I would like to remind Tim Cullen that the kindergarten and first grade classrooms do not have 15 different non-district sites that are working collaborately together. It takes a person to coordinate all that goes into making these sites work togehter as a cohesive unit. Otherwise, you are saying that all 15 sites that have joined the district should fly by the seats of their pants trying to learn the district's ways. It has taken this first year just to try and figure out the districts ways and with the computer issues at the begining of the year, that has been difficult to say the least. I feel this position is very important and nessecary if you want to provide high quality education to four year old in the community. You said you wanted this program to remain in the community, so you must provide the program the support nessecary. I think you should rethink your suggestion of cutting that position. It takes many committees and many hours of extra work to keep this program afloat for the community sites as well, I would have thought you should have reviewed that topic and understood that before implementing the program. I hope that you are as committed to this program as you let your community believe you were when you helped implement it.

Is there a website that the public can review the current year's budget at well as any proposed budget?

Not too mention the teachers have to babysit many of the kids for the parents.

fbcoach66 - Thank you for the post. I hope others could address the questions. It might give some perspective to us all.

whoanielle - I'm going to say you're way off base. Do the math. 316 calendar days or 201 school days x 8hrs a day = 1608 hours divide by $32,000 = $19.90hr. Take into account the teachers have work to take home most nights and not paid for that time. Some need to work weekends in the school not paid for. So actual hourly rate is much less. The teachers would have to elaborate to make the point for me. Now consider that to become a teacher you need a 4 year degree. That means unless you're from a well to do family or received a scholarship you'll have student loans to pay. This could be anywhere from $60,000 plus to pay off. So to say they make too much is way out of line in my opinion.

The real question is administration salary and overhead (electric, supplies, books, etc) This is where the cuts need to come from. I'm also in favor of putting the burden back onto the families of the kids. Make the parents see the cause and effect. Little Johnny doesn't study and we're paying X. Little Johnny will not get a good job so we'll be paying Y. See my point.

whoanellie -- "thanks for your support Mom" NOT

whoanellie- $32,000 a year isn't squat for what they do. Not in this day and age. Sorry. I don't care if it's 9 months out of the year or not. Adding to schools and spending for education is not disgraceful. As far as taxes, I hate to break it to many of you, but you should get real used to paying taxes with the way this country is about to be run.

fbcoach66- Awesome post!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry but my daughter is a teacher and I still don't want to pay more taxes! Teachers in janesville starting salary is around $32,000. I think that is great for a job that is only 9 months out of the year unless you teach summer school, which pays about $20.00 and hour. The teachers have no reason to complain with the healthcare they get and other benefits.That is just starting pay. I would love a job that paid me that much for 3/4 of the year!! They need to cut downtown and stop adding on to the schools, it's disgraceful!!!

I'll take a shot. I've taught HS math and science for 13 years with 2 years at UW-Madison as a grad assistant.
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Is the problem with the students and a lack of interest or discipline?
This is a small part of the problem in Janesville (my fourth school district) but no more than anywhere else.
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Is the problem with the parents not making education a priority for the kids? This is a huge problem in Janesville. Every school I've been in if the parent's care 95% of the kids succeed and do well. If the parents don't care, maybe 50% of the kids succeed.
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Is this a society problem and the belief or feeling of entitlement by the students that good paying jobs will fall into their laps without hard work and planning? My first few years here I tried to get kids to understand the need for an education. I had numerous kids say, "Why do I need to know this I'll just get a job at the plant?" I tried to do a car buying project with them buying a car at 22. I gave them a $9,000 budget, I heard "Man, I'll be at the plant driving a $45,000 Tahoe or maybe an Escalade. This is dumb everyone in this town is set when their dad works at the plant." That kid is 25 now living in his mom's basement, still no Escalade.
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So I'm hoping that the sense of entitlement will leave and PARENTS will help their kids see the value of education. We have a great resource at Blackhawk Tech for those who don't want a 4 year degree. BTW most 2 year technical degrees have a higher job placement than 4 year degrees. There are a lot of philosophy grads from UW-Madison driving cabs.

In an effort to redirect the posts in a more positive direction please read below.

