I want to challenge the Oshkosh School Board to go even farther on their ten year facilities plan. I think there are opportunities to achieve even greater efficiencies and cost savings still being left on the table.
Step one: determine the minimum number of buildings you will need to house all students--add one--and close all of the others. The day of the neighborhood school has unfortunately come to an end. Where I live, kids could easily walk to three different elementary schools. One of those buildings was on the initial closure list--but some parents in the area complained--and the school board decided to no longer "identify" potential school closures by name, hoping to deflect some of the heat. By figuring out the minimum needed--and adding one to ensure room for some sudden growth in the city--the school board could be telling taxpayers: "We are running this district as lean as possible, but we still need a little more cash to make ends meet."
Step two: Drop the "SAGE" program. Administrators and teachers unions hail the class size reduction program as an educational miracle that boosts performance of kids in first through fourth grade. But studies show those kids end up at the same test levels as kids who did not go through SAGE schools by the time they reach seventh and eight grades. The state blackmails districts into the program by giving them a little more money--which of course does not meet the full cost of hiring the extra teachers or maintaining the extra classrooms. Unfortunately, the bang for SAGE bucks does not justify the extra cost.
Step three: go to a zero-based budgeting process that establishes how much it will cost to pay teachers for core classes, heat and maintain buildings, transport kids and run other essential district services. After that, the remaining money will be allocated to non-core courses based on priorities established by the school board. If that means advanced art, music or technical education programs may not be offered every year--that's too bad. Remember, we have art and music programs offered by private enterprises in the area--and the technical college system was established to teach workforce skills to those choosing to forego secondary education.
If the school board were to take these steps and go to the voters with a lean and mean facilities plan and referendum, they will have a much better chance of getting a "yes" at the polls.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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That's right Jon. The only way to save real money is to reduce employees. That is a standard for business during a reorganization. Employee wages and benefits are extremely costly and often job positions, especially in the public sector, are not justified. Your comments regarding the SAGE program are right on target and seem to demand additional staff where perhaps not needed.
On another matter. What in the world is wrong with the Board thinking they should continue to give the Supt. continous and automatic contract extensions?
The 4 people that thought that was a good idea to continue should be voted out when their terms are up. They obviously do not have the best interest of the taxpayer in mind.
The 4 people that thought that was a good idea to continue should be voted out when their terms are up. They DO NOT have the best interest of the taxpayer in mind.
YES,let's start the elimination process in April.
McDermott out the door!
E-mail the suggestions to the BOE EXCELLENT IDEAS
This kind of attitude is what is crippling our educational system not only in Oshkosh but in the whole country. It's obvious that anyone who thinks Mr Krause has the right idea has absolutely no clue what teachers are already expected to do.
Every year teachers across America are told to do more with less money, less resources and few classrooms. We give them larger class sizes and less money and tell them to increase students test scores, meanwhile the Federal Government punishes schools that achieve low scores by taking funds AWAY instead of giving them the help they need.
Anyone who thinks we should be cutting educational programs, cutting teachers and closing schools needs to seriously reassess what kind of world they want to live in when they are old and these children are running the country.
There are plenty of ways to be fiscally responsible without destroying our educational system. And as far as removing all "non-core" classes from the schools, this is not only plain stupid it's culturally destructive. Having art, music, technical education and family/consumer education classes in the schools not only enhances students education but helps them in their core classes.
Anyone who can not see the overlap of these classes should look again. Music is all based on math, reading, the production of sound and the biological processes involved in playing an instrument or singing. There has been scientific study after study that confirms that music not only improves brain function but helps students to learn.
Art is based on geometry, math, and again science.
Family/Consumer Education and Technical Education classes give students every day life skills that they will need to survive as adults. Not only that they teach students basic safety in a workshop or a kitchen.
To say these classes and skills are fat that should be trimmed is short-sighted and ignorant.
What Mr. Krause is suggesting is to jam students into over-crowed classrooms with teachers who are over-worked, underpaid, under funded and underappreciated.
Something tells me, Mr. Krause, that if you were the one working on the "taxpayers' dollars" (as teachers are taxypayers, too)you would be singing a different tune.
I agree with everything the anonymous poster said at 7:30 a.m. You need to get your priorities straight. I suggest you step in front of a classroom and start teaching instead of blowing a lot of hot air over the air waves. I don't pretend to judge what you do for a living, so what makes you think you're qualified to judge the worth of any employee or educational program in the district? Give me a microphone, some ear phones and a couple of minutes, and oh look! I guess that means I can have my own radio show! Don't prepare to judge the worth of staff or programs when you really know NOTHING about how they work, what they do, and what it takes to make them successful.
