The real and unsung dirt and sleaze in many cities is the farking school board. Maybe you're fortunate enough to live in a locale with a board that isn't a crazed bastion of corruption, power-grabs, and batshiat insanity. I'm not.

Um. While the article may have a point.. just to note, its not uncommon for a city school district to spend upwards of $10k a year on one student. I'd say $20k a year is within reason.

so.. $100k a year for food + trips to professional meetings is what, 10 kids? and how big is the school district?

this just in,

bureaucrats shove money up their ass by the sackful in almost every area of government

Katie98_KT: Um. While the article may have a point.. just to note, its not uncommon for a city school district to spend upwards of $10k a year on one student. I'd say $20k a year is within reason.

so.. $100k a year for food + trips to professional meetings is what, 10 kids? and how big is the school district?


Depends on how old they are. 10 highschool kids might feed alot of administrators but 10 3rd graders wouldn't go very far

One Bad Apple: Katie98_KT: Um. While the article may have a point.. just to note, its not uncommon for a city school district to spend upwards of $10k a year on one student. I'd say $20k a year is within reason.

so.. $100k a year for food + trips to professional meetings is what, 10 kids? and how big is the school district?


Depends on how old they are. 10 highschool kids might feed alot of administrators but 10 3rd graders wouldn't go very far

Going for the K thru 5 kids is the best bet. On the whole you can get more for your buck, that means more thighmeat for everyone.

At my school meetings, everyone would get some a leg.

Katie98_KT: Um. While the article may have a point.. just to note, its not uncommon for a city school district to spend upwards of $10k a year on one student. I'd say $20k a year is within reason.

so.. $100k a year for food + trips to professional meetings is what, 10 kids? and how big is the school district?

$10k a year is not uncommon? Makes it the average then. When a school has a 40% graduation rate because of poverty, it's on low side of the curve. So $100k a year could be anywhere from 20 to 40 kids they're stiffing to get some fat cats expensive chow.

Or it could be the total for over 100 administrators for the year, which would boil down to a grand per person per year, which would be awesome.

Isn't pulling numbers out of our butts fun. Let's go solve the economic crisis for the whole world. I'll bring the astroglide, cause that one's gonna take a lot more numbers.

Stay Cool Babylon: Maybe you're fortunate enough to live in a locale with a board that isn't a crazed bastion of corruption, power-grabs, and batshiat insanity. I'm not.

I thought it was decided upon during the creation of the universe that those things would be the prerequisites for being on any school board anywhere.

Most of us don't even eat it. We're sick of it, and it's the same stuff all the time."

You're in a hole. STOP DIGGING.

Don't you all realize we aren't spending enough!! obviously these kids are failing because the buffets are not extravagant enough. We need to send more money to the school districts!!

Sometimes, it's steak fajitas and chicken wings.


Sometimes? It's BUFFALO.

MyRandomName: Don't you all realize we aren't spending enough!! obviously these kids are failing because the buffets are not extravagant enough. We need to send more money to the school districts!!

Yes, we should abolish the public funding of schools. That's the message you should take away from this.
Yup.

The poverty stricken schools got more money than my school did.

They used it to build buildings and give every kid a lap top.

Their graduation rate was half of ours. Ours was 74%

So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

If you think this is bad, look up the Judge Clark fiasco in Kansas City in the 80's.

I don't mind them spending this much money on the administrators, regardless of what the graduation rate is, provided that first:

1) All text books are up to date
2) All needed supplies for all classrooms are met
3) Everyone got paid
4) Extra circulars were available
5) There were enough teachers and classrooms

and you get the point.

The graduation rate to me doesn't matter because you're never going to get a 100% graduation rate. Some kids would rather not go to school and get an early start on popping out kids and living on welfare while selling drugs. Others would rather get their GED and leave the waste of time that is high school behind for college or work (I had a class mate in college who did that at the age of 16). As long as the schools make the effort, as long as they have the supplies and resources to educate, then I don't hold them responsible for have a 40% graduation rate because there has to be some effort on behalf of the students and some just don't give a damn.

Obviously the school board has to travel to discover methods and ideas on how to improve the lot of their schools. They sure can't find it locally. Doesn't hurt too much to feed them either.

Poverty stricken areas typically have lower graduation rates than more affluent areas.

Maybe if Buffalo, NY had a better economic base, more jobs, industries, etc., graduation rates would get better. Can't hang everything on the school board, teachers, administrators, parents, and students if Buffalo is just plain depressed.

100k for 9 school board members. That's like $11,000 per guy.

$33,000 of that was for food and drinks for meetings. So each board member got $3,600 for lunches per year, about $70 per meeting, per person. That's probably a little high, $20 per meeting per person sounds more reasonable, but its certainly not absurd.

