Rockresident said:

"Please join those of us who are sick of greedy educators take more money, while the rest of us continue to sacrifice just to hold on to a job - by attending the School District meeting tonight at 7pm at District office and make these greedy few stare us in the eyes and explain why we all sacrifice and suffer but they can continue to keep class sizes small, raise teachers pay, pay 100% health care, etc.

Some of us don't even have health care if we're even lucky enough to have jobs. I am also more educated than most teachers. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to be a teacher nowadays. All greed, no more teaching for respect and the kids I guess.

7PM DISTRICT MEETING - Let's bring them back to reality!!!"

Rustycal
I must admit, you have a flair for the dramatic. I'm not sure how someone can make blanket statements such as your's about how teachers should be embarassed to be an educator. The new updated version of this story states that not a single person spoke up at the meeting? Were you out inciting riots and too busy to make it? Perhaps you were lambasting your wife about how she should be embarassed to be a greedy teacher. It's quite different to show up at said meeting and look those "greedy devils" in the eye than to spout off on a blog, isn't it?
The Edgerton School Board members are hard-working, conscientious people and the community should be proud of them for doing what is necessary to preserve a quality education in Edgerton.
You state that you are more educated than most teachers. You may have more college credits than some teachers, but there is a significant difference between being "educated" and simply earning credits. Also, you mention the small class sizes at Edgerton. When is the last time you were at the school and monitored the class sizes? It's much easier to just spout this crap than to fact check, isn't it. The average class size is 29 right now in the middle school. That's more than there are chairs in most classrooms.....

booch11
Are you serious? If you are, then you have no idea how schools are funded in this state. While you obviously believe that education is of little value, your failure to grasp the big picture makes my head hurt.
When you create your family budget, you have income on one side and expenses on the other - you make money from your job.
Do you have any idea how schools make money? Two ways - equalization aid (your "state subsidy") and property taxes.
This year your state subsidy is $9,878,294.
You think Edgerton can run its schools with ten million less dollars?
What are they supposed to do - stop teaching some kids or tax people out of their homes?
The reason they are proposing to raise the levy and the levy rate is because last year they got 10,984,358.00.
According to you, they just "manage without" a million dollars, I guess. Let the kids suffer, not the community's responsibility. As long as your family budget is in good shape screw the schools (hope none of your kids attend).
It's NOTHIN LIKE when you were first married and starting a family UNLESS your rich uncle died and you still have to educate his 1800 kids.

sarahb1- read your soc sec statement!!!! It IS warning you that it wont ALL be there for you in the future. Sorry that doesnt seem like a rumor to me!! I sure hope it is though.

Although I stated that EVERYBODY needs to pay in taxes because we all went to school at some point doesnt mean I agree with the increases for ANY city. We need to budget our money and so do YOU. If our budgets go up and pay goes down we cannot just say to the gov I need more money please and they just hand you some.( they are just the oposite as we all know MORE<MORE<MORE We need to work with what we have and so should the city, schools,state, feds!! STOP taking money from us we dont even have anymore. Teachers can have their raises WHEN we all get ours back!!

thanks31: The plan is that one day you, too, will collect Social Security. And don't give us the old excuse of, "It won't be there when I get old!" That argument has been around since the beginning of Social Security.

Please join those of us who are sick of greedy educators take more money, while the rest of us continue to sacrifice just to hold on to a job - by attending the School District meeting tonight at 7pm at District office and make these greedy few stare us in the eyes and explain why we all sacrifice and suffer but they can continue to keep class sizes small, raise teachers pay, pay 100% health care, etc.

Some of us don't even have health care if we're even lucky enough to have jobs. I am also more educated than most teachers. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to be a teacher nowadays. All greed, no more teaching for respect and the kids I guess.

7PM DISTRICT MEETING - Let's bring them back to reality!!!

For those of you that are not aware, teacher salaries for most school districts make up anywhere from 75% to 90% of the total budget. It would seem to me that by cutting or freezing salaries we could make things work without bleeding the taxpayer again. It's time to break the Wisconsin teachers union and make education a career based more on compassion than greed.

wintersticnk-did YOU ever attend school? If you look at it that way you need to pay sometime dont you!!