I would like to invite this gentleman to spend a day or two in a school--specifically an elementary school. I then think he would have a new perspective. Those of us in education--be it teaching, clerical, custodial or para---know that there is so much more involved than the actual "classroom education" of a child. Many kids come to school these days with so much baggage that we are teaching morals, teaching manners, teaching right from wrong,doing counseling, making social service calls, as well as doing paperwork galore, and on and on that is done on a daily basis. There doesn't seem to be enough time to actually TEACH and you think we should cut staff??? PLEASE COME VISIT OUR SCHOOLS! This is NOT a business---we can't just do the bare minimum. This is make it or break it for quite a few kids in our district.
As far as SAGE goes----I see it work on a daily basis. Again--this is not a business. Research, and common sense, states that the lower student to teacher ratio is better for the students. Please---visit a site and see things first hand before making education a business. Don't just look at what reports say--come and see the kids.
I don't always agree with the BOE but I know that where the KIDS are concerned we need SAGE and the staff we have.
Our elementary staff is well overworked and for them to go to 20-25 kids in a classroom is not fair to them and certainly not fair to the kids!
What educational system would you want for your kids or grandkids?
One where the smart kids get by because they are smart and the low kids get help because they are low and the middle ones try to fend for themselves and get lost in the system or a classroom where the ratio helps ALL kids learn? All because it is finacially more sound?
I am passionate about kids and their education-----and I think everyone should be. After all--they are our future!!!
Judging by some of the posting times, I suspect none of these advocates are actually teachers. I don't agree with everything JK has said but to incinuate teachers are underpaid is ridiculous. FIrst year teachers in the district get paid in excess of $32,000 per year. Add benefits and you are talking $40-50,000 per year. Then add in extra pay for summer school should a teacher volunteer for that duty.
Overworked? Maybe. Underpaid? NOT!!!
Maybe if we started getting rid of the ineffective teachers instead of shuffling them from building to building, we would start saving money without sacrificing the good teachers. I'm sick of those who don't getting paid as much as those of us who do and do more.
I would think as a journalist Mr. Krause would have a better handle on some of the issues. He states:
"The state blackmails districts into the program by giving them a little more money--which of course does not meet the full cost of hiring the extra teachers or maintaining the extra classrooms. "
Actually if the SAGE classrooms have a free/reduced lunch rate of over 45% the additonal SAGE funds do in fact cover the additional costs.
Mr. Krause further states:
"If that means advanced art, music or technical education programs may not be offered every year--that's too bad."
Obviously he is not aware of the "Youth Options" state law which requires a school district to pay the costs for every high school junior or senior who chooses to take a course at a college, university or tech. school (if such course is NOT offered at their high school). So, if the district is not offering an "advanced art or music class" then any student who takes it at UW-O the district would have to pay the tuition
From DPI website:
http://dpi.wi.gov/youthoptions/doc/yobrochure.doc
Q. Can my high school refuse to participate in the Youth Options Program?A. No. The law requires all public high schools to participate.
The school board must pay for any course that is taken for high school credit and that is not comparable to a course offered in the school district.
Since the cost of a 3 credit class at UW-O is over $700 if only 20 students (I'm sure our high schools have many more students than 20 taking advanced art and music classes) took an advanced art or music class the cost for that one class would be over $14,000.
A question Mr. Krause, are you advocating that schools no longer have athletic teams? Under your zero based budgeting scenario, I don't see how athletics could possibly end up a high priority since it is not ever part of the mission of a school district -- to EDUCATE children.
Dear Mr. Krause:
I am a taxpayer, too, but I am appalled at the remarks that you have made concerning the Oshkosh Public School System. Obviously, you have been out of school and out of touch with the school system.
We still need neighborhood schools. Children need to have friends at school and many of those friends should be in their neighborhood. Riding the bus for 2 - 3 hours is a waste of money and time for children that could easily walk to a school that is close to them. Walking a long distance to get to school is not always a safe thing for young students to do, especially during below zero weather and thunderstorms. So, you see we still need the neighborhood schools.
Music, Art and Phy. Ed. help students in many other subjects, such as Reading, Math and Science. It has been proven that students enrolled in music, art and phy. ed. have done better in school then those that didn't have it offered. Taking these subjects away, would be disasterous.
SAGE allows students to have more one to one contact with their teachers and peers. It has been proven that students in smaller classes learn better and learn more than those in very large classes. Most of the SAGE students are from homes that are poverty stricken, or where their home life is not the best. SAGE allows those students to keep up with other students that have parents that take the time to spend with their children and help them with their schoolwork. SAGE also teaches parents how to parent their children. SAGE is essential to the students that need it. Unfortunately, we are living in an age where many parents aren't home to take care of their children or help them with their schoolwork.
I hope that you will take back the comments that you made. Perhaps you should come and visit some of the schools. You'd have a better idea of what is happening in the school system. It's much different then when you or I were in school.
Anonymous
7:30 This is not about the lack of money, it is about how it is allocated.
