Hebron Dollars & Sense

Issue #17:  The current status regarding insurance premiums is still fluid. There is good news… and bad news.  It’s a complicated situation, but here is the status of the insurance issue and how it affects budget discussions for FY 2010-11 as of February 25, 2010.

There have been many questions about insurance.  There have been reports that premiums have “gone down.”  That’s technically incorrect, with the exception of dental insurance which has declined from FY 2009-10 by approximately 2%, which isn’t much.

We received the following summary of the 2/18/10 BOS Meeting from a resident in attendance, and wanted to pass along the information.

Before we begin that summary, the resident issued a word of caution:  NEVER sit in the back of the room when meetings are held at the Douglas Library!  It’s almost impossible to hear, even though microphones are set up.

Issue #16:  Many have discussed the issue of teacher union concessions on the forums.  To address this, we have to look at both sides of the issue first.

One way of approaching this highly complicated issue is to use Robert Mager’s Criterion-Based Instruction (http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/Mager.html and http://coe.ksu.edu/jecdol/Vol_3/articles/Cox.htm.)   As a CRI-certified instructor, I’ve applied Mager’s general theories to this particular issue.  That means:  we need identifiable objectives, goals, and tasks to attain the ultimate objective(s).

My name is Donna McCalla, and my username on this site is DSAdmin.  The last I remember, because it’s been such a long time, my “title” was Spokesperson for Hebron Dollars and Sense.

Just a few months ago, members of Hebron Dollars and Sense actually discussed disbanding and removing the website.  But with the holidays and some personal health issues, we never got around to making that final decision.

Then, about two weeks ago, January 28th to be exact, we (or at least I) began receiving phone calls and emails from parents and residents troubled about next year’s budget (FY 2010-2011).

Issue #15:  We have explored the many deficiencies in the arguments FOR all-day Kindergarten. Hopefully we have generated thoughtful discussion based on research and data.  It’s now time to move on to other questions in the Board of Education’s budget.

Before you say, or ask yourselves, “Why are they picking on the Board of Education budget?” or “Why don’t they start analyzing the town budget, or the RHAM budget?”

Before we start the next phase of analysis of the BOE budget, everyone needs to first understand the budgetary process.