It has been stated from teachers and administrators that more money is needed to give the students a proper education or more enhanced learning atmosphere. I don’t believe there would many detractors who wouldn’t agree that the children are the future of the nation and we all would do well to support efforts to maximize the desired outcome of higher test scores in core classes such as mathematics and science along with college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT.

The problem most of us on the outside have is we see a substantial amount of resources being put into the school systems but the results seem to be less desirable when compared to other industrial nations. Our nation is losing the battle for the highly technical positions of the present and future. One example that comes to mind for me is the amount of outsourcing for engineering.

So I would like to pose a question to any teachers posting on this forum regarding student productivity in an effort to gain an insider’s perspective or viewpoint. Is the problem with the students and a lack of interest or discipline? Is the problem with the parents not making education a priority for the kids? Is this a society problem and the belief or feeling of entitlement by the students that good paying jobs will fall into their laps without hard work and planning?

Does the school system teach life skills that show a correlation between cause and effect? Meaning you blow off education you’ll be working at McDonalds, Wal-Mart or the Mall for very low pay. You work hard and get a good education and can achieve the financial success desired.

rep_of_1 -- When you do a google search, you should always be wary of the legitimacy of the content. Yes, when you compare test scores from Asian countries and some European countries, you will get said results, but you have to look deeper than just the interpretation. The biggest question is: who was tested? American public schools educate everyone: including students with special needs and students with English as their second/third/etc. language. Most other countries do not educate those students in the same public schools and do not test those students; therefore, their test scores would naturally be higher when you simply look at the results. You cannot just automatically believe everything you read from a google search. You must also consider the source and the legitimacy of the data.
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just_hype is asking the right questions. imo

Just_Hype: I sourced from google "Our countries in Asia outperform American students on every type of test in school. Our students, for example, are highly skilled and quick in computational mathematics; they do better in every measurement of math ability"... 2 seconds of searching google...your name fits you well, "just hype".

I do hear alot of talk about how U.S. school children are behind the rest of the world's children of industrialized nations. Can anyone tell me what tools are used to compare our kids to their kids? Are we comparing the whole U.S. student population to the whole student populations of the other nations? If we test all our students, are the other nations testing all of their students? I would also like to see how much is spent on schools in other industrialized nations. Since many of you already know our kids are behind the rest of the world and those other nations spend less on education, you must have gotten your information from somewhere. I would do the research myself, but many of you already seem to have done it.

The board should look at the downtown offices for more cuts. They move Karen Schulte to Superintendent and her position is dissolved, absorbed, or whatever into other positions--that should send a clear message to the people of Janesville of the overstaffing there. Don't look to cut positions that work directly with students.

Wisconsin exempts manufacturers from personal property tax. Property tax credits were first paid in the 1962/63 property tax year, the same year in which the state sales tax was enacted. Initially, separate credits were created for general property taxes and personal property taxes. With time, the personal property tax credit was used as a means of phasing-in a tax exemption for merchants' and manufacturers' inventory and farmers' livestock. Once inventories and livestock were fully exempt in 1982/83, a new credit called the Wisconsin state property tax relief (WSPTR) credit was created. This credit essentially continued the practice of calculating credits separately for real property and personal property. However, credit calculations were gradually shifted to a basis of total property taxes, without regard to the type of property.
Wisconsin Department of Revenue Division of Research and Policy December 5, 2006

Apparently most of these people do worry about the cost and if you really want to know - lower class sizes that would be a good first step. Oh yeah and those countries that we're falling short to - they respect teachers and make sure they have resources and time to become better. Keep piling more onto the teaching staff - the kids will suffer.

sluggo - You do not need to own a home to pay property taxes. There is a little thing called "personal property taxes" that the government likes to collect whether you own the home or not. Oh by the way, if you own a business that happens to own the building as well, not only does the business pay property taxes for the building and land, but also pays "personal property taxes" on the assests.
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As for performance pay why would I be kidding? Does it really matter how much it would cost if it benefits both the teachers who deserve it and the students who get a better education because of it? Can you imagine what the cost would be if we keep throwing money at an educational system that obviously is not keeping pace with the rest of the world (which does not spend as much per student but yet they still outperform our public schools)? Wait, we are there right now so I do not have to imagine it.

justsome1here- How would you determine what teachers deserve a pay raise? What determines performance that qualifies for higher pay?