As with many public sector employees, the taxs paid for education are vastly syphoned off for extreme benefits and excellent wages. If there were not such a drain on monies, funding could occur for many of the other things you mention.
You said "with teachers who are over-worked, underpaid"
I firmly disagree. Teachers have a nice 3 month vacation along with many "breaks" throughout the year (Spring, Christmas).
Overworked...I think not!!
Come work in the private sector and see what work really is!
Instead of dumping more funding at the teachers to keep the teachers union happy, spend some on the kids and buildings and grounds.
I love the "you have a 3 month vacation" argument. Come teach in a classroom for 9 months and then tell me if you think you'd last 12 months year after year. Every day in your private sector job do you have 80-100+ people who look to you continuosly for guidence, for answers to everything and anything? And then do you have to answer to the parents of each an every one of those people? Show me a single first, second or third year teacher who has spent less then 50-60 hours a week in their classroom over the course of that 9months and then tell me we get 3 months off for nothing. Not to mention the continous education, the graduate classes, the seminars on whatever is new in our respective fields that most of us attend over the course of any given year.
You obviously don't know half of what teachers do. You think all we do is teach a 50 minute class 7 times a day and then go home? It's obvious you have absolutly no clue what actually goes into planning and presenting and teaching any class. Not to mention the grading, the paperwork, and the hours of meetings conferences and various other duties we're required to do. I'd like to see most "private sector" employees give it a shot. I give most about 6 hours before you walk out or are fired.
I'm not advocating for higher teacher wages however, if I wanted a high paying job I wouldn't of gotton a teaching degree. This is and always should be about the students. Cutting teachers and creating larger class sizes, while closing schools and removing programs is just plain destructive to the students that we have been charged to educate.
Jon Looks like you really stirred the pot man! You should know better that to make any negative remarks towards the teachers union. I'm thinking they are ploting to picket outside the radio station until you make a retraction and say they are underpaid and overworked. LOL!!
What a bunch of BS. Who's worse? Big Business or Big Unions? Both are the scum of the earth!
The 4 clowns on the board that keep the city taxpayers checkbook open to the school superintendent should be recalled. They aren't looking out for our best interest by letting this guys contract be renewed automatically. What in the world are these 4 people thinking about?
Can someone please post there names so I know who NOT to vote for next election. My God I'm appalled.
Here's who not to cast your vote for his election or any other.
Ben Schneider
Dan Becker
Michelle Monte
Patrick Kogutkiewicz
Here here Jan. 31st 7:30pm
There is intelligent life in Oshkosh after all!!
For common sense and reason on the school board, VOTE FOR:
Ben Schneider
Dan Becker
Michelle Monte
Patrick Kogutkiewicz
These 4 will be the ones I will vote for......who are the other clowns that think everyone is Oshkosh is made of money? Those pinheads need to be given a dose of reality.
PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES & BENEFITS ARE KILLING TAXPAYERS-
So here’s another example of how out-of-touch public sector unions are.
A couple county employee supervisors were asked to come to work 10 minutes before their start time. They were ticked off they didn’t get paid for this so they dropped a dime to the Labor Relations Board. Now we taxpayers have to come up with $11.000.00 to fund back pay to these clowns.
OK, now if I’m the County Manager, these clowns couldn’t get a cup of coffee, donut or take a dump unless they were on their break. Every second they were on the clock, they’d be working their butts off.
Then there’s an article that was in USA Today that says public sector union employees are enjoying “Major Gains” not found in the private sector. The wage gap is widening every year, rising about $2.45 an hour over they past three years.
State and local public sector employees now earn an average of $39.50 per hour in total compensation reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Private sector workers earn an average of $26.09 an hour in total compensation.
Private companies have trimmed compensation packages and shifted rising healthcare costs to the employees.
Public sector employees are still enjoying benefits such as in Oshkosh Wisconsin where city workers are funded 95% of their healthcare costs paid by taxpayers.
This trend must end as the middleclass families which pay taxes to fund public sector employee compensation packages can no longer afford the rising costs and taxes funding the escalating wages of public workers.
McDermott
Bowen
Weinsheim
Kavanaugh
All voted FOR keeping the rolling raises clause in the Super's contract. Nothing like a two year notice and pay out for not doing your job.
These are the idiots killing us.
McDermott
Bowen
Weinsheim
Kavanaugh
You will only vote for these people if you are a true pinhead.
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
State and local government workers are enjoying major gains in compensation, pushing the value of their average wages and benefits far ahead of private workers, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows.
The gap is widening every year, rising by an average $1.02 an hour last year and $2.45 an hour over the past three years. The better pay and benefits for public employees come as private-sector workers face stagnant wages and rising unemployment.
State and local government workers now earn an average of $39.50 per hour in total compensation, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Private workers earn an average of $26.09 an hour.
Benefits are a big reason for the gap.
