March 30, 2010

VIDEO: Reinvesting in Racine Unified presentation

Welcome to the RacinePost Video Experience. After wrestling for the better part of a day with video formats, video editors and YouTube, we have three videos of Racine Unified's Monday night presentation on its plans to spend up to $80.6 million building new schools and maintaining current staffing levels.

There are three videos, each about 10 minutes long. The first talks about the building proposal, which includes building three new elementary schools. The second talks about the need for an operating referendum to maintain staffing levels once the federal stimulus money disappears. And the third talks about how the district would pay for the construction and operating proposals.

If you'd like a clearer, more complete broadcast of the forum, tune into Racine Unified's public access station later this week. They'll be airing the meeting in its entirety.








Update: The presentation of the District’s Reinvestment Plan is now on RUSD Channel 20 (Time Warner Cable.)  The meeting may be viewed at 4:30 p.m. daily.


The School Board, on Monday, March 29, reviewed a plan that includes the construction of three new elementary schools and additions/improvements to five existing elementary buildings.  The plan would also improve building access for people with disabilities and provide operating costs to maintain legally required staff levels. The total price tag would range from $58 million to $73.1 million for the construction and $7.5 million for annual operating costs.


The School Board is currently seeking public input to the plan and may determine in June whether to schedule a referendum in the fall.

12 comments:

  1. Wow you guys are in the pocket of RUSD.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 6:54 - of course, Pete and Dustin are spend and tax guys.

    ReplyDelete
  3. True 'dat Pete, Dustin or their ex-boss Randy have never met a tax increase they didn't like.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Out of all the stunts that RUSD has pulled over the years this is the worst. These ivory tower folks seem to not know there is major unemployment, home loss and financial pain in Racine County. This is the absolute wrong time to introduce this massive new tax plan.

    Clearly the RUSD staff and Board live in a different world from those of us who would have to pay for this. Hopefully, someone introduces the RUSD folks to reality before they waste time on more presentations and a vote that is sure to lose.

    Hopefully the next election will include people who understand the pain in Racine that will find ways to reduce the RUSD taxes rather than continue to increase the taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We need to vote out the current board. Anyone has to have more sense than the idiots that would propose this type of spending with the economy and Racine's unemployment rate. Unified leadership should be much more concerned with a remedy to the miserable state of failure reflected in the embarrassing performance of students in our schools.

    Buildings and new computers won't fix broken education. Parents, teachers and administration need to have the ability to have higher expectations of children. No social promotion of students. No dumbing down of education. No free ride on bad behavior. There needs to be consequences that makes kids realize the error of their ways. Truancy and attendance rates are atrocious. Language, behavior, lack of respect, even the smallest things are out of control. How did things get so out of hand?

    ReplyDelete
  6. These "ivory tower folks" KNOW there is high unemployment, decreasing home values, etc!!! They also know that the taxes collected for them are not on the belt-tightening list for taxpayers - we have to pay those taxes, end of discussion. What a great line of work to be in - whatever bill you send, with or without the consent of taxpayers, has to be paid. Again, there will always be enough teachers/admins/"concerned" parents to vote in whatever referendum is put out, so the veneer of democracy lives on.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a surprise! You never see them ask for less money or squeeze out more productivity in lieu of nearly unimaginable amounts of cash. Instead they're going to expand along with an unsustainable stimulus bubble that we'll be forced to fund once the stimulus funds are depleted.

    F+ for RUSD economics.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 10:21 - so true, socialists.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Since they're going to present a referendum anyway, I think RUSD should go ahead and ask for an "operations" referendum that would cover all of their salaries, not just the "extra" $7.5 million. That way, they wouldn't need to worry about all of that budgeting stuff every year. Maybe even make it big enough to give all of their employees a 10%-15% raise to recognize all of the effort they put it. They deserve it, right?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Here's an idea: those of you who think RUSD should get more money should go ahead and send them an extra check or two.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "Maybe even make it big enough to give all of their employees a 10%-15% raise..."

    Why stop there? Heck, let's double everything. Let's make 100% sure we all go down the tubes.

    If anyone hasn't noticed we are in the midst of the start of a global resource decline. Growth in anything is going to be history. We have to begin noticing these trends.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The logic is all wrong. They want the same per dollar spending as other communities. That is the GOAL. But we are not those communities. We are already being unwise and wasting money we already have. Who is going to support more money just to keep pace with other communities? Sure then all the teachers will leave. Then I guess everyone out of work here will have a job opportunity in teaching.

    ReplyDelete