APS budget is unacceptable

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'd love a rundown of the cost of Syphax employees before and after Duran. It seems crazy how many positions he added but maybe it's actually not that much money.

First, one of the earlier post has a list of positions. Secondly, don’t forget they will cashing out tons of vacation days paid so that’s an additional cost.

Those paid days should be first thing on the chopping block.

how much money would that save?

That’s easily in the millions.

how about real numbers please?

APS won’t put out numbers on it.

I don’t work at APS, so this is just based on general budgeting/finance knowledge. If they are salaried employees there’s no direct incremental cost to extra holidays until the employee leaves and APS pays out unused vacation days that would have otherwise been burned. However, if the employees are less productive because they are working less, that cost can come through in the form of additional employees being needed or things just not getting done.

Thanks for explaining this. Can we just please stop talking about Syphax employees vacation time please? There are soooo many actual important issues that impact kids, and this is not one of them.

X1000. Thank you!!

Strongly disagree. It's a nightmare to deal with the central office as a school-based staff member, almost impossible to get a helpful response from anyone. So it affects morale and $ both.

No one has shown this affects the budget. At all.

So paying people for not working does not affect the budget?? It certainly affects the fiscal health of the school district.

Y'all just need talking points to keep the chaos going. It does not have to be Syphax versus teachers. You have the same employer. Yes, the 10 vs 12 month contracts are unfair but there's nothing that central staff can do to change that. You have to go to the VADOE for that.

Nobody has still said with any certainty how the holidays affect the budget aside from their own speculations and finger pointing.

Not true. Duran made the paid holiday decision and he can undo it.

Why does someone need to explain to you how three extra weeks’ of vacation for thousands of staff affect the budget, and operations? You can’t see that?

Because no one can put a number on it. It's just a few bitter people with an agenda.

Not hard to do. Why won’t syphax do it?

People are literally asking Duran to cut his own vacation days and those of all of those who work directly with him. I think there would need to be significant pressure from the school board or journalists to get any momentum. He's not going to change the policy unless forced and even then he'd likely adopt some compromise position to try to make everyone happy.

Cut the 3 weeks of vacation days that he gifted to himself and those who work directly for him you mean.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'd love a rundown of the cost of Syphax employees before and after Duran. It seems crazy how many positions he added but maybe it's actually not that much money.

First, one of the earlier post has a list of positions. Secondly, don’t forget they will cashing out tons of vacation days paid so that’s an additional cost.

Those paid days should be first thing on the chopping block.

how much money would that save?

That’s easily in the millions.

how about real numbers please?

APS won’t put out numbers on it.

I don’t work at APS, so this is just based on general budgeting/finance knowledge. If they are salaried employees there’s no direct incremental cost to extra holidays until the employee leaves and APS pays out unused vacation days that would have otherwise been burned. However, if the employees are less productive because they are working less, that cost can come through in the form of additional employees being needed or things just not getting done.

Thanks for explaining this. Can we just please stop talking about Syphax employees vacation time please? There are soooo many actual important issues that impact kids, and this is not one of them.

X1000. Thank you!!

Strongly disagree. It's a nightmare to deal with the central office as a school-based staff member, almost impossible to get a helpful response from anyone. So it affects morale and $ both.

No one has shown this affects the budget. At all.

So paying people for not working does not affect the budget?? It certainly affects the fiscal health of the school district.

Y'all just need talking points to keep the chaos going. It does not have to be Syphax versus teachers. You have the same employer. Yes, the 10 vs 12 month contracts are unfair but there's nothing that central staff can do to change that. You have to go to the VADOE for that.

Nobody has still said with any certainty how the holidays affect the budget aside from their own speculations and finger pointing.

Not true. Duran made the paid holiday decision and he can undo it.

Why does someone need to explain to you how three extra weeks’ of vacation for thousands of staff affect the budget, and operations? You can’t see that?

Because no one can put a number on it. It's just a few bitter people with an agenda.

Yes! Thank you. I feel for teachers/staff for the lousy step+cola, and everyone should be advocating for raising that, even if it means that well-cherished programs get cut.

I still haven't seen how taking away Syphax's vacations will contribute to more money going to teachers though aside from speculation. And I hate to break it to all of you, the progression of most careers is to admin with more money. Even I started out at the lowest end of the ladder and now work as admin... with more money and benefits. Why is public education different?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd love a rundown of the cost of Syphax employees before and after Duran. It seems crazy how many positions he added but maybe it's actually not that much money.