"MILTON — The Edgerton School Board will vote Monday "

Is she reporting from Milton about edgerton or do the edgerton kids go to milton schools??

I have kids in schools and a wife who teaches. I support education more than most, but why did teachers just receive a raise, taxpayers pay full health insurance for teachers or $10,000 cash payout to teachers who do not accept health insurance (like those whose spouses get insurance) and get 3 months vacation in summer, 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in Spring, 3 days at Thanksgiving + a couple others, no weekends, done by 4pm, etc...still they start around $30K and some up to almost $50K. With GM and others making huge cuts and even losing their jobs completely, teachers unions try to make us feel guilty by saying we're hurting our kids by expecting them to work a full 40 hour week and pay for a little of their insurance? I work for county gov. and not only do we already pay a portion of our insurance, pay was frozen and health insurance was cut 15%. I'm happy to have a job, I don't hide behind the children card or complain that I'm working more for less money...at least I'm working!

Fair is fair. Get your butts to this district meeting, call district Board members (not the administrator or school staff - they'll hide your complaints to save their own salary increases) and flood them with realities...look at the world around you, we are all sacrificing. In another year or two we'll get back on track - for now quit your whining.

Note: The Edgerton School District is largest Edgerton employer - so don't think that School Board members or others will rush to make cuts needed at school as that affects their, our their spouses, salaries and benefits. I know my vote against this unnecessary & ridiculous levy (i.e. pay/benefit raise for teachers) will hurt my own income - but those of us working in the real world are too busy working extra to make up for our cuts, so I don't expect the school district to listen anyway - they never do.

Sounds like a Job Killer budget.

Since a "free and appropriate public education" is guaranteed under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all the whining about not needing to fund the education of children is nothing more than that..... Frankly, I'm tired of funding health insurance for Seniors. Can we cut that?

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Now - cutting sports is kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face. With school choice, the district without sports will be decimated in 1 year by all the transfers to other districts and moves out of district. Hate to say it because it is sad, but despite what the WIAA says, most transfers are due to athletics.

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State funding cuts are clearly the culprit here. Funny thing is, those are tax dollars, too. You all seemed perfectly happy to spend those tax dollars when they were coming in from all around the state, but gripe when you pay for your own schools. Hmmmm......

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Bottom line is that there is no better investment we, as a society, can make than the education of our children. Years of revenue caps had the schools cutting for over 12 years. Now when the economy is tight, there is nothing left to cut....and the only option is to increase taxes. We are reaping the harvest of the QEO Revenue Caps of the 90's - 2008.

When will the teachers union become more efficient so as to require less money. Almost all other workplaces have become more efficient so that they require less money for what they produce. Even the UAW adopted more efficient means of production. The teachers won't be happy till there is one teacher for one student.

Oh, the reason why the bill didn't go down carlito is because the main cost of the water bill is sewer, not water.

The water bills are ridiculous. I pay almost $200 per quarter. About triple of some that I work with in Janesville, and double of most.

Excellent comment thanks31! I completely agree with you!

I think it is hilarious when people say that they do not have school-aged children, so they should not have to pay taxes that benefit education. I do not collect Social Security, so maybe I shouldn't have to pay into that fund!

I can't believe what I'm hearing from cynicaleye. We pay for your street to be cleaned; of course, we should pay for the children to be educated. What I don't want to pay for is a bloated bureaucracy, including non-teaching staff. All reductions should be made to this group, a group that barely existed 30 years ago. Also, I could wrap my mind around the fact that competitive athletics (not recreational athletics) should be paid for by the participants.

Take sports out of schools like every other nation in the world. There are already every kind of 'traveling league' available at the local level, why duplicate it. Think of the money that would be saved. Imagine how much cheaper building costs would be. How much did the new Edgerton field house cost? How much to heat and cool it?

Why can't we boost class sizes OR when can we boost class sizes. From high school senior to College freshmen class size is boosted from 35 (Average H.S. class) to 250(Colege Lectures). Their has to be a happy medium, not every kid needs coddoling.

