Would you trust a stranger with your child/children?

Hello xbrendax and thank you for your response! Here is another good point because through agencies, the school district will have little to no say so in what requirements the employees must meet because they will no longer be employees of the district, but rather an outside company who has nothing at stake! So following that, in theory, those employees won't have to meet any of the standards that the typical school employee would have to meet, and when we're talking money over children, it should be no contest that the children come before money and budgets any day of the week. Like I said before, the district starts caring more about the money than the children, and members of this community will start taking their children to school in other districts, so it seems to me that the school board members are only cutting their noses to spite their face. THANKS AGAIN!

Hello mermaindivy and thank you for your response! You actually hit one of my concerns right on the head with this because we don't know these people, they're not members of our community, and we don't know what their intentions are. Perhaps they are honest hardworking individuals, or perhaps their simply child molesters that don't want to work "too close to home". In the end this isn't something I would want to find out the hard way, especially over the power of a buck because there is no amount of money worth saving at the expense of our children! THANKS AGAIN!!

Hello sbeauty and thank you for your response! I do understand what you are saying, but I still don't agree that the school board should be trading in the safety of the children to cut corners. As I mentioned in some of my replies above, the school will have no control over these employees whatsoever as they will technically be employed by a third party company, much like a temp agency. On top of that, they also won't be required to follow our states laws regarding mandated reporters of abuse and neglect, again because they're not technically employed by the schools. Now factor in all the parents who have said they will remove their children from the district and enroll them in another, and there's thousands of dollars being taken away from our schools. So its a double-edged sword and the board members are really only going to cut their noses to spite the faces of everyone in the community! THANKS AGAIN!!

Hello surveytaker and thank you for your response! I actually wish there was a way I could add an attachment to this discussion because I made a copy of our local newspaper from 02-11-2009 when the subject made front page. As for right now there's a list of 50 different cuts that the district is considering at this point ranging from outsourcing jobs, to cutting sports, extra curricular activities, child care, etc. So members of the community had gotten together and put together a demonstration where they went in holding up signing with dollar values on them to show the board how much money they would be losing in the long run if they did in fact decide to make these cuts because a lot of people already said that they would remove their children from this district, and enroll them in another. So they figured since the government pays our district X amount of dollars per student, they would try to get their attention that way. There were several parents, who have more than one child in the district, and in the end (the last sign I seen) it was a total of $32,000.00 a year that the district would be losing out on just from not having those students alone! So since that is all the board seems to understand at this point, we've been trying to take the "numbers" and show them exactly how much harm these cuts could be doing, rather than good. Anyway, at this point it is just more hurry and wait, but we're still hopeful, and now that the newspaper has gotten involved, we're all that much more hopeful. So we will see what happens. Fingers crossed! THANKS AGAIN!!

Hello NuttyMomma and thank you for your response! I believe there were some things that I could have put into my initial post to make more sense, but it was rather spur of the moment and I didn't give it as much thought as I should have. The reason I think that this is somewhat of a trust issue is because, like you said, the district is simply looking to save money by outsourcing these positions. The unfortunate part is the company the will go through is very similar to a Temporary Staffing Agency, which is where my biggest problem lays. Now if this is the route the district chooses to take, these employees will no longer be employed or controlled by the school district, but rather by an outside company. As a result they (the employees) won't be required by law to report abuse or neglect of the children, such as school employees are. In 2002, more than one-half (57%) of all reports made to CPS agencies came from professionals who came in contact with the child, such as doctors, law enforcement, etc., and of that 16% of all reports are from teachers and/or school employees. In fact, other than a child's family, no other people are as close to children as the school employees are. Another example, which has actually happened twice in the last month, is personal belongings which have been lost on school property. There have been two instances of this occurring, one with a student losing a piece of jewelry and another with a teacher. Both items were found and returned by an employee of the school, which isn't as likely to happen if it is somebody from outside the district who has little to lose. Not to say that they are all thieves, but considering the vast majority of these employees I speak of have been members of the community for many years, there are a lot more trust put into them, than someone from outside of the community. So basically, yes, the only thing the schools care about at this point is getting the same job done by somebody who is not only willing to do it cheaper, but will not ask for benefits, which is the major factor in this situation. As far as I am concerned it doesn't send a good message to the community who are trusting their children to them because they obviously care more about money, than their own employees and even the children!

when you explain it like that it IS about trusting your child to a stranger. I'd be mad as hell as do everything i possibly could to fight it! good luck!

Thanks again Momma and I am trying to do whatever I can, but being that I am not a parent myself, it is somewhat difficult for me to judge how to explain this in terms a parent would understand. I also have the tendency to get overly passionate about something, which gets all my thoughts jumbled up making it even more difficult for me to explain, so I apologize for not being very clear on my first post. If you have any suggestions on how I could go about getting the attention of more parents and getting more people involved though, that would be GREAT! I was hoping I would get some ideas after posting here, but all this is doing in confirming in my mind more that something needs to be done about this. Anyway, I am open to any and all suggestions and thank you again for taking the time to read and reply, I REALLY appreciate it!!

Hello sid and thank you for your response! We are currently trying to circulate a petition, as well as we're getting our local paper involved as much as possible, and our next step is trying to get other parents and members of the community involved, but that has been the difficult part since most people are too busy trying to work and support their families to attend these board meetings. If you have any suggestions on how to get the word out to more people, I am open to all suggestions at this point because I would like to think that if I am this concerned and I don't have children, those who do have children will be (or should be) twice as concerned! THANKS AGAIN!!!

