I think we all need a better accounting of our taxpayer/lottery money.  Where is it going?  Why are parents of elementary school kids asked to supply paper, pencils. crayolas, glue, etc.? We never purchased a single thing until high school. They have done away with music, art, electives - where then is the money going??  How about I feel every district (including the college district) are way too top heavy, let's start there.  It is time to stop the maddness.

 Bartley:  Re: illegal children at school: a lot.  If they just "pop in" at the college level they can get financial aid that other kids in need can't get.  They also are exempt from out of state tuition even if they just arrived from Mexico.

 At present, there are at least 3 positions on  the B.C. campus that are already filled by competent people.  The KCCD has decided to change the requirements for these jobs and now require a BA for these positions.  Why? who knows.  As mentioned, there are aleady people in place for these positions and they have been there for years - oh, the people already in place, they have to apply for their own jobs.  So now they (KCCD) are spending money for advertisement, interviews, and training of the new person who will make way more money then the people already in place.

 What I would do to stick a finger in the dam of my grandchildren school district is help them set up an online classroom environment.  Much of the paperwork shuffle, and grading of assignments can be automated, organized and secure.

By using multimedia learning resources, the students become much more involved in their learning, and standardized classes could be created by departments and made available to all children, regardless of what school they attend, or whatever teacher they happened to draw. 
 

If the student requires extra work to understand the concepts being taught, the student could access these classes at home and during  vacation, anywhere they had internet access.
 

The course management program, I work with is an open-source software, and can be installed on a file server for free, in a matter of a few hours. If they use a hosting service like GoDaddy.com, the installation time is about 4 minutes.
 

Cost-savings could be reinvested to invest into creating new courses.  School districts could offer this service to home-schooled children, who soon may need to be monitered with an educator possesing a teaching credential.
 

My former boss in the Fire Tech dept at B.C. has spent the last couple of years getting some of the fire tech classes on line so guys out fighting fires and can't attend summer classes, will be able to do so and get done with their requirments faster.  He also put some of the regular classes on line and it helped a lot of people as some of the "real" classrooms would only hold 25-30 people and we always had at least 40 who wanted the class.  The really nice thing is these classes can be taken on line from anywhere in the USA thus generating more FTE for the college - although you would never hear them admit that! 

 " has spent the last couple of years getting some of the fire tech classes on line"

That is the downside, converting face to face class materials to digital is time consuming, and instructors are often expected to accomplish this in additon to their other responsibilities, for the same pay.

Bravo for the teacher you wrote about.  I use to tape those fire-tech televised classes on cable channel 15, for my son who wanted to get into the BFD, and found them to be very interesting.  Converting those videos to digital of course would be very simple.

 My former boss is also a FULL TIME fireman!  He is supposed to be "part-time" but spends all his days off at the college.  He went to seminars and learned all about what he would need to set up the "system" and did it all by himself, setting up TV's & cameras in each classroom, has a separate room next door that has all the audio video and taping equipment, got it all on line.  I don't think he has a life!!!  Fortunately he has a wonderful understanding family!

 Bartley - what is sad is the people in the jobs already are doing competent work, but, for whatever reason, theKCCD/HR (they have a head hunter director in HR) has decided to require degrees - the areas are; Maintainence & Operations, food service and the bookstore!!!!!  and, one person used to be the director over ALL three! now they want directors/managers for each one!!!  BHS had awesome training for those who did not want to go to college, then they did away with all that and have been trying to push everybody to college!  College IS NOT for everybody! Lord knows I saw enough of that time & money wasted at B.C. by kids who just didn't want to be there! They sit around all day in the campus center.