BTW, my Commissioner seems supportive of the increase in the SB budget. May be why we're getting these calls south of the river.

I'd love to know who is paying for it!

I also got a call.

How much does robo-calling cost?

i got one asking me to contact my commissioner amy broyles, and included her phone number.

my question is: what happens if there is a $35 million shortfall? charter schools?

Burchett's got a campaign kitty and a hefty salary. No reason he can't be paying for this himself, and while it's interesting when you first hear about it, I don't understand why some people find it shocking. It's a perfectly legit tactic, as it would be if, say, McIntyre were doing it.

Brian, are you also in the 2nd or the 9th?

I'm in the 6th and I haven't gotten one, nor heard from anyone else in my district who has.

At least he's making the robo-calls in Knox County instead of say, in Kansas.

We received one in the 8th district.

We received one in the 8th district.

Where does Dave Wright stand on the budget request?

(We know Mike McMillan voted against it, of course.)

I just attended the 4th district Democratic Party meeting and no one in the area (Bearden, Sequoia Hills) had received a call.

i'd bet money that Dave's a no.

I just don't see where 7 votes to override a veto will come from.

Tony Norman's a no, i betcha. He really doesn't like the school administration.

I must differ with my colleague Bean.

It's rather odd and outside my range of memory to see a county executive robo-call to lobby citizens to lobby commissioners on the budget. What's next? Billboards?

Tim Burchett has been defensive about his opposition to the school board's budget since the day he made his budget address and told commissioners if they dared to pass a tax increase he would veto it. THEN he embarked on a whirlwind tour of the county allegedly to hear from citizens. Fact is, he had his mind made up.

I strongly support the school board's budget and remain optimistic that the needed 7 votes will be there on commission. Actually, I think those votes have been there since day one and Burchett knows it. Why else hit the panic button?

Seems both Beanster and Burchett have lapsed into campaign mode. -- s.

I really like cyber personas of Sandra Clark and Betty Bean. Never met either of them, although I've swapped emails a few times with one of them.

I like the way they can disagree. I like the precise, economical way each of them writes.

I've known Tim since 1982. We've generally disagreed on politics though from time to time we've known common ground.

On this issue, he is way off base. He can let a referendum or vote by commission get through without his signature and he would be wise to do it. It's the right thing to do and he knows it. Right now, he is signing on with the Cas Walker style of government as opposed to the Victor Ashe style. If I may be so bold, I predict that Tim will be beaten by Victor in the next election if the tax increase does not go through. Everyone involved in the issue of education knows that the money simply isn't there to run an education system in an industrialized nation.

The teachers everyone talks about wanting literally can't talk about what they are doing for fear that someone in labor law is going to look at why they aren't getting paid for their overtime. In other words, they work off the clock for the betterment of their children. It's not right, or legal, and everyone paying attention, including Tim, knows our system is stretched as far as it can go.

How does one justify a local Middle School of over 1000 children only having 8 track uniforms for a team of fifty plus kids? Seriously? Textbooks? Try buying a REAL textbook that conforms to our idiot legislatures regulations for less than $250.00 a pop. It called collateral damage for electing morons. I just got the robocall from McIntyre encouraging me to read to my thirteen year old this summer. Really? More on me? Jesus buddy, he just knocked out another top 1% on TCAPS. How about some help on all the out of pocket expenses I incur to justify your salary. How about some uniforms for our athletic teams or at least some community extracurricular activities the we can man the refreshment stands at in order to raise funds for our school functions. How about someone with the balls to stand up and say,"Look Tim, You're wrong. Get on the right side of this issue. There is just not enough money to run a 21st century school system."

...although I'd love to see the schools better funded, and I'd probably be more enthusiastic if teachers liked this plan a little better.

But I do hope the schools get way more than they're getting. And it wouldn't bother me none to pay a little higher property tax.

Me three, Betty and Stick.

I certainly haven't been "campaigning against" the budget increase/tax increase, I hope you guys know.

I'd just like to see some of it allocated differently, especially in regard to how it would spend on teachers.

This is the smartest juncture at which parties wanting to stress such a point should do it.

No one, including school board members, is likely to pay much attention to a request of this sort after the budget is funded.

My eyes have been opened concerning Jim McIntyre, Rachel.

I don't trust him to allocate it properly and I think the school board has to date followed his recommendations blindly.

Two school board members to have called me at home told me that they "had to" adopt this APEX teacher evaluation model due to promises we extended in our Race to the Top app, but that's not true.

The First to the Top legislation adopted to pave the way for that successful RttT app didn't require four to six annual evaluations of each and every teacher, it required only one. I've shared the applicable statute here more than once.

The FttT legislation didn't require that those "test-less" teachers be evaluated on the basis of some other teachers' students' test scores, either. See above.

Also, these same two school board members to have called me didn't know that it wasn't Broad Resident Nakia Townes, who presented the APEX model to them, who designed it. They'd never heard of Battelle for Kids.

Those same two board members also told me they "had to" adopt strategic comp for teachers, too, but I still don't know why they're saying so.

I've used the "find" feature in the pdf file for the 264-page RttT app to search for the terms "merit pay," "pay for performance," and "strategic comp" and none of those terms appear in the app.

I feel strongly, then, that Jim McIntyre doesn't have much regard for his staff and I know for certain that many of his staff feel the same way. They've written me and told me face-to-face.

On the basis of these above circumstances, and because he previously proposed outsourcing some support staff, and because he has located the only two schools to have been built during his tenure in facilities that are leased rather than owned, I am deeply concerned that he is someone drinking the Broad Foundation Kool-Aid, namely a "corporate reformer" dismissive of his employees and supportive of school privatization.

Like I said in my earliest posts on this subject, it's felt hugely counter-intuitive to me to have raised these issues at this juncture--because I do think our schools require greater funding--but I have also come to distrust both McIntyre's ability to lead his staff and his vision for our school system.

It's been hard for me to simultaneously advocate for this budget and against his continuing as our superintendent.

But that's where I stand.

Well, actually I should have said that I'm "for the tax increase necessary to fund this budget" (since I'm not actually for the budget allocation itself).

But if we're now square with each other, I'm glad, too.

I never once said I didn't support more money for the school system, Scott. I've complained repeatedly only about the proposal's allocation of funds.

My reference to strategic comp being a "deal killer" referred to the extent to which commissioners might balk at funding the proposal if all our teachers were to slam them.

I've only spoken with three commissioners about the budget proposal and all three said they'd gotten hundreds of e-mails from angry teachers, so they have been slammed.

Meanwhile, not a single school board member has expressed to me his/her inclination to reexamine the APEX evaluation model, the line item dedicated to strategic comp, or any other line item allocation.

They all appear to be doggedly attached to what some of us still think is an inane spending plan, at least in part.