Companies have trimmed pension benefits and asked employees to pay a greater share of medical costs.
Few governments have imposed similar cuts on teachers, snowplow drivers, lawyers and other civil servants.
From 2000 to 2007, public employees enjoyed a 16% increase in compensation after adjusting for inflation compared with 11% for private workers.
The nation has 20 million state and local government employees. About 116 million people work in the private sector. The 2.7 million federal workers are not included in the BLS compensation data.
Traditional pensions and medical coverage for retirees are among the benefits making it more lucrative to work in government, says Ken McDonnell, program director of the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington, D.C.
State and local governments have more than $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities for pensions and retirement medical benefits for public employees. A few governments are discussing how to cut costs:
•Rhode Island. Gov. Donald Carcieri, a Republican, wants to limit benefits and increase hours for state workers.
•Ohio. Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, plans to sign legislation next week that will reduce the value of retiree medical benefits for newly hired school employees, excluding teachers. The law would push back early retirement ages for bus drivers, custodians and other school workers.
•California. The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to sue to repeal pension increases granted earlier to sheriff's deputies.
My vote this year goes to anyone not named Schneider or Monte. He's just a constant "no" vote on our board and leads to feet dragging. She's equally negative, while consistently showing she has not a firm grasp on the issues or a desire to learn them. What she's good at is slinging the crap and telling people what they want to hear. A vote for Monte or Schneider is a vote for the further decay of our school district.
This just re-enforces the fact that government is broken and arrogant. They spend our money without constraint and the money itself goes to the bureaucracy, not the benefit they bring to us.
Its not only benefits driving the difference. There is a definite wage gap with them being significantly overpaid. Add to that their liberal retirement plans vacation and holidays …. Although I am by no means a Republican, listening to Democrats continue to find ways to increase the size of government leaves me very discouraged about our future as a country.
We could probably easily cut 50% of the government workforce and not suffer in reduction in service. Oh they would scare us that service reductions would happen, they would even structure service delivery to make sure services, not the bureaucracy, is cut. We need to establish performance metrics in government much as we measure charitable organizations.
How many dollars go to support the self serving bureaucracy, as opposed to the people it serves? Anytime I deal with government I see everyone sitting around and doing nothing... not only are they overpaid, they are under worked. And the public employee unions have the "b*lls" to say that it’s the private sector that’s at fault. Let’s start holding their feet to the fire!!!
Yeah, 9:04, let's cut ans paste some more. How well did it work for you on the city side? How much did wages and benefits go down? Keep crying your anonymous bullshit. It really seems to be working!
The pay gap between the FEDERAL government are even larger---The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that the pay and benefits of the Fed is twice as much as the public sector,, Look folks the Feds get a 5% match on their TSP--they still have pensions, 80% of the their medical insurance premiums are paid --this locality pay they get is compounded every year and it is figured into their retirement--there are Feds making over 38,000 in locality pay alone and this is only some if their benefits.
The average fed in DC makes $94,000 while the medium income for all US families is $45.000. Hey my federal neighbors have not worked a 5 day week in years
No doubt about the pay inequalities----Why work when you can have a federal position
Excellent story by Dennis Cauchon of USA Today. This is a story that the public employee unions, as well as exempt managers who also benefit from generous pay increases given to the union stiffs, have been desperately trying to suppress for a long time. They know that they have it good. They've completely distorted the system and I've been blogging this for several years.
How?
The public employee unions get nearly all local mayors, city councils, county supervisors and state legislators elected. Government bureaucrat employee unions are the #1 SPECIAL INTEREST of the Democratic Party, and also influence the Republican Party to a concerning degree. As a result, these politicians pretty much do everything the unions and their bureaucrat employees command them to do. As a result, our taxes are sky-high and our levels of service and physical infrastructure are in severe decline.
The public has been fooled by propaganda to believe that bureaucrats are not well paid. The bureaucrat employee unions always fund television commercials of crying cops, firemen, teachers and nurses with distorted information designed to convince already cash-strapped voters to approve new and higher taxes -- and it's worked.
As this story points out, public wages and benefits are higher than private!...so taxpayers are working to support a bureaucrat upper class that face no competition and are rarely disciplined for inaction, incompetence, and even corruption.
As you watch those crying firemen and teachers ... keep in mind that they are compensated extremely generously in ways that most of you don't realize -- excellent wages, defined-benefit retirements that pay them from their day of retirement to the day they die, retirements that begin as early as age FORTY FIVE (yes!), free cars, gym memberships, golf lessons, very nice health and life insurance programs, and on and on.
And don't forget, it isn't just cops, firemen, teachers and nurses getting these outstanding treats -- it's trash men, carpenters, engineers, drivers, cooks, janitors, accountants, secretaries, customer service clerks, electricians, street workers, and other common professions that don't face any safety risk just like the rest of us do, it's just that they happen to work on our tax dollars in cushy government jobs.
