Author Archives: Netmom

Rambling Friday

Posted on by
4

I’ve neglected you lately, and it wears on my conscience. But I really have been overwhelmed.

First, the prom dress: 21 total yards of fabric (heavy satin, very light and silky lining, and some kind of filmy over-drape with all the manageability of a spiderweb) have occupied most of my kitchen table for the last couple of weeks, until I procured a dressmaker’s dummy to be sure that I got the fit right during the times that my daughter was not available — mostly middle-of-the-night sewing sessions.

Although it doesn’t show in this small picture, there are dozens of tiny crystals decorating the sides of the split in the spiderweb-stuff, which have to be ironed on one-by-one, as the spiderweb stuff melts at the temperature required for the crystals to stick.

The next time-killer has been the school budget: starting out roughly $1.1 million more than the City had planned to allocate, even with a generous 4.5% increase over last year’s funding, we’ve spent a painful couple of weeks trying to find any area of possible savings or downsizing that won’t lower the quality of our children’s education. There were cuts made that are actual cuts — but the burden will fall primarily on the administrators in increased workload and less travel.

We haven’t made final approval yet, but after last night’s meeting, I don’t anticipate many changes before submitting the request to City Council. We were down to cutting items that saved as little as $600, in an overall $47.8 million dollar budget.

Three of my kids have been on out-of-town school trips: to Chattanooga for the TSA State Conference, Orlando with the ORHS Band, and Williamsburg for the ORHS Orchestra.
Daughter #2 surprised us all by bringing home a first-place trophy in Engineering Design at the TSA Conference, so she’s headed for Dallas in July for Nationals.

Look at the kids in this picture — they’re mostly ordinary kids, not the National Merit Scholars Oak Ridge is so well known for — but they achieve incredible things on their own time through a club that simply provides them with the avenue to explore their own potential, and teachers who stay late in the afternoon and on weekends to answer questions and teach incidental things (like physics, as applied in calculating wind resistance for the Engineering Design award).

And, there’s been a little bit of distraction this week due to staff shuffling… contrary to rumor and the media’s supposition, the reassignment of the ORHS Principal had nothing whatsoever to do with the school newspaper controversy last Fall.

Off to dabble in one of the many County races for a bit, but I’ll expand on some of these topics later. I promise not to leave you waiting for so long this time.

May 30 Tax Vote Likely

Posted on by
Reply

It appears that Anderson County Schools Superintendent-turned-County Commissioner, V.L. Stonecipher, has finally succeeded in gathering enough valid signatures to force a sales tax referendum on elevating the sales tax countywide.

My objection to this effort is not raising the sales tax; obviously, citizens have the right to do that by referendum. My objection is that all it really does is to reallocate tax revenue from four incorporated cities to the County.

Two years ago when Oak Ridge voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax referendum to fund the note on reconstructing Oak Ridge High School, there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” with county officials to not supersede the tax rate for a period of five years.

Doing so at this point puts a serious dent in the financing plan for the high school renovations, which have already been contracted and begun.

How can these four cities — indisputably, the economic engines of the County — make up the difference in their budgets if the referendum (in which none of their residents can vote) should pass?

  1. property tax increases
  2. annexation.

The referendum is being sold to County voters as “it won’t really affect the taxes you pay, since you shop in the cities anyway; it’s just taking money from them and keeping it for yourself.”

Maybe County Commission needs to re-think their position on allowing Clinton to annex the property near I-75, which would generate a lot of new sales and property tax revenue for the County. Maybe they need to think about growing the pie, instead of eating someone else’s piece.

Child Predator Arrested Again

Posted on by
Reply

When former Centertown teacher Pamela Rogers, 28, got out of jail for molesting a 13-year old student, it took less than a month for her to violate the terms of her 7-year probation… contacting the victim, establishing a website where she posted pictures of herself in a bikini, linked to the victim’s sister’s website, and posted messages to the victim by cryptically addressing him via the number of his basketball jersey. [see the News-Sentinel story]

Anyone — man or woman — who could claim to “fall in love with” (initiate sex with) a child of 13 needs to be put away in a very safe place for a very long time.

Granted, she doesn’t look 28, and it’s easy to see why young boys would be beside themselves for her attention.

If anything, that places so much more responsibility upon her as a teacher to conduct herself as a professional — to be sensitive to the influence she holds, and to be an advocate and protector for her students as they struggle toward developmental and emotional maturity.

Evidently, an extraordinarily light sentence was imposed because the victim’s family did not wish for him to testify.

Sometimes, the law just doesn’t make sense.

Election Time!