First, one of the earlier post has a list of positions. Secondly, don’t forget they will cashing out tons of vacation days paid so that’s an additional cost.

Those paid days should be first thing on the chopping block.

how much money would that save?

That’s easily in the millions.

how about real numbers please?

APS won’t put out numbers on it.

I don’t work at APS, so this is just based on general budgeting/finance knowledge. If they are salaried employees there’s no direct incremental cost to extra holidays until the employee leaves and APS pays out unused vacation days that would have otherwise been burned. However, if the employees are less productive because they are working less, that cost can come through in the form of additional employees being needed or things just not getting done.

Thanks for explaining this. Can we just please stop talking about Syphax employees vacation time please? There are soooo many actual important issues that impact kids, and this is not one of them.

X1000. Thank you!!

Strongly disagree. It's a nightmare to deal with the central office as a school-based staff member, almost impossible to get a helpful response from anyone. So it affects morale and $ both.

No one has shown this affects the budget. At all.

So paying people for not working does not affect the budget?? It certainly affects the fiscal health of the school district.

Y'all just need talking points to keep the chaos going. It does not have to be Syphax versus teachers. You have the same employer. Yes, the 10 vs 12 month contracts are unfair but there's nothing that central staff can do to change that. You have to go to the VADOE for that.

Nobody has still said with any certainty how the holidays affect the budget aside from their own speculations and finger pointing.

Not true. Duran made the paid holiday decision and he can undo it.

Why does someone need to explain to you how three extra weeks’ of vacation for thousands of staff affect the budget, and operations? You can’t see that?

Because no one can put a number on it. It's just a few bitter people with an agenda.

Yes! Thank you. I feel for teachers/staff for the lousy step+cola, and everyone should be advocating for raising that, even if it means that well-cherished programs get cut.

I still haven't seen how taking away Syphax's vacations will contribute to more money going to teachers though aside from speculation. And I hate to break it to all of you, the progression of most careers is to admin with more money. Even I started out at the lowest end of the ladder and now work as admin... with more money and benefits. Why is public education different?

So you want well-cherished programs to be cut before taking a look at rolling back 3 extra weeks of vacation for Duran and company? Got it.

[Anonymous]

Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

It's not a couple of days, but weeks of vacation. That does have a huge cost. Stuff doesn't get done. Teacher vacancies don't get filled. Substitutes don't get hired. Teacher questions to HR don't get answered promptly. Test scores are delayed being sent to parents. Bus routes aren't fixed. School capacity calculations and redistricting proposals aren't thought out or verified. Trainings for teachers are half assed. Curriculum decisions aren't fully vetted. And on and on. Syphax had huge issues with quality and responsiveness before giving themselves a bunch more vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

It's not a couple of days, but weeks of vacation. That does have a huge cost. Stuff doesn't get done. Teacher vacancies don't get filled. Substitutes don't get hired. Teacher questions to HR don't get answered promptly. Test scores are delayed being sent to parents. Bus routes aren't fixed. School capacity calculations and redistricting proposals aren't thought out or verified. Trainings for teachers are half assed. Curriculum decisions aren't fully vetted. And on and on. Syphax had huge issues with quality and responsiveness before giving themselves a bunch more vacation.

Can anyone show me real numbers of nah? TJHSST costs $2.5 mil.

Keeping Syphax staff in chairs for 3 weeks longer will bring more money for teachers... how? Do they get a second step? A 2% COLA? Show me the money.

I've had no problems with Syphax responsiveness in the past few years. Maybe because I'm nice to them? HR is a problem, but there's a lot of vacancies in HR. All of this other stuff listed is speculation and conjecture. Again.

Or are we just going to dance around in circles because of someone's talking points?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

It's not a couple of days, but weeks of vacation. That does have a huge cost. Stuff doesn't get done. Teacher vacancies don't get filled. Substitutes don't get hired. Teacher questions to HR don't get answered promptly. Test scores are delayed being sent to parents. Bus routes aren't fixed. School capacity calculations and redistricting proposals aren't thought out or verified. Trainings for teachers are half assed. Curriculum decisions aren't fully vetted. And on and on. Syphax had huge issues with quality and responsiveness before giving themselves a bunch more vacation.