THINK ABOUT ALL OF THIS BEFORE YOU BLINDLY AND STUPIDLY APPROVE THE NEXT TAX INCREASE THAT GOES TO THE GENERAL FUND TO SPOIL BUREAURCRATS.
The teachers responsible for teaching me long ago weren't paid near what today's teachers are and they were just as good if not better. It used to be that folks in the government sector (not just teachers) knew they were not going to break the piggy bank and truly (for whatever reason) did their job because they liked it.
Now we have people who get on the government payroll, retire at an early age, take their retirement pay then go work in another government sector job.
I know a police chief earning $400,000/year and his department is in a small community with little crime. The joke is their cops eat scones at Starbucks because they'd never have a Hardee’s in their community.
It's time our public school teachers suck it up and get back to work.
I went into medicine and now that I'm out in the real world practicing, I see what has been done to our earning potential. People tell me, " Well, you shouldn't be in it for the money." Fine. I say the same thing to the teachers and other civil servants.
Civil servant-that means serving the people, not one's self. We've seen the good times economically and now we're in for a rough ride. We ALL need to suck it up and do the best we can. We need to reevaluate what we are paying for civil servant jobs and adjust with the times.
It's the rare exception when a civil servant has to take a cut in pay or benefits and yet many of our Federal, State and Local governments have empty coffers.
Every year, I and my colleagues have to fight with Medicare to keep them from shaving 10% off my reimbursement which is already 60% less than twenty years ago. Meanwhile my overhead keeps going up. Don't feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for yourselves because the same thing is happening to ALL of my colleagues and that directly effects the care we give to you all.
The words, "I've got good insurance" are a joke in today's world. I've got news for all you civil servants-one day we'll have to pay the piper and the house of cards is going to come crashing down. If we just simply let the Treasury keep printing money to make up for our budget deficits eventually it literally won't be worth the paper it is printed on.
Yeah, the chief of police in Oshkosh makes 400,000 a year. He doesn't even make 100,000 a year. Don't tell stories that are quite so stretched. You're killing your credibility.
As a public employee, you're telling my the level of service I have provided has DECREASED? Are you kidding me? My workload has increased much faster than my compensation, so don't even go there. And you think kids aren't better educated now than they were 20 or 30 years ago? Do you even have kids?
As for you, "Doctor," how much are you making a year? I bet more than the 40 or 50 thousand a year city employees are school teachers are making. Take your holier-than-thou attitude back to your office and order some tests or prescribe some medicine so you get your kickbacks. We're not feeling for you.
"excellent wages, defined-benefit retirements that pay them from their day of retirement to the day they die, retirements that begin as early as age FORTY FIVE (yes!), free cars, gym memberships, golf lessons, very nice health and life insurance programs, and on and on.
"
No one in the city can retire at 45. NO ONE.
No one in the city gets a free car. NO ONE.
No one in the city gets gym memberships, golf lessons, and on and on. NO ONE.
The lies spread here are incredible. Nothing but lies, nothing but incredible.
He said-
"I know a police chief earning $400,000/year and his department is in a small community with little crime."
Nothing mentioned the Oshkosh Police Chief.
He said-
"Excellent wages, defined-benefit retirements that pay them from their day of retirement to the day they die, retirements that begin as early as age FORTY FIVE (yes!), free cars, gym memberships, golf lessons, very nice health and life insurance programs, and on and on."
Nothing mentioned, Oshkosh.
He said-
"The public has been fooled by propaganda to believe that bureaucrats are not well paid. The bureaucrat employee unions always fund television commercials of crying cops, firemen, teachers and nurses with distorted information designed to convince already cash-strapped voters to approve new and higher taxes -- and it's worked."
And he was correct!
If it doesn't envolve Oshkosh, why would he mention it?
Propaganda.
We're talking about Oshkosh here.
And I am dying to know where the police chief is making 4 bills. Please, share the location with me.
You can't? Cause you're a liar.
Look folks the Feds get a 5% match on their TSP--they still have pensions, 80% of the their medical insurance premiums are paid --this locality pay they get is compounded every year and it is figured into their retirement--there are Feds making over 38,000 in locality pay alone and this is only some if their benefits.
Heres one better than that. Oshkosh City Employees get 95% of the their medical insurance premiums paid by us taxpayers. Thats way more than even the Feds.
The system is broken.
Greedy Unions are as bad as Greedy Corporations!
I worked for private companies for 25 years. they suck. They don't give a hoot about you or your family. I have never had any medical benefits. Anything that the company offered me was actually more costly then I could get privately. You get no paid sick days or the so called "personal" days, what they heck are they anyway? You show up every day for work, if you are sick and can't work then they get rid of you and higher somebody that can. Holidays --there are 5. Thats it.