Of the travel, they were paid $67,000 to go to 11 different conferences and lobbying events. If every board member went to every event, that comes to about $675 per member, per trip. Any farker here who has had to travel for a job can attest, when you factor air fair, hotel, and a modest per diem, $675 per trip is pretty cheap. In all likelihood, half of the board members or less went to each trip, but that still amounts to around $1350 per trip, per member. That, I would say, is probably average costs to attend a conference.

You know, I'm sure there's places where they could cut, but when you break down the numbers I'm not seeing any definite waste here. This would be reasonable for mid-level managers in the private sector, and for the top executives in an organization, it is some serious penny pinching.

Fast Thick Pants: So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

You can eat on $44 a month? What the hell are you eating, and have you ever come down with scurvy? Seriously, will that little cash even cover a month's worth of ramen?

The Tony Danzas: Fast Thick Pants: So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

You can eat on $44 a month? What the hell are you eating, and have you ever come down with scurvy? Seriously, will that little cash even cover a month's worth of ramen?

When I was a poor college student I could pull that off. Store brand only, lots of Kool-Aid, catch the right specials, buying in bulk. When I became a totally broke college student, I used the food banks.

The Tony Danzas: Fast Thick Pants: So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

You can eat on $44 a month? What the hell are you eating, and have you ever come down with scurvy? Seriously, will that little cash even cover a month's worth of ramen?

Milk and potatoes, with a daily vitamin, will stave off scurvy and malnutrition for a *very* long time.

I loved the in-depth reporting on the exact contents of the grocery bag.

Journalist is probably getting paid by the word.

Business travel sucks, you're away from home and have to spend more money on food than normal because you don't have access to your own kitchen. I just took a $3000 2 week trip to Italy on the company dime and I didn't enjoy a minute of it. The last thing I wanted to hear about when I got back was people biatching about how much it cost, since I didn't want to go in the first place.

Sure a school administrator may not be traveling internationally, but living on the road gets expensive which is why contractors get per diem, and employees fill out expense reports. The company/organization that wants you to travel should cover the real cost, and its not fair to penalize people for perceived extravagance without more details. Funny how everyone supports workers' rights except when its the people at the top.

They've spent $100,000 over the last year and a half? That's not all that impressive considering it covers their entire food/travel/per diem budget.

Edsel: They've spent $100,000 over the last year and a half? That's not all that impressive considering it covers their entire food/travel/per diem budget.

It was a damning expose, for sure. $300/week for food? Shocking. I don't know how many board members there are, but it can't cost more than a couple bucks per person per meal (and is probably much less) with that kind of budget.

Top four members in spending on trips were black females.

/ if that kinda thing matters to you

Fast Thick Pants: So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

I'm expected to work through lunch. You don't see my employer hiring a caterer for me every day at noon. Brown bag it, dumbass.

How has this not devolved into a treatise on teacher unions?

Former board President Marlies A. Wesolowski, for instance, says programs such as full-day kindergarten and the Emerson School of Hospitality were the result of board members seeing successful programs in other districts.

You have GOT to be shiatting me. Like full-day kindergarten is such an amazing innovation they had to go on a junket and see for themselves? I should show them the bread I've got in my pantry. It's sliced!

That'll be $500 per board member for the consulting fee.

Obviously we are not spendig enough on education:

"Switzerland and the U.S. spend the most, with average annual outlays per student of more than USD 11,000. At the other end of the scale, Mexico and the Slovak Republic spend around USD 2,000 per student per year. The drivers of expenditure per student vary across countries: among the five countries with the highest expenditure per student, Switzerland and the United States are two of the countries with the highest teachers' salaries at secondary level of education whereas Austria, Denmark and Norway are among the countries with the lowest student to teaching staff ratio.
Spending is not necessarily a guarantee of higher quality in terms of education, though: Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and New Zealand all have moderate expenditure on education per student at the primary and lower secondary levels but are among the countries where 15-year-olds perform strongest in key subject areas."

citation provided:

OECD's annual Education at a Glance. (new window)

Great Janitor: I don't mind them spending this much money on the administrators, regardless of what the graduation rate is, provided that first:

1) All text books are up to date
2) All needed supplies for all classrooms are met
3) Everyone got paid
4) Extra circulars were available
5) There were enough teachers and classrooms

and you get the point.

'zackly.

/teacher

Somebody has to say it..
Look at the breakdown of race vs trips taken.

GratuityIncluded: Top four members in spending on trips were black females.

/ if that kinda thing matters to you

i noticed that too... there was a kind of racial breakdown of the group and trip costs... don't know if that means anything...

Dear Buffalo News,

Stop Snitching.

What the Buffalo News has done is pointing the people on the school board who committed wasteful spending. The people who are spending the most are the African Americans on the board. This is just flat out racism at its worst. Jesse Jackson needs to lead a march in Buffalo protesting the Buffalo News and demanding the firing of those who wrote and contributed to the article on racism. There is nothing wrong here. We all spend and that includes Obama too.

