Fast times at Cleburne ISD with school board member discounts!

If you pay taxes that go towards Cleburne ISD, you really need to go to the school board meetings, get up at the podium to have your 5 minutes to speak, and ask the school board, to submit, in detail, why they offered the new applicant for Superintendent more money than the last regular Superintendent.  The last guy was making $145,000 a year, plus perks, plus a clause in his contract that got him an extra $110,000 when HE quit.  Your school board offered this new guy, who hasn't even held the position of Superintendent before, and has a PhD from an online school that is described as a 'diploma mill'... online..., $180,000 a year plus another $15,000 a year in perks.

If you can't do that, then maybe you should just try to get into a poker game with any of them, because I'm  thinking they don't have very good poker faces, and are very bad about placing overly large bets.  "$180,000, plus perks.. all in!  Oh crap, I've only got  a pair of 2's!  Fold! Fold!  "

If you can't do THAT, just try and do business with them!  "Mr. School Board President, I know this car has a sticker price of $20,000, but would you like to make an offer?"

     "Yes!  $34,000!  and not a penny less!  I'll TAKE IT!"

If you can't do THAT, perhaps you should take the portion of your tax money that is going to go to Cleburne ISD for the year, lay it out in a nice fireproof container, and BURN IT, because that's about all the good it is going to do with an administration and school board overpaying Superintendents and building $277,000 hot dog stands.  

Oh yeah!  Be sure and ask the school board, the administration, the local newspaper, and school groups like the PTA, when is that open house for the new $277,000 concession stand going to be held?  I'm sure all the local taxpayers want to see what their $277,000 bought.  I'd expect the thing to be 3 stories tall with gold toilets myself, but I don't think that's what the taxpayers are going to get.

Start going to those Cleburne ISD school board meetings folks!  It's YOUR tax dollars going to these boondoggles, and YOUR kids getting a poor education.

Introducing the CHS Titanic!

All of this is pretty self explanatory, did you know that your bond payments are guaranteed by the state of Texas?  So if you, the taxpayers 'default' on them, the state will pick up the difference.  Makes it a lot easier to get those bonds from the lenders!  Who wouldn't want to finagle the voters into passing multimillion dollar bonds and then have tons of someone else's money to play with?   So far this process has gotten you some very overpaid short-term Superintendents, and possibly the most expensive concession stand in Texas, at a price tag of ........$277,000!

Want to see something funny?  Go check out this new concession stand they're building at the middle school for $277,000, and then look across the street at... the other concession stand already there.  I'm pretty sure that one didn't cost $277,000 dollars though.  

Don't think these folks are screwing with the budgets when the sports departments run out of money?  Have 'em audited!  Of course, the last time that happend, the auditors stopped at 5% of the way through the books, because they'd already found that the Cleburne School District owed moneys totalling over $300,000 back to the state of Texas, and HAD THEY CONTINUED they would have broken Cleburne ISD financially.  So what did they do?  Well, they just stopped the audit!  No one got their hand slapped, no one got fired, no one went to jail.   

Did you hear the one about the Superintendent?

"Little Johnny, what's wrong?"

     "We had to learn using a scratchy chalkboard and hand me down books from Beaumont ISD!"

"Heavens, why?"

     "because our computer budget was given to the Superintendent when he quit!"

"Did you complain to anyone at school?"

     "Yeah, they sent me to the couselor's office, but all he could talk about were their nice new matching chairs! Whaaaaaa...."

"Little Johnny, you can learn from this!  When you get older, YOU TOO can get a job that pays you 'go away' money when you leave!   Remember, this lesson has been... For..the..CHILDREN!"

I could go on, but it's been a long day where I've been out getting paid on what I produce, as opposed to what I can screw people out of in a contract...   Get yer butts over to those school board meetings folks!  It's your money they're wasting and your kids getting a questionable education!  

Addendum: speaking of education there.. ask around about the Spanish teacher there that may speak Spanish well, but he doesn't  speak .... English.  Of coure, this makes it difficult for the kids to learn anything other than from pointing and screaming, which is why a disproportionate number of that teacher's students are bitching about -failing-, but it must be ok, because your administration actually RE-HIRED this teacher, even after numerous complaints.  The really smart kids?  Yeah, they transferred out of his class at the beginning of the semester.. PRONTO!

Rearranging the deck chairs on the RMS Titanic!

Folks, I can't make this stuff up.  Other than assuming Dan Quayle has enough on the ball to match furniture, but then again, maybe he's gotten sharper over the last 20 years!

Regardless!  Yes, your school board vice president's husband's engineering company does do work on school projects, which is a conflict of interest.  New Jersey Labor Unions never had it so good.  Though I do get a lot of this information verbally over the phone from relatives in Cleburne, usually in the format of "You are NOT going to believe this! (enter stupid thing here)!"  most of this stuff is easily verifiable through the newspaper and other sources down there, all of which are online.  

New counselor's office chairs?  Really?  Your new Superintendent there in Cleburne just got a contract with a base pay $35,000 higher than the LAST guy, at... wait for it... $180,000 a year.  Base Pay.  Additional perks?  $15,000 on top of that.  Matching chairs for any office are the last thing anyone should worry about, because I think you guys just ate up a major portion of your new chair budget, new bus budget, and new books for the kids budget all in one swipe there.

So far, I haven't heard of any of your superintendents in the last decade staying for any amount of time.  So if history has shown that they're all gonna leave in a few years after they get 'the big score' from Cleburne ISD, why, why, WHY??? would you pay ANY of these guys these ridiculous figures?

Is there anything in the new guy's contract that stipulates something along the lines of, if he leaves in less than 5 years, the ag department will run him in line when they castrate the springer bulls for the FFA kids?  Or does he have a deal like the last guy, where, if he decides to quit, in a year or two or three, he gets $110,000 as a parting gift just for the hell of it?

Also, if I remember correctly, this guy hasn't been a Superintendent before, he was just the NUMBER 2 guy at his previous gig.  Why in the world would you pay him MORE than the last guy?  or the guy before that?

Folks, if you think all of this is just silly, start asking the administration and school board about upcoming plans to try and demolish some of Cleburne ISD's classic, older, school buildings built in the 50's and 60's when construction was on a par with the Egyptian pyramids because of the fallout shelters in the basement, and replace them with new, more expensive but more cheaply made 'modern' buildings!

and why?  Well, we didn't maintain them!  ..and why?  Because we shuffled that budget money over to something else that was more important! (like the football program?)

Folks, when a tornado comes through, your kids are going to be much better off in a fallout basement hardened against Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with nuclear warheads, than standing in the hallway of a 'modern' cheap building watching as the roof flies away.  Oh yeah, cartoon coming soon, stay tuned!

Once again, if you live in Cleburne, pay taxes that go to Cleburne ISD, or have kids that go there, start going to those school board meetings!  Administrators and School Board telling you everything is rainbows and unicorns?  Double check anything they say.  Heck, feel free to double check anything -I- say, but just get to those school board meetings!  It's YOUR money, and YOUR kids!

Overpaid!

You know folks, any pay scale is based on what what someone is willing to pay for a service, and what someone is willing to do for that pay scale.  Heck, sometimes that pay scale is even based on job performance!

Right now the Cleburne ISD administration has an interesting history of utilizing this theory when it comes to Superintendents.  

In case you were not aware, the last Superintendent, a Mr. Miller I believe, decided that he was going to look for employment elsewhere after three years on the job at the head of Cleburne ISD, and as well he should have, considering the state of education at Cleburne ISD, when compared to the rest of the state, has its numbers rattling right around the bottom of the barrel of Texas State Education (there's a good cartoon idea!  I'll start looking at barrel pictures right after this...).  Maybe that's why folks are moving their kids to Joshua and Grandview ISD's when given the opportunity?

At $145,000 base pay per year, plus the $110,000 settlement he received from the school when -HE- decided to leave, at least he hopefully wasn't too stressed about having to make the change.  For all of you who work by the hour, that's a base pay, figuring 2000 hours a year (Did he get summers off? ), of $72.50 an HOUR, not including the $110,000 go away money he got when he decided to leave.   How many of you that are paying taxes that go into the coffers of Cleburne ISD are making $72.50 an hour?  How many of you have a clause in your employment contract that you get most of a years pay for nothing if YOU decide to quit?

Of course, Miller was only replacing Ronny Beard, the previous Cleburne ISD Superintendent who had only been at the helm of the great educational ship Titanic for TWO YEARS before he decided he was done.  Here's a homework assignment for all you folks.  Find out a definitive list of Superintendents for the last 20 or 30 years at Cleburne ISD, and their attendant payscales.  I'll bet you the results will be... illuminating.

