Jordan School District Looks at more Budget Cuts

Jordan District is looking at a possible $29 million shortfall and is announcing possible budget cuts for the 2010-11 budget.

The following ideas are on the table:

• a permanent 2% pay cut for all employees
• a three day furlough
• bumping up class sizes by four students
• the elimination of programs and services

None of the districts will know their funding until after the Legislative sesssion. Lawmakers have told districts to expect anywhere from a 3 to 7 % cut next year.

Rick

Legislature Committee Looks at extending Provisional Years

A legislative committee passed a bill that would extend provisional years from three to five. We oppose this extension because it will cost more in mentoring and administrators will have to extend the evaluations out two more years. Administrators can determine whether a teacher can make it after a couple of years of evaluations.

Blog Contest

For November and December I would like you to email me (rick@ogdenweber.org) and let me know if you like the Link Newsletter sent to you by email and posted on the website (www.ogdenweber.org) or would you rather receive a paper copy. Your email entry will go into our drawing for gift cards at the January AR meetings.

Thanks Rick

Lawmaker warns of budget shortfall-Deseret News

"Things look pretty bleak," says Sen. Lyle Hillyard in today's Bob Bernick article.(http://www.deseretnews.com/)

New tax-revenue numbers will be released, along with Gov. Herbert's budget, in December.
Legislators had planned on a $850 million deficit, but it could be worse.

Districts and State Increase Teacher Codes of Conduct

Read Amy Stewart's front page story, "Are Students Safe from Predators?" at www.deseretnews.com

Both Weber and Ogden Districts are looking at beefing up the "Code of Conduct", while implementing the state's new "self-reporting" rules and background checks and fingerprinting for relicensure.

Don't be surprised if the the legislature also tackles this issue.

One instance of inappropriate behavior with students is too many, but the percentage of cases compared to the thousands of teachers and student relationships that are not inappropriate is small. Teachers are held to a high standard of trust. Any breach of that trust will reach the headlines of the newspapers and lead on the nightly news.

One new story gives the newspapers the opportunity to revisit all other past stories and gives the impression of some sort of trend. It is our hope that all teachers will continue to maintain professional relationships with their students.

Rick

More Retirement Woes...Continued

Today's Deseret News has an article by Lisa Riley Roche detailing the Interim committee on retirement's meeting yesterday. Read it at http://www.deseretnews.com/

The committee offered no recommendations, but heard four hours of testimony. They were told that the retirement system would run out of money in 30 years if the government's contribution did not increase. The good news came from the system's director, Robert Newman, who reported that the fund had earned an extra $1 Billion this year. Our Ogden Senator, Jon Greiner, raised the most concerns about the audit. He countered that it is only "one half of one percent" of employees who retire in place. (receiving their retirement, salary, and 401 K)

Read the entire article.

Rick

Legislative Audit Blasts "double-dipping" of retirees

The legislative audit of the rehiring of retirees has been released and you can read about it at http://www.deseretnews.com/ . Public Education leads with 2,121 rehirees who receive their state retirement, plus a payment to their 401 (k) program instead of payment to the URS. House Speaker Dave Clark said, "There needs to be and should be some changes." Sen. Liljenquist (Davis County), chair of the committee dealing with retirement said, "We knew it was a problem. We didn't know how deep."

Look for the next session to make some changes.

Rick