I'll be back with new posts soon. Meanwhile - what's on your mind? Time for a free-for-all.
Belated Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there !!!!
Mark Small posted a blog post
2 hours ago
We need to elect good, intelligent, thoughtful people to office. How do we get there given the entrenched interests that normally overrule the public interest? What's gone right recently? What's gone wrong recently? How do we improve our government by improving our choices for public office?
12 comments:
Since you haven't been able to do that since HEI was booted out, it seems that the township does not want what you are selling. Until you do that, this moaning and groaning will not solve anything except maybe make you feel better about yourselves.
June 27, 2010 9:10 PM
The above was posted by Yoda. There are many people who reading and thinking about info on this blog including Stinson and Board Members. Stinson has openly stated that he does not like the public to be in such discussion. He does not like Channel 6 asking questions. It has not been moaning and groaning but it has been about getting factual information to the public. There is much more factual information to be learned. The information about $$$$ to be paid to the administrators retiring will be very interesting to many.
Many admin retiring....heard Pelico, but who else?
anon 7:28 -- as I hear it, along with Gary Pellico, Candace Milhon-Baer, Pat Jones, Dave Rather, and Janet Larch. Of course, Jeff Baer's retirement was noted some months back when his replacement was hired. The retirement of Candace Milhon-Baer and Dave Rather were pretty much open secrets for some time, but just recently confirmed. In addition, Rosie O'Brien is retiring from the bus barn. I asked for the retirement packages offered to the administrators nearly three weeks ago, but I have not yet been provided those documents. The district appears to be trying to keep that information from the public.
Jones' retirement is to be as of September 1 so she can qualify for Social Security. Rather has said that he is eligible for Social Security. If Jones and Rather as well as Pellico are going to be consultants then their social security benefits limit the amount of $$ they can earn and also receive their social security unless they are age 70. Decatur will have to pay social security taxes on these people. Decatur will be dealing with the federal government on this one??????
I shudder to think what transportation will be like with all the changes and someone new in charge at the same time. I've had nothing but great interactions with Rosie.
i hear mr webster didn't get the sweetheart deal he was trying to get from mr stinson.he wanted school to pay for improvements to the old bus garage and he would then get to rent it for a dollar a year. so he could have had his baseball private lessons and clinics and practices there and made lots of money while school kept paying the bills. that must be why he kept singing stinsons praises.well guess baseball is not that important anymore.a lot of the kids on your team are pretty tired of you doing nothing but yelling at them.maybe you should retire and let someone else coach baseball
Webster should continue to sing Stinson's praises - he wrote on this blog that he will be receiving Indiana teacher retirement benefits AND getting paid as a part-time teacher = a very, very sweet deal. Agree that any coach's work outside of the high school season should be for free or supported by an organization separate from the school. The taxpayer dollars are for academics - period. Athletics needs to be self-supporting.
Mr. or Ms. Anonymous July 2 l:53 pm and 5:29 pm,
Your facts are wrong. I was not asking the school board or the community to pay any bills or make any improvements to the bus garage. I was going to pay all of the bills and pay for all of the improvement to the building. I estimate that it would have cost me 200,000 dollars to make the garage suitable for athletic development. I was going to offer a service to the community that would help the athletic development of all of our athletes no matter what the sport and no matter what the age. It would not have cost the taxpayer one red cent.
The school currently operates the Armstrong Pavilion and the school hires employees to run and administer the services rendered there. It pays all of the utilities and operating costs.The bus garage and associated buildings are standing there on our campus, and could be used to enhance our children’s athletes skills. I could care less whether it is developed privately ( My proposal ) or is run by the school board ( like the Armstrong Pavilion ) but I failed to see how a taxpayer financed building sitting on the schools campus should be used for storage when it could be used by the children of our community to improve their athletic skills.
I think that athletics and academics are the same thing. Athletics requires thinking skills and problem solving skills that are essential to success in the business world and in our social lives. Just because the learning takes place in an athletic setting does not demean the learning. Many of the CEO’s of Fortune 500 Companies participated in sports when they were in school . Schools should support learning regardless where it takes place.
My support of Don Stinson had nothing to do with my proposal. Even though my proposal was rejected by the school board by a vote of 5-0, I still support the efforts they are making with the small learning communities and other progressive initiatives that will continue us on a journey towards excellence.
I would like to write a few words on my sweetheart deal. I am 68 years old. I have been paying into social security all of my working life. I retired when I was 66 years old . In accordance with the social security law I am entitled to my full benefits and all other monies that I am able to garner while I am retired. I am a licensed teacher. After I retired I could have taken a teaching job with anyone and continued to draw my social security and teachers retirement. Decatur Township schools saw a need to hire me to teach 3 law Education classes as an independent contractor at near a beginning teachers salary. This allowed them to hire another teacher to teach social studies. In essence they got a two for one deal. I am a good teacher with over 45 years of experience. I work very hard in the classroom everyday I am there.
I am sorry that some of the players on the baseball team are tired of me yelling at them. I will try not to yell at them anymore. I will try not to raise my voice to anyone. I will be retiring soon from coaching baseball and then you can find a person to coach the baseball team who will not yell at the players and they can all live happily ever after in a yell free world.
Phil,
Thank you for the new information. Do you receive a beginning teacher salary for 3 classes or do you receive the $$ pro-rated as a teacher at the top of the teacher scale with 45 years experience? Please clarify. Thank you.
Phil,
Don't you have to retire at 70 to receive social security and make unlimited income?? Please let us know.
Agree you could have taught and/or coached anywhere after retiring from Decatur but don't most school corporations have teacher contracts that make it financially impossible to hire someone with 45 years of experience???
The amount of money that I recieve is a percentatge of the amount of money that a teacher with a masters degree at the top of the scale would receive. it amounts to about 54 percent of what a beginning teacher would receive. I hope you will respect what experience means to a teacher. I would hope that I am a little better than the average beginning teacher in the classroom. I would hope that you would see the benefit of having an experienced teacher in the classroom.
It is my understanding that I could teach until I die and still be able to make as much money as I could while still drawing social security.
If I could find someone who would hire me as a full time teacher It would still be possible to make a salary that would be at the top of the scale and draw full social security. If a person retires before they are 66 then they are limited to a certain amount of money earned before their social security is reduced.
My goal is to teach for fifty years. If I can stay healthy I still need 5 years in the classroom to fulfill my goal. I hope this post answers your questions.
Phil,
You are an excellent source of information and we live in a time when people want information. It is too bad that you are the one who has to supply this information. The details of the bus garage situation should have been openly discussed at the board meeting and details indicated in the board minutes. Neither one happened.
You deserve to be paid for your work as a teacher and a coach. The question is not about you, per se but did others (retirees) have the opportunity to do the same as you. There are others who would like to work 50 years. Unless jobs are posted and ALL applicants given fair consideration it puts people like you in a bad position.
There are so many "deals" that no one makes public (unlike yourself)that people don't know where to begin to ask questions and get information.
Your arrangement is minor compared to what will be learned about the central office administrator retirement packages!? Those people will be paid more $$ and they won't be coming to work every day.
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