Why isnt the school board tightening their belts too?

[PrehistoricRez]

Why is it everyone can be scraping the bottom of the barrel to get by, except for government?  The school board tells us they are broke, we must combine 3 schools into 1 because we have no money.  The teachers cant get more than a $500 raise because we got no money. Have to cut back on activities because we got no money. Shorten the week because we got no money.  Then why at the last school board meeting after hearing many complaints from faculty, did the West Elk School board extend Mr. Reese's contract for a year AND give him a $5,000 raise, and give Ms. Young a $3,000, and Mr Moore a raise pending Budget review.  Why dont we elect people to the board that know what the common person deals with day to day.  What is the GAP amount between what the administrators make and what the teachers doing all the work make. 

[Diane Amberg]

Your teachers got a raise? We took a cut! We are very top heavy when it comes to administrators too.I'm not sure how any state justifies the differences between the teachers and the administrators any more.

[Patriot]

Then why at the last school board meeting after hearing many complaints from faculty, did the West Elk School board extend Mr. Reese's contract for a year AND give him a $5,000 raise, and give Ms. Young a $3,000, and Mr Moore a raise pending Budget review.  Why dont we elect people to the board that know what the common person deals with day to day.

Darned fine questions!  Perhaps the simple answers are because the recipients are greedy, the board are out of touch, and we're ignorant.  How much do we pay administrators in the school systems and elsewhere?  Is it in line with our local economy or are we trying to keep up with the likes of counties with populations that are 150 times greater than ours?

PrehistoricRez questions make one think that maybe it's time for all of the finances in Elk County to come under a sunshine review by the public.  I have heard that one county commissioner has already been busy determining ways to spend the money coming from the new wind project on all kinds of stuff OTHER than property tax relief.  Even in light of the fact that Elk has the highest property tax rates in the state!  It's time for some relief for taxpayers.

Makes one wonder about words we usually don't use.  Words like self enrichment, out of touch, cronyism and recall election.  Tough times are gonna get tougher.  Time for the electorate here to realize we don't live in a vacuum.

Time for the citizens to wake up and remind elected officials that they are only trustees of money and property that belongs to the citizenry.  I doubt that elected officials & bureaucrats here are any less prone to be careless with other peoples money than are those at the state and federal levels.