There Is A Stench In The Air

I walked outside early this morning to breath in that cool fresh morning air and instead got hit right in the face with a terrible smell. I checked the garbage, checked for dead animals and could not find the stench that filled the air. I quickly went back inside, opened the newspaper only to find exactly what that foul smell was. It was coming from Mountain Top and it was from the tentative budget that the Crestwood School Board had passed last night. Their budget stunk so bad that the odor of rotten trash floated down into the valley. The stench came from the rotten deal that they are giving their students and of course the taxpayers.

The tentative 2011-2012 Crestwood School District budget seeks a savings of $280,000 by cutting Kindergarten to half days, salary freezes for all school administrators, the elimination of all middle school sports as well as ending all elementary and middle school activities such as band, chorus and foreign language studies. WHAT, ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME! If that's not bad enough, the taxpayers of the school district are going to be whacked with an average increase or $112.00 per household over the next two years. This really reeks of the rotten stench of pure garbage. They cut from the kids and whack the parents. It's the old double shafting.

There are a few things that are important to note here. Crestwood ranks in the top 5 in NEPA in the lowest education cost per student. Also, there was no mention what-so-ever of any reduction in teachers salaries or benefits. The average teacher salary in Crestwood is $48,164 per year. This is somewhat skewed because the preschool teachers make an average of just $22,290 per year while the high school teachers yearly average is $58,550. The highest high school teachers salaries are $81,780 per year. These numbers come directly from the web site Teachers Salary Info.
http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/ohio/teacher-salary-in-crestwood-local/
Of course, the Crestwood School Board wouldn't dare cut $1,000 to $2,000 per year off some of these outrageous teacher salaries. God forbid if they touched those.

To sum it up, this just plain stinks. This falls right in line with the Dummying Up Of America. Part of the blame should be thrown the way of our moron governor Tommy "Clueless" Corbett. This is a great example of what is going to happen throughout all of our school districts due to the cut backs in state funding to our public schools. The rest of the blame falls squarely on the Crestwood School Board. It appears that they held back on raising school taxes over the past several years and are now getting whacked in the pocketbook. I feel sorry for all of the students who have had the after school activity rug pulled right out from under them. It's a crime against the taxpayers. This stench will linger for sometime I fear, so get out your gas masks.

UPDATE: The more I think about this the angrier I get. The teachers unions are gang raping the school districts for every cent they can get. They ask for boat loads of money and threaten a strike when they don't get it. They are like toddlers in a candy store throwing a tantrum when they don't get what they want. I say cut those huge salaries down. If they don't like it, send them and their union packing. There are plenty of qualified teachers out there looking for jobs. I am sick and tired of the taxpayers and in this case their children taking it in the pocketbook. As one of our Gripers said, it's time for "We The People" to rise up and band together to tell our politicians that enough is enough. WE ARE AS MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!