I'm not against saving money. How about consolidation of schools by county? Or is that too large an area? Even sharing within a district can be tough when staff cuts limit teacher numbers within schools. How thin do we want to spread the teachers and the resources? Do we dump all the funding into 1 or 2 schools, or do we give everyone a proportional piece of the pie?

I don't want anyones children to have a lesser education because of budget shortfalls. I have to wonder how important it is to bail out failing banks and auto makers when we can't even bail out our education system. This issue is way to important to be reduced to an on-line poll. What is the economic stimulus package going to do to help alleviate these education issues?

The people that voted against saving money need to go back to school and at least finish 1st grade.

Why have separate districts if we want to share services?

SWAT teams is sort of an odd tangent here, weren't we talking about schools? But obviously you have response times, and frankly, it's not like the SWAT guys are sitting in a room waiting to be called. They're regular cops 99% of the time. SWAT training could prove useful in daily policing, and it's a career advancement opportunity.
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In fact the police and fire departments have a number of mutual support and cooperation agreements in place already. For instance, when the Sheriff's Deputies were chasing the Illinois bank robbers, Janesville Police took on some patrol duties in the county.

This just makes lots of sense. We should have considered this long ago.

You wont ask why each has their own Swat team when the hostages being saved in Beloit by the swat team are greatful while at the same time a Bank robbery gone bad in Janesville gets someone killed because the swat team couldnt be there. It may be rare but all it takes is one live saved to make it all more than worth it.

There is some overlap,and many items that could be shared. Such as:
> Some maintenance functions
> Shared purchasing, larger discounts
> Shared office functions
> Shared HR function

But don't stop there. Why don't we share police resources. Why do we have SWAT teams for Janesville, Beloit and the County, when they are used once a year, at best? Keep thinking of stuff to share, we have a long way to go...

Who would vote "no" to this?

We need to be thinking the same ways in terms of local and county governments. What services can be shared? What counties can cooperate? This is a really good first step.

momsrock we need a King and Queen removed on the School Board, plus a couple on the council.

I agree momsrock. The Beloit board of education is really lacking leadership. I hope the uncoming election will take care of some of that!

Can't believe that Beloit didn't show up to the party considering the poor financial situation the district is currently in. Great leadership!!

yeah, the penalty box!

Of course. Its a common business stragedy that saves money. Nice to see they are finally thinking out of the box!

If in fact it were to save money and time great. The difficulty will be in being able to accomplish both to the benefit of all districts involved.

Save money? dah!!!

There are a vast number of school located very closely together. Surely a route for materials transfers could be established for enough items to save the districts money. My big gripe are the teacher aides for eveything under the sun. Look,I love teachers,and respect them to no end,but things must change. Whatever areas you teachers feel savings could be made suggest them! Wishes to all!