Comments on: School board lays off 15, cuts 31 non-teaching jobs

By: Kenn Keyser

Kenn Keyser — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:05:31 +0000

I offer the written quote of my wife’s statement. It does not make any emotional pleas for saving herself. She presents her experience and her given school and state given authority view of the pending action. I noted one thing. Neither the school board or superintendent commented on her remarks directly. Perhaps they knew she was right. Her statement. “My name is Linda Keyser, I am a State Certified School Bus Driver Instructor. I am concerned that the district is planning on discontinuing this position. I believe the district will be opening itself up to a great deal of liability and I wonder if there has been any risk management studies done to justify the discontinuing of this position.
Are you aware that each and every school bus driver in the State of California is required to have a minimum of 10 hours of safety instruction every year to maintain their school bus driver certificate and during the last year of their certificate, the year their license is renewed are required to have 10 hours of classroom instruction? This instruction can only be given by a State Certified School Bus Driver Instructor and must be documented on a State owned document called the T-01. This document can only be filled out by a State Certified School Bus Driver Instructor, if anyone else tries to fill out this document it is null and the driver could find themselves without their school bus certificate because there would be no way to verify who filled out the training hours. The liability lies in not having qualified school bus drivers because the Instructor has not been allowed to do their job. I am very concerned about not having a School Bus Driver Instructor on the payroll of the District because this opens the District to massive risk with so many children riding our school buses and parents expecting them to be safe, without the Instructor to verify training and documentation the State could quickly shut down the Department.
Thank you for your time. Please consider the safety of the children before making a final decision on this position.”
Respectfully.

By: Tom M

Tom M — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:02:50 +0000

Typical, the people that comment have no understanding of the actual issue. They just have free time and a separate (totally unrelated) agenda.

1. Schools are mostly funded with property taxes. TIF fees pay for roads? Ralphs comments make zero sense. The only thing he got correct was ” there are lots more funding cuts coming”. The Governor is working on that now.

2. Cryharris seems to think that urban sprawl has something to do with this article? I think he just has a “keep Ramona Rural” mindset. Whatever, seems to have no correlation to this article.

Schools (all government) are being forced to shrink as an indirect function of the economy. It has nothing to do with urban sprawl or commercial business permits.

By: crysharris

crysharris — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:35:36 +0000

While Ralph is correct that excessive bureaucracy and regulation have a chilling effect on entrepreneurship and business growth, a relative lack of fees, permits, and regulations have a negative impact on safety, quality of life, public services and the environment. We need to strike a reasonable balance that protects business interests and the community at large.

Let’s not forget that permits and regulations prevent massive sprawl in Ramona, protecting our dwindling property values and keeping 67 from absolute gridlock. Permits and regulations make sure businesses and homes are fire and disaster safe.

By: Ralph Mittman

Ralph Mittman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:10:54 +0000

Where is the outrage over all of the, higher taxes, fees, fines, bureaucratic and regulatory compliance costs that cause businesses to shut down or prevent them from even opening?
If you truly and honestly want to understand why we are in these budget cutting dilemmas, you simply must understanding where the actual funding comes from in the first place.
We don’t have schools and public services because we “think they are worthy and necessary.” We have these things because there is a source of revenue for these desired and worthy services. The funding comes from tax revenue generated through commerce, i.e. the doing of business.
So when ever you see or hear of ANY new rule, regulation, fine, fee, permit, restriction, tax or even any new form that needs to be filled out, understand that you are looking at another brick in the wall, shutting us off from funding these worthy and needed services like schools, water, parks, trails and funding for social services.
I personally know of several businesses who have tried to open in Ramona who were prevented from doing so, because of overwhelming costs, unassociated with the actual business. These include, permits, fees, taxes, fines, restrictions and regulatory compliance costs.
For just one example, if you don’t know and understand what the TIF fee is all about, then there is no way you can understand why there are funding problems.
By the way, unfortunately, there are lots more funding cuts coming, and that is a tragedy.

By: micleon166

micleon166 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:02:43 +0000

BOO HOO welcome to reality the private sector has it worse.