"The proposed operating budget is $20.69 million, a 4.4 percent increase over last year. That’s higher than the budget proposed in August because the district is getting more stimulus money than it anticipated."

So let me get this straight. The school got MORE stimulus money (a.k.a. our children's future tax dollars) so therefore they INCREASED the budget, but now are expecting the taxpayers to kick in MORE money so that they don't have to cut the budget and "hurt education" (a.k.a. hurt teachers salaries). Anyone else see anything wrong with this? You get more money than you thought you were going to get, so you spend it right away instead of using it to offset what you're going to fleece the taxpayers out of.

Well, at least the Edgerton taxpayers will have a brand new city hall building to stand in line at to pay there increased taxes, all is well.

HMMMMM?!?!?!?!?! Since when does the EDGERTON School District meet in MILTON???????? Once again SOMEONE forgot to PROOF READ!!!!!

If you rent in Edgerton they landlords will most likely include heat before they do water "pun intended"

Wow don't the get enogh revenue off the outrageous water bills? My parents lived there and for 3 months did laundry at the laundromat and conservered water to ultimate max and the water bill did not change. So did my aunt and her husband. the highest water bill and now bilk these poor people out of everythimg the try and save with the tax increase. I am so glad my parents are not here to see this one. If Edgerton continues this with no jobs available to get to help cover the costs of E-towns overspending high azz living amongst the school board and city gov. it is soon to be a ghost town with the only signs being FOR SALE or AUCTION SIGNS. as to the retired ones paying taxes with no kids in school think again the people who have never had kids have to pay them. Try auctioning the pool that the city never needed in the first place maybe then the water rates will not be as much oops IMO the water bill is a set rate as everyone I know there pays about the same outrageous amount per quarter and they don't use the same amount as a larger family. go on vacation for 3 months and I bet the bill will still be the same as the previous one.JMO

Why wouldn't you want to pay the extra to help ensure the society which you live within was educated and functional? Doesn't it make your life easier when the people you interact with at wal-mart can reciprocate? Maybe you could advocate that your tax money go to training children to be the kind of people you like.

With all the job loss currently, what will it be like when you vote for more teachers and staff to lose their jobs? How about a bunch of uneducated drop-outs using up your social security and health care benefits, what sort of feelings will you have then?

Right on clinical eye!

I could see helping the poor, but helping to put wealthy family's kids to school? Ridiculous!

Yes, as with the Octomom we have seen how much revenue you can rake in by just having kids. The more you have, the more you should pay. I wouldn't mind paying some, just not as much as someone who receives the benefit.

I'll say it again. If you have children, educating them is your responsibility, not mine. Why should I pay to educate someone's children? Granted public education is a good thing, but I'm not responsible for paying to educate your children. The more children you have, the more you should pay. Period.

amazing that this district has been operating with a state subsidy for quite a long time. what does that tell you?
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it tells me that they've been operating way over budget all these years.
and that if they had not had the subsidy for all these years, they would have had to manage without it it.
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It's like when you were first married and starting a family.
You had a budget and you lived within your means. But if you had a rich uncle who would give you money, well, you took it and lived beyond your means. But when the rich uncle died, you were screwed because you bought all this stuff and got used to a great lifestyle -- but now, he's gone.
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Edgerton's school board's rich uncle died.
They now need to live within their means. Apparently however, they'll turn to the citizens of that fine town and make them all their uncles (or sugar daddies).

We wanted to move to Edgerton 3 years ago, but decided on Janesville since Edgerton's taxes were much higher. I was pretty sad about not staying in a small town, but if this goes through, I will be happy we picked Janesville!

OUCH!!

I would be ticked off about the size of the raise, it is ridiculous.

These people that suck us dry,are like bullying us around! I think we should put them on the reality show, BULLY BEAT DOWN!!! And let someone kick their ash..

Really? Did other reitrees pay school taxes when your children were in school?

Any body that don't have kids in school,that are retired should not have to pay school taxes!!

They have an increase, we're moving out of there!! Bye bye Edgerton. Retirees, like us, should NOT have to pay school taxes!!!!!!!!!!