remember we saved apollo 13 with a bunch of women in a room on sliderules
ibm COMPUTERS sn#1,2 were used as backup to the human mind

i doubt they(the woman with slide rules) had low teacher/aid to student ratios, pc's, time out rooms, school buses that stopped every 50ft, parents that hovered over ever chice they as children had to make

all this excess is where cost savings can be found  - the bad part is that all the employment dependance on the school district

without real jobs in the community that are better than those of public service things will never change

keep thoes low paid jobs coming METROPLEX

either the milk must sour or there must be a better teat to suck

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

I am focusing on doing something to make sure that the child is fed.   If there is neglect that is a matter
for CPS to deal with --- but there are parents who can't afford to put food on the table every morning.

It is FIRST the parent's job to make sure their child is fed.

SECOND, there are non profits/food pantries/churches/city mission that are 'suppose' there to help the 'underserved'...not to mention the lucrative welfare program schenectady/nys has..............that we can agree on, right?

THIRD, if they STILL can't feed their children.........it is pure NEGLECT and CPS needs to be called by the SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS FOR ABUSE!!

Come on, this isn't that complicated.

Consolidate, YES.  County-wide, NO!  Merge the administration, transporation and grounds for both Mohon and Schalmont.  This is where the savings starts.  Ask the teachers to take a one year freeze on their salaries, with a contract that says it won't even be requested again for the next five years.  Incorporate the other suggestions of enhanced fundraising (look for business sponsors and partnerships - GE, Golub, and others) for both sports and classroom costs.

This is a Rotterdam issue, while it may look appealing to go "county-wde" the demographics are completely different.  More importantly is that if it was county-wide, what township do you think would be picking up more of the financial obligation?  Yes, Rotterdam.  

Rotterdam school and town officials should be very careful not to sell out to a county-wide idea, we can fix our own problems with a little work.

County-wide school, NO.  Consolidate Mohon-Schalmont admin, etc.
County-wide police, NO.  Consolidate dispatch and booking.

I would prefer that we eliminate the metroplex board and return those powers to the directly elected county leg --- and place some kind of "sunset provision" on the  extra sales tax which is currently going to Metroplex.

I trust the voters to elect the people best able to manage economic development.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Quoted from CICERO

We at least get to elect the County Legislators who appoint the Metroplex board.    

And -- I ask -- how do you know that I don't have a problem with Metroplex's board not being elected directly by the voters ??????????????????????

If you go back a few months --- I posted that I believed that the Metroplex board should be dissolved and that the County Legislature should vote directly on all of the economic development matters which up until now have gone to the Metroplex board.
The only thing that I have siad positively about Metroplex is that I like some of the projects that they have funded.     So don't assume that you know what I am thinking or believe --- because you don't know.

So, you're saying that we elect people to a board that then selects people specifically for this board and you agree with that and say that it is what is bringing the renaissance back to Schenectady.  At the same time, you want the County Legislature to start making the decisions that they are currently choosing people that they want to make those decisions.  

So, what you're saying is that you don't like the decisions that are being made, so you want to make the people who appointed the people whoa re making the decisions currently to make the decisions straight out?  And how is that working for you?  How much have the County taxes come down in the past few years with the same people sitting on the Legislature?  

How much have they (and you) praised the job that the Metroplex is doing, but now you want them to make the decisions instead?  If it came to it, and they thought that the people that were on the Metroplex board weren't doing a good job, couldn't they just remove them from the board and appoint themselves?  Why don't they go ahead and do that now then?  Wasn't it just last year that Susan Savage stood at the corner of Curry and Altamont stating how well the Metroplex was doing while she pushed Angelo Santabarbara to the wayside?  So they agree with what's going on there, but you think they would make better decisions if they were the ones making the decisions themselves?  

Your argument just doesn't stand up for itself.

Quoted from bumblethru

It is FIRST the parent's job to make sure their child is fed.

SECOND, there are non profits/food pantries/churches/city mission that are 'suppose' there to help the 'underserved'...not to mention the lucrative welfare program schenectady/nys has..............that we can agree on, right?

THIRD, if they STILL can't feed their children.........it is pure NEGLECT and CPS needs to be called by the SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS FOR ABUSE!!

I have no problem with school meal programs.    Sorry, I just can't see any reason to let children go hungry in one of the richest nations on earth.     We could make our State Legislators -- like Hugh Farley pay for their own vacations instead of charging taxpayers $80,000 for their vacations to Hawaii and Disneyworld.    I would rather feed the hungry children than  send Farley on first-class vacation to sip mojitos by some pool at an expensive resort.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

I would prefer that we eliminate the metroplex board and return those powers to the directly elected county leg --- and place some kind of "sunset provision" on the  extra sales tax which is currently going to Metroplex.

I trust the voters to elect the people best able to manage economic development.

screw that -  keep the sales tax at the town level

Quoted from Zorro

Come on, this isn't that complicated.

Consolidate, YES.  County-wide, NO!  Merge the administration, transporation and grounds for both Mohon and Schalmont.  This is where the savings starts.  Ask the teachers to take a one year freeze on their salaries, with a contract that says it won't even be requested again for the next five years.  Incorporate the other suggestions of enhanced fundraising (look for business sponsors and partnerships - GE, Golub, and others) for both sports and classroom costs.

