Concerned WO-S Parents To Gather Over Bus Decision Tue!

[AggiesAreWe]

I wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing, but in the end, I believe the school board got this one right.

Just ask yourself this question:  If they didn't have after school transportation and wanted to add it, despite being $2,000,000 in the red, would people be this gung-ho to support adding a $16,000 per annum debt to the defecit?  I know I would be against that, and I believe most everyone would think the board would be insane for going that direction.  It took me a while to realize this, but the major issue here is not the program itself, it's the pain of change, and people don't like getting something taken away, especially when they've grown accustomed to having it.  Unfortunately, in the situation the district is in now, they have to start slashing things out of the budget, and nothing is going to be easy or pleasing to everyone.

Am I the only one that wants to know how we get 2 mill. deficit and then start worrying about how to cut? The whole thing is a mess and yes it is going to be ugly. My problem is how did it get this way. Who wasn't on watch when they were supposed to be. I know it isn't as easy as this but it just seems as though you would see it coming.

Those are very good questions, td. Questions which you guys deserve answers to.

[skipper]

this is getting good now, west orange- stark will not close down u got me rolling on the floor. but i can see ALOT that WISH thay would this will never happen

[td]

I wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing, but in the end, I believe the school board got this one right.

Just ask yourself this question:  If they didn't have after school transportation and wanted to add it, despite being $2,000,000 in the red, would people be this gung-ho to support adding a $16,000 per annum debt to the defecit?  I know I would be against that, and I believe most everyone would think the board would be insane for going that direction.  It took me a while to realize this, but the major issue here is not the program itself, it's the pain of change, and people don't like getting something taken away, especially when they've grown accustomed to having it.  Unfortunately, in the situation the district is in now, they have to start slashing things out of the budget, and nothing is going to be easy or pleasing to everyone.

Am I the only one that wants to know how we get 2 mill. deficit and then start worrying about how to cut? The whole thing is a mess and yes it is going to be ugly. My problem is how did it get this way. Who wasn't on watch when they were supposed to be. I know it isn't as easy as this but it just seems as though you would see it coming.

Those are very good questions, td. Questions which you guys deserve answers to.

I agree that you have to chip away and the deficit. I'm not arguing that point. But you have to take into consideration that it's WOS and you can't just lump all schools together. Other schools may be different. Like it or not football drives this school. Take it and other UIL activities away and you can just shut the doors. It's one of a very few positives left as a whole. My kids get a great education from WOS and have never had a problem. That being said the overall TAKS scores aren't where they need to be and something needs to be done about that. I can tell you if anyone of my children struggled in school they would be at another school. Just as we need to fix the budget we need to fix the academics. Lets start making changes there. I said it yesterday and I will say it again, low scores at the same schools for a few years and no changes made. Maybe just maybe this is how we got our budget in trouble, deficit after deficit and no changes and now look where we are. Let's open our eyes and see it coming. Even though we could have seen this coming several years ago. Make changes if they don't work make different changes. If someone comes to work for me and they can't get the job done then I have to keep looking until I find someone that can get the job done. It seems the school could work the same way. Just because you hire someone doesn't give them a lifetime job. If they aren't getting the job done find someone that can.

[JS]

ok---I have held my tongue as long as I can. I have never heard so many crybabies in my life. Some folks want something for nothing--whiners, crybabies or freeloaders, it is all the same. If a kid wants to play he/she can find a way---ride with a friend, hitchhike or ride a bicycle.

NOW GO AHEAD AND CALL ME NAMES

[Slam14]

ok---I have held my tongue as long as I can. I have never heard so many crybabies in my life. Some folks want something for nothing--whiners, crybabies or freeloaders, it is all the same. If a kid wants to play he/she can find a way---ride with a friend, hitchhike or ride a bicycle.

NOW GO AHEAD AND CALL ME NAMES

YOU OUTSPOKEN REALIST!!!!!!!!!

[77]

ok---I have held my tongue as long as I can. I have never heard so many crybabies in my life. Some folks want something for nothing--whiners, crybabies or freeloaders, it is all the same. If a kid wants to play he/she can find a way---ride with a friend, hitchhike or ride a bicycle.

NOW GO AHEAD AND CALL ME NAMES

I wondered where you been. Right on. ;D

[KFDM COOP]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

[AggiesAreWe]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

[Rockin A]

Yea but their not going in that Direction.