If a honest poll was taken by the responders you'll see a majority of the people for cuts are not working for the school system. The people saying cuts hurt the kids or is bad for the system work for the school district. Why don't some of you who work there have constructive suggestions instead of the same old tired lines that I've been reading. Look up some their past posts and the topics seem to revolve around schools.

Ask the GM workers about the plant and all will tell you GM needs to come back etc or the situation is unfair, etc.

Life is not fair and to pretend your interest is in the kids is funny and a little sad because if some of the teachers, administrators would accept the fact the schools can absorb cuts and should absorb cuts and look for alternatives then maybe some of your friends might not lose their jobs.

By the way I work in Sales and have for 21years. So I guess I'm not qualified to make suggestions according to the staff.

You have to own a home to pay property taxes. If you rent then your landlord may need to raise your rent $6.41 per month to offset the cost. A $14,000 track meet - really? That's .5% of the "guessed" shortfall. There has to be a better way - how about textbooks? The kids don't read them anyway. No wait - don't educate these kids then they can be underqualified for well-paying jobs and the economy can keep sucking.
As for performance pay - you're kidding right? Do you have any idea how much extra time and money would go into figuring that out? Some teachers have contact with over 100 students per day, and some students have contact with 10-12 teachers per day. Who gets what? And when do the parents have to parent?

Sorry, but I do not see how the cost saving measures being proposed are “short changing” children’s education.
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Restructure the administration of athletics – Good idea. There should not be a need for a central athletic director and an athletic director at each high school. The primary reason for going to school is to get an education.
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Eliminate the elementary school track meet, saving $13,900. – Another good idea. Other programs have been eliminated (all city sing, etc.). It is time that athletics “share the burden”. The school track meet has absolutely nothing to do with academics and eliminating this will not cause students to suffer.
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Pay raises for teachers should be based on performance. Automatic step raises encourage complacency and reward “bad” teachers while punishing those teachers that are willing to take those extra steps to help students achieve goals.
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Encourage legislatures to get the public education system off of the property tax roles and find alternate funding. The public education system is failing our children and people mistakenly believe that throwing more into it with no or little accountability will solve the problem.

SarahB1 - How are you still able to own a house?

For those responding here who think a $77 tax hike for the average home owner is nothing, come see me. I do not have an extra $77. I don't drink latte and I have not been to a movie in at least five years. The only extra in my budget is the internet which is needed for a part-time job I am doing from my home. Even my hours from that are now being cut. I have been laid off from four jobs since 2006 and continue to use a cane (sometimes two canes) as I recover from a 2008 automobile accident (I was found to be 100 percent NOT at fault). It is very difficult to find a job as a registered nurse when one uses a cane. We need to freeze or cut expenditures. I think Mr. Cullen has put forth some good ideas to start with. I am ready to hear more. Are those summer programs everybody raved about in yesterday's edition of the paper really necessary? Can we put a freeze on field trips? Put off scheduled purchases of new textbooks for a year? There must be many ideas out there and I realize they will not be popular, but I am not happy with financial decisions I have had to enforce upon myself either. But that is what life in 2009 is about ... please do not raise taxes again.

Rooster- Do you think teachers make a lot of money?

Increase student parking fees to average $3 per day unless it’s already this high then raise then prices. Driving to school is not a right. They spend more than that on soda anyways.

Charge a yearly fee for students to carry a cell phone on school property $35 maybe more. If they are caught without it a fine of $100. I'm guessing they already have sold sports sponsorship rights to Nike or Reebok, If not look for more ways to generate income this way or cut existing costs.

Look for lower cost alternatives with existing suppliers and implement a push to lower previous spending by 10%. Push suppliers to lower prices or find someone who will. Shouldn't be that hard to replace suppliers in this market.

Cut out summer school and explain to the kids if you don't pass during the school year you'll be held back. Can't believe they wouldn't do what it takes to get done in the normal school year knowing the possible outcome.

Offer some incentive to the kids to find ways to save the school money. Many companies offer cash rewards to employees for ideas that cut cost. Get the kids involved.

