Surprise! School Districts Having a Hard Time Making Ends Meet
Which has to do with the high unemployment rate both nationwide and regionally as well as declining tax revenues and a severe retraction in credit. In other words, money indeed doesn’t grow on trees and the good times of throwing around money to civil servants is over.
From WYFF:
EASLEY, S.C. — A South Carolina school board has voted to eliminate more than 100 positions because of funding problems.
The Pickens County school board voted Monday to cut 105 positions for the coming school year, according to district representative Julie Thompson. She confirmed the cuts would save more than $2 million.
In addition to eliminating positions, the board also approved reduction in days for some employees, Thompson said. The reductions will mean a pay decrease for those affected, she said.
Superintendent Henry Hunt said the plan is not final. Hunt said state funding might require further reductions or could ease the cuts.
District officials said they had to act now because they have a deadline to offer contracts for the coming year.
Two trustees voted against the cuts, one saying salaries of top employees should be cut first.
Yeah, good luck with that happening. According to The Independent Mail the positions cut will include:
nearly 30 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in the teacher ranks, including 10 at the elementary schools, 14.5 at the middle schools, and five at the high schools,
18 elementary literacy specialist positions,
two reading interventionist positions,
16 media clerk positions,
a reduction of 8.6 FTEs at the central office,
a loss of 6.25 FTEs at the Alternative Education program,
seven guidance counselor FTEs
Since the school systems here helped create a state where adult illiteracy is around 15% (and that is widely considered an improvement!) I’m not crying over this. But once the school budgets are trimmed to the bone, what other cuts are coming down the pike?
Look for cuts in Law Enforcement if the economic picture here doesn’t change in the next year, and frankly looking at the financial data (including the new housing numbers) I am not hopeful. As all the states get crunched by the coming commercial real estate market implosion and the second wave of A.R.M. resets local governments are going to be forced to tighten their belts and trim down civil employees, including cops, and make other desperate moves like early releases of prisoners a la California.
Man Flees From Police by Hiding In The House Police Knew He Lived In
Who said criminals were smart?
A man who allegedly fled from the scene of a wreck yesterday was captured by Mauldin police today after a brief chase, authorities said.
The state Highway Patrol had asked the police department to check the man’s residence at Summer Wood Condominiums on Butler Road in Mauldin.
The subject ran from police but was apprehended late this morning and released to the Highway Patrol for further investigation, according to the Mauldin Police Department.
What a great plan. Commit a crime in the vehicle registered to you then hide in the house you are known to live in. He should have just left a note telling the cops he’d meet them at the county jail.
Store Clerk Fends of Armed Gunman … With Hot Lead
Fox Carolina’s headline is a bit misleading. They say “Two shot During Robbery Attempt in Anderson” but what they fail to mention is that the clerk gunned down the robber after the thug shot him. The clerk was only shot in the hand so this is a happy ending and yet another victory for the Second Amendment:
The shooting happened at the Eastside Food Mart at 609 E. Whitner Street at about 11 a.m.
Randall Williams, of the Anderson Police Department, said that a 17-year-old walked into the store armed with a gun. He said that the clerk pulled out his own gun and a shootout began.
Williams said that the clerk was shot in the hand. He said the teen was shot in the chest and arm and ran out of the store. He said that the teen was later found collapsed on Jefferson Street.
I’m glad the clerk was able to exercise his Constitutional rights and defend himself.
Update: The Independent Mail reports that the owner is fine and back on the job:
ANDERSON — A store owner in Anderson was shot and he returned fire this morning shooting at least one person.
The shootings happened inside the Eastside Foodmart store at 609 Whitner St. and Dickens Avenue.
The store owner, an Ethiopian man whose name and age have not been released by police, was shot in the hand. He was back at his store around 12:30 p.m. with a bandaged right hand.
The owner shot a black male between 17 and 18 years old in the chest and wrist, according to Randall Williams, public information officer for the city of Anderson Police Department. Police have not released the name of that man.
That man went from the store to a friend’s house at 114 Jefferson Ave, Williams said.
He was taken from the Jefferson Avenue scene by ambulance to AnMed Health Medical Center.
[...]
The store has been opened for about a week or a week and a half and is a typical community grocery-type store, said Dale Powell, who lives nearby but was not around when the shooting happened.
“They’re nice people,” Powell said, about the owner and his wife.
And we wish them the best.
Is It Wrong That I’m Not Afraid of The Rolling 60s?
The Rolling 60s are a gang in Spartanburg that have made the news recently for trying to force a kid to join their gang, going so far as to “jump” him in then threaten to kill him if he didn’t toe the Rolling 60s line:
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Deputies have charged six teenagers in connection with the gang initiation and beating of a 15-year-old boy on Monday.
Investigators said they were called to a home on Broadway Street in Glendale at about 6 p.m.
Deputies said that when they arrived the boy’s mother said her son was assaulted by members of a gang called “Rolling 60s.” She said that her son was being forced to join the gang and was being “jumped in.” They said that this process involves physically assaulting a prospective gang member as part of an initiation.
Investigators said that after the teens beat the boy they threatened him and the lives of his family members if he refused orders from the gang.
The boy’s mother took him to an area hospital where he was treated for bruises to his chest.
Of the six three are 17 so their identities have been released. They are Michael Johnson,Justin Thigpen,and Elizabeth Weather. Here are their mugshots:
So I guess the orders they were warning the victim to never disobey were to meet them in the food court so that they can head to Hot Topic? Then they’ll buy some K2 and head over to Starbucks.
I’m sorry, I know criminals all start off as some bad kid somewhere but I’m betting we can disband the Rolling 60s with a couple of spankings and three months of being grounded. These kids are going to be eaten alive on the streets if they think they’re really going to claim turf and maybe it’s time for their parents to take away their Gangsta’ rap filled iPods and keep these little morons out of trouble.
Greer Students Busted Tampering with Classmates Drink
What’s wrong with kids today? I say throw the book at them!
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Six Upstate high school students face expulsion and criminal charges for contaminating another student’s drink it happened at Blue Ridge High School in Greer.
According to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office the students put something non-drug related, and non-life threatening in a fellow 15-year-old students drink when she temporarily left the class.
Deputies said the drink is being tested for urine and saliva.
The Greenville County School District said school administrators were made aware of the incident around noon yesterday.
Their investigation resulted in six students being referred to law enforcement and suspended pending an expulsion hearing.
And these little bastards deserve it. WYFF has a more graphic report:
A source close to the investigation said that it happened during a second period biology class at the high school Thursday morning while a substitute was filling in for the teacher.
The source said a 15-year-old student left class to take a test. While she was gone, a soft drink was taken out of her bookbag and spit, urine and pubic hairs were pit in the drink, according to the source.
The Greenville County Sheriff’s office has confirmed they are investigating the alleged incident, and that the details the source has given us are accurate. A spokesman said that the school resource officer at the high school was notified about the incident around 2 p.m. Thursday. The spokesman said if the allegations are true, the six students could face a felony charge of malicious tampering.
The sheriff’s office did not comment further on the details of the alleged incident but News 4′s source on this investigation said that the girl drank from the bottle when she returned to class.
They basically poisoned her for kicks. I hope that while the police are doing their investigation the parents are taking appropriate steps to deal with them. And by appropriate steps I mean beating them.