Cazual Conversation
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The silence of the Allens
June 25th, 2008, 4:06 pm · 10 Comments · posted by mcazalas
Donna Allen won’t be explaining herself to The News Herald any longer.
Allen, after Wednesday’s School Board meeting, told The News Herald’s Donna Vavala she is no longer speaking to the paper because she believes I have a personal vendetta against her.
It’s a shame, really, because we’d like to hear what she thinks about the latest paper magic Superintendent James McCalister has come up with to deal with the District’s budget woes.
To his credit, at the request of school board members, McCalister may have found a way to avoid closing A.D. Harris and Milliville Elementary.
Unfortunately, it involves paper and money shuffling rather than any real cuts or streamlining, which ought to begin with the District’s bloated administrative staff.
McCalister may have found a way out in new legislation that allows counties to use discretionary millage money in ways that were not intended when District’s were given the authority to levy the tax.
It was to be used for capital outlay, but now the Legislature has offered that if you can show your capital outlay needs are met for the next five years, you can petition the state to move money from there to other areas.
Yes, we’d love to hear why using tax money for unintended purposes is a better solution than rationally trimming the budget.
Better yet, we can’t wait to hear the part about how our capital outlay needs are met for the next five years. If that’s the case, why is that discretionary millage even in place?
Caz,
Unfortunately, it is not surprising that moving money around is preferable to actually trimming budgets. Then, the district suggests things like cutting ESE. Let’s make the kids who don’t have a fair shake get even farther behind. I hope their parents are paying attention, are voters, and are advocates for their children. There is a lot of legislation out there to help those kids.
Donna Allen is a public servant. She is not permitted to deny freedom of information to the press as it pertains to HER JOB. Don’t get mad, get even. Sue her.
Caz, if you are like me - this would just push me even stronger to dig deeper into what she is hiding. The only vendetta I see is hers against the public. She must really think we are all stupid! Have you ever noticed how she looks down her nose at us common people. Old friends she no longer speaks to.
I say - go for it Caz! Hold her and the rest of that bunch accountable. They are elected officials, it is their duty to inform and to respond to questions asked.
She nor any of the others deserve to be re-elected. They have lost my trust and faith in them.
This playing with money - stealing from Peter to pay Paul tactics will catch up with them sooner or later.
They are effecting too many people’s lives right now. Students, teachers, and on down the line.
Once it hits them in their pocket books - then we might get their attention.
I am writing in defense of Caz. I surely don’t believe he has any personal vendetta against Donna Allen or anyone else he writes about. I think that the only thing that he is is guilty of is getting too close to the truth. I am a fatihful daily reader who wants to know the truth of what is going on around me. Who wants to buy a paper with sugar coated facts??
Can we please get Donna Allen to publish a list of the $700,000 properties renting for $1,500. I would love to rent one. Thanks.
Mrs Allen won’t talk to News-Herald reporter Donna Vavala because she thinks another member of the News-Herald is out to get her? What the heck does that have to do with Donna Vavala?
It is difficult to remember that this diva is probably a nice person, deep down, when she pulls malarkey like this. She parlayed her job into a sweetheart deal for her personal life, and got called on it, which infuriated her. She went running to the school board lawyer and he called his buds on the politically stacked (one is a former Arvida vice-president) State Ethics commission, and thinks this somehow exonerates her. Now Princess Donna is refusing to talk to the ones who outed her, out of spite. Might could not just be spite, she might have some more malarkey going on that y’all haven’t noticed as of yet, and has been advised to keep her mouth shut by her partners. Or perhaps she is on drugs, she certainly shows all the symptoms of a paranoid hop head. Do they drug test school board members? Might be a good time to start.
This woman ran unopposed last time, and is in for two more years.
Two more years. Ugh. The poor kids, having to put up with decisions
by this woman for 8 years. They certainly aren’t getting any lessons in character from her, that’s for sure. It isn’t any wonder so many of them are dropping out of school, what with folks like her running the show.
Donna Allen brought it on herself. Again, she can’t take responsibility and wants to “get back” at someone by “punishing” them. How juvenile! She is arrogant and has neither “the kids” or the public’s welfare at heart - only her own.
20 million dollar defficit calls for hard decisions. Some options: Cut district office staff by at least 50%. We don’t need them; look at counties our size that have a fraction of our district office staff yet are quite successful, e.g. Okaloosa Couty.