Many are going to say these ideas are way out there. Yes they are but if you compare the amount of money spend per child in Wisconsin against other industrial nations and then compare the test scores. We’re getting short changed for our money. It's not the amount of money spent. It's the fact the average youth doesn't see the point to school. Put the pressure on the kids to learn or pay up at graduation time. Reimburse the city for the wasted money. Reward the ones who did well with some scholarship money.

The Board, the trustees of our education system, would be negligent to make cuts when our community needs strong education more than ever. A strong education system is the biggest lure for potential businesses, and Janesville's kids are facing more stress and challenges than ever before. The Board should not take it upon itself to reduce school taxes that have already been kept low by revenue caps that limit the amount that can be taxed. We would be penny wise and pound foolish if we undermine Janesville's chances for economic recovery and shortchange our kids for a small tax reduction.

The short fall is based on a proposed budget. Does in the budget include increases from previous years? This amount is based on what is estimated the district will get from the state and what enrollment will be. What's the error factor of this estimate? Why doesn't Mr Bunton ever publish the detailed budget? Even the board hasn't reviewed it.

Best get creative with the cash in hand now...I wish I could just ask for more cash every time a new fee jumps up at college. It's not the cost I see the problem with. It's the quality of what students receive for what is spent is astonishing when you compared to other nations.

Rooster there is no money in the teacher's lounge because they are all out getting second jobs to make ends meet.

I say cut the administration salaries to a maximum of $85,000 no increase 5 years and capped at standard COA. Teachers salary to be cut by 1.5% and no increase for 3 years. Increase book & lab fees 5%, Cut other school employee wages 2%, increase lunch fees 5%, increase sports, after school activity fees 5%, increase sports, drama tickets 10%, install motion detectors on all lights in halls and classrooms so when possible they'll shut off when not needed. Maybe even adjust so that in hallway they are on alternately, Lower thermostat to a few degrees in cold months, Open windows and not use AC in warm months, Maybe adjust start of school year back till Oct 1 and end later to save on electricity, Install on top of the entire building solar panels to save electricity and maybe make money. Charge a fee for bus riders, Convert Bus to more fuel efficient models/electric/hybrid are starting to come on line I believe. Some cities are investing in these. I guess what I'm saying is there will be added cost for all who attend, work for and being creative will help the burden of the taxpayer as we already have plenty to deal with.

If $77 a year is all of the tax increase to help pay for quality schools, I say raise it. That amounts to 21 cents a day. Give up a latte or 2 a year. The kids in Janesville deserve a great education after all, someone paid for all of your education.

first off the school board does not give a poop about the taxpayer: ie.two gyms at each high school if they want some loose change, let them root around under the cushions in the teachers lounge.

I totally disagree: $77 a year is a small price to pay.
If we are going to rebuild this town we need better education.
If we are going to have a better education system we need great teachers.
Janesville is NOT high on the list of places for teachers to go, because of our low salary and extra workload and lack of respect by the public.
If we want great teachers, we have to pay them and give them good working conditions.
Ask Alabama how it is doing in education with their incredibly low salaries?
My kids can't get a job at the plant so I want great teachers. I'm willing to give up going to the movies twice a year to cover the $77.
If this town won't sacrifice for good education it will die! I believe the phrase is... knowledge is power!

It's really astonishing to me that a story starts with the premise that a government body is seeking "no increase in the tax rate", and all people can do is complain. What further evidence do you need that the school board is concerned about your tax burden? Perhaps you could participate in the serious budget discussions and help the board make some of the tough decisions they will need to make in order to achieve this goal. Programs will be affected and parents will notice; are you prepared to answer to them?

Thanks to the JEA for being arrogant enough to 'endorse' their candidates, I now know who NOT to vote for!

That 2.25 million is less that 2% of the 114 million. If they can't find a way to cut 2% in this kind of economy, that's about 16 teachers and maybe a dozen administrators in a shrinking school system, then we need some new board members that are not endorsed by the teacher's union.

I agree sannio! I think this town has had enough hardship, it's time the administration downtown make some sacrifices too. I do NOT want to pay more in taxes!! ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

A 5% pay cut across the board would do the trick. I think they can share some of the pain so many of us are feeling now.