Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Correcting The Ostrich ‘Record’

The Ostrich ran a story yesterday on the budget hearing held Monday night, May 16th, by the Town Council.

In it, they reported on your correspondent as follows:

“Crestview Lane resident Pem Schaeffer advocated for reduced school spending and objected to, among other issues, budget discussions taking place before negotiations about the current teachers contract are completed.”

Since I read from a prepared text, it’s easy to go back and prove that none of my words specifically advocated for ‘reduced school spending.’  And if you watched the xtranormal version of my statement, you know that.

Alternately, you can watch the VOD playback of the meeting if you prefer independent corroboration; you can find it here.

As to the comment on negotiations not being completed, as of last week, the School Board had reportedly approved the proposed contract, but the teachers union had not.  I stated as much, and said that the details were being withheld from the public.  The report above is off the mark here as well.

I notified the reporter of the errors, but have yet to receive a reply.  Perhaps The Ostrich will run a correction.  And perhaps they paid their property taxes today.

Now that the school budget escaped without a scratch on Monday night, or even the threat of one, we wouldn’t be a bit surprised to hear that the union wants negotiations re-opened, rendering the earlier vote by the School Board irrelevant.  And why wouldn’t they? 

The Town Council and the School Board are clearly putty in their hands, and by extension, so is every town taxpayer.

At least until you move out of town in self-defense, thank you very much.

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