Revolving Door?  Well, your administration and school board just swore in Millers replacement here the other day, how much is he getting paid?  What is his accountability?  Is he going to get the equivalent of a nice Ferrari sports car, or a new house, or a Presidential golf vacation, when HE decides to leave?  Unlike the Federal Reserve (even thought there is nothing Federal, and certainly nothing pertaining to keeping a Reserve about it!), which can just print up money as it needs it, YOU guys don't have that option.  So, this is REAL money your administration and school board are handing to these guys.

Let's talk about pay scales..

A Colonel in the U.S. Army brings down about $70,000 a year.  This is a guy with hundreds of people in his sphere of responsibility, millions ( or billions ) of dollars in hardware he's responsible for, and, oh yeah, he's supposed to command this marching, flying, rolling, pile of infrastructure while being SHOT AT in a COMBAT ZONE.  But.. he's only worth $70,000 a year.  That's ok, though, because really, who goes into the army to make the big bucks, right?

What about a modern machinist in manufacturing, who is just as much computer programmer as machinist, working for auto and plane manufacturers, whereby if he makes a mistake millions of dollars can be lost and future lives may be at stake in the product he's building that may be in service for decades?  $50k to $80k a year.  Eh, I'm sure that years of experience and on the job training could be picked up by just anybody..

General Practioner M.D.? Aha!  There's a guy who's bringing in $140k to $200k a year, saving lives, improving quality of life for all he works with.. of course, most of that is going to his college loans, but hey, he's worth every dollar if he's the guy who saves your butt from that word 'terminal'.

How much is a good Superintendent worth?  How do you value the position?  In most work environments, job performance impacts pay.  That Army Colonel?  If he does a bad job, well, best case, the treads come off the tanks, but worst case, he and everyone he works with is... DEAD.  There's motivation to do a good job for ya!  My opinion?  I'll bet if a person makes it to the rank of Colonel, they got there through excellent job performance.   Modern machinist?  Millions of dollars at stake on a job?  Yeah, job performance makes a difference in his pay!  How about your doctor?

Here is where you really test the value of your Superintendent.  If your doctor, ten years down the road, a young M.D. fresh out of medical school, tells you he graduated from Cleburne High School, do you stay in the room?  or do you go get a second opinion?

Here's a thought.  Maybe the Superintendent should be held ACCOUNTABLE for his job performance!  Of course, that is difficult when you guys change superintendents more than some banana republics change dictators, but still, that would be something to work on.  And paying these guys 6 times the local median wage, and then perks on top of that?  C'mon.  If you can't find someone who can do the job for only, say, THREE times the local median wage, maybe your guy shouldn't be in the hot seat because he can't budget or use a checkbook.  

Final thought... there are kids in countries like.. India, for example, that are going to school where the school is.. a wall.. and the kids are sitting on the ground.  And yet, those guys are kicking our kids butts at math and science, and becoming our doctors and scientists when they grow up.   Why is that?   Do you think THEIR Superintendents are making a base pay of $145k a year?  Or, if your superintendent was paid (assuming they stick around!) on the current level of success in Cleburne compared to the rest of the state, would the superintendent have a second job flipping burgers along with his students because he needed the extra income?

Start attending those school board meetings folks! It is YOUR money they are spending, and YOUR kids they are educating (or not!).

Budget Time! Pass it so you can see what's in it...

Budget Time!  And 5 minutes to do it...

You folks in Cleburne really need to start attending school board meetings, so that you can see the process they have for voting on budgets and bond info the size of the U.S. tax code.  The school board members will be given huge stacks of information that would take an office of lawyers weeks to go through, and then are told, 'You have a half hour to peruse this, and then vote on it'.  

Right.

Now, if your school board was doing it's job, these folks on the school board would tell the administration where they could stick it, and that they need 30 or 60 days to look through all this stuff before they vote on it.  But that doesn't happen.  And because it doesn't happen, your school board IS NOT acting as a set of checks and balances against an administration run amok.  This means your administration can ram through any fiscal policy it sees fit, which usually will result in things like, higher taxes for YOU, overpaid administrators (No!  Say it ain't so!), and TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SEVEN THOUUUUUSAND DOLLAR HOT DOG STANDS.  

C'mon people.  I thought Texas was full of folks who believe in public representation in local government.  Instead, the fiscal side of your school system there in Cleburne is being run like any banana republic dictatorship throughout history where the folks in charge pillage resources from the public (that'd be YOU) and then spend the money any way they want.   

Sure, you as a taxpayer, property owner, and voter may vote on that bond issue for $10 million, $100 million (that one's coming soon!), or whatever amount the administration feels they can get away with, but once that bond is approved, since the school board is basically sleeping on the job, YOU HAVE NO SAY IN HOW THE MONEY IS SPENT.

