The School Board of KCKPS is removing 800 people from the Custodian, Security and Food Service staff. These will be giving to contracted companies, one of which is the company owned by a School Board member. I wandering how many other companies are related to some Administrator or School Board member. Most have severed on the Board for 10 or more years. They do nothing but approve what is put in front of them by the upper Administration no questions asked. The lower personal are at their peril because we have no one to look out for our interests. The next to be cut is the Maintenance Department. Our schools are some of the best maintained and cleanest and safest in the state. It’s been this way for 100 years and we have no one to stop the tearing down of this system. These actions are to provide funding for more pet project such as Early Childhood Education (tax funded daycare of the lower income and special people that can be snuck in under the radar), Special Ed for children with mental handicaps that renders them unable to learn. These take funding and school space for student that will one day join the work force. Then the English as a Second Language (ESL) program that teach children in their NATIVE language. I though we lived in America and spoke English. These are multi million dollar programs. They were programs that the Superintend and three of her four Assistant Superintends severed as directors. All four consists of Asst for communication, Asst for instruction and business, Asst for student and families, Asst for operations and Quality control (all 200,000 a year or more). These were one mans job 10 years ago. The Human Recourses Department has an Executive Director and two other sub-directors (175,000 a year) in a department that was run in the past by one person. All were filled using former teachers with no property management Facility maintenance skills. A school system need s teachers but they also need clean secure and well maintained buildings to teach in. Money can’t be taken from the education budget so the maintainace and custodial department must bare the burden. If the School Board was doing their jobs the wasted millions would be questioned and blocked and Administrative positions cut. But when one is in the pocket of the other and no actions will be taken to reduce the Administrative Staff (which has grown by 50% in the late 10 years) the little man that has worked for 20 years gets kicked to the curb. Just one of the administrative jobs saves 4 maintenance, custodians or security positions. Which would you have? A clean and well maintained secure school for your children or an administrator that dose nothing but think of failed program such as Zap the Gap (that really never worked and cost millions, to produced nothing). Last though; 90% of those to be FIRED are Wyandotte county residents. Yes your neighbor’s friends and family. With the county having over 10% unemployment what do you think will be the consequences? I leave it up to you. But I’m going to question the next person running for a seat on the Board of Education and they will not get my vote unless promise a drastic Administrative cuts

I do think these "administrators" are overpaid. When the company I work for was in jeopardy the CEO took a 50% pay cut so that we could stay a float. Why aren't administrators willing to take paycuts so that we can continue to have our current staff?

BTW - did they make this decision and is it final yet? Is this all up to the board or does it go to a vote?

I also saw on the news this morning where they are back to talking about consolidating district 500 with piper. Like that would ever happen and how would that save money?

I believe term limits should be set so if we don't feel the people are doing the job that should be done, we can get new people in those positions to do it. Maybe if they new they could be replaced within a certain length of time they would be more willing to rethink some of their decisions and make better choices.
SP I never heard anything about District 500 and Piper being consolidated. I can here the uproar with the people of Piper already. Piper would fight tooth and nail not to let that happen. They are already making noise about the crime increase because of the Walmart, can you imagine what they would be saying if they even mentioned combining the two school districts?

Nick, one thing that would solve a lot of problems with the posting is to have people post under their own names. Also, another fear I have is that if this is to be a true place for the citizens of the county to speak their mind, we ought to know if any of the posters work for the UG.

These comment sections could be a very powerful focal point for discussions about the direction of the county, but allowing the UG to bias the discussion and letting people hide their personal attacks behind screen names and false IDs can only detract from the discussion.

John, I'll definitely start requiring that soon. I'm working on a process on that.

SP: There are likely going to be reorganizations in the district's administration level if a sixth cut is imposed on education.

FYI John, just because a name isn't posted, does not mean they work for a government agency. Maybe they just choose to remain private, as I do. Besides, requiring real names on an internet based program doesn't mean you will get the real names and we all know that. Nick has my information.

Michaelanne, it was on Channel 4 this morning. LOL I've heard it before, but like you said, Piper would fight it tooth and nail. I'm not sure I blame them either. We are having enough trouble keeping the schools we have a float.

Thanks Nick. I hope the cuts end soon.

One can verify names just like they're done for letters to the editor at some papers. It would only have to be done once, but the payoff in civility would be a real plus. Also, from the standpoint of credibility, attaching ones name to an idea or position means much more than if you can lob something out from behind anonymity. And, quite frankly, I respect the content more if the person is willing to stand up and let people know who they are - even if I disagree with them.

I look at The Star's comments section and you get no where near the useful comments that you do on here from people who are signing their names to what they say. It's just not enough that Nick, or The Star, knows who you are, the other posters should also know, particularly if there is a government connection.

I can see where you all are coming from as far as posting real names, but on the back side of that, I am sure there are a lot of people that fear retaliation for speaking their minds. Especially if someone is commeting on an article about someone being arrested or something like that. And, there are a lot of people that live alone and may be afraid to speak their minds and letting everyone know who they are. I can understand why people want to remain anonymous. Is that really a huge issue? I see your points, but to me I don't see where it is a big issue. Maybe I am missing your point.

It's simply that anonymity lends itself very easily to incivility and irresponsible conduct, something which Nick is working very hard to combat. Take a look at any of the comments sections where they allow anonymous posting and you'll see what I mean.

It's a huge issue simply because anything can be said with virtually no accountability attached and I would argue that accountability is everything if these discussions are to be useful. The Kansan will offer nothing more than any other insult fest if we do not have accountability for what we say.

For instance, I've made several comments concerning property taxes and encouraged the mayor to fire the County Appraiser. You should know who I am if I'm going to make such statements. It's just not fair to Mr. Bryan if I'm not willing to tell you who I am and where I got my data.

By the same token, some have criticized my position. I think it's fair to ask why would anyone oppose the fair assessment of property taxes if they were not working for the UG, or had some other ulterior motive?

We should know if the government is trying to sway our opinion by having shills come on here to try and intimidate citizens from speaking out and the only way we'll know that is to know who exactly is posting.

You're correct in stating that it would exclude some from the process, but the overall gain in decreasing the noise and insults while elevating the level of discourse and information that is published is, I believe, worth it. Often less can be far more.

I vote in this section because it is a "Straw Vote" intended to determine opinion of an issue. I am so "Registered" with the internet that I couldn't hide behind a mountain. So posting my name to another poll in order to get access undermines the purpose of the poll in the 1st place.

Towards the subject of term limits: when todays news media and the public as a whole get opposed to a public sevant or intetity, accountability becomes emminant. "Term Limits" would allow another mechanism to slow down the flow.

Well my name SP is attached to my email, so if Nick thought I was "inapproriately posting" he could block my comments or contact me directly. I guess I'm not sure why this is so important to you John. You do realize anyone can vote on this site and not be registered, it's an open pole. Now posting, that's different, but again I choose to use my name SP and if Nick forces a full name I will have to read your posts and not respond as I will not post my name on any site. I don't do facebook, my space, or any other tag site for all the same reasons. I also don't allow my children to do it, so it's kind of a morale thing with me you know, practice what you preach. Now if I could just practice what I preach when it comes to other things, like diet and exercise, not losing my cool, you know the things that are probably more important. LOL Who knows John, maybe you will convince me to change. SMILE :)

I do think there should be a time limit on how long they can serve on these boards. Has anyone heard if USD 500 will get any monies from the new Wizards or cerner projects that are coming to Village West? As a mother of children that attend the USD 500 district I'm concerned about how things are going.