Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Needless to say, I didn't win...

I spent hours trying to get my cartoon to show up here with no luck. Try the link, it's a site that allows anyone to create a cartoon script using some prefab characters. Pretty neat stuff.

My alternative budget went down in flames this evening but I have no melodrama to offer. As I've said before and will say countless more times, every budget cycle must be about constructing next year's educational offerings, the budget part of the equation is just a matter of talking about how the budget should be appropriated.

Years ago when I was studying sculpture at Doane College, I learned some artistic algebra. The creation of anything new can be performed by applying additive substance, by subtracting substance, or by metamorphosizing substance, or some combination of these exercises.

When working with a fixed budget to create a vital educational offering in the coming year, anything added needs to subtract some corresponding expense. It isn't personal, it's applying math to the priorities we are obligated to establish for the health of the educational environment.

My alternative budget proposal upset some secondary faculty members who personalized the recommendations I made to cut staff. But the real losers are the kindergarten program in Ashford and maybe elsewhere that are paying the consequences of the Region 19 budget numbers. And the teachers in the small towns are also receiving the short end of the fiscal result.

The Board was unwilling to make a short term sacrifice to revive the body (sometimes referred to as fasting). By short-changing the younger children we exacerbate learning issues that so perplex us at EO today.

I have to work harder.

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