Government workers have no clue what it's like working in the real world. Makes me sick. They don't even produce anything. They show up and warm their chairs with their fat buts and produce nothing, there is no commodity. No product, what are they getting paid for ?
We should force Government to use Six-Sigma and Lean Management techniques so we can layoff 75% of the workforce. Bloated workforces are in any public or civil service system.
I work for the state, my wife works for a Fortune 400 company. We hold approximately the same positions (mid-level management). She has a 401(k) that is matched to the tune of between 1 and 9% of her total salary (depending on how the company did last year), and a pension.
We use my health care benefits because they are far superior and I have a decent pension as well. My State job has better medical coverage for employees than her Fortune 400 job does.
The taxpayers (me included) are getting ripped off!
They are getting paid for the SERVICES they provide.
Picking up your garbage is a SERVICE.
Plowing your street is a SERVICE.
Responding to your 911 calls is a SERVICE.
Repairing your streets is a SERVICE.
There isn't a tangible product produced.
Show me a service where the cost has gone down over the years. Work on your car? Nope. Go to the doctor/dentist? Nope. Getting your hair cut or styled? Nope. Plumbing or electrical work? Nope.
Local government employees work their asses off your for. You've just too smug, wanting everything but not wanting to pay for it.
Here is the bottom line-
The only way to save real money is to reduce employees. That is a standard for business during a reorganization. Employee wages and benefits are extremely costly and often job positions, especially in the public sector, are not justified.
Lets cut some services.
Im happy to see the city is going with automatic recycling pick-up. This is an automated system that will eliminate labor (reduce wages and benefits)
These are the ways we can reduce our taxes. Reduce labor costs, reduce taxes. That goes for all forms of civil service jobs. From the Federal employees straight down to local city workers and teachers.
"Local government employees work their asses off your for."
Here is a real life example. Last summer just down the street, a large piece of concrete was cracked and broken. A city crew came out to replace it. 3 trucks, a van and a pounding unit. There were at one time 6 men standing in the street, looking at the cracked concrete. I timed them. They stood there and talked for 18 minutes. Then one guy got in this pounding tractor and started to bust up the concrete while the other 5 guys stood and watched him. Finally after about a half hour a nother tractor showed up. This guy used his scoop and started to fill one of the dump trucks. The 5 guys still stood there, some smoking and they were all talking and laughing. When the truck was full, the one driver took off and another dump truck took its place.
Never did the guy who drove the van do anything productive. The guy in the pick-up truck didn't do anything accept paint the street with pink paint before they started pounding it. He stood and talked for the whole time and all he did was spend 2 minutes painting the street where it was needed to be replaced. I'm no genius but just looking at how that operation was run I could stream line that whole process in about a minute. These guys did a nice job, but there was NO REASON that they needed that many people and that most of the time they weren't even working.
Funny how these blogs always turn into a bitch session about employees.
The bottom line is, nothing is going to change. The griping has been going on for several years. It's funny how no one gets up in front of councils or boards and has anything to say about employees wages or benefits. Anything that is said is done anonymously. That accomplishes nothing.
Furthermore, the governing bodies have decided that, for the most part, services with remain status quo. Wages continue to rise a little bit each year. There's nothing much that's going to change, so we might as well find something else to complain about.
I thought this was a thread about the schools, anyways.
Nothing is going to change. That was Krause's opinion too.
He said "The state blackmails districts into the program by giving them a little more money--which of course does not meet the full cost of hiring the extra teachers or maintaining the extra classrooms. Unfortunately, the bang for SAGE bucks does not justify the extra cost."
Our tax dollars don't justify the costs.
I think that with the Dems going to win in November, Unions have nothing to worry about, even though they will win on the theory of CHANGE.
BTW...I don't appreciate to see that I pay my hard earned money to city services that allow high paid street workers to stand around and smoke, and not work for most of their shift.
If that story was true, there is a problem that needs attention!
One person makes a post about city employees fixing a road, one that cannot even be substantiated, and all of sudden all city employees are lazy and a waste to taxpayers.
Do you really believe that? I don't. If you're going to make the claim, offer us some more information.
Where did it happen? When?
Did you get numbers of the trucks that were there? They are all identified.
How many different times, at different sites, did you witness this kind of behavior?
What credentials do you have making you an expert in street reconstruction?
What kind of work was being done that made the number of people there inappropriate?
Who are you? Anonymous accusations don't carry any weight.
This post is as laughable and incredible as the rest: "Anonymous said...
We should force Government to use Six-Sigma and Lean Management techniques so we can layoff 75% of the workforce. Bloated workforces are in any public or civil service system.
February 1, 2008 7:59 PM"
The author of this comment is a liar like the other anonymouses on here bitching about city workers and teachers. Anyone who understands Six-Sigma and Lean management principles will tell you they're about creating greater efficiencies and smarter ays of doing things, not just as you indicate "laying off 75% of the workforce." In some cases NO ONE got laid off. It just goes to show how the propoganda you keep trying to have us swallow is getting the better of you. You're as bad as Michele Monte the school board candidate who spews off at the mouth about ficticious things and stuff she's misunderstood but that she wants us to believe are fact.
