Last month, I wrote about a proposal by the South Milwaukee school board to spend $30,000 in federal stimulus money for an early childhood curriculum consultant to assist in better aligning the 4-year-old curriculum with the rest of the grades. At the time, I expressed concern about the possibility of the duplication of services, given that the South Milwaukee school district already has a a full-time Director of Instruction, Rita Olson, PhD. At the time, it seemed illogical to me to spend thirty thousand dollars to hire a curriculum consultant to assist the Director of Instruction in doing her job, and I wondered if the money couldn’t be better spent.
Apparently the South Milwaukee school board thought it was a great idea to spend $30,000 to hire that curriculum consultant, as they voted unanimously at their June 3, 2009 meeting to spend ARRA funds to hire the consultant:
2009-2010 Budget, Infrastructure and ARRA Funds – Moved by Molus and seconded by Maass that the Board approve $417,500 ARRA funds appropriations for: the positions of Classroom Literacy Intervention Coordinator, Math Teacher, and Technology Integration Specialist; for the early childhood curriculum and consultant; and for the pre-Read 180 and math intervention software, as presented. All voted aye by roll call. Motion carried 6-0.
Among the items approved by the board was a Classroom Literacy Intervention Coordinator position, which based on previous reports will earn $245,000 over two years to work with teachers of all grade levels to help them improve and model teaching strategies in the classroom. In other words, the school district just spent $245,000 in stimulus funds to hire a consultant to teach teachers how to teach.
Makes sense, right?
As I wrote a month ago, it’s a shame the school district has decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus money – money that could have been spent in any number of ways to better benefit the school district – to hire consultants to come in and essentially duplicate services already being provided within the South Milwaukee school district. So here’s a challenge to you, dear reader: just take a moment and ponder what $275,000 could do for the students of the South Milwaukee school district, and then ask yourself if the money was really well-spent.
I know my answer to that question.
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