Sunday, January 11, 2009

Waste Not, Want Not as CCSD Issue

A Buist Academy student's Letter to the Editor that appeared in Sunday's P & C raised some good points regarding waste in the Charleston County School District. [See Letters to the Editor.]

Unused textbooks will continue as a problem as long as their purchase is centrally mandated.

Paper waste involves another matter. Many schools probably still struggle with trusting announcements to electronic transmissions, either through habit or equipment problems. The student mentions "large amounts of paper waste from assignments." Now, some schools have already used up their "paper" budgets. A recent commenter on this blog, obviously a CCSD teacher, stated, "Hey paper shortage already, we can't order pencils or paper." Was that waste, poor planning, poor administration, or inadequate funds?

Somehow I suspect that's not the result of waste, but the student certainly hits the jackpot on the district's management of resources.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't label it as a "District" wastefulness.... as with any eco issue it's personal wastefulness. District employees do most things electronically. However, my son's teacher kills more trees in a week than I can fathom. I get no less than 5 pieces of paper home for stupid things that can be consolidated in one e-communication daily.... or even things that I don't need, like several full-page reminders for PTA, Friday's project, etc. Completely pointless, and it litters my life.

Anonymous said...

Moldy classrooms due to leaky ceilings.
Bathrooms where no doors shut.


Freeze all new construction-fix the school's we are using. Update them to the 21st century.
Teacher's at my school can't find paper to even print once a week notices.
It must be nice to have so much!

Definitely not a school in North Charleston.

Thought on furlough-Let downtown furlough a day first before asking teachers to give up pay!

McGinley has a 3 year contract-we aren't even sure about next year!

Anonymous said...

All the top people at 75 Calhoun have 3 year contracts. They also make in excess of $150,000 each. The value of employee benefits, retirement plan and executive perks would make their take much higher. We aren't hearing anything about cuts among this special class of administrators.

How much has McGinley spent on outside "experts" like the one she hired to conduct the public hearings on her school closure plan? From what I hear she barely made it through the first meeting at McClellanville before it was painfully obvious she was being ignored by an irate public.

Every time we turn around McGinley is either hiring a new body to fill a desk at 75 Calhoun or is contracting some expert to tell us what we already know. How much has she spent on this garbage?

Anonymous said...

Twelve mos employees ALREADY took 3 days furlough - this includes the people you speak of. The Board the public elected in chose to allow those who had vacation to use it - dumb dumb dumb. Twelve mos employees - to include the "blue collar" people (as it did over Christmas) and secretaries, etc - are now being proposed another 4 days at least without pay. What have teachers had to contribute to this? Nothing. They are the largest employee group. One day from teachers would make up a ton of cash. It's the same employer - it's inequitable to furlough employees and not others. Not everyone in administration is paid $150,000. They are hurting just like everyone else in this economy.

Anonymous said...

I am under the impression charleston county teachers sign a contract for the school year mandating x number of work days for x $pay. Doesn't furloughing teachers two days constitute a breach of contract?