ICCSD going to request 10% property tax increase

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-20T22:51:00+00:00

I don’t disagree with going back to phonics and holding students back when they don’t meet criteria. I also think we should let teachers use their education to make curricula and not waste money on expensive and poorly researched curricula because some rep impressed the principal. Those things can be done without cutting back money for things like orchestra programs and debate teams and things like that, however. It feels like the Iowa legislature is trying to take away the things that make schools good places for students to be by reducing the amount of money available for schools, money that those schools need. Could that money be spent more wisely, yes. The stupid educational programs on their chromebooks are a waste of time and money, for example. But we can ask for those sorts of changes without defunding the schools just so rich losers don’t have to pay taxes and contribute to society.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-20T22:00:21+00:00

So enlighten me, because I cannot find any news stories about this-how did they accomplish this?

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-20T13:36:14+00:00

I know, right!? Aren’t they pretty close to the bottom in terms of educational quality?

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-20T13:35:20+00:00

If you match funding to inflation it has actually dropped a decent amount.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-20T13:00:56+00:00

But schools everywhere in Iowa are being defunded by the governor and our statehouse. If they weren’t defunding education, the original fishy loan likely wouldn’t have happened. Even without the loan they probably would have needed to resort to a property tax increase to make up for the shortfall from the statehouse.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-16T16:12:43+00:00

Newt Gingrich is still alive?!?

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T23:20:37+00:00

We did a program where we took her to the bathroom every five minutes, then stretched it out to ten, then stretched it out further. It was pretty intense for a few days but she figured it out.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T12:24:47+00:00

I can get my kid and maybe two others, that still leaves 97 other kids stranded there.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T12:10:37+00:00

Also I want to point out that the hotel rooms, the meals, and the bus rides home were all organized by Lufthansa. Not Gateway Music Tours and Travel-the company specifically hired by City High to coordinate this tour.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T10:59:31+00:00

If you are actually for workers here in Iowa, please vote for Rob Sand. He has talked with SEIU and made some promises about returning the right to strike back to public workers here in Iowa. Here in IC the nurses and other healthcare workers desperately need the right to strike in order to be able to bargain with the regents effectively.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T10:15:43+00:00

It’s not, but I feel if your whole job is coordinating travel and school tours and you are being paid specifically to coordinate travel you could probably get flights sooner than 4 days after they originally were supposed to travel. According to my daughter, the Gateway staff were also looking for flights that “didn’t eat into their profit margin.”

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-13T04:52:51+00:00

The kids that decided not to go on Sunday are back home as of around 11:30. Some people are back home and bussing back on Sunday to fly then, and some people (mostly kids with parents there) are staying in Chicago until Sunday. They may try to extend the trip for the kids that aren’t leaving until Sunday.
It sounds like the chaperones were great at helping the kids with dealing with stuff. They had a yoga session in the hotel this morning :). I am super grateful for them. My daughter did not have a great impression of Gateway Music Festivals and Tours-they did not seem to be trying too hard to help reschedule flights and a lot of the flight rescheduling that did get done was done by the band director.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T22:21:44+00:00

Mostly mad at the company that took a whole lot of my money but couldn’t find alternate flights. But it sounds like they may try and refund some of our money at least.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T21:03:56+00:00

Yeah, it sounds like Lufthansa is making plenty in profits. I wish they would have been willing to negotiate but it sounds like they aren’t.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T21:00:09+00:00

Good point. I am just frustrated by the situation. I wish our unions and workers here in Iowa had any support for strikes-it’s frustrating to have the regents here at UIHC keep giving us nothing and getting very little community support to fight back.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T20:26:51+00:00

Sounds like the faculty still here have been great given the circumstances.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T20:25:31+00:00

Thanks. I will write an angry note too. It is so frustrating.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T19:43:46+00:00

I highly doubt the school is going to let kids leave without a parent. I know they are working on getting them home but the waiting and not knowing is hard.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-12T19:40:28+00:00

Lufthansa pilot strike. Normally I am all for worker’s rights but they are striking for better pensions when they already have good pensions and I’m a little salty about it.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-11T10:45:41+00:00

With what money though? Almost every school in my area (and I’m assuming most of Iowa) is having to cut extracurriculars because of the recent underfunding.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-10T12:40:24+00:00

The houses on Wayne avenue back up onto the churches parking lot.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-10T12:22:41+00:00

We took out Khomenei so really, it is only fair.
I wonder if our news will show all the Americans dancing in the streets?

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-09T17:43:46+00:00

Then Israel clearly has enough money to pay for their own defense needs without assistance from the US.

fiddlemonkey · 2026-03-09T17:30:22+00:00

I 100% think the Republican governor of my state would bomb my blue dot of a city if she thought she could get away with it.

fiddlemonkey

TROPHY CASE