Kingston Schools are broke - Cancel $90 Million Building Program

The Kingston School District is broke.  It is closing schools and laying off teachers.  It is closing schools within the City of Kingston.  This is destroying city neighborhoods.  The district has no business pushing a building plan that spends close to $90 Million on the KHS complex, demolishing buildings and building new buildings.  Let's move the 9th Graders from KHS to Bailey and Miller Middle Schools and move the 6th grade from Bailey and Miller Middle Schools to the Elementary Schools.  This will use the unused space in the elementary schools and allow them to stay open, especially in the city. It will also allow us to use the KHS complex, as is, without spending money that we do not have on a major KHS building plan.  The Kingston School District is in survival mode.  It has no business starting a $90 Million building program.  NY State could be on the verge of taking over the operation of KHS due to the poor graduation rates and the poor progress in improving KHS.

What is missing from Cuomo's Education Budget

What is missing from Cuomo's Education Budget are simply the following 2 reforms.

1)  Repeal of the Triborough Amendment (which practically guarantees teacher's & other unions at least the same contract as the last one).

2)  School Voucher Grants to Parents which lower education costs via competition among public, private & parochial schools. (This grant system has created healthy competition & worked for years at the college level.)

School Consolidation is bad

School Consolidation is bad.  Think about it.  It is just "kicking the can down the road" for a future day of reckoning.  The sickness to be cured in the schools is the out of control, over-inflated teacher salaries with unreasonable longevity step and coursework step increases, increasing pensions and increasing health benefits.  Consolidating school districts will only buy you about 3 to 5 years.  After that, the savings from consolidation will have been lost due to skyrocketing teacher compensation.  SUGGESTION- Go in the opposite direction.  Open competition between public and private schools. This School Choice with vouchers and Pell grants allow parents to choose which public and private school their children should attend.  Competition breeds excellence in teaching.  Our present public school, union-controlled teaching system breeds failing schools, which is obvious to all of us by now.  Let us push School Choice with vouchers.  Don't support consolidation, since the school sickness will continue.

Kingston School Taxpayers Demand Transparency in $12 Million Budget Gap Solution

There is a $12 Million deficit Kingston School District Crisis. We the taxpayers demand to know that the Kingston School Board's starting teacher contract negotiation position is set up to present a budget with a maximum of 2% property tax increase. Also, the public demands that teacher step increases & contract salary increases are temporarily suspended. Also, taxpayers demand that the teacher's union health insurance fund be dissolved and that the Kingston Teacher's union health plans are 50% paid for by the teachers. In addition, the teacher's health benefits will be pooled with the health benefits of other surrounding school districts in order to get the lowest health premiums.


Fellow taxpayers, please join in with more taxpayer demands and suggestions to help to save the education of our children as a priority over teacher compensation.

What is the Superintendent of Red Hook Schools apologizing for?

What is the Superintendent of Red Hook Schools apologizing for?  A December 10th Freeman article says that the Red Hook School Board president said that the Red Hook superintendent should not have sent an email to his employees to tell them that due to the new NY State 2% Tax Cap, the Red Hook district needs to keep any pay increase to 1%.  This is direct evidence of why are schools are failing in NY State.  Superintendents are afraid to communicate the dire financial consequences to the employees of a district.  I do not believe the Red Hook Schools superintendent violated any laws or rules.  The only thing that he violated is the "unwritten rule" of Thy shalt not cross the teacher's union.  The Red Hook School superintendent's apology about the email to the teachers speaks volumes of what has to be done to improve our children's education and to improve our local tax situation and economies.  We must push for vouchers and school choice so the NY State Teacher's union is no longer calling the shots from their lofty favoritism position that our NY State lawmakers have created for the Public School teacher's union, which is feared by our School district leaders.  The sooner we parents and taxpayers can unite behind school choice and vouchers, the sooner our children and towns will be able to succeed again. Tell your NY State senators and assembly people that you want vouchers and school choice.

Kingston Fire Dept No Layoff Clause Cries Out for Contract Talks Open to Public

Does anyone remember what Common council members along with Mayor Sottile agreed to a No Layoff clause in the present Kingston Fire Dept Contract?   This lack of accountability cries out for union contract negotiations open to the public.  There is no law which states that union contract negotiations have to be secret.  If we had open negotiations, the Kingston Fire Union would not have obtained a No Layoff clause in their present contract.  The public would have screamed bloody murder.  Instead, we now have what looks like an impossible situation with an $8 Million Fire Dept. budget which could be cut in half (by using Volunteer Firemen) if we had the ability to threaten layoffs (as Governor Cuomo threatened with the CSEA and PEF unions).  The only way to reset this Fire Contract with the Tri-borough amendment is to declare Chapter 6 Municipal Bankruptcy.  In the meantime, many Kingstonians are harmed and are suffering by losing their homes and leaving the area.  Let's error on the side of the taxpayers and Keep all of our future union contracts open to the public, including the school district union contract negotiations.

Kingston's #1 Problem to be solved is the inability to afford union contracts.

Kingston's #1 Problem to be solved is the inability to afford the present and future union contracts. The evidence for this is Mayor Sottile wanted to make city residents pay for garbage pickup. When that didn't fly, he closed the budget shortfall using about $1.2 Million of the reserve fund, leaving only about $1.5 Million for next year's reserve fund. Also, the city has about $2 to $3 Million of unfunded pensions for the union workers. Get the picture.  By the way, what is the solution to this union contract problem?

The Solution is to completely reset these contracts and start over, ie. less pay, less benefits, less pensions. How can this be done? There is one item on this solution list -- Chapter 6 Municipal Bankruptcy. If there is a smart person out there who has a second better solution, please let us know. All I know is, without bold decisions, Kingston will have more crime, higer taxes, dirtier streets, less jobs and fewer and fewer young people buying homes and raising families here.  Kingston is a city with so much potential, but no bold leadership.