Oh, and BTW Anon. 7:59, your beloved Six Sigma and Lean may be a thing of the past because they're not so great after all. Check out this article from Business Week which I think is much more credible source than you.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038409.htm
Anonymous, if you want us to believe something, give us something to back it up. Otherwise stop blowing hot air. We've got plenty of that with some political candidates.
For some reason the whole link didn't come through in the first post. Let's hope this works better.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038409.htm
Guess not. Well here is the article in it's entirety.
Six Sigma: So Yesterday?
In an innovation economy, it's no longer a cure-all
At Home Depot (HD ), ousted Chief Executive Robert Nardelli was devoted to Six Sigma. "Facts are friendly" was a favorite mantra of his, neatly summing up his managerial point of view. Six Sigma was used to streamline the check-out process and strategically place vacuum-cleaner displays, for example. But by-products of the program irritated many at the retailer's stores, who thought its constant data measurement and paperwork sapped time given to customers. The bottom line on Nardelli's tenure: Profitability soared, but worker morale drooped, and so did consumer sentiment. Home Depot dropped from first to worst among major retailers on the American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2005.
Now Nardelli's successor, Frank Blake, another General Electric (GE ) alumnus, is dialing back on the Six Sigma rigor, giving more leeway to store managers to make decisions on their own. The story unfolding at Home Depot echoes closely what's happening at 3M after James McNerney's reign. There are signs of a similar pullback at many companies, even at GE, where CEO Jeff Immelt is trying to reprogram his management ranks to innovate around a theme of "ecomagination," with mixed success. And at Young & Rubicam, where GE board member Ann Fudge flamed out as CEO after she tried to sell ad execs on Six Sigma.
So has the Six Sigma moment passed? "I think it has," says Babson College management professor Tom Davenport. "Process management is a good thing. But I think it always has to be leavened a bit with a focus on innovation and [customer relationships]." The discipline was developed as a systematic way to improve quality, but the reason it caught fire was its effectiveness in cutting costs and improving profitability. That makes it a powerful tool—if those are a company's goals. But as innovation becomes the cause du jour, companies are increasingly confronting the side effects of a Six Sigma culture.
Six Sigma clearly had a profound impact on the corporate world. According to the American Society for Quality, 82 of the 100 largest companies in the U.S. have embraced it. And that's quickly trickling down: Six Sigma consultants are as busy as ever as the quality-improvement system migrates from its traditional focus on U.S. manufacturing companies to the financial-services industry and abroad. In recent years, companies as varied as DuPont (DD ), Textron (TXT ), Bank of America (BAC ), and Sun Microsystems (SUNW ) have all made Six Sigma bedrocks of their culture. Hybrid formulas have spawned, such as Lean Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma. WCBF, an organization that organizes conferences about the process, has 14 events planned this year, up from seven last year.
But as its popularity endures, the notion of Six Sigma as a corporate cure-all is subsiding. Once a company has done the requisite belt-tightening, "the strategic needs of a business change," says Robert Carter, a consultant at defense contractor Raytheon (RTN ). Kick-starting the top line becomes paramount; the best way there apart from an acquisition is innovation. At Raytheon, Carter is leading a Six Sigma effort to promote innovation. But while "most Six Sigma practitioners are very strong on the left brain, innovation very much starts in the right hemisphere," says Carter. Even he, a Six Sigma expert, acknowledges the "define, measure, analyze, improve, control" mind-set doesn't entirely gel with the fuzzy front-end of invention. When an idea starts germinating, Carter says, "you don't want to overanalyze it," which can happen in a traditional DMAIC framework.
Of course, Jack Welch has argued that a leader needs to single-mindedly inculcate Six Sigma into every corner of an organization. Should a CEO hedge and say, "Let's do both Six Sigma and also be creative," employees will tune out the part they don't want to hear. Welch has said that even if the concept is applied in areas where perhaps it shouldn't be, it'll be worth it in the long run. It can always be fine-tuned once the workforce gets it. Call it the break-some-eggs-to-make-an-omelette approach.
Problem is, you don't know which eggs you're going to break. When Steve Bennett left GE in 2000 to take the CEO post at software maker Intuit (INTU ), he was eager to roll out Six Sigma. But he did it gingerly, pilot-testing the quality-improvement tool in certain groups for a year to prove its worth. He was unsure of how a Silicon Valley company would react, given its associations with Six Sigma—"most of them bad," he says. So he cloaked the move under the benign-sounding banner of "process excellence," deliberately avoiding using the name Six Sigma. Says Bennett, "The term gives me an allergic reaction."