One Bad Apple: Katie98_KT: Um. While the article may have a point.. just to note, its not uncommon for a city school district to spend upwards of $10k a year on one student. I'd say $20k a year is within reason.

so.. $100k a year for food + trips to professional meetings is what, 10 kids? and how big is the school district?


Depends on how old they are. 10 highschool kids might feed alot of administrators but 10 3rd graders wouldn't go very far

Approves of your snark:

GratuityIncluded: Top four members in spending on trips were black females.

It apparently means something to you.

Fast Thick Pants: So each board member gets $44.44 in food a week. Does not sound unreasonable to me, especially if these people are expected to work through dinner.

Sure, I can easily feed myself for a month on that much. But hey, spending this money on caterers will create-or-save jobs! If this is the wastiest item in the school board's budget, Buffalo must be a pretty cleanly run place.

Really? You can? How exactly to you eat on $11 a week?

$100,000 would pay the salaries of four teachers for a year.

It pays the salary of one do-nothing administrator.

It will never change, because the children who are educated by the system grow up to be voters deciding who runs that same system -- and they're all too stupid to investigate the people they elect to run that education system.

what_now: Really? You can? How exactly to you eat on $11 a week?

By cooking instead of eating out?

You do know that's what your kitchen is for, right?

bubbaprog: what_now: Really? You can? How exactly to you eat on $11 a week?

By cooking instead of eating out?

You do know that's what your kitchen is for, right?

I'm a pretty good cook. I bring my lunch every day, make my own coffee, etc. But unless I ate rice, beans and chicken for every meal, I don't like I could do $11 a month. I *know* I couldn't feed both of us for that, even if we gave up our chip habit.

/ I sound fat.

bubbaprog: $100,000 would pay the salaries of four teachers for a year.



FOUR! How much do they pay teachers where you Live?

Median Salary by Job - All K-12 Teachers (United States)



Salary Survey Report for All K-12 Teachers (new window)

hasty ambush: FOUR! How much do they pay teachers where you Live?

They started at $19,000/yr where I lived before I moved down here.

Your "median salary" incorporates the relatively high salaries made by veteran teachers in states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. That "Salary Survey" only takes pay grades into account, not actual numbers. There are about 10x as many first/second year teachers making $23,000/year as there are veteran teachers making $60k in the United States overall. That's why relying on "median" instead of "mean" for grade-based salaries is a bullshiat move.

bubbaprog: hasty ambush: FOUR! How much do they pay teachers where you Live?

They started at $19,000/yr where I lived before I moved down here.

Your "median salary" incorporates the relatively high salaries made by veteran teachers in states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. That "Salary Survey" only takes pay grades into account, not actual numbers. There are about 10x as many first/second year teachers making $23,000/year as there are veteran teachers making $60k in the United States overall. That's why relying on "median" instead of "mean" for grade-based salaries is a bullshiat move.

Teacher salaries MEAN across various industries. Private sector pays more as it should be but still higher than $23K.



Link (new window)

Great Janitor: I don't mind them spending this much money on the administrators, regardless of what the graduation rate is, provided that first:

1) All text books are up to date
2) All needed supplies for all classrooms are met
3) Everyone got paid
4) Extra circulars were available
5) There were enough teachers and classrooms

and you get the point.

Extra... Circulars...

/I'm not laughing at you
//But you did make me smile
/// Hint: It means 'outside' the curriculum :)

what_now: bubbaprog: what_now: Really? You can? How exactly to you eat on $11 a week?

By cooking instead of eating out?

You do know that's what your kitchen is for, right?

I'm a pretty good cook. I bring my lunch every day, make my own coffee, etc. But unless I ate rice, beans and chicken for every meal, I don't like I could do $11 a month. I *know* I couldn't feed both of us for that, even if we gave up our chip habit.

/ I sound fat.

STFU, fattie. We don't mean eat the $11.

obama's stimulus funds in action. Money can solve anything.

Scroll down at the bottom of the article and you'll notice that all of the biggest offenders are Black. Hmmm.

bubbaprog: hasty ambush: FOUR! How much do they pay teachers where you Live?

They started at $19,000/yr where I lived before I moved down here.

Your "median salary" incorporates the relatively high salaries made by veteran teachers in states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. That "Salary Survey" only takes pay grades into account, not actual numbers. There are about 10x as many first/second year teachers making $23,000/year as there are veteran teachers making $60k in the United States overall. That's why relying on "median" instead of "mean" for grade-based salaries is a bullshiat move.

You have it backwards, retard. Mean is more susceptible to skew from outliers. If the curve was that disproportionate on the low end, the median would be lower.