Posted on by
Reply

Local politics is hopping all around East Tennessee these days. I can’t say that I remember a more crowded, contested ballot in Anderson County. Early voting begins tomorrow: study the candidates (hint: pick up a copy of last Thursday’s Oak Ridge Observer for the candidate section), thoughtfully consider your options, and VOTE.

The folks in the Roane County portion of Oak Ridge (just one precinct, but the largest in the county, I think) have 30 candidates to choose from in August– including a new County Mayor, with the retirement of Ken Yager. Roane Co. doesn’t vote in May, though, as there is no primary. All county offices are nonpartisan in Roane, as they are in most of the state.

After much thought, I tend to think that’s a better way of conducting local business.

Knox County’s in for quite a spell too, with 12 members of County Commission ineligible due to the State Supreme Court’s recent term limits ruling. Brian’s blog has the complete run-down on those races, including the write-in options.

Anderson County’s election has the potential to bring real change. Watch the County Mayor’s race… it will be interesting. Two Commission districts in Oak Ridge are destined for new faces, with the retirement of two Commissioners. Robin Biloski is seeking a seat in the 8th District (Emory Valley, Glenwood, and Hendrix Creek); as the lead vote-getter in the crowded Charter Commission race three years ago, I’d look for her to do well.

Another race of interest will be the matchup of Chancellor Bill Lantrip and the current District Attorney. I have definite opinions on that one… but that’s a topic for another day.

At the very least, we’re guaranteed a new District Attorney… yet another day’s page-turner.

Remember: early voting starts tomorrow. The sun will be shining… no excuses.

The Schools Budget Difficulty

Posted on by
Reply

People do wonder why balancing a school system budget is trying, even in a generous, supportive city like Oak Ridge.

There are several reasons, but one that affects nearly every school system in the state is that teachers are funded at the system level (according to the number of students), but the state-mandated class sizes must be applied at the school level. So, if we’re one student over the class-size limits at school A, and ten under at school B, we have to hire an extra teacher for school A (who is not funded by the state). If we don’t, there’s a $50,000 fine. The alternative would be to shuffle students between schools every year. I can just imagine how thrilled parents would be with that idea… not to mention that it would be very disruptive to instruction.

The problem is not unique to Oak Ridge; every school system has the same difficulty unless they only have one school containing each grade level.

In our case, the State funds 259 teachers (actually, 65% of the BEP salary for 259 teachers); however, we have 336.65 teachers, most of whom are required to meet the class size mandate. That difference of 77.65 teachers amounts to $10,792,417 that has to be funded exclusively from local sources.

Adding insult to injury are a 20% increase in the cost of electricity; 45% increase in the cost of natural gas to heat the schools; and a whopping 62% increase in the cost of diesel fuel and gasoline.

The key difference between the school system and every other business or homeowner is that we are wholly dependent on revenues allocated by others, and obligated to fund things that are not paid for by those creating the mandates.

Bless the citizens of this city, who do all that they do voluntarily. You just don’t know what a difference you make.

Score One for the Good Guy

Posted on by
1

Sen. Randy McNally earned his ticket to a sixth term in the State Senate in the most honorable fashion — by doing such a good job that no one filed to run against him from either party.

Currently serving as Majority Caucus Chairman and Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means committee, McNally’s quiet, efficient leadership and common-sense conservatism yields excellent representation for citizens of the 5th district.

Thanks, Randy, for the sacrifices you’ve made over the years for us — for the battles you’ve fought to ensure that right prevails over wrong, for driving back and forth to meet your commitments in Nashville and at home, for always providing a calm voice of reason and thought to the debate of issues.

And he keeps a great staff in Nashville as well: Rick is always on top of various pieces of legislation and the minefields between success and failure; Anne is the model of efficiency and one of the kindest, most helpful people you could ever meet.

With all the election turmoil this year, it’s a relief to know that one race is safely in good hands for another four years.

Freedom of Protest

Posted on by
2

In this country, the right to peaceful protest is one of our core values. However, the definition of “peaceful” may need some scrutiny, as evidenced by last Wednesday’s immigration marches (hat tip: Instapundit).

Already in Tennessee, reaction to the wheelchair protest over TennCare policy has lawmakers ready to establish some rules of engagement: although protests are perfectly legal, blocking public streets and the entrances to/exits from public buildings is not.

Sen. Charlotte Burks’ comment got my attention:

“There was staff here that had children in day cares and couldn’t go get them, and I saw a couple of them crying, and this should help that,” Sen. Charlotte Burks, D-Monterey, a co-sponsor of the bill, said before casting her “yes” vote.

