"It is pretty obvious that the company is not going to be around much longer," one person wrote on the message board. "I have no doubts at all that SHLD [Sears Holdings] will cease to exist by 2020 at the very latest. I'm thinking mid-2017 is when the EKG will go flat with the announcement being made right after the 2016 holiday season."
On the 19th, the gloom and doom for WVU-P began with the rejection of a double digit increase for maintenance but which also included the usual raises for staff. The yearly scare tactic that without the raises, the school would not be able to retain the people needed to teach and guide the students as well as address maintenance issues. Fortunately, the State Council for Community and Technical Colleges woke up to the nightmare that the real people are facing and stopped the insane request for higher tuition.
Now with even just a miserly 5% that the school can approve for itself, I will bet $1.00- 2.98 there WILL be money for raises and possibly even most of the 5%? This was just another mad dash to the bottom of the wallets and purses of the Tax Payers/ Families who pay these rates. People are hurting very badly and yet the Government at every level has gone mad with more and more and more.
Then on the 20th, the Our Opinion Column seemed to also wake up to the desperate plight of the people paying for the tuition versus the "never enough" mentality they must contend with. Yes, we need to have qualified staff in the Class Rooms and the back rooms to provide for a proper teaching experience. More money for raises today is hardly the panacea that the Schools scream for. The dire need to cut costs to face reality rather than a new car, trips, whatever on the backs of those who are and have not getting raises themselves is the "Pink Cloud" that Academia at every level lives under.
Show the actual pay AND benefits for a Teacher as an example at year 1, 3, 5 and 10. Do the same for any of the support staff from the newest kitchen helper/ maintenance worker right up to the higher salaried vice this and assistant that at 1, 3, 5 and 10 years. The people paying the tabs will go wild when they see how badly they have been misled. Poverty and Government worker is an oxymoron after a few years on the job.
And now on the 22d, WVU-P says sale of properties will be used for repairs. GOOD, that is how it should be. No money, realign assets and sell excess for NEEDED usage. Raises, more benefits or the paying of benefit increases to protect the employees from paying them is NOT a NEEDED expense. It is clearly time for reality to set in. These young folks had best be learning that there is a good chance their generation will not do as well as there parents and grandparents generations did.
I am skeptical that the air conditioners are needing replacement at the 10 year mark? Maybe 15- 18 if they are properly maintained. My last package ran for right on 18 years. But it was taken care of even if I did NOT get any raises and had to eat the costs. Government at all levels is too prone to buy new so it can show the shiny stuff as the sun reflects off it. A little dingy or dented and away it goes.
It is the same that is occurring with our local BOE. No money and the need to raise the Levy on the poor folks who themselves are getting little or nothing. There is in spite of all the hand wringing and scream of anguish that they are starving not only the system, but themselves. New schools for sure become a need after so many decades. But with those types of conditions, the BOE needs to very SERIOUSLY look at consolidation not as a second or third tier choice, but number 1. Spend the money for the new school, but also shut down several of the surrounding older ones. In Vienna, the BOE had the idea to consolidate and then to date have lost the stomach to deal with the Politics. Folks, the kids should be MORE important than the Politics. They sadly are NOT. Screams and cries; the pulling out of hair in anguish by parents who went to (fill in the blank), and remember (fill in another blank) as the greatest teacher, coach, counselor since tapioca. Well for us old folks, no one can take our memories away from us, but lets allow the kids every chance we can by using dollars wisely as they make their own.
I will say again, if there is one penny in raises, benefits or payments of benefit increases because of no alleged raise for the staff; no matter who, then the Levy should be voted down until the Board comes to grips with the reality of living in a State that is broke. The real folks are hurting and hurting badly. I am saying BOE, get serious. 'nuff said'.
(Paid for by the Candidate- Lawrence J. Wilson for Mayor of Vienna).