Ok but these points are about efficiency and responsiveness of the employees. That's different from budget, which is what this post is about. Is there an actual cost in dollars or not?

[Anonymous]

The way I see it the cost savings from going back to 12 month employees using leave instead of automatic paid vacation for the added days is in the long run, upon retirement.
The payout increases will be big. Doesn’t save money now.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps we need fewer Syphax employees if they’re able to get their jobs done with so much leave. If each works more, perhaps they wouldn’t need as many people. That’s a decent cost savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

It's not a couple of days, but weeks of vacation. That does have a huge cost. Stuff doesn't get done. Teacher vacancies don't get filled. Substitutes don't get hired. Teacher questions to HR don't get answered promptly. Test scores are delayed being sent to parents. Bus routes aren't fixed. School capacity calculations and redistricting proposals aren't thought out or verified. Trainings for teachers are half assed. Curriculum decisions aren't fully vetted. And on and on. Syphax had huge issues with quality and responsiveness before giving themselves a bunch more vacation.

Ok but these points are about efficiency and responsiveness of the employees. That's different from budget, which is what this post is about. Is there an actual cost in dollars or not?

Of course it matters to budget. With less vacation the work could get done with fewer people.

It also matters because poor Syphax work product is getting pushed out to schools and parents, which eats up teacher and administrative time and leads to requests for more school level staffing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please keep up. Show me what budget impact taking these weeks away from staff will do. How much more money to the bottom line will it add?

Answer: It will not add to the bottom line of more money to give teachers. It’s an intangible cost. And it keeps people who do the real work at Syphax.

It's not a couple of days, but weeks of vacation. That does have a huge cost. Stuff doesn't get done. Teacher vacancies don't get filled. Substitutes don't get hired. Teacher questions to HR don't get answered promptly. Test scores are delayed being sent to parents. Bus routes aren't fixed. School capacity calculations and redistricting proposals aren't thought out or verified. Trainings for teachers are half assed. Curriculum decisions aren't fully vetted. And on and on. Syphax had huge issues with quality and responsiveness before giving themselves a bunch more vacation.

Ok but these points are about efficiency and responsiveness of the employees. That's different from budget, which is what this post is about. Is there an actual cost in dollars or not?

Of course it matters to budget. With less vacation the work could get done with fewer people.

It also matters because poor Syphax work product is getting pushed out to schools and parents, which eats up teacher and administrative time and leads to requests for more school level staffing.

Agree. It isn’t difficult to understand.

[Anonymous]

Define "poor Syphax work product." To whom? You?

This whole post is about the budget. So show it. Hard numbers.

I do like the circular logic though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way I see it the cost savings from going back to 12 month employees using leave instead of automatic paid vacation for the added days is in the long run, upon retirement.
The payout increases will be big. Doesn’t save money now.

If your boss gave you 3 extra weeks of vacation annually since 2021, would you bank more annual leave or burn it if you expected to retire? Bank it.

Syphax staff who can retire are already collecting bigger payouts because of this change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way I see it the cost savings from going back to 12 month employees using leave instead of automatic paid vacation for the added days is in the long run, upon retirement.
The payout increases will be big. Doesn’t save money now.

If your boss gave you 3 extra weeks of vacation annually since 2021, would you bank more annual leave or burn it if you expected to retire? Bank it.

Syphax staff who can retire are already collecting bigger payouts because of this change.

Some people would bank it, others would still use some or all. What’s the rule for 12 month employees upon separation/retirement? Do they get all time paid out? Do they have separate sick leave? Under VRS teachers don’t get a full payout or leave, making it so that only a certain number of hours carries over for 12 month employees is one possible solution, often done in the private sector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Define "poor Syphax work product." To whom? You?

This whole post is about the budget. So show it. Hard numbers.

I do like the circular logic though.

What are you talking about? There's nothing circular in my post.

If you want examples of bad Syphax work product, ask any teacher about the health insurance disaster, usefulness of mandatory trainings, lousy assessments handed down by Syphax, and vacancies that take forever to be filled. You'll get an earful.

I'm a parent. Of course I don't have access to hard data to generate numbers. That would have to come from Syphax, but they responsible person is probably on vacation.