Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Budgeting the Neosho R-5 way

In an effort to make ends meet, the Neosho R-5 Board of Education "is not filling 7.5 teaching posts and 11.5 assistant posts for the next school term," according to the article posted earlier tonight on the Joplin Globe website. The positions came from the elementary, middle, and high schools.

Amazingly, the board had no trouble finding $100,593 to reinstate the position of assistant superintendent for finance, which had been left vacant following the resignation of Charles Brazeale.

From the Globe article:

The board this week reversed an earlier decision and agreed to hire an assistant superintendent of business and finance, possibly in a move toward grooming a successor to Page.


Page said Jim Cummins received a one-year contract worth $100,593. Cummins’ mother, Shirley Cummins, serves on the school board, and she abstained from voting on the contract, Page said..

The new administrator is a native of Neosho and previously worked for the Carl Junction School District.

The board had decided in April not to hire a replacement for Charles Brazeale because of budget constraints. Page said the panel reconsidered after receiving an update on fund balances before Monday’s meeting.

“His position will be another set of eyes on the budget, and help us make sure our budget is able to be prudent and we’re running an efficient operation,” Page said.





Trading 13 jobs for one. That certainly sounds like an efficient use of taxpayers' money.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thirteen teaching jobs for our children are cut for one job? This is a total mismanagement of our tax dollars! Mr Page himself had said he was trying to keep the classrooms (our children) from being affected BUT what will this do? Bureaucracy run amok is what I call it!

KOOK said...

well as much as I hate to see teachers lose jobs, I don't think it was a 13:1 trade. Unless the thirteen teachers make less than 10k a year each. It is likely a 2:1 trade. Still debatable whether another bean counter is better than two teachers.

Anonymous said...

Randy do you know 100% of the details pertaining to this issue. I seriously doubt you do. Please don't destroy your blog by commenting on something you know nothing about. If you need to make stupid comments keep them to the neoshoforums. You are starting to fit in with them.

Anonymous said...

Randy you should step down as an educator of our children if you can't even do simple math. You are not part of any real media anymore, quite frankly you never were. Now you write a story about the Neosho School District spinning it your way and not reporting the real facts. Get a life or something.

Anonymous said...

The school should have filed bankruptcy instead...Randy doesn't report on bankruptcies anymore.

Anonymous said...

Come on Warren give it a rest, you lost already!

Anonymous said...

"The board had decided in April not to hire a replacement for Charles Brazeale because of budget constraints. Page said the panel reconsidered after receiving an update on fund balances before Monday’s meeting." - Globe. Hmmm, deciding to hire an administrator instead of teacher(s) says something about where the priority is. Diamond Gem

Anonymous said...

How many teachers were fired because of the new budget figures. Was it really 13?

Randy said...

Actually, I would bet some of the positions became open and were simply not filled, but those are still 13 people who are no longer working with children.

Anonymous said...

Here's the deal...the board will not be rehiring Dr. Page next year. Dr. Cummins is their choice for the next Superintendent of Neosho Schools. Does anyone think that it's a conflict of interest to have Dr. Cummins mother on the board? The fact that she doesn't vote on his hiring is immaterial. Close relatives of board members should NOT be eligible for positions with the district.

Anonymous said...

I think what burns most people is that there is no transparency here. The board chooses to not fill the position, then they do? And Cummins wasn't even the choice the first time around? I really don't think he is the best guy for the job. Please don't try to tell me that being a CPA qualifies you to understand school finance. It gives you absolutely no edge at all. He and anyone else had to take school finance classes to understand school funding. The entire notion that being a CPA somehow gives you an advantage over other candidates is ridiculous. Those who believe that obviously have no idea about school funding. Guarantee you that this is not money well spent. He will not save the school $100000 per year which is his salary.