When I was in high school, my government teacher, Mr.Ley, had this bumper sticker posted on the whiteboard in his room:

I never really completely got it as a kid.


I do now.


Below are the latest round of budget cuts in the district where I work, which prompts the question: Would anyone like to buy a 2.4 million dollar rubber band? I also have paper clips, a partially used eraser and half a pad of post-its. They go to the highest bidder.

Closure of Amy Firth Middle School among $1.2 million in cuts approved by Jackson School Board

By Claire Cummings | Jackson Citizen Patrio…

November 17, 2009, 12:02AM

Jackson Public Schools will close its alternative middle school within three weeks and eliminate 29 staff positions to close half of a $2.4 million budget shortfall.

The Jackson School Board on Monday voted to close Amy Firth Middle School to help with a deficit brought on by falling enrollment and declining state aid.

Other actions will involve cutting an assistant principal position, moving paraprofessionals from full-time to part-time status and layoffs. In total, the district will save $1.2 million this school year.

Amy Firth, the building that houses 59 students, will close, but the program will not, officials said.

Sixth and seventh grades will be moved to the annex behind McCulloch Academy of Technology, while eighth-graders will go to T.A. Wilson Academy or return to the Middle School at Parkside on a case-by-case basis, Superintendent Dan Evans said. The moves will take place by Dec. 7.

The Firth closing will save $400,000 by eliminating staff positions, bus runs and $50,000 in operational costs. Evans said the district was paying too much money for a program with 59 students, and it needed to be “right-sized.”

The school board approved the cuts by a 4-2 vote. Sheila Patterson and Bobby Thompkins dissented, while Michael Brown was absent.

Voting for the cuts were board President David Halsey, Robert Inman, Kathryn Keersmaekers and Tim Levy.

Among the larger cuts:

• $68,000 — Russell Davis will take on the assistant principal position at Jackson High School left vacant after the death of Bobby Burton. Davis also will continue to serve as athletic director.

• $102,000 — Security captains at Jackson High School, Firth and Wilson.

• $120,000 — Four bus riders, who assist bus drivers with students.

• $90,000 — Two teaching positions at McCulloch. Any teachers whose positions were eliminated, including those at Firth, will move into other positions that either were vacant or filled by nonunion people, such as long-term substitutes, officials said.

• $81,000 — Half secretary positions at Northeast and Frost elementary schools and a full secretary position at Firth.

• $70,000 — Three positions in skilled trades, such as maintenance and plumbing.

• $47,000 — Seven part-time paraprofessionals in tutorial rooms districtwide.

There also are smaller cuts — between $7,500 and $40,000 each — to maintenance, technology, athletics, supplies and substitutes for secretaries and paraprofessionals.

The district also plans to move all paraprofessionals from full-time to part-time for a savings of $200,000. However, the proposed change still is being negotiated.

Thompkins said he was not happy with the way Firth would be broken up or the cutting of paraprofessionals, who work with students who need the support most.

“We always start at the bottom cutting,” he said. “It would appear to me that cuts should be across the board, all the way down, not just at the bottom up.”

District spokeswoman A’Lynne Robinson said earlier Monday that several central office employees have taken on extra roles in recent years and that some positions have been left unfilled.

In voting against the cuts, Patterson said she felt there was a lack of details regarding the Firth transition plan. She also said she was not confident in the decision to put the athletic director in a principalship.

Dozens of parents, students and staff attended the meeting and about 10 addressed the board.

“Ever since I was at Frost (Elementary School), I had all E’s,” said student Devin Stone. “When I came to Amy Firth, I had all A’s. … I’m proud of my grades now, and my mom’s proud of my grades, too.”

Keith Richards, who has worked at the alternative high school for the past six years, talked about the impact of losing T.A. Wilson’s attendance paraprofessional Susie Clark and security captain Desiree Currie.

“They are the mother figures for that school,” Richards said.

He added that Currie is the only black employee at a school with predominantly black students.

The district also has talked with employee groups about increasing health-insurance deductibles and co-pays starting Jan 1., as well as increasing employee contributions to 10 percent. That would make up about $436,000 of the shortfall; however, it has not been finalized.

The district spends $9.3 million on employee insurance and could save $2 million annually by switching from MESSA to a self-insurance program, Deputy Superintendent Bill Hannon said. MESSA is the insurance wing of the Michigan Education Association union.

“All of (the cuts) could be a moot point if we could just change the carrier,” Keersmaekers said.

Leaders of the teachers union said Monday they were not prepared to comment on the insurance issue but there are ongoing discussions.