Regardless of how strongly you feel about an issue, keeping others from entering or leaving a place of public business is simply unacceptable. Protest, wave signs, grill steaks at the door (making the occupants hungry), whatever… but be polite.

Consolidation Study in Memphis

Posted on by
1

The Commercial Appeal reports that an education task force formed to study consolidation of the Memphis and Shelby County school systems has instead reported on three potential methods to change the way those school systems are funded, without consolidating.

All three freeze the current school system boundaries, to avoid the conflict that inevitably arises when Memphis annexes property, and the residents don’t want to change from Shelby County to Memphis City Schools.

The differences fall in who gets taxed more, and whether those tax dollars stay in the resident’s school district or go predominantly toward the other. In all cases, taxing authority is removed from the City or County government, and placed in the hands of the school boards (and/or State Legislature).

Despite the fact that under the current system, for every dollar raised by Shelby County taxpayers for their own schools, $3 goes to the Memphis City Schools (due to the fact that the County system has three times as many students), the fact that Memphis teacher salaries are the highest in the state, and that Memphis spends more per student than any school system in Tennessee, Memphis school officials aren’t happy with the proposals:

“Every time the community, the powers-that-be, have a conversation about schools, I feel like Memphis city schools comes second,” Memphis school board member Wanda Halbert said. “That’s starting to weigh heavy on me.”

I think what would weigh heavy on me is spending that much money to produce the worst results in the state. I know that Memphis has a higher density of students that are more difficult — more expensive — to educate, but sooner or later, someone’s going to have to come up with a plan that correlates dollars with results.

That doesn’t mean that they have to produce the greatest number of National Merit Finalists, but there has to be a workable plan for improvement. Perhaps a good start would be to require that teachers show positive value-added scores for any pay increase (including cost-of-living); step increases should require documentation of extraordinary gains — perhaps measured by a combination of value-added test scores and other means.

Just paying the same teachers more — more than any others in the state — clearly isn’t getting the job done.

Term Limits Turmoil

Posted on by
1

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruling earlier this week has cast turmoil into the May elections for at least two counties — Shelby and Knox — with early voting set to begin on April 12. The short notice leaves election commissions unable to change the ballots in time, and just last night, State Elections Coordinator Brook Thompson opined that the incumbents cannot be removed from the ballot because the election is less than 40 days away (see the Commercial Appeal).

So, people could vote for the incumbents, but if elected, they could not serve. Instead, it would be up to the local political parties to select a candidate for the August general election (county commission seats are partisan in those two counties).

If there was no opponent from the other party, whomever was selected would be the de facto winner. I’m not comfortable with that at all; it would be better to re-open the filing and let the August election go to the highest vote-getter from any party. At least that way, it would be a representative of the voters, not the political machine.

While I’m not opposed to term limits, the situation in Knox Co., where two-thirds of the county commission have been deemed ineligible, leaves the probability of a very inexperienced commission… which shifts considerable power to other officeholders and local government staff.

It will be interesting, to say the least.

Elected Superintendents

Posted on by
2

One of the concerns going into this legislative session was another concerted push to allow for elected school Superintendents, rather than appointed Directors of Schools as is currently mandated. On Tuesday, the elected superintendents bill — HB3374 (Winningham) — was “taken off notice,” meaning it’s not scheduled for a vote.

It was not withdrawn, so it could come back, but the companion (SB2970, Burks) hasn’t been scheduled for a committee hearing yet either, and the session is moving toward closure.

The folks who support elected superintendents seek greater accountability to the public — so that he or she can be replaced at the will of the electorate. This group likely includes a fair number of county commissioners and county mayors, who would like for someone else to share the blame for tax increases needed to fund education.

The merits of an appointed Director of Schools are several. First, it facilitates a good working relationship between the elected school board (that sets policy and approves budgets), and the Director (who implements the Board’s policy and constructs the budget, which may be modified by the Board before approval). Secondly, it enables the school board to select a Director based upon the qualifications, experience, and skills needed for the job, not personal charisma and name recognition.

Further, it greatly broadens the pool of available talent. It’s not uncommon for school systems to search nationwide for the right candidate; depending on the size of the community, there may be few if any local residents who would truly meet the needs of the school system. Fewer still might be interested in having to run for office.

Lastly, it keeps politics out of the inner workings of schools — promoting a system based upon professionalism rather than political alliance.

While there are merits on both sides of the argument, the current system of appointing Directors of Schools is far better than the alternative. For a more detailed analysis, see the Tennessee School Boards Association’s position paper on this issue.