Hello journey and thank you for your reply! Your response actually poses another concern to me because you are completely right that we don't know where these people are coming from or what their intentions are. Who is to say that some abusive parent doesn't get a job through their children's school district in this manner only to wind up kidnapping their child or someone else's?!? No matter which way I look at it though, this just does not seem like a good idea to me because it leaves the district open to allow this with other positions and if the community allows for this to happen, then nobody is safe because they will be outsourcing everyone from the maintenance workers right up the line to the teachers and everyone else, and that is a scary thought!

Hello hotsummer and thank you for your response! All I have to say to what you wrote is AMEN!! But I can't help but to think what their hiring practices say about our school district as far as the employees, members of the community, and the children go because this pretty much gives the idea that in our school district, money supersedes the importance of everyone and everything! They need to recognize that their procedures for hiring promote and support their reputation and when they're talking about things like this, it doesn't make them "look good", or at least in my opinion. Thanks again for the response!!

well as you say the mighty dollar is more powerful than safety of your children. I think all you can do as a community is stand together and make sure that the people who are employed are screened very very carefully and if any have the slightest doubt then they should not be allowed near the children. Its a tough process and like i said earlier there are people out there who would never hurt a child so i pray for you that these are the only ones used. i wish you good luck :)

Thank you again kedves for your responses! We're hoping to get our local newspaper more involved at this point to try to spread the word to more community members,and so far they've already done one article which was front page a couple weeks ago. Since then there has been a petition started, which was also send to them in hopes that they would write something about it, and hopefully with any luck it will make it front page as well. So our fingers are crossed. THANKS AGAIN!!

Hello kedves and thank you for your reply! I completely agree with you that this shouldn't even have to be given thought as it should be a resounding NO regardless of money, but unfortunately the school are a business and they do care very little for the students and/or employees as they are all just numbers in the end. But I really wanted to get some comments on this because I need to find a way to get the rest of the community involved in this issue because it does affect everyone, especially the children in the end, who at this point are being looked over completely because of the power of the almighty dollar and that just seems out right sick and wrong in my opinion. Plus, if I feel this way, and I don't have children at all, I'd like to know what the parents of children in these schools are thinking. But even that is difficult because the school board meetings tend to be very hush hush if you know what I mean, and I can't help but wonder how many of the school board members have children in this district. I don't know, its a scary thought as far as I am concerned, but at this point it's just a matter of trying to get this information out there and let people know what is going on right under their nose and not in the best interest of the members of this community or their children!

I wish that your school board wasn't doing this but if insists on going this route than maybe once they have hired everyone there could be some kind a festival or activity the school could put together so the parents, teachers and community can get to know these new people that will be working in your town. Maybe during the summer(I dont know when your school boards plans are going into motion)that way they wont be complete strangers when the kids start school. Try to make the best out of a bad situation if it does come down to the board firing all these people.

Thank you renemouche for the suggestion! That's actually a very good idea if it comes down to that and I have suggested this as an idea in the meantime to try to get more people in the town involved, but there's unfortunately no money at the moment to do something like that, so we would have to find out a way to raise the money first. Either way it is a very good idea that I will make sure to point out to as many other people as I can. THANKS AGAIN!!

Hello renemouche and thank you for your response. First let me say that I do completely understand where you are coming from and I do agree that this is a sad situation, one that is all too familiar, however I don't agree that this isn't a "stranger-danger" as you put it, primarily for the reasons I listed above where school employees being mandated reported of abuse and neglect is concerned. Also, in many instances the children do spend as much time with the grounds people, custodians, etc. as they're primarily the only ones around when there are after school activities and they do tend to take on far more than their job description entails. I say this with experience as I was employed by the district myself at one time as a sub-custodian and one wouldn't think we would come into contact with the children often, but that is actually quite a misconception as children will seek out the nearest adult when it comes to needing something, if it's help, someone to talk to, etc. I know I was engaged in many different conversations and situations as an employee, not just with students, but their parents as well. But I do agree whole heartedly that this isn't right of the school board to do to the employees because many of them were students in this district as children, and years later are still a contributing member of the community, the schools, etc. I also know that a lot of these employees are actually responsible for raising money, which members of the community assume is coming from somewhere else. So the importance of these employees is harshly overlooked on many levels. It is truly said in my opinion that the school board doesn't care about the people in this community or their children considering they wouldn't have their positions or their jobs if it wasn't for the very people they're trying to take jobs away from! But again, I thank you for your responses (for everyones responses) and I hope that all of you will help me to come to some idea as to how we can get the community more involved in this situation.

I woudn't sit and let them do this , I'd at least make it hard for them . We have to have our eyes and ears open and when and it comes down to it , we have to open up our mouths and be heard as the voice of our children ! Specially those in grade school, they are too small to be heard. I would get a meeting together with other parents where you can all organize a way to stop this .

Well I agree with you both and since the school board seems so bent on getting things their way we're doing all we can to make it difficult for them since that is about all we can do at this point. So we're getting people involved in demonstrations, we have petitions going around, and our local newspaper involved too. We're at least going to make it hard to ignore us, regardless of what happens. THANKS to you both for the responses!!

Hello lalola and thank you for your response! I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that feels this way, but since I do not have children of my own, I wanted to throw my concern out there for everyone else to comment on, and I'm truly glad that I did because I no longer think I am simply over reacting to this and I think more people should become concerned with it because I firmly believe that this is just a starting point as far as the outsourcing of the jobs is concerned. Also, as I stated in one of my previous comments, if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to get the rest of the community involved in this matter, please feel free to let me know because I can use all the ideas I can get at this point. THANKS AGAIN!

Hello rachelb and thank you for your response! I couldn't agree with you more and I really do appreciate your taking the time to read and reply to this. If you have any suggestions on how I can bring this to the attention of more community members and get their action on it as well, that would be great as I could use all the ideas and suggestions I can get at this point. Thanks again!!