KCK Trumps Blue Valley in Ideas

Who would have thunk it?

While everyone was waiting around for brilliant Blue Valley to tip their hand on how to handle the budget shortfall the KCK district trumped them with one of the best ideas.

Blue Valley proposes cutting elementary music and middle school sports while adding 1 to 2 kids to each class while KCK proposes that any non teacher, para, aide making over $67,000 take a pay cut of 3% to 5% reports Dawn Bormann in the KC Star today.

Well done Cynthia Lane...incoming Superintendent of KCK Schools.

While nobody wants to take a pay cut many of us have suffered reduced income through lower sales, commissions, bonuses, etc. Asking administrators to give a little during this tough time seems like a great approach...........if not symbolically but also practically.

KCK says their move will save almost a half a million bucks. I wonder if Blue Valley making the same move would be enough to save music and French? Or maybe just add one kiddo per class instead of two?

KCK is also looking at a one day furlough option. I personally like this idea as well. If you told me I could take an extra Friday--just without pay..........I'd be all over it. Especially if it meant others not losing their jobs and that we could keep important programs. Also it is one of the easiest things to undo once things in the budget improve. It sends a strong message. Obama would love it.

I guess when you are used to living without you get used to it and learn to be not only creative but thoughtful. In Blue Valley we freak out when we hear there isn't enough to go through the line twice let alone once.

Okay Dr. Trigg...........the ball is smacked back into your court. Forehand or back hand?

Check back later in the day for the Good Friday Best Wine of the Week.

Just shoot the dog already

Come on. Really. I've written about this before.

How can anyone value a dog more than a person? Should I start with you and dog and only one space left in the lifeboat? Wayside Waifs says......let me think about this for a second.

Again. I love my (adopted) dog. But he is a dog.

Shelter Veterans? Dustin has been in the shelter for 3 years? I wonder what it has cost to keep good old Dustin alive these past 3 years? Front page of today's paper. 3 stories. Health Care....why you'll love it. Check. Toyota getting sued.........why we should hate another evil corporation. Check. And finally........not crimes against people or the how the homeless PEOPLE faired against this late season storm.....Nope. Homeless Dogs. Thanks Dawn Bormann still on the Doggie beat.

Dustin needs to be pushing up daiseys someplace.

This is exactly what is wrong with a no kill shelter. The article talks about all the time and effort that has gone unrewarded in finding this dog a "forever home". Crap. If this dog is so great why doesn't one of the shelter workers take him home? Most people I know who work or volunteer at a shelter have like 9 dogs. What's one more? Shoot the effing dog and let's get on with it.

17 Schools you don't want your kids to attend

This is the "thank God I live in Johnson County article" every bitching Blue Valley parent should read. The federal grants you don't want to be eligible for............ Seriously......are any of their schools NOT on the list? Dawn Bormann reported this little nugget in the KC Star on Sunday.

Great Lesson for Black History Month

I read in the Kansas City Star a story about a school program at Schlagle High School here in Kansas City regarding Black History Month.

Written by Dawn Bormann, it explained how for the past 2 years they have conducting this lesson during Black History month to teach the students about discrimination. In addition the story revealed that many parents learned as much as the kids. Awesome.

So it goes like this in brief......

The students at the school are divided by skin color for the day and made to use separate facilities like bathrooms, water fountains, enter by different doors. This year the white kids were the ones subject to the discrimination. They said they reversed it every year. I'd say keep it this way each year. Afterwards, they had a chance to share their experiences and frustrations. I think there is lots to learn by all. Well done to Doug Bolden, the principal at the school.

It reminded me of something we did in school that you probably wouldn't see today because of changing times. We had a week called "Communist Week" where we all had to pretend we lived in the USSR all week at school. They gave a few of us status as party insiders, body guards to the leader and then they sat back and watched abuse our power and start treating our friends like crap. It didn't take long. We also learned about the privilege and responsibilities of freedom. I still remember it to this day. I'm sure these kids and their parents will say the same thing years from now.

There was a mother, Mary Ann Kovac, who looked like an ignorant person in the article. I hope upon reflection she realizes how dumb she looked. I guess they were a little upset that a few of the light skins were treated roughly, called "whitey" and other things like that. Go figure. Hard lessons. You don't think maybe those few isolated incidents might have arose out of first hand experiences? I was impressed one dad who first called to complain called back to say he had learned a big lesson today. Pretty cool.

This would be a great program to take nationwide but people will not have the courage to do it.

The picture above is of George Washington Carver. A great American and in the theme of my blog.....lived in Johnson County for a time. Actually, he lived in Olathe and attended Lincoln Elementary School which was the "black" school back then. We always think we were the good guys during the civil war and Missouri was the slave state but we had our issues to own as well. He didn't invent peanut butter but pretty much everything else we know about peanuts came from this dude's research.