Atomictumor

The Oak Ridger reported yesterday that City Manager Jim O’Connor sent an email out to the School Board to have a pow-wow over how the school board does the budget. 

What  hasn’t been commonly reported (other than here, and Netmoms site, and a few other places not afraid of working off the record) is that back in August, Jim-boy met with Mayor Bradshaw, Superintendant Bailey, and School Board Chief John Smith Jr. to discuss the matter, directing them not to make a big thing out of the budget this year like they did last year.  It was advised that they stop giving teachers raises (Oak Ridge has done a great job keeping teachers, who get raises on a periodic scale, so because we have a lot that have been around for years and years, we pay em more.  Circle of life), or put the can on a few teaching jobs, in order to make the budget work in a media friendly way, and prevent people from being voted off the council this coming year.

Wait, hold on.  I told myself that this wouldn’t be a one vs. the other kinda post, and that I’d be fair and balanced, just like Rupert.  Why, Atomictumor WHY, do you always have to dig at the Council!  You’re such a closed minded, liberal bastard, and I think your opinions are petty and simple. 

Sorry about that.

As I was saying, Jimjam wants to have the board and the council meet, sort of a West Side Story with pizazz.  They’ll snap fingers at each other, and sing songs about how one side doesn’t know how to use the other sides money, but I don’t think there’ll be a knife fight. 

There certainly will be some wondering how the City Council expects the school board to have a very meaningful dialogue vis a vis this years budget when they don’t expect to have any thing close to the numbers and expenses required to make a budget for another few months.  Hmm. 

I’d be interested in seeing what happens at this meeting.  I want to see if everybody involved is going to be involved for the best of Oak Ridge, or if they’re going to be involved to try to make themselves look good.  I don’t see why they necessarilly have to be exclusive, but thats why I’m not in politics.  I’m a gadfly, remember?

Finally, what really got me thinking about this matter is the discussion (I didn’t see the meeting, myself) during the meeting asking if Oak Ridge really wants to commit to excellence in the school system.  The word “complacent” came up, which I think is a very interesting word to use in the situation. 

Is Oak Ridge complacent about the schools?  Do Oak Ridge citizens, in 2006, really care if they have the best school system in the state/country/county/whatever?  Where are the priorities there?

Well, according to our little very, very, highly informal poll on the website, the schools aren’t much of a priority compared to general housekeeping, like bringing in business, or repairing blighted neighborhoods.  Should we deal with the city as a whole, get something put in that albatross of a mall downtown, get some decent businesses in town, fix up shitty parts of town, and come back to the schools in a few years?

We’d only be sacrificing the education of some of the kids?