Well, if you agree that it wouldn't be worth adding the cost in this situation, you must agree it doesn't make much sense for a district in financial turmoil to keep it, either.  There are some good things that are going to get lost in the shuffle and maybe later, when the district has an extra $2,000,000 in their pocket, they can bring it back, but overall, getting rid of the program is needed right now.

Coop, they're going in the right direction here, like it or not.  They can't keep spending money on things that can be cut back a bit.  People have argued it's only $16,000 per year they're saving, but that's a good chunk of change, and they are going to have to chip away at the massive defecit.  I don't think there's a $2,000,000 worthless program that they can cut to get back on track, but there are a lot of little things they can do to save money, and this is one of them.

Could agree with you more, GoStangs.

[dayton]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

All of the small towns represented on this site are the same.... their districts encompass a large geographical

area. WOS was very fortunate to have the buses as long as they have. I always see the kids with cars on the sports teams in dayton full of teammates after practices. The kids and parents will find a way. Just like the low-income families, families with parents out of work, etc. find a way to survive.

[td]

ok---I have held my tongue as long as I can. I have never heard so many crybabies in my life. Some folks want something for nothing--whiners, crybabies or freeloaders, it is all the same. If a kid wants to play he/she can find a way---ride with a friend, hitchhike or ride a bicycle.

NOW GO AHEAD AND CALL ME NAMES

I'm not going to call you names. I can disagree with you without calling you names. I personally don't want something for nothing. Unless I have a drastic change in my life my children will never need this program. But going into the school every single day and knowing alot about the kids and the way things are leads me to believe it's necessary.

Just for the record, I also don't believe in continuing to give when nothing is received in return. In my opinion this is a needed program. We will just have to agree to disagree.

[77]

I have read these posts for days now and everyone has stated that they only care about the kids and want whats best for them , my conclusion is that it is more about sports than about the kids because it seems that alot of folks on here didnt know about the deficit of 150 million or whatever it is and the fact that they were struggling withTAKS scores. If you truly were looking out for the kids you would frequent more school board meetings and see what can be done to right the ship and be well informed on the situation that the school has found its self in, instead of waiting for a crisis and then showing up and finding out about all the problems that have been building up. Sounds like the buses are one of the smaller problems the school is facing.  jmo

[the sports guy]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

I saw 2 boys- 13 miles- 4 days a week during summer on their bikes to work out at the school ;D.  Caney head pride baby!!!!! ;D : 

[TheBigSwitch]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

All of the small towns represented on this site are the same.... their districts encompass a large geographical

area. WOS was very fortunate to have the buses as long as they have. I always see the kids with cars on the sports teams in dayton full of teammates after practices. The kids and parents will find a way. Just like the low-income families, families with parents out of work, etc. find a way to survive.

Really this could not have come at a worse time.  You say that all of the small towns are the same, well other that Bridge City which is not a school at all like WOS, how many of those just had hurricane Ike wipe out a large portion of the housing that these kids and parents were living in.  Also how many cars do you think were completely flooded during the storm?  I can tell you because I was one of the rescue workers in a boat pulling people from their flooded house.  Every car that was in that area of town was lost, I am guessing 1000 cars are more.  How many of those families do you think had full coverage insurance on their car.  My guess is none.  So most of these people have no car at this time, and can't afford to replace it.  So not all of these small towns are the same as you say they are.

Maybe you could make the argument before Ike that the parents should get involved, still not a great one, but now after Ike that argument just does not work, because many of the families really do not have a way to get there kids.  They are totally dependant on the buses.

And by the way Diamond J, hitchhiking is illegal, they might get arrested.

[mat]

I wasn't sure what to think about the whole thing, but in the end, I believe the school board got this one right.

Just ask yourself this question:  If they didn't have after school transportation and wanted to add it, despite being $2,000,000 in the red, would people be this gung-ho to support adding a $16,000 per annum debt to the deficit?  I know I would be against that, and I believe most everyone would think the board would be insane for going that direction.  It took me a while to realize this, but the major issue here is not the program itself, it's the pain of change, and people don't like getting something taken away, especially when they've grown accustomed to having it.  Unfortunately, in the situation the district is in now, they have to start slashing things out of the budget, and nothing is going to be easy or pleasing to everyone.

Am I the only one that wants to know how we get 2 mill. deficit and then start worrying about how to cut? The whole thing is a mess and yes it is going to be ugly. My problem is how did it get this way. Who wasn't on watch when they were supposed to be. I know it isn't as easy as this but it just seems as though you would see it coming.