Ok little Johnny, here's the grocery money, now off to the store with you!  Aw, and then little Johnny comes back and you find out he spent all the money on candy and stuffed toy unicorns.  THAT is your current school administration and school board, folks.  

Start going to the school board meetings.  Ask questions about how taxpayer money is spent.  And bring a calculator, because as we found out recently, you can't rely on your local newspaper or your school administration or school board to give you the correct information on tax increases, as this tax bump being discussed currently was reported as only a 2% bump in property taxes, when in fact it will be over 12%.

Seeing as how Cleburne ISD has just about the lowest educational marks in the state, maybe that discrepancy can be explained away by all of those folks being Cleburne alumni?  I'm sure the administration would NEVER try to be misleading about how they plan to raise taxes or spend that money once they get it.

"That is NOT a wolf in sheep's clothing Fred, he's just an ugly sheep.  I think he's totally legit.  He does have awfully big ears though.."

Sheep!  

This is really just a continuation of the last post.  Basically, in other areas of the country, if a school board and administration were practicing misuse of taxpayer funds, you'd have people packing the school board meetings, administrators being fired or going to jail, and folks marching in front of the building with signs.  I have seen this process, and it works!  

An economist once said there are only 4 ways you can spend money.  

Your money, on yourself.

Someone else's money, on yourself.

Your money, on someone else.

Someone else's money, on someone else.

Let's admit it, if you're spending your money on stuff for you, usually you're going to attempt to be thriftier, than say, you inherited a chunk of change from Uncle Buck, bless his soul, and now you can get the truck you REALLY want!  Your money on someone else?  Yeah, they're not gonna get the top drawer stuff, unless it's really on sale.  But, when you get to spend someone else's money, on other people, something happens.  At that point, all efficiency goes out the window, we're just trying to get the job done, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!  And THAT, is government (and school!) spending.

Folks, right now, there in Cleburne, the school is trying to rustle through a tax increase that the paper accidentally misprinted, and the administration admitted was a misprint (oopsie!) of a little over over 2%... when in fact, it is a 12% increase in your property taxes.  What do they want the money for?  Well, first off, whenever you hear someone say, in that simpering tone when trying to elicit an emotional response, "It's FOR the... CHILDREN........."   HOLD.  ON.  TO.   YOUR.   WALLET.    In this case, however, it's for the teachers.  

That's awesome.  Every job I've ever held when working for someone else, I got raises based on productivity.  Cleburne ISD currently has just about the lowest marks for education IN.  THE.  STATE.  and you guys are about to give the teachers a raise.    When I grew up in Cleburne as a kid, it didn't look like the Soviet Union, but apparently that's the direction it's headed in, fiscally anyway.  Oddly enough, I don't think the Soviet Union is in business anymore.  

Oh! almost forgot!  This planned tax increase?  All of the money that it generates won't even stay in the school district!  Apparently a large portion of it is going to go back to the State of Texas as some sort of credit, which means that having a tax increase that size is LUDICROUS because the money won't even stay in the area.  

Really folks, if you live there, and especially if you pay property taxes, you really need to start attending the school board meetings to find out how they are going to A) increase your taxes and B) spend YOUR money.  

For those of you who aren't aware, just because you all voted to pass a bond for the school, doesn't mean you have any say in how the money is spent.  Oh, sure, the school board is there to be provide checks and balances against the administration spending YOUR money willy nilly, but if the school board were doing THEIR job, I wouldn't have too much to write about.  Not to worry, however!  Your school board, and the administration there at the school, have had enough boondoggles throughout their history to keep me busy for quite some time, even if I didn't touch on current events.  But I am going to touch on current events, such as this concession stand being built over at the middle school right now.  

The bond you passed, that included this concession stand, apparently referenced that the concession stand was to be built in the same manner and cost bracket as one already existing in the ISD.  If you ask the administration, they'll tell you, 'Well, the voters approved it!'.  Sure, they approved a concession stand like the one in the ISD at another location.  What they didn't approve was a $277,000 hot dog stand built by an out of town contractor with no local bid options. 

I want you to think about what all can be bought in Cleburne, Texas, for $277,000.  That's a lot of land, or a big house, or a yard full of high end sports cars, or even enough money to keep a marine division operating, in combat, for several hours.   But instead, you're going to get... a hot dog stand.  For $277,000.  Oh yeah, and the school  system already owned the property, so, this is just the building we're talking about.

If it costs $10 per trip to access the bathrooms in this thing, now you know why!