dawgnut

How can you get crazier than insanity ???

I don't know how the line will  play together after all the changes, but I do know this, the tribe always puts some warriors on the field and at the end of the game you will know you've been in a war. I don't expect this year to be any different!

We should be hearing a lot about him this year, how many days now till we start?

[quote name="mat" post="1019464" timestamp="1308498888"] Smitty As I stated earlier, IF a maintenance department is run correctly and IF the department has the budget and has the support of admin it is more efficient and affordable than contracting out those services. Maintenance within a school system has a lot of state and federal laws and requirements that are totally different than the industrial world. It would require a specialty contracting service to perform school services. Most districts that resort to this type of service do it to alleviate the headache rather than for financial reasons. Thus, reinforcing the problems of a maintenance department that is not run correctly or not supported. A typical maintenance department handles way more than needed repairs. One of the most important values of school maintenance gets neglected by contract services or a poorly run department is the preventative maintenance that adds life to your building and equipment; saves money in the long run. Many maintenance departments have the ability to do small scale construct and renovations that save money and add value to the department. Something else that’s important; it’s important to know who you have working around you kids. I could go on but I really don’t like long winded posts (I guess it’s too late for that) [/quote] mat, schools are no different than industry in maintenance. Everyone has laws and regulations that they have to abide by. The principles of maintenance are the same on both sides, every task must be evaluated as to it's cost effectiveness anyone who says that this job or that job should be contracted out or kept in-house needs to reevaluate the statement. In today's market some expertise is just to expensive to keep on the payroll, and some expertise is used so sparingly that you don't want it on your payroll either. The part of this that smitty does not want to understand is the fact that you could cut all the budget except teachers and you may have enough money in 20 years to build one new school, but then if inflation was calculated and you took the real value of money then you would see that you still couldn't build the school. The right time to build anything is now, how much has the cost of building material gone up in the two years that we have been discussing this bond. I could be wrong but on that size of the bond probably more than the amount that would be saved by all of smittys cuts. Delay is costing us money, we will get less by waiting not more.

Enlighten us smitty you are always talking about other ways to handle the school finance situation, give us one alternative that has been tried in the USA that has worked successfully in a school district as large or larger than NISD. You always talk about the pro-bond folks coming up with a solution, let's hear one from you. But I forget, you only have questions not answers.

Just for the sake of repetition let me say it one more time, not for you smitty because you refuse to accept facts, when you can believe fiction. If the bond would have passed, taxes would have been lowered. Do you like higher taxes? If you do just keep doing what we are doing and you are going to pay higher taxes no doubt about it.

NHS, all smitty has is talking points, not solutions. If he was as enlightened as he would want us to believe then he would know that they have cut the budget nearly 4 mil in the  last several years. Remember it's not about education he just uses that to keep from the truth, it's all about assets. Taxes have gone down, the budget has been cut and he will never admit it's enough because the leader of the CARE group is all about the collapse of public education that's their real goal! They talk trash to keep from the real truth, if there is one dollar in the bond for sports they will say they will not vote because they don't want to fund sports when education is needed. If you remove all the sports funds they they will claim it's not the right time because of the recession. If business is good then it will be something else because there will never be a good time for these folks.

;D

Someone said everything has a price, so how much would it cost us to give smitty an Invitation?

smitty you just keep up with the talking points, you and Bruney have a hot line? If you would take the time to do a little research you would know that in the school year 01-02 the tax rate was 1.53, in the school year 10-11 the tax rate was 1.113. I guess these numbers just don't fit into you FUD so you don't use them. But then again you really don't want cuts, what you really want to do is stop progress. You don't care about the schools any more than the rest of the "CARE" group, what you care about is your own assets that's all.

Wrong again smitty, the last bond proposal would have built new schools and lowered taxes. It's you who refuses to accept facts because they don't fit into your talking points. You and your spokes model Bruney need to come up with new talking points, the old ones are getting worn pretty thin.

[quote name="smitty" post="1016931" timestamp="1307416456"] Can't ever depend on the government.  You should know that.  I was talking, though, about insurance. [quote author=dawgnut link=topic=84302.msg1016906#msg1016906 date=1307411335] [quote author=smitty link=topic=84302.msg1016891#msg1016891 date=1307406481] After Rita came to town.  We have insurance, don't we? [quote author=dawgnut link=topic=84302.msg1016685#msg1016685 date=1307328106] [quote author=KDOSullivan link=topic=84302.msg1016523#msg1016523 date=1307274851] [i]Another factor is teacher participation. NHS teachers, for one reason or another, do not seem to sponsor as much outside of the classroom as they could. I remember a conversation with a now retired PN-G teacher in which I asked why Nederland didn't bring as many students to academic competitions as other local schools and his reply was that there just weren't enough Nederland teachers willing to sponsor the different academic events. That shocked me. I was amazed at the fact that Nederland couldn't get enough teachers to volunteer as most of the other schools in our district. I mean no offense to any Nederland faculty members because there are several good, dedicated teachers in NISD, but that, in my opinion, is deplorable. When the teachers won't participate, the problem isn't funding. A simple modification to the teacher contracts could fix that.[/i] That one sort of shocks me. Maybe it is because I was at a small school, but I and most other teachers were involved in extracurricular activities.  I know this year, knowing I was retiring, I gave up somethings, but I was still a senior sponsor, helped organize graduation,  helped and planned with the homecoming parade, helped, planned the Christmas Formal, and then coached 3 UIL academic teams. One of the things I will miss about teaching will be the kids outside of class. Those in UIL Academics, those kids who worked to help set up dances and parades, and those are not just the "nerds." Maybe it is a small school, but we had athletes, band kids, those in FFA all work because they wanted a good dance or parade. The modification of the contract might be difficult. If these events are held on weekends, it is sort of hard to force them to do so. Teachers are only paid for 187 days. Part of your problem might be you are not hiring the right people? I know some of the younger people that my former district has hired are reluctant to do anything extra. Part of concern about retiring was " who is going to pick up some of the extra jobs I did for the district?" [/quote] Don't kick the teachers to hard, most people don't know and some just don't care but NISD has had budget problems from the day that the ugly old lady Rita came to town. NISD had to spend a lot of money on several schools that FEMA promised to reimburse. It took several years to get a portion of the money back. When you keep reducing the budget a lot of things get reduced such as out of school activities. It cost money to run busses and such. Then you have the problem of escalating maintenance cost. Some very wealthy people in Nederland would have you believe that all you need to do is increase your maintenance budget and all will be well, another dream without foundation. Everything on this earth has a life, buildings included. After they have reached the end of life it cost more to maintain them than to build a new one. When you don't have any money the only way to increase the maintenance budget is to reduce your payroll, or you could pass a bond and build a new school and reduce your maintenance budget because you don't need as much with new buildings. But then according to smitty that's totally illogical! Besides parents not putting much weight on education these days, the American Spirