This is a reminder about the school override election for Caldwell School District. Your polling place will be at a school near your home.
Here's the deal, your vote will decide if the override will increase by 300% or not at all for the next two years. Nobody really knows what will happen two years out if the economy will pick up and return to better times or not. What then will happen with the school district. Will we face another override or will painful cuts be made due a stagnant economy?
We think making the effort to vote YES or No is the only voice you have in our form of government. If your side wins you can celebrate and if it loses you can commiserate about it. Those who don't take the time can't complain one way or the other.
Voting on this is taxation with representation by none other than those who take the time to actually vote.
If this bond doesn't pass, each school will lose an average of 5 teachers and they will cut music and PE. I know people don't need more taxes right now, but we can't afford for our childern to be idiots. Please vote yes, if you are a BSU fan you have to vote yes, your coach just got a raise to $1.5MM a year and he doesn't even teach, yea lets talk about doing more with less!
ReplyDeleteI am torn on how to vote on the levy. I have children who are in an elementary ALP class (advanced learning program) that has been a great experience. Thanks to the "No Child Left Behind" Act educators have no choice but concentrate on the struggling kids and ALP suppliments the kids on the other end of the spectrum. We are very fortunate to have ALP classes for younger kids in our district, because I know Nampa does not. If this program goes away, it's ultimately my responsability to work with their teachers to give extra activities to keep them stimulated in class. I don't feel that parents should expect teachers to work out a special curriculum for each child. There isn't enough time in a day. I would hate for this program to go away, but if it did, I would hope that parents would get more involved with their childs education instead of just saying "Deal with it, not my problem." I'm sick of that attitude.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to have Music and PE classes taken away seems backward productive. Why in the world are our leaders pushing to have a healthcare plan that penalizes people who are over weight,out of shape, and over stressed if we aren't going to bother teaching children, at an early age, how to care for their bodies and minds?
It also seems as though the only people that know about the levy are the ones who work for the district. To me, that is not a true sampling of "majority rules" when the only majority involved are the ones who would directly benefit from it's passing.
Part of me feels that they should have thought about the down turn in economy before they built new schools. If this levy doesn't pass maybe it will force the district to use what they have, like vacant classrooms in exsiting schools, free or low cost internet programs, and again, the Parents.
In the end, I may not feel the financial cost of the levy if passed because my homes value has dropped so much that it would counter balance the tax of of my assessed value. But like Paul said, who knows about 2 years down the road.
If this levy doesn't pass Caldwell School Dist. will have to do what everyone on a limited income and rising prices has to do every day. Put a priority on people, programs and resources and try to allocate their money to what is needed for daily survival.
ReplyDeleteNowhere is it written schools should not have to deal with economic shortfalls. We have too many school districts, too many programs, too many charter schools, and the list goes on and on.
When given a choice for using money to build new schools or pay teachers what was their choice again? Oh that's right, lets ask voters to vote to increase taxes to build new buildings while simultaneously talking about cutting back teachers salaries and teaching positions because there isn't enough to go around. Tighten the belt like everyone else Caldwell School District. Use your money to conserve the valuable teaching staff you have and forget new buildings. When the economy gets better then try floating a bond for new schools.
ReplyDeleteYour priorities are way out of whack here.