Look who’s the new president of the Liverpool Central School District Board of Education:
Patricia DeBona-Rosier, a former teacher.
The district faces a $10.3 million shortfall in its upcoming budget year. Try telling Pat to make up the difference by having teachers take pay cuts and see how far you get. You can email her at [email protected].
Pat lives in Liverpool, right here in the village. She taught English for 33 years at Liverpool High School.
Colluding with union?
Pat was unanimously elected president by her fellow board members early this month after Don Cook suddenly stepped down to spend more time with his family.
Pat DeBona-Rosier is only one of several Liverpool school board members with ties to the teachers. Some of them, like Pat, are ex-instructors while others are related to teachers. The end result is that the board as a whole has a hard time standing up to the United Liverpool Faculty Association. In fact, board members often appear to collude with the union.
Last spring ULFA – which represents some 1,000 district employees – refused to accept a wage freeze to help offset the $5.7 million budget gap then facing the school district. As far as I know, nobody on the board publicly criticized the teachers for their greediness.
The union, now led by President Rich Funnell, simply takes it for granted that taxpayers will continue to pay their high salaries, benefits and pensions. Our already well-compensated teachers expect this royal treatment regardless of the fact that taxpayers can barely make ends meet here in the worst U.S. economy since the 1930s.
Taxpayers taken
The district’s yearly budget is more than $132 million. That averages out to nearly $18,000 spent annually for each one of its students. Shouldn’t that be enough to get the job done? Since more than 70 percent of the budget pays for salaries, bennies and pensions, shouldn’t the district’s employees – that is, the teachers – be willing to absorb some cutbacks in order to balance the budget?
The answers seem obvious. With so many teacher-oriented board members, however, the deck remains solidly stacked against the taxpayers.
For rent on First St.
Last week we asked, what’s going on over at the former Chris’ Flowers Etc.
Early this month signs posted in the shop windows proclaimed, “Re-opening for Valentine’s Day, new name, same talented designer, new owner!”
It didn’t happen.
Instead those hopeful words were replaced last week by a simple “For Rent” sign.
It’s a great location at 141 First St., so we’ll be patient and hope that someone moves in sooner or later.
Ditto the darkened storefront at the longtime Burger King at 7589 Oswego St.
Both the florist’s shop on First Street and the fast food joint on Oswego Street have been closed since Dec. 27.
Italian espresso!
Not to be outdone by the plethora of coffee shops now dispensing special javas in the village, Nichols Supermarket recently installed an espresso machine in its delicatessen. It’s a Moak brand pressurizer direct from Modica Alta in southern Sicily. You can buy a jolt of espresso there for a single simoleon.
Cove becomes Company
In the category of “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” some time before the holidays, Fish Cove became the Fish Company.
The interior of the venerable seafood spot in Ponderosa Plaza sports a spiffy fresh paint job, but the fish, french fries, clam chowder, baked beans and cabbage salad still make the perfect meal for a Friday; fishcompanyofliverpool.com/; 457-9839.
