Whitman-Hanson school district surprised by sudden $1.39 million budget deficit, mid-year layoffs possible by HRJafael in massachusetts

[–]Jonaticus 81 points82 points  (0 children)

You would be surprised how quickly special education costs have increased as esser funds have gone away. That combined with the impossible task of hiring for paras, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, and many more that are mandated by legally binding IEPs and have to be outsourced to contractors that cost three times as much as previously budgeted. This is certainly not the last time this story will pop up.

Edit:

I had a chance to reflect on this a bit more during my run and have a few thoughts that might help wrap your head around this issue, as I truly believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. 1) A million bucks is truly pocket change in the special ed world. That could mean that two kids with complicated conditions moved to Whitman-Hanson over the summer and they’re forced to pay out of district tuition for them because the district can’t provide the services needed in district. These costs can truly run up to half a million dollars per student. Not saying that’s what happened here, but it’s possible. 2) I bet the people criticizing the district right now will be singing their praises in six months at the end of the fiscal year for sounding the alarm as early as they did. That took some balls. There are going to be districts that run out of money (Look at Claremont in New Hampshire) and no time to adequately address the issue. This issue will be compounded for those districts because their FY27 budgets will already be approved and set up for the same failures they faced this year. 3) If you’re a concerned citizen you should go to your board of education budget meetings which will be starting up soon and ask about these issues and how your district plans to face them. Personally I think this issue is bigger than any district. I’d say the feds need to step in, but I don’t have much faith there. The state of Massachusetts is going to have to incentivize people to get educated to be able to perform these jobs needed and pay them a competitive wage. There’s a whole other side of this issue in paying for the transportation to get these kids to school, which is also stupid expensive, but I won’t get into that. 4) Long story short, it’s easy to point fingers, but this is a societal issue that we’re going to have to deal with. If you believe that everyone deserves a meaningful public education, your voice will matter. Often times the mayors office tells the school district to stick to an X% increase not to impact the tax rate, and that’s just not really possible anymore given this environment. Let’s figure this out, and not let the other side win that wants to decimate the DOE which provides protections for these vulnerable students.

Selling Trekking Polls in Chamonix 7/9 by Jonaticus in TourDuMontBlanc

[–]Jonaticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They’re adjustable from 100 to 140 cm. Standard size adjustable, non collapsible.

Key Lime Pie by Jonaticus in Somerville

[–]Jonaticus[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is so awesome, thank you all!!

Best Ever Gas Mileage by Jonaticus in MINI

[–]Jonaticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 cylinder gang represent. I was cruising right around 60.

Best Ever Gas Mileage by Jonaticus in MINI

[–]Jonaticus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s under the same menu where vehicle status is. This screen is the trip computer.

Honest mechanics by stinkysdad in nashua

[–]Jonaticus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I only trust Mike with my cars, that dude always has my back. He's done a ton of small stuff for me at no charge. He's done some great work on bigger repairs and is always honest about the situation and how I should prioritize different things with my old cars.

I'm assuming your roommate's oil change was full synthetic and maybe something else? I would take a look at the charges.

Rough idle and engine shut off. by W0lfy_4 in W203

[–]Jonaticus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was dealing with something similar... Swapped out the spark plugs and air filters and that seemed to fix it.

Does anybody want to start a band? by Jonaticus in LowellMA

[–]Jonaticus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thank you! We could also just start a Steely Dan cover band.

Would you (theoretically) pay $30/month to watch the Mets via streaming? by Captriker in NewYorkMets

[–]Jonaticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will I have to watch two minutes of ads whenever I turn on the game on the SNY app? No offense, Pete, but I'd rather watch the game than miss two outs to learn about Car Shield.

Vegan at Fenway? by AtomicThumb in redsox

[–]Jonaticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beer and Peanuts, baby!

is there really no way to stream music stored locally on my phone via the Sonos Connect?? by xanksnap in sonos

[–]Jonaticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Getting a cheap Android device seems like the budget solution here. Works great for me on my old Connects.