Gwinnett.talk

By autron

January 3, 2007 02:49 PM | Link to this

Welcome to the real world of Urban Governing Gwinnett you’ll see the pains Fulton and Dekalb have been going through in which your citizen’s want better and more costly services,Free indigent health care services they get from you public hospital,and the urge not to pay for the services at market cost. come on you conservatives you know that doesn’t add up. that would be as President Bush once said “Fuzzy Math”

By Dazed

January 3, 2007 05:29 PM | Link to this

With a 1.68 billion dollar budget, how was it decided to cut police and fire monies? Haven’t seen the budget but seems we need every penny we can get in those departments with the rising population and the increase in crime that’s sure to follow. Bet they left some pork intact that could be sacrificed for the firemen and police.

By Joan

January 4, 2007 08:01 AM | Link to this

What you seem to miss, is that they didn’t cut the budget for these things, they cut the ‘rate of increase’. I see they still added new police and fire. Maybe these were some extras that weren’t really needed.

I’m glad someone is at least looking over and trying to watch what they spend.

By Kevin Hayes

January 4, 2007 08:12 AM | Link to this

Cutting into the fire and police departments is totally unacceptable.

The police department, in particular, is under staffed and needs to attract more officers to patrol our ever growing community.

The commissioners will feel the cuts come election time.

By Woodie

January 4, 2007 10:05 AM | Link to this

They should not cut Police and Fire budgets. They should increase them with gains from the other cuts. Police in Gwinnett in particular are under-staffed and underpaid and are dealing with a lot more crime due to the balloning population and drug problems.

By des

January 4, 2007 12:44 PM | Link to this

Things couldn’t be too bad. I see the police and fire men still have time to blog.

By witchywoman176

January 5, 2007 08:19 AM | Link to this

Des - You are obviously clueless to the real world. The police and sheriff’s departments are both incredibly short on manpower, over worked, and very much underpaid.

By des

January 8, 2007 03:42 PM | Link to this

yea witchwoman(must be for real) which one do you work for

By John

January 9, 2007 09:12 AM | Link to this

In any business it is sometimes necessary to make budget cuts and management can usually come up with areas where cuts can theoretically be made. However, making those cuts work without seriously impacting business is sometimes very hard to accomplish. I think our county commissioners will find the same to be true with the cuts they have made.

By Brian Curtis

January 9, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this

Hey, so what if we no longer have enough police and firefighters (and public libraries) to go around? It’s better than raising taxes, after all… and that’s what really matters.

By Susan

January 11, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this

We have an excellent library system, but we won’t be able to continue to be nationally recognized if their money is cut by a million dollars!! This has happened in the schools this year, too. That’s one thing that should not be cut! We need to have our priorties looked at more closely if cutting funding to libraries is at the top of the list.

By JDT

January 14, 2007 03:52 PM | Link to this

A Giant Step Backwards for Gwinnett Special Ed Children

Gwinnett county is considering a move that puts money above the needs of our kids. A move that will put children like mine and yours at risk.

In the past, the county had difficulty attracting the best , most qualified special education teachers because they received very little support. So, the county actually took steps to solve this problem. The county hired special education support teachers , SESTs, to assist the teachers. The teachers stayed in the classrooms with their children and the highly trained veterans took care of testing and provided mentoring.

It was a win-win deal.

So, what is the county doing now? A small group of principals has recommended to do away with the SESTs’ positions to save money. And not even very much money.

The suggestion is to replace these support teachers who all have masters and specialists degrees with paraprofessionals.

Sounds stingy, right. It gets worse. This committee wants the parapros in the classroom, Babysitting the kids, while the children’s actual certified teacher has to leave the classroom to go test children and do paperwork. The SESTs provide this service now.

This is their idea of improving education? No, it’s saving money and reducing quality education for our children. My child’s time is limited in the resource room and while in there he needs his teacher, not a parapro..

Our students are in these classes because they need these highly trained, highly specialized teachers to teach our kids. My son has ADHD. He needs to be taught to read. You tell me a parapro knows how to teach my son. I don’t think so.

My child and yours will lose so Gwinnett can save a few bucks. We need to let the county know how we feel about this. The trained teachers need to stay in their positions as SESTs . Are we going back to the days where Gwinnett won’t attract the top special ed teachers?

This recommendation is being submitted to the board for approval. Please let your principal, board representative, Dr. Lowe and Mr. Wilbanks know that a few dollars in savings are not worth our children’s education. Talk to other parents in your children’s classrooms, copy this letter, spread the word, and help fight to save the quality of our children’s education.