Reply to APS budget cuts - no MS sports or extracurriculars

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]if you are concerned with APS budget bloat, especially in the central office- you need to seriously question Mary Kadera's platform of giving advisory councils 'a real voice in planning and decision making.'   
I am appalled at how many of the recommendations coming out of the committees for advisory council on teaching and learning involve additional central office staff and budget dollars.  e.g. perform an 'equity audit' across the curriculum (social studies advisory committee); add a teacher specialist to the gifted service office (gifted advisory committee); increase math coach from .5 FTE to 1 FTE for all elementary schools (math advisory committee); add a full time outdoor learning classroom coordinator (science advisory committee); develop an SEL coordinator position (student services advisory committee).
https://www.apsva.us/actl/committee-reports/

Those are FTE additions.  There are also tons of recommendations for additional mandatory training, which leads to both a budget expense and additional time off of teaching.

I think ACTL plays a valuable role- and you can debate the merits of each of these individual proposals- but I see these proposals, and then I hear the concern about central office bloat, etc.  We need school board members who are able to listen and make tough choices- not who blindly accept citizen recommendations (aka give a 'real voice.')[/quote]

Do you think academic support can be improved, the achievement gap addressed, and quality instruction - including small class sizes - can happen without additional employees?  There's a new CDEIO position that everyone insists APS has.  He needs staff to do his job.  One teacher specialist added to the gifted services office - someone who might help APS actually properly serve gifted students.  Math coaches - real people providing direct academic support to students.

Everybody seems to complain that APS is overloaded with central office personnel.  I disagree.  APS operates, generally speaking, with a skeleton crew for the size and quality of our school system. 
I don't even know what an "equity audit" for curriculum even means; so I might be with you there.  But if it's just reviewing curriculum for inclusive and honest content, I don't think that requires additional staff; so what's the harm?[/quote]

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