This is a Rotterdam issue, while it may look appealing to go "county-wde" the demographics are completely different.  More importantly is that if it was county-wide, what township do you think would be picking up more of the financial obligation?  Yes, Rotterdam.  

Rotterdam school and town officials should be very careful not to sell out to a county-wide idea, we can fix our own problems with a little work.


County-wide school, NO.  Consolidate Mohon-Schalmont admin, etc.
County-wide police, NO.  Consolidate dispatch and booking.

AGREED

Quoted from TippyCanoe

screw that -  keep the sales tax at the town level

With other communities considering raising their sales tax .. if we dropped the Metroplex tax ... we would hav ethe lowest sales tax in the area.     Having worked in retail,  I can tell you that when Schenectady raised its sales tax about 25 years ago --- it had an immediate NEGATIVE impact on retail sales.  

If we drop the Metroplex sales tax --- businesses would actually have a reason to open or expand  without extra incentives in the county  ----- the reasons .... more customer traffic.

Quoted from Zorro

Come on, this isn't that complicated.

Consolidate, YES.  County-wide, NO!  Merge the administration, transporation and grounds for both Mohon and Schalmont.  This is where the savings starts.  Ask the teachers to take a one year freeze on their salaries, with a contract that says it won't even be requested again for the next five years.  Incorporate the other suggestions of enhanced fundraising (look for business sponsors and partnerships - GE, Golub, and others) for both sports and classroom costs.

This is a Rotterdam issue, while it may look appealing to go "county-wde" the demographics are completely different.  More importantly is that if it was county-wide, what township do you think would be picking up more of the financial obligation?  Yes, Rotterdam.  

Rotterdam school and town officials should be very careful not to sell out to a county-wide idea, we can fix our own problems with a little work.

County-wide school, NO.  Consolidate Mohon-Schalmont admin, etc.
County-wide police, NO.  Consolidate dispatch and booking.

See by bringing up the subject of county-wide consolidation, I succeeded in getting some people to see the need to discuss  -- at the very least -- smaller scale consolidation.   I would suggest that  the 3 western towns in Schenectady County and the 3 western school districts ...   would be the most logical ones to look into shared service agreements and eventually  .... consolidation/merger.

We haven't solved the problem yet -- but at least we can agree to begin talking about possible solutions.

Also, I actually have a slightly different suggestion for saving money at the county level.   A little more than 200 years ago --- the state made due with less than a half dozen counties ....  

Within the past 10 years, Massachusetts  has pretty much eliminated the county level of government.

It might be time for the state to  look at the 62 counties and their boundaries -- and consider consolidating a few of them .. or   dissolving county governments altogether and replacing them with some type of "regional government entity".

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

With other communities considering raising their sales tax .. if we dropped the Metroplex tax ... we would hav ethe lowest sales tax in the area.     Having worked in retail,  I can tell you that when Schenectady raised its sales tax about 25 years ago --- it had an immediate NEGATIVE impact on retail sales.  

If we drop the Metroplex sales tax --- businesses would actually have a reason to open or expand  without extra incentives in the county  ----- the reasons .... more customer traffic.

But at the same time, you have so many of the same people working at the county level that say that we need that tax, otherwise we can't run all the programs that we have going right now.  The first thing is to cut the programs, and reduce the amount of the tax, to bring more people into the county.  I suggested at the time that some of our legislators were running for re-election, when they gave us the gas sales tax holiday, that they get rid of it permanently, but after election day came and went, it came back, as we couldn't afford to keep it gone.  I suggested that it may bring people to our community to buy gas, and stay and buy other things.  They didn't buy it as an example of how things could work, so they re-implemented the tax and we are where we are.  Any reduction in taxes in the area will bring additional money.  See the explanation of the Laffer curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve) and understand that we are WAY too far towards the 100% side in this county.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Also, I actually have a slightly different suggestion for saving money at the county level.   A little more than 200 years ago --- the state made due with less than a half dozen counties ....  

Within the past 10 years, Massachusetts  has pretty much eliminated the county level of government.

It might be time for the state to  look at the 62 counties and their boundaries -- and consider consolidating a few of them .. or   dissolving county governments altogether and replacing them with some type of "regional government entity".

They had actually suggested this a few years ago.  Due to the size of Schenectady County, I remember someone stating about getting rid of it, sending the western towns, Duanesburg, Delanson, Mariaville, to be part of Schoharie County, while I think Rotterdam and Schenectady would be part of Albany County, and Niskayuna and Scotia / Glenville going to Saratoga County.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

    Sorry, I just can't see any reason to let children go hungry in one of the richest nations on earth.    

On this we agree.... there is absolutely NO reason for any child to go hungry in this country.

There are non profits, churches, food pantries, welfare/food stamps available to all!!

So IF a child is going hungry, it is a clear case of parental neglect/abuse and should be reported to the CPS office.

I would certainly hope that the school districts are taking notice of this neglect and are reporting it as required by law.

Folks, not many children go hungry in the school system. There is free lunch and free breakfast provided for practically every child. Schools provide more than they ever had to before.

If a child is in school, is on welfare, has a social worker, etc, they ARE being fed at least twice a day.

Now, getting an education while in school ...well that's debatable.