Friday, January 22, 2010

If You Go -- Public Meetings on Decatur Schools Mess

The MSD Decatur Township now plans to hold its public school board meetings :

January 27 -- 4:00 to 6:00 pm -- the School Board will hold a public meeting intended for staff comments about Superintendent Don Stinson's 'Fiscal Restructuring Plan' -- Community Room of the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center on Mann Road.

later that night -- 7:00 pm -- the School Board will hold a public meeting intended for public comments about the Plan -- Decatur Central High School cafeteria.

January 28 -- 6:00 pm -- the School Board will hold a work session on the Plan -- no location mentioned, so it might be the Board room in the Central Office.

February 11 -- 7:00 pm -- the School Board will hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting -- again presumably in the Board room in the Central Office.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your excellent comments. There is no doubt that Stinson and Baer are responsible for this financial disaster. Likewise, Stinson was warned several years ago about much of this "risky business."

There are several savings that could "save" teacher jobs. For example the addition of the cost for a family health insurance policy to all administrators' contracts costs the district not only the cost of the insurance but the district pays Teacher Retirement Fund payments for this amount. Someone needs to see the cost of Jeff Baer's retirement package - there was action several years ago to remove this unfunded liability by buying VEBA accounts (Baer will get a family policy paid for by the district until he is age 65 for a cost over $150,000 paid by the district plus he gets more).

Is it true that Stinson has been allowed to pick his successor when he retires (Sullivan)????

Had Enough Indy? said...

I see that Doug Greenwald, the new school board member, asked for more information about Baer's severance package. I am hoping it is disclosed to the public and the press at the next board meeting.

I fully expect Stinson to announce his retirement as soon as the plan is adopted by the board. Much more fun to run up the credit cards than to figure out how you will be able to pay them off.

The board that is sitting at that time will be the ones who decide a successor. Not Stinson. His recommendation may carry weight with this board, but not necessarily so with the next one. It would be a complete outrage for a departing board to pick a superintendent for an entering board. They could pick an interim to handle day to day business until the new board got someone else picked as a permanent replacement.

The next Superintendent will have to be a very talented person. This mess is huge.

Just curious, who 'warned' Stinson? If you can say.

Class size and teacher retention are critical issues. Every stone must be overturned before increasing class size (which results from teacher layoffs). It can be accomplished. But Stinson will have to give up his plans to move out of the tiny Central office and he'll have to sell off the property they hoarded - even the ones they overpaid for.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, Superintendent Stinson's brother, Ron Stinson who is an auditor with the Department of Local Government Finance could shed some light on why so many things were overlooked at Decatur.

Had Enough Indy? said...

anon 10:40

I could find no Ron Stinson at the SBOA. There was, however, one listed as an 'Assessor Auditor' for the Indiana Department of Local Goverment Finance. Can't say what that person does for the DLGF, nor if it is Stinson's brother.

I'll try to find out if he participated in any of the DLGF hearings involving MSD Decatur Township.

Anonymous said...

Please do not be distracted by the perks and other things that the fat cats are getting, someone needs to really look into the illegal activites of the administration!!!

Had Enough Indy? said...

anon 5:08 -- with all due respect, I am going to ask that we stick to verifyable information here. If you do have verification, please contact me. I will hold your identity private.

Anonymous said...

It is time to get rid of the "Good Ole Boys concept."