« Final Thoughts on Time Control | Main | FRONT PAGE - Around the Town Week of July 25th »
July 25, 2007
The Price Is Right . . . Or Is It?
It was recently announced that the State of Tennessee had allocated over $1,000,000.00 in additional funds to Sumner County Schools which allowed the Board to balance the budget and give teachers a well-deserved and long overdue 5% raise. So far, so good, but I am curious to know if anyone was as taken aback as I was by the announcement that Governor Bredesen gave the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education a 63% raise. No, that is not a typo. Commissioner Lana Seivers was bestowed a remarkable $69,100.00 raise, bringing her new salary to $179,100.00 per year.
What are your thoughts?
Posted by Michelle Hanners at July 25, 2007 05:21 PM
Comments
Lame, lame excuse from Mr. Doremus. It's funny that all the other surrounding counties were able to make it work. Such a shame. It's a very valuable program, one that a town especially like Portland would benefit greatly from.....
Posted by: Mack at July 29, 2007 01:06 AM
Well, I looked around on the web for an explantion for this..and found on the Channel 2 news website, a story they featured on their news... on 7-26, was an explanation from Steve Doremus, the spokesman for Sumner Co. Schools......lack of space and funds... ( can't afford the texbooks,) etc...and said they couldn't justify doing it since they couldn't even afford the textbooks.
Posted by: DeeAnna at July 28, 2007 12:10 AM
DeeAnna - I'm with you on that! But I am a little confused because Wiseman Elementary has had a pre-K program for the past couple of years . . . I've seen the little ones walking in the halls holding on to a rope to help them keep in formation with my very own eyes . . . too cute! So I wonder why Sumner County is snubbing the State's program and presumably the funding that would accompany it. Good question!
Posted by: Michelle Hanners at July 27, 2007 10:40 PM
What on earth is wrong with Sumner County that they would not apply for that? Or that they would not want a Pre-K program ???
I'd like to hear their explanation of that one, too !
Posted by: DeeAnna at July 25, 2007 11:54 PM
That was quite astounding! What also surprised me was the announcement that by this fall every county in TN would have a PreK program **except** Sumner County. Why? Because Sumner has never applied to have one! This is a very valuable program to children that is much needed and is very beneficial to help teach them the many things they should know when entering kindergarten! I'm interested to hear the explanation as to why Sumner has never applied to have the program offered in the many schools.....
Posted by: MDL at July 25, 2007 08:19 PM
This raise really caught my eye, I understand that these folks that got this kind of a raise were evaluated to be below that of other like areas, how ever it was justified I feel this raise could of been done in steps. I think what irked me more was how all counties except one in TN now have or shortly will have early pre-K education, and unless I heard wrong, Sumner County is that one!
Posted by: Judy at July 25, 2007 08:16 PM