comment part starting sometime between 6:15 and 6:30pm
End: 7pm
approx. and you are welcome to stay for the balance of the meeting
Where: 800 S
Taft Ave (East Facing door with a blue awning)
The community response has been very positive and we are
hopeful that the Board of Education (BOE) will put the petition on the February
20th Agenda for a vote and that the BOE will adopt the proposed policies.
In summary we are asking the BOE to:
1. Stop processing applications for membership to the
Thompson Education Assoc. (TEA - local union) and to stop collecting the
membership dues.
Why? While not huge, the collection does add to the
cost of administration, need to have a clear separation between the district
and the union and the union...
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On the Amy Oliver Show Nancy Rumfelt Director of Liberty Watch and Ben
DeGrow of the Independence Institute, discuss the petition and how the
requested policies can help to form a Partnership in Excellence for the
benefit of our kids education. Click here to listen to the podcast.
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Today (January 10th) the Reporter Herald on the front page has an article about changes to the budget process for the Thompson School District.
As we are trying to bring more transparency and accountability with our petition (click here to read and sign!)
to the district, the district is once again going in the opposite
direction and working to make it harder for the community to participate
and understand how their money is being spent.
In the article, Steve Towne who is the CFO for the district displays the arrogance of the district with his statement:
“With all due respect to the community, while we want to be aware of
what their heartbeat is, the people in the administration are here
because they have background and experience in these issues”
Translation: We are the experts and so we don’t need or want your advice and so you need to trust us and IGNORE that us experts year after year produce budgets with a deficit.
I understand that the Board is...
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Stop Collecting
Dues
District collection of union dues uses resources (the
district seems unable to calculate the cost of this) and also blurs the line of
separation between the district (employer) and Thompson Education Assoc.
(union)
Union President's
Salary:
The current salary and benefits is $91,386 and the union
gives TSD a cash reimbursement of $20,000.
This means that you and ultimately our kids are paying $71,386 for a
teacher to not be in the classroom and instead advocate for the union.
The TEA states that they do not have enough money to pay
for a teacher to serve as president and yet for 2011 TEA collected $523,956 in
membership dues which is $43,663 per
month! TEA also for 2011 had payments to
affiliates for a total of $461,436.
Instead of sending 88% of dues to union affiliates, how
about keeping the money in our community and pay the salary and benefits for
their President?
Open Union...
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