I know some board members read this blog, including you Cory Mabery.
Here is a question I would like answered. If as a board you can give a directive to the school’s administration to reduce healthcare benefits for certain school employees to employee only why has that not been extended to ALL school employees, remaining support staff, teachers and god forbid administrators?
Surely that will save the school a phenomenal amount of money.
It never was a fair fight and make no mistake it was a fight. Sometimes when you are personally closely involved in a situation it is hard to see things as they truly are. One thing there is no doubt in my mind is that this push to outsourcing has long been in the minds of the North Branch School Administration and Board of Education and they are utterly ruthless in their desire to purge the school of all non teaching or administrative staff.
Yesterday the AFSCME Union offered English cost savings of in excess of $440,000 and were flat-out refused by English and Bruff. This basically amounted to a 32 hour working week, Healthcare limited to employee only for transportation and custodial staff, 9 month a year only working.
The response by Bruff and English was to add to that a further $2 per hour paycut and also to pay 20% towards their healthcare. The elimination of paid holidays and several changes in work practices which include the removal of seniority rights.
If that is not clear that the message from Bruff and English have absolutely no intention of being fair-minded I don’t know what is. This is not negotiation, this is dictatorship. I know there are several people out there who applaud the loss of these staff as it is inconsequential but in all seriousness how can anyone live on such wage proposed by Bruff and English.
They should be ashamed of themselves, but here is the reality they absolutely don’t care one little bit, they have made no sacrifices, Bruff has increased her salary. This is why this community needs to start treating the school for what it is, a business and the people who run it are failing badly.
Many have asked why Ms. Bruff decided upon a leadership degree as opposed to a recognised financial degree that would be relevant to her daily duties. The bottom line is I do not know but I do have some thoughts on the matter.
1. I think there was plan to try to promote her as a potential future superintendent and a degree in leadership would give credit to her promotion (makes sense).
2. It’s a whole lot easier to obtain a degree in leadership than say a corporate finance degree.
3. It was used as a vehicle to justify a huge pay and benefits increase
It’s a question worth asking. I don’t think you will get a reply but either way she worked that degree into an $18,000 a year pay raise at a time and indeed on the very same agenda the custodial staff and other AFSCME members were being told they needed to start contributing to their healthcare (and for the record they have been doing that for several years whilst all other school employees did not and were not asked to)
At public question time during Board of Education meetings there is no legal requirement for your questions to be answered either there and then or in the future. You can ask away until you are Blue in the face if they don’t want to reply they don’t have to.
Most schools operate under Roberts Rules of Order, I am not sure that North Branch does. I think it pretty much has made up its own variations over the years under first Ronald Bower and then Jack Lewis. Current Board President is Rosann Clark.
I would suggest to anyone who needs a question answered either there or in the future would be best to direct their question not to the Board at large but to specifically target a Board member. The most helpful members would be Kevin McCrory and Ginger Russell. You will almost certainly never get a reply from Jerry Schlaud or Jack Lewis.
I would just like everyone to know that the School’s administration took time out of their day today to discover who was responsible for this blog. Do we pay them to do this? Are there not more pressing matters at a time of crisis than to look this up?
Clearly they are uncomfortable with information being disseminated into the community which again is another NB school classic rule. When it comes to the community they serve they are firm believers in the mushroom theory, keep everything in the dark and feed it Bu****it!!!
The question many are asking is why English and Bruff have not looked at outsourcing the administration staff. To date neither they or any member of the Board of Education have answered that question. It would be really nice to get the answer from them because there is NO reason why this cannot be done. Why outsource the lowest paid workers only? If we are hell-bent on the path of outsourcing why not go all the way and do it to everyone, after all it is all about the school and children right?
The answer is simple English and Bruff have no intention of setting into motion an act that will personally cost them money or their jobs, it’s okay to screw up the lives of other community members as long as they don’t have to make any sacrifices.
Based on the potential savings Bruff and English are stating on custodial services the same figures extrapolated based on administrative salaries would yield a saving to the district approaching $750,000.
Incompetence or just more lies? Look at the latest custodial cleaning costs as issued by the school administration today (June16th). Are you really trying to tell me that the cleaning supplies, equipment repairs, equipment replacement and small tools cost all end in double zero????? Add to that all come exactly to round off at even thousands of dollars!!!
What a truly amazing coincidence!!! Laughable and clearly false and deliberately so.
Another Bruff and English attempt to mislead. These figures should be easily extracted from the schools accounts instead it is clear they are just figures plucked from the air and put down on paper to support Bruff and English’s fervent desire to outsource the custodial staff.
Furthermore there is no mention of the additional costs the school will have to pay the State of Michigan for making people unemployed.
Ms. Bruff costs the school district in excess of $100,000 dollars per year but her incompetence is clear to see, it would be an insult to a bookkeeper yet alone a so-called financial wizard to put out figures like these.
Is it incompetence or is it deliberate fraud to make the savings look better than they really are, the answer is obvious don’t you think?
North Branch Schools are famous for NOT posting potentially contentious Board Meetings until the absolute last possible moment as required by law, so put this date on your calendars and attend the meeting at which the major topic will be, yes, you guessed it OUTSOURCING!!!
The meeting will I believe take place at the old elementary school at 6:30 p.m. in the board room. For confirmation I would suggest calling the school and asking for Mr. English or Ms. Bruff to confirm the time and place.
I certainly cannot profess to know the minds of our Board of Education, but I think I know enough to give you a guide on where individual members stand on the outsourcing issue:
Jack Lewis: Ringleader, BIG, BIG. BIG supporter of outsourcing.
Jerry Schlaud: Already made his mind up – another supporter of outsourcing.
Ginger Russell: Against outsourcing. Believes in a shared responsibility approach.
Kevin McCrory: Also against outsourcing, and favors a more widespread approach to cost reductions.
Rosann Clark: Ex-teacher, was elected on a no outsourcing platform, not sure that is the case anymore. Probably favors outsourcing as long as it does not affect teachers.
Cory Mabery: Cannot get a read on him, he seems to have a genuine care for the situation. Possibly undecided, but will probably vote to outsource.
Cathy Severance: Do not know her well enough to postulate an opinion.
The public should approach all members of the Board of Education and voice your opinions and views. At the end of the day they are there to represent YOU.
It’s hard to disseminate truth from rumor in this town but word on the street is that Mr. English and Ms. Bruff have “Four votes they need in their pockets” IF that is true it smacks of collusion.
I cannot get over that comment from Leann Gwinn. So it is “juvenile” for people who are going to lose their jobs, possibly their home, car, healthcare and whatever else is important to them and in some cases maybe their life, and you consider that “juvenile”.
Wow, you are either extremely naive or stupid and you certainly lack any humanity or humility. You are not related to Ms. Bruff are you?!
North Branch Outsourcing 