ilovemylife: PORTSMOUTH RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL BUDGET FOR 2010-2011 - IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY YOU CARE AND STAY HOME

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Uploaded by jmcdaid | May 04, 2009 | 0:43

Councilor Karen Gleason says schools must get back to basics

It is not enough to care and stay home.

The Portsmouth School Department proposed budget would mean an increase of $0.29 per $1,000 of house appraised value, an effective increase of 2.54%, and the increase on an average $350,000 house of $100.

There was a fight going on June 23, 2010 at Town Hall last night - Portsmouth, Rhode Island Town Council Budget Hearing 7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

There is only one reason not to attend the Portsmouth RI Town Council Budget Meeting July 14, 2010, 7:00 p.m. at the Portsmouth Middle School

if you are available

and you want Portsmouth Public Schools to be what they need to be for 2010-2011.

That reason is that you don’t care enough.

The 5-2 voting tradition on Portsmouth School budget by the town council is based on getting rid of the union at any cost. When we wake up and see what we lost because we weren’t available to show up – many will be stunned. Those members who vote to level fund (keep it where it was last year) the school budget say they care about the education of our community’s students. But that is not believable by watching them.

While the vote was 4-3 at the June 23 meeting, it is only a vote that is provisional. It will change back to 5-2 - scoring a savings of $100 increase (on a house appraised at $350,000) over the upcoming tax year at best for those who want taxes to remain the same as this past year. Even if we get the increase of 21 cents per thousand provisionally voted for June 23, it doesn’t allow the School Department to receive what is needed to keep competitive sports at PMS and PHS, music, art. And this is after the School Department already cut needed special education teachers. The Portsmouth Taxpayers Association members are attending these meetings. The handful of us that stayed through to the end at 11:00 p.m at last night’s Town Council meeting can’t change the direction we are headed without more taxpayers showing up who truly care about the schools’ offerings. It is not enough to care and stay home.

The vote June 23 was to move the tax rate per thousand dollars from last year’s $11.26 to $11.47 in regards to the school budget. That isn’t enough, but better than what will most likely get voted, if any indication of past voting and comments will tell how the council members’ votes will fall in the end. The Portsmouth Taxpayers Association is in control of the current Town Council, so expect the school department’s budget to get what the Taxpayers Association wants.

We only will have control of what the council votes if we pressure them to vote a reasonable budget. (And for future budget years, if we vote for reasonable candidates in the upcoming election). Paying teachers according to what the Portsmouth Taxpayers Association members and their representatives feel the teachers deserve is what is driving the contention. The desire is to break the union – it came out repeatedly. And the children are the ones who lose out while adults play in a political playground with the community’s future.

What do you expect from the Portsmouth Public Schools? And at what cost will you be willing to give up what we have come to expect from the schools?

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Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools | June 09, 2010 | 9:57

June 2, 2010 Portsmouth RI School Department Budget Meeting

Website for Portsmouth RI

Students who want to go to college will be filling out applications to be accepted. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to apply for music or sport's scholarships at colleges if we don't have sports teams for scouts to come and watch the potential sports students or music and arts classes for potential college majors.

Not only do people look at tax rate when moving into a community, but a huge impact on worth of homes is the community public schools. But this fact gets lost in the effort to keep taxes at a level funding.

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According to the Town Charter, a "Budget Referendum," can be done with the required number of citizens signing a petition to do so. And the question to be voted on is written by the petitioners and verified as a valid question by the Town Clerk.

Stay tuned for a possible "Budget Referendum" to fund our community's students learning opportunities.

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$1.2 million increase was asked for by the Portsmouth School Department for 2010-2011 year - it was voted down by a 5-2 vote by the Portsmouth Town Council with the vote to "level fund" the school department. It would have increased the taxes $.29 per thousand dollars of appraised house values in town.

When I went to high school gasoline varied in price between 17 and 28 cents a gallon. Just saying….

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Uploaded by wane | March 05, 2010 | 0:45

COLUMBIA CITY VS. WAWASEE BOYS HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

When I was in high school - graduated 1967 - my dad was the high school basketball coach in this very gymnasium. He was the very first coach of what was then a brand new school building and a newly consolidated county-wide high school....then called Columbia City Joint High School - as it joined many high schools in one. In Indiana, "Hoosier hysteria" is what we call basketball.