Writing on the eFairborn Blog

[Jeff Jones]

If anyone is interested in writing on the eFairborn Blog let me know. If you have a story to tell or if you have written a story and need a place to put it so folks can read it, this may be the place for you. The only condition is that it has to be Fairborn related. And of course it has to the free from obsenities and can't enfringe on any copyrights. But other than that let me know if you are interested.
You too can be a writer.

And If you are not really sure how to write on a blog don't worry I can show you.

[connie1013]

Isn't that blog about dead?

[Jeff Jones]

Sure has been dead lately. Got anything interesting you'd like to post to it? Give me a good Fairborn story.

[happyfornow]

Is anyone interested in talking about the Fairborn Schools and our city? We have some major problems with the deterioration of our school system. We have had a declining enrollment of 1300 students in the past 5 years, a cost per pupil increase of almost $300, the administration has pushed and won a tax levy increase, then gave the administration and teachers a raise in addition to reopening Wright School after closing it to save money and then also gave several kindergarten teachers $13,000 raises. The High School cafeteria is charging our kids .60 more for lunches than Beavercreek. Our schools haven't met their Annual Yearly Performance Rating for 4 years in a row and if they don't make it again this year, the state will come in. They 'boast' of excellent schools in this ad today, but left out that the "Elementary" school is still in Continuous Improvement status. The reason for the 'effective' and 'excellent' rating are because they have hired numerous intervention specialists to bring test scores up, not because the teachers are doing it. Something is wrong. Our tax dollars are being used for this, not the teachers being paid to do it. The gas and food prices are going up and we are being gouged with continued levy requests and raising our kids food lunch prices. Let's talk about it here and figure out a way to fix it. There must be something we as citizens can do. We need a solid, strong, honest foundation of education for our kids.

[Pati]

Happy for now: I guess I have to ask you a few questions, because you seem very familiar with the details, but I am not. How much do your kindergarten teachers get paid?

How many hours do the teachers spend with them each day?

Do all the students do all of their homework?

What kind of support do their families give them?

What kind of budget does the Fairborn school system operate on? How much overhead?

You know, let me be the devil's advocate here for a moment. Children go to school daily for about nine months of the year. Some of them go to summer school. The books are free, or at least I believe they are. The school, of course, spends about sixty dollars a book for each subject in junior high and high school. If each child takes 5 subjects and PE, then they use about three hundred dollars a year in books. Well, there is your whole increase budget! How are you going to pay the teachers out of the rest of that money? There's nothing left! I think you said each student is about three hundred dollars. How do you heat, clean, maintain the buildings if there is no money after books. Books are obsolete in about three years, but some schools are forced to keep them for five. That's as long as the kids don't tear them up.

Now, most college educated professionals start at a minimum of Forty Thousand a year. That's the low end. If you have Thirteen hundred students, then each of them should be in a class of about thirty students to be effective. Oh, and the little kids need about a twenty to one ratio. So let's just say the teachers are about sixty in number. Then let's pay them the minimum entry level of a college graduate. Forty Thousand. That's about $2.4 million dollars. Of course, you can't be without clerical help and administrators, so add another million to that cost. Three point four million divided by 1,300 students gives an added expense of about $27 per students. So, where do you get that from? Now don't forget the school board, who wants to get paid. And how about the cafeteria staff, the nurse, the counselors, the librarian? There's a whole lot of expense to running a school.

Are you aware that most college level books cost about ninety dollars each these days? Did you check to see how many of your students are Title 1 recipients? Did you pull in any after school programs? How about busses? Do you have busses that deliver the kids?

Do you know why most schools are in continuous improvement status these days? Ever hear of NCLB? Well, if you read that act, you will see that the possibility of even making those numbers is a real stretch all over the country. How many ESL students do you have? Do you know they get special classes? Or did you ever hear of the Williams Act? Boy, it takes a lot to run a school these days. Your lunches cost how much? Most lunches and snacks add up to less than five dollars per day. What does it cost for you to eat lunch every day? You always have a choice of packing the lunch for your children.

Before you jump all over the levy, look at the expenses. This is a not for profit agency. The Teachers won't stick around and get the kind of experience they need to teach the students if there is no money. The private sector will steal them away!

How about the disruptive students who steal from the class time and keep the numbers out of reach? They usually do it because they are lacking attention at home, and gee...the parents blame the teachers. How much volunteer time do parents give to the school? Or paper and supplies for the teachers, who are likely taking it out of their pockets? Did your child come to school with his pencil today? Did he borrow one from the teacher and "forget" to bring it back? Did all of your parents hit the one cent sales at Office Depot or Staples or Target this year and donate all the supplies they bought for less than a dollar (twenty folders, 240 pencils, 5 rulers, 5 protractors, 60 pencil erasers and 20 hand fresheners=350 items for less than a dollar)? There is another one coming up soon, I suggest someone in your town organize a donation system for all the residents in Fairborn to give to the school. What a prize that would be! You have about fifty thousand people who could go and find these stores and stock the shelves of your schools for several years! Maybe a retired person, or a homemaker could work this out for the whole community. The numbers are staggering! Gas hasn't gone down for the teachers and the schools either. Yes, they need an increase. Yes that little sixty cents for that 200% increase in the cost of food seems like a lot, but where do you think costs are passed on to?

The schools need repair, the parents and community should be involved in it. And whether the kids improve or not in the AYP, the costs are going to increase for power, heat, maintenance, water, and staff. I am sure we are all hurting in our pocket books due to the increase in the cost of fuel, the cost of groceries, the cost of living period! Shoot, when I went to Fairborn Schools, the minimum wage was fifty cents an hour. Times change.

Why don't you start an after school study club for your schools, and save the taxpayers some of the cost of hiring intervention specialists. Most of these kids need to learn to read. Good luck, and I sure hope you vote for the levy!

[almolnar]

No. 1 Problem is our rep of schools
lets work to fix , not throw rocks

[almolnar]

Please find those who care about fairborn and get theme to talk and share their ideas at this site too!!