According to today’s Free Lance-Star, not once does Jerry Hill ever mention, consider or conceive a world where cuts are made in the 43,200 sf ivory tower known as the school administration building.
The article is written by young Ms. Bolipata whom I believe is finally 21 now and allowed to write her own stories with minimal editorial manipulation. I hope she sees it in her best interest to try and actually be factual and unbiased for a change, but I’m not betting that will happen. Back to the Ivory Tower…
It’s the only place where employees never actually interact with or even see students, yet they have “education” jobs, more than 100 jobs in fact– and they all pay MUCH MORE than any starting teacher gets.
If just 12-13 of those jobs were temporarily laid off, Spotsy could hire the 30 new teachers it supposedly needs– people who actually see and speak to children every day. If the HQ staff were truly needed, they could be hired back when we can AFFORD to.
If Jerry Hill suffered along with the taxpayers, he could take a measly 15% pay cut off his >$200,000 salary and pay for one of those teachers himself. If Jerry Hill simply waived his annual pre-taxed $40,000 retirement donation (in addition to the state retirement fun he already gets), the county could hire ANOTHER teacher.
But Jerry and the gang would rather threaten taxpayers with the oldest line in the liberal, wasteful talking points memo: “PAY US OR CHILDREN SUFFER.” Only slightly less used is, “PAY US OR EDUCATION SUFFERS.”
I wouldn’t suggest laying off a single (good, hard working) teacher on the payroll or any maintenance or custodian level employee because frankly, we don’t pay them that much and they do critical jobs. Pushing paper is not a critical job, and those jobs need to be on an as-needed, contractual basis.
Working for the school system, or any government job for that matter, should never be a life-commitment with guaranteed raises every year. Taxpayers simply can’t always afford it. 2008 is one of those years!
Highly paid school management positions from a $90,000 vice-principal on up the chain, should all be pitching in and voluntarily imposing salary cuts on themselves in this time of need, like every other company in the world. If not, they should accept that they could be one of the unlucky ones drawn from a hat to be laid off until such time as they can be afforded.
The institution of education is not a charity with costless overhead. Quite the opposite! It’s the MOST expensive place in every county around here. It should be the LEANEST.
One hopes the Board of Supervisors won’t let this blatant act of using the press to manipulate their vote go unanswered. Jerry Hill is using the exact same tactics he did back in 2005 when he arrogantly pushed the supervisors into a corner with his bony little finger.
Even after being indicted on criminal charges, manipulating his way out of it, reneging on a plea deal to find work elsewhere, then suing the supervisors over a private email between a constituent and a supervisor, one would think he would just lay low and enjoy his $240,000/year job!!
This guy is just like Governor Spitzer; he thinks he’s above the law and doesn’t seem to care who he hurts, until the bitter end. But it may be half of the county taxpayer’s bitter end before he gets his.
JUNE 2005–Supervisors vote to put a $41 million school bond referendum on the ballot.SEPTEMBER 2005–School Board members say the amount isn’t enough. Board members opine on school system Web site, at public meetings and on fliers that question supervisors’ authority to set the bond amount. Supervisors demand an investigation into whether the fliers violate state law. FEBRUARY 2006–Spotsylvania School Superintendent Jerry Hill indicted on an election-law charge and obstruction of justice. Special prosecutor Matt Britton says Hill obstructed justice by directing School Board members to forward all investigative inquiries to the School Board’s attorney. Britton also says Hill deleted portions of a memo that investigators asked for in a FOIA request. Hill’s attorney says the redacted information was exempt from the FOIA statute.
JUNE 2006–Judge drops the election-law charge.
AUGUST 2006–Britton drops the obstruction charge.
SEPT. 8, 2006, Republican Party leader Russ Moulton responded to an e-mail from Spotsylvania Supervisor Gary Jackson. The exchange included discussion of a criminal case against school Superintendent Jerry Hill.
APRIL 20, 2007–Hill sets the stage for a possible lawsuit by filing two FOIA requests seeking the investigative information used against him and the insurance policies for constitutional and public officials.
APRIL 27–County responds that it would cost between $1,178 to $31,864 to honor Hill’s request.
MAY 15–Hill sends check for $1,178. Hill’s attorney says his client should have received the information when the county received the check on May 16 or a response as to why it wasn’t forthcoming. County waited another five days to respond, stating it needed another seven days to gather the information.JUNE 4–County sends information Hill requested, but blacked out one e-mail and said other materials were exempt.
SEPT. 27, 2007–Hill files lawsuit charging the county mishandled his FOIA request. He asks a judge to release an original e-mail between Supervisor Gary Jackson and former Spotsylvania resident Russ Moulton.
Source: Free Lance-Star
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