"Proposal would shutter 5 schools; Reorganization could save $13m" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | October 2, 2008
School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson unveiled a long-awaited reorganization plan last night that would shut down five elementary school buildings and lead to the reshuffling of many other locations and programs, as the district copes with tight finances and new academic priorities.
Several other elementary schools would be consolidated, with some losing their names, as the district seeks to expand popular schools and create new options. In all, the proposal would expand or create nine new kindergarten through eighth-grade programs and sixth-though-12th-grade schools. It also would open three new pilot schools and expand three others. It also calls for opening a Young Men's Public Service Academy, a Young Women's Leadership Academy, a truancy center, and a Newcomers Academy for students new to the district.
Expanding while cutting? I'm confused.
The plan is in response to a City Hall edict to cut millions of dollars in spending as the district faces escalating costs of salaries, health insurance, transportation, and food. At the same time, state and federal aid has failed to keep pace with inflation.
TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS, and nothing but a BOWL of SHIT for YOU, 'murkns!!!!!!
Over the past year, City Hall has given the School Department two allotments of about $10 million each to balance this year's and last year's budget. School officials estimated that Johnson's plan should reduce operating costs by $13.8 million over five years, including nearly $5 million in transportation spending because more students would go to schools within walking distance of their homes. --more--"
Yup, gonna make the KIDS WALK now because we somehow don't have the money. This will end the first time some perv snatches a kid, watch.
Please see: Hoofing It to High School
Of course, "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shellling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
But NOT ENOUGH $$$ to keep the schools open? A mere $13 MILLION?
