An Addendum

March 19, 2011
An addendum to the previous post:

Last night brought a slew of fairly volatile and contentious school board meetings around our local area. In one, several local citizens had to be ejected for disturbing the peace. In our closest neighboring district, the board passed a proposal to pink slip over 500 teachers, in addition to the pay cut and furlough days already slated for those who did not receive pink slips. My district managed yet again to avoid resorting to pink slips altogether, making us, I suppose, feel lucky to only have to deal with a 2% pay cut and 3 furlough days for next year. It's all relative, I guess. I'm also guessing that my district is feeling pretty good about comparing our conditions to those of our neighboring districts--we look don't look half bad in contrast. Doesn't mean we won't still feel the sting when we're doing more with less as next year unfolds. And, if the measure doesn't pass to extend a current tax in this coming June election, I'm not sure even our district can stave off the dreaded lay-offs in order to make it work.