Wonderful post, 11:40. As someone who works in a lean environment I can also attest to the comment that it's not about cutting workers. There is an E-Newsletter put out specifically for those utilizing lean concepts, called Lean Directions. Here is one quote from it: "Nor was change about job elimination. Wise management firmly believes that getting lean is not about cutting heads, but about working smarter to preserve heads and even grow the workforce. It's about being more efficient -- driving costs down and improving customer service so that the company can grow."
I concur that those that speak about lean as experts need to do more than just utter their own beliefs about what it is. To do anything less is anything but credible or responsible and in the end they're doing a disservice to the lean concepts as they were intended.
The post about the need to better manage city labor reminds me of a phrase Mike Huckebee often mentions. "If you're not taking flak, you're not over the target" With all the attempts to minimize people you voice their displeaser with the union wage and benefit situation, they must be over the target, cause the union brotherhood is giving him alot of flak.
I forget. What place is Mike Huckabee in?
Typical union worker. forgetting the obvious.
7:55, let me guess who you're going to vote for.
Fred Thompson.
He is the only candidate you know because he was in the movies.
That's where you get all your political knowledge..second run DVD's.
Sit back in your doublewide, crack a Blatz and pop in an old Fred movie and get your dose of politics.
As a city employee, all I can afford is a double wide and Blatz. And I can't watch DVDs, cause I can't afford them. It's reruns of 'Stripes' on Beta for me.
Make sure to stay away from the chips, dip and donuts though.
We taxpayers pay 95% of your healthcare and we don't want to pay for a for a cardiac catherization for you.
Webster's dictionary says that a transformation is the result of a change in form or appearance. It's like what happened when Bruce Banner turned into the Incredible Hulk, or when Cinderella put on the glass slipper to become a beautiful princess.
Wikipedia lists a synonym as metamorphosis, what happens to a caterpillar when becoming a butterfly. This is unlike the Hulk and Cinderella, where they both went through a dramatic change, but eventually returned back to their original form.
When an organization thinks of a lean transformation, it must be thinking metamorphosis, dramatic, but real and long-lasting changes to the very "cellular structure" of the entire organization.
Anything less will mean disappointment and returning to the way things were.
Success in any marketplace will belong to those organizations that have eliminated waste from their processes and added value to what they provide to their customers. No question, no doubt about it.
To become a lean organization, you need a plan. The best approach is to develop a phased lean transformation. Some companies want to jump right in, but that is the wrong approach. There are six phases to a successful lean transformation.
• Call to action: This is the defining moment when a the business owner, CEO or board of directors makes the sincere, deep down in the gut statement about lean. It must be demonstrated by a variety of messages and methods that clearly show commitment to all employees and the outside world. Word and deed must match.
• Lean education: Too many organizations have made the step forward in their lean journey, enticed by big improvements, but failing to recognize the amount of work required to obtain those results. Upper and middle management should read selected books and articles on lean, attend conferences and seminars, and approve an adequate budget for education of the rest of the employees.
• Value stream mapping: A value stream map is a visual representation of the organization and its work flows. Typically maps are developed of the current situation within the company and then a future state is developed by a lean process team. From that, an implementation plan to continue the lean progress is made and approved.
• Initial lean projects: It is good to select some smaller process to begin use of the tools and making employees feel more comfortable with them. It also helps to select a project that will have an immediate and noticeable improvement result.
• Intermediate lean projects: Small pockets of lean and excellence will be showing up from phase four and they will drive your ever-increasing "appetite" to do more with more complex processes. Go for it, however, you may want to consider additional lean education for employees at this point.
• Advanced lean projects: This phase never ends. All of the low-hanging fruit are now gone and it becomes more difficult to squeeze out more waste. But by now, the vastly improved flow of processes in your organization should be giving you greater capacity and more success.
Huh?
That was a wonderful "lesson: in lean manufacturing but it's hard to tell what your position is. The fact is lean does not automatically equal job reductions and in fact is more often than not job creation because of business growth following improved efficiencies.
Even though I can't blame the teachers and city workers for fighting for their jobs, I too feel that there is fat to be cut. I think we have duplication of services in the city and that teachers in general are coddled to. Thats just my feeling. I know not anything will change anytime soon because these unions are so powerful and with it almost a given that a Democrat will be elected in November to the Whitehouse, I can't see any changes happening soon. We taxpayers will just have to continue to pay these people-sad but true.
The entire education system in this state needs an overhaul.
There is one solution, that is win/win, but our State's Teachers Union have shot it down. That is using Television and computers to teach.
Our state can hire the absolute best teacher possible, than transmit this person to classrooms all over the State. While the kids are watching the monitor or computer screen, Teachers aides would be in the room to answer questions or offer help. This was tryed in Milwaukee and the Teachers Union, and Burmeister stopped it.
I guess it makes too much sense.
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