Many things have contributed to the deficit. A little while back the State told WOS they had to pay back around $2,000,000 due to some inaccurate info submitted concerning Rita. (I think that's the way I remember it) I don't know if that's a contributor to the deficit or if that's in addition to. 

[dayton]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

All of the small towns represented on this site are the same.... their districts encompass a large geographical

area. WOS was very fortunate to have the buses as long as they have. I always see the kids with cars on the sports teams in dayton full of teammates after practices. The kids and parents will find a way. Just like the low-income families, families with parents out of work, etc. find a way to survive.

Really this could not have come at a worse time.  You say that all of the small towns are the same, well other that Bridge City which is not a school at all like WOS, how many of those just had hurricane Ike wipe out a large portion of the housing that these kids and parents were living in.  Also how many cars do you think were completely flooded during the storm?  I can tell you because I was one of the rescue workers in a boat pulling people from their flooded house.  Every car that was in that area of town was lost, I am guessing 1000 cars are more.  How many of those families do you think had full coverage insurance on their car.  My guess is none.  So most of these people have no car at this time, and can't afford to replace it.  So not all of these small towns are the same as you say they are.

Maybe you could make the argument before Ike that the parents should get involved, still not a great one, but now after Ike that argument just does not work, because many of the families really do not have a way to get there kids.  They are totally dependant on the buses.

And by the way Diamond J, hitchhiking is illegal, they might get arrested.

my quote was really more in reference to the geographical makeup of the towns and the resilience of the people in those towns to make things happen when they have to. But.... if you say so.... WOS schools and families will crumble under the weight of not having extracurricular buses.

[wos4ever]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

I wish our we did things like silsbee!  I mean silsbee does everything much better than everybody else around! Hey, I got a joke for yall!  How do you an aggie moderator to cry?  Make him watch ANOTHER heartbraking loss for silsbee against those WOS MUSTANGS!

[JS]

And by the way Diamond J, hitchhiking is illegal, they might get arrested.

Then don't hitchhike---the point is just quit whining about it and find a way to make it work!

[AggiesAreWe]

Isn't always like that. Some of the kids live to far from the school to ride a bike.

Some of our kids in Silsbee actually live more than 10 miles from the school(Caney Head), they manage.

I wish our we did things like silsbee!  I mean silsbee does everything much better than everybody else around! Hey, I got a joke for yall!  How do you an aggie moderator to cry?  Make him watch ANOTHER heartbraking loss for silsbee against those WOS MUSTANGS!

Seeing that you are on a WOS school computer, I hope you are in English class so that your teacher can help you with your grammar.

Oh, and I believe Silsbee beat WOS last week, 64-48, or were you talking about football? :

[KFDM COOP]

Basketball?

[wos4ever]

Didn't know we were giving out personal information on here, but I guess I struck a nerve!  I was talking about football, since we are on the FOOTBALL FORUM!!

[AggiesAreWe]

Didn't know we were giving out personal information on here, but I guess I struck a nerve!  I was talking about football, since we are on the FOOTBALL FORUM!!

True, this is the football forum. Are you saying that this thread is about football?

Oh, and no nerve struck here. I can take it as much as I can dish it out, not like some WOS people I know. ;D

[wos4ever]

Didn't know we were giving out personal information on here, but I guess I struck a nerve!  I was talking about football, since we are on the FOOTBALL FORUM!!

True, this is the football forum. Are you saying that this thread is about football?

Oh, and no nerve struck here. I can take it as much as I can dish it out, not like some WOS people I know. ;D

No, I am not saying this topic is just about football, but since this is a FOOTBALL FORUM I just didn't think anyone would think basketball on this forum!  I will be more specific for you next time, but I think everyone else got it!

[AggiesAreWe]

Didn't know we were giving out personal information on here, but I guess I struck a nerve!  I was talking about football, since we are on the FOOTBALL FORUM!!

True, this is the football forum. Are you saying that this thread is about football?

Oh, and no nerve struck here. I can take it as much as I can dish it out, not like some WOS people I know. ;D

No, I am not saying this topic is just about football, but since this is a FOOTBALL FORUM I just didn't think anyone would think basketball on this forum!  I will be more specific for you next time, but I think everyone else got it!

BTW, I am glad your grammar has picked up, glad to be of help.

But it does make me wonder if this is the same person who posted earlier.