Why CCSD Needs To Outsource

CCSD (Clark County School District) has a lot of employees on it's payroll and it's just not administrators, teachers, aides, cafeteria workers, custodians and secretaries who work at the schools. CCSD also employs painters, plumbers, electricians, landscape/gardeners, bus drivers, truck drivers, general maintenance workers, fire aarm specialists, air conditioning specialists, bus aides, nurses, nurse aides, heavy equipment operators, water truck drivers, police officers and many other positions.
Well, in the middle of September of this school year, a cooler pipe broke and it flooded at least 6 classrooms, so much so, that the rooms had to be completely redone. This includes the floors, walls plumbing and electrical outlets.
The first few days, CCSD hired an outside contractor to clean up the mess. They tore out the carpeting, parts of some walls, disconnected some electrical outlets and a few other odds and ends.
They then turned the rehabilitation project over to CCSD employees- plumbers, painters, electricians and a few other departments.
It is now almost December and the work still has not been complete. The plumbing is not hooked up, the electrical outlets are hanging and work still has to be done on the walls.
This broken pipe closed down a photography room which has a dark room, 3 art rooms, a special education room and a regular classroom. One of the classes that was suppose to be taught is ceramics and that class has been basically discontinued. Instead of working in their classrooms, the teachers have to teach in portable classrooms. While the classrooms are ok, you cannot adequately teach art or photography in the portable classrooms. There is no room in the portables to work when you have a class size of 30-40 students.
There is no reason why the work has not been done and if the had been contracted out to private businesses instead letting CCSD employees do the job, the job would have been done in a couple of weeks instead of 10+ weeks and counting.
So, it is time to consider talking about contracting out services CCSD. CCSD doesn't need to be in the business of electrical, plumbing, painting and dry walling. By contracting out, not only will CCSD save money, it will certainly do the jobs faster, if not better if they use private contractors.

CCSD Broke? I Don't Think So

Most CCSD employees received a e-mail this week announcing that the Equity and Diversity of CCSD was bringing in a speaker to speak about Hispanic problems. It is called the Joel Garcia Townhall and it is scheduled May 10th and it lasts 2 hours.
Ok, we can debate whether CCSD needs a Equity and Diversity department and it's 11 employees. However, this is the kicker:
"COST: No Cost.
CCSD teachers will receive professional development compensation per the negotiated
agreement between the Clark County School District and the Clark County Education
Association."

Teachers will be paid about $25-30 and hour to attend this event. If 100 people attend this presentation, the cost just for the employees attending is going to cost the district at least $5000 in addition to the cost of the speaker.
These are very tough times for the district. I thin there are better ways to spend $5000+. And if this speaker is so good, why do you need to pay teachers to go see this speaker. I know if CCSD brings in a speaker I would be interested in, I wouldn't demand to be paid. If there was an inservice I am interested, I would go to the inservice without demanding extra money. That's how it is done in the real world, why should CCSD be any different?
CCSD pays speakers to come in and it pays teachers to listen to speakers throughout the school year. Since CCSD is in such bad financial shape, I think this is one area CCSD can cut out, bringing in speakers and paying teachers to listen.