School boards want alternatives
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- November
- 17
  The state could could put a big dent in what it pays for funding school districts by changing employee contributions to health-care premiums and public pensions, 80 percent of school-board members said in an informal poll conducted by the state School Boards Association.
  In responding to an e-mail poll, 409 school-board members named the deficit-reduction measure that would have the most impact in their districts, rather than slashing $836 million this budget year, as Gov. David Paterson has proposed to help reduce the state budget. These are the results: 
  —39 percent said requiring a minimum health-care contribution in employee contracts.
  —38 percent said requiring employee-pension contributions throughout the duration of employment.
  —23 percent said eliminating salary-step increases under expired contracts. Â
  As for what individual school boards could do that would have the greatest effect; 26 percent said joining a health-care consortium; 20 percent said sharing services with other districts; 19 percent said joining a regional transportation agreement; 18 percent said participating in a regional energy-purchasing cooperative; and 17 percent said merging with another district.
  “These results indicate that Governor Paterson and state lawmakers should be trying to help school districts during this time of economic crisis, rather than making devastating mid-year cuts to education,” Timothy Kremer, head of the School Boards Association, said in a statement.
(Photo: state School Boards Association.)
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on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 4:15 pm by Cara Matthews.
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