Muscatine

I am guessing in September of 2013 when you open your property tax bill and you see an increase don’t blame the city or county or even the state.  It will be the school district and Decker wanting more money.  When the school levy passed Tuesday it has opened the door for the school board to increase the tax levy on homes in order to run the system.  At that point Decker will have the money and can send more school personnel to training like the 20+ he sent to St. Louis and gave each their own hotel room and meals, etc. to see Stephen Covey speak.  How about the road exiting on Houser St. that will never go away or the reopened school in the south-end (so much for air pollution for those students) that was closed to save money, or the many other plans he has to not only increase the size of the system but his own paycheck.  For all those voters who should have voted, could have voted, and didn’t vote, you have just allowed our taxes to start going up.  We need a new school board, I thought that last clown act was bad but this bunch is just a group of sheep doing whatever Decker wants. Don't forget the journal backed this plan after Decker went to them and asked for interview and their blessing.  

I thought the letter to the editor on the day before the vote was mostly on point.  Why indeed do we pay a superintendent 200,000$+ if we have 9 "directors" to do the work?  What is the job description of the superintendent?  Apparently the only duty he performs is showing up at Board meetings to serve as a spokesman for the district.  If he does what he's being paid to do, why is there a need for a director of special education, a director of transportation, a director of food services (my opinion is that the schools need to get out of the food business altogether and put some responsibility back on parents), director of this and that, etc?  These "directors" are pulling down huge salaries, nearing 100,000$ per. 

Here's an easy way to save  over million dollars a year.  Get rid of the extra directors (900,000 savings), make the superintendent do his job or fire him and hire somebody at half the salary (I truly believe there's a few people out there who are capable of performing at 100,000$ a year), elimnate half of the elementary school principals, and and return to the past practice of having one principal for two buildings (2-300,000$ savings).  Eliminate the school food service. 

Never heard about the school in the south end re-opening.

Also, they (and the city) promote the Performing Arts Center at the old high school, as a rental auditorium. But why was the school transporatation in-charge person ever the one you contact about renting it?

Well, at least the levy passed.