By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but…The new Clark Country Superintendent has signed a four-year contract worth $358,000 per year.
To help Mr. Jones, our new Superintendent, settle into the community, the Public Education Foundation, the district’s private educational fundraising arm, will be taking private donations to set up a fund for his temporary housing costs. Under the terms proposed by the Clark County School Board, Jones would get $5,000 a month, up to $30,000, for a six-month housing allowance. This allowance is to be paid for by donations, so if you see a school board member at a streetlight in Vegas with a sign “Will work for housing fund” drop a dollar in. After all the poor man’s entire take home is only $270,000. Is it really going to be that hard to find good affordable housing in the city that leads the nation in home foreclosures?
In 1989, the School Board paid Brian Cram a salary of $96,240 to fill the role of Superintendent. Steve Wynn kicked in another $20,000. The School Board in 1989 justified the salary supplement for Cram the same way the current School Board is justifying the temporary housing allowance for Jones. The financially strapped district needs support from the community to provide the kinds of incentives needed to attract top talent.
I might suggest the entire package is there through community support; it is called taxes.
The package offered to Jones is a 300 percent increase over Cram’s salary of 1989. If teacher salaries had increased by the same percent over the same time period the starting salary for teachers would be over $50,000 a year rather than the present day $35,000.
School Board President Terri Janison believes that Jones will finally provide the high-quality education “we’ve been begging for.” That is a real shot at past superintendents Brian Cram and Walt Rulffes.
While I was never very excited about Cram, I believe Walt Rulffes has done a good job as superintendent. If the district has not been providing quality education, maybe we should stop begging and get rid of the Board as well as the superintendent.
No one asked me but… I went to the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge. Driving across the bridge was one of the most disappointing adventures of my life. The bridge is outfitted with large cement barriers that make it impossible to see anything. It is impossible to tell when you are actually on the bridge.
The one good thing about the bridge is that when you cross it from the Nevada side, it is only about a half mile to the Kingman wash turnoff and you can turn around and return to Nevada from Arizona.
Taking the turn off to the dam, you will find a parking lot that will hold about 50 or 60 cars. I am sure this will be adequate once the newness of the bridge wears off, but for now, you had better get there early and during the week. The lot fills rapidly. When we arrived at about ten in the morning, the lot was moving fairly well; a car going out for each car coming in.
We took the series of stairs up the hillside to the bridge and walked to the center. By the time, we returned the lot was full and a line of cars about a half-mile long was waiting to get in. The parking lot for the Visitor Center is too long a walk to be of any use if one wishes to walk the bridge.
I was surprised to find that you can still drive across the dam to the Arizona side. However, you cannot access Highway 95 by crossing the dam. The old road is blocked and you must turn and re-cross the dam.
My son and his family are coming for Thanksgiving and they are insisting on a trip to the new dam bridge. Therefore, we will take them on the adventure, but we will go to the dam first so they can see and appreciate the height and length of the new bridge.
No one asked me but…It is Pomegranate festival time. The Moapa Valley Art Guild is holding their 15th annual Art and Craft show at the Fairgrounds November 5-6 from 9 am to 5 pm. This is a great opportunity for you to see the work of many of our local artists as well as those from adjoining states. Pomegranates, juice, and jelly will be available. This will be a great time to do some Christmas shopping. There will be food booths and the atmosphere will be that of an early county fair. There will be an area for youngsters to explore their artistic abilities. The entertainment will include singers, dancers, fiddlers and an orchestra.
My friends from Richmond, Utah, will be here selling quilts and other handwork. I will be selling my book THE CALL from our booth. (Another shameless marketing ploy.) We will be in the same place we were last year; come by and say howdy.
This is a great effort from our local artists and a very worthwhile event for the community.
No one asked me but… I have pledged to read the entire Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Insanity runs rampant in my family, I wonder if this law covers this.
I downloaded the law on to my Kindle and am reading it as I find time. Here is what I know so far. It is 906 pages long and the first 12 pages are table of contents.
By act of Congress, childhood in America has been expanded to 26 years of age. However if the child has a child the child’s parent’s insurance does not have to cover the child’s child. This by the way is one of the clearer parts of the document.
The law establishes a new federal agency, The Office of Health Insurance Assistance, and requires states to establish a State Health Office. The federal government will set aside 30 million dollars to help fund the state offices.
It bans “unreasonable” premium increases, but does not define what an unreasonable increase is. It does, however, set aside 250 million dollars in premium review grants to the states to make sure no unreasonable premium increases occur.
This has all taken place in the first twenty pages of the document. Twenty pages, 280 million dollars, I can hardly wait to read the other 886 pages.
Thought of the week…Every country gets the government it deserves.
–Benjamin Disrael