Delete all supplemented positions for ALL extra-curricular activities such as football, soccer, baseball, band, choir, clubs…whatever. If parents want these worthwile activties for children, then they need to form a booster orginization to pay for them. Things like band and choir have class time they can practice and learn; that should be sufficient.
The high school football coaches are hired to just coach football and costs each high school over $100,000 with salary and benifits. Oh, but kids earn football scholarships (what percent and to where??! So what; they don’t graduate from college in huge numbers or if they do, they earn useless degrees in sports management, health and fitness, PE, Wellness, or the like.
Administration at the district and school level needs to be cut by at least 50%. For example, we had good high schools in the 70s and 80s and we did it with only a fraction of the adminstrators we now have at the school level. For example, here’s an easy one: the AA for attendance could be replaced by a clerical position, under the supervisiion of an AP. At the district level it is thought that many positions are political paybacks for support in elections. Look how the district administration has grown out of controll starting with the Bollinger days.
Why do we need a ‘county athletic director’ at a cost of over $100, 000 in salary and benefits? His position and whatever work he does could be spread out among the school-level “athletic directors”. School level athletic directors need to go back to teaching 100% of the time. Whatever they do we managed without back in the 70s and 80s. I’m not against athletic activities, just what they cost the district. When schools are graded on ‘athletics’ on the FCAT, I might change my mind.
Beacon Learning center pays no rent, and continues to run a business out of the top floor of the Balboa Hilton. Oh, but they provide services to the district. That’s right. Services nobody wants but are used to justify their existence. Have doubts? Just ask any beginning teacher what they think about Beacon. 3 million in rent should be just about right for them. AD Harris and Milliville are you listening? They would like to shut you down and keep Beacon!!!
All the mentor teachers need to go back to the classroom. I’ll bet they would choose to find other empolyment rather than go back to the classroom. They just don’t justify the expenditure they cost. Have doubts; just ask any beginning teacher what they learned from their ‘mentor teacher’ and how often they saw them? When times are hard we have to focus on classroom instruction (that’s why we have schools) and forget all this other fluff.
Now, on to the subject of the school board. Mr. Brock seems to never have an original thought or fail to support any recommendation from the superintendant. Mrs. Allen and Mrs Littleton like to spend money like it’s not their own, and are way too liberal in their thinking. Then there’s Mr. McFatter and Mrs. Sabiston: at last, two voices with some sanity and reason. If they only had one other vote to go with them, things might be different. For example we spent 50 MILLION (that’s right) for two schools we don’t need. The vote? 3:2 guess who? Oh but that’s not money from the general fund! Well, guess who’s going to end up paying for it ? Us, the citizens of Bay County. (just like the airport we didn’t need–and they’re cutting flights or service altogether–LOL)
The post of June 28th at 2:41 p.m. is beyond pathetic. Caz reports the facts; it hurts Donna’s (aka: Alice in Wonderland’s) feelings; now, according to Alice, he’s “out to get her”. When you are in an elected position, you have to be able to take negative feedback from the people who elected you as well as the media. That’s what being a public official is about, DUH.
OneYellowdog’s rantings indicate that he/she has no understanding of human psychology, yet pretends to by using terms and concepts that are thrown out in no connected fashion. Caz is further accused of being some kind of deviant; LOL.
Let’s give McAllister his due: he’s got lots of criticism in 7 years, but you haven’t heard him cry about being picked on. That’s because he has backbone, where Alice does not. Anyone remember Ms. Bozeman? There’s a woman with backbone. You would have never heard her whine like Donna does. Mrs. Rohan never whined about people being out to get her, despite scathing criticizm of her actions in the capacity of a school board member. What about whiny men? Anyone remember the Bollinger sign-stealling episode? Instead of owning up to what he did, he whined about them putting the signs on the road he lived on. It has nothing to do with gender.
Caz, please continue reporting the facts. The public has a right to know what’s going on. If Ms. Allen is this upset by good journalism, she should just resign her position and seek another less stressful one.
Not sure what everyone thinks a home in Bay Point Rents for but there are several in Bay Point under $2000.00 per month. There is a gorgeous home on Legend Place for $1500.00. You really should look at the facts before you make crazy statements about home values. When home values go down, so do rentals. If you had a vacant home worth 700,000, and the only rent you could get was $1500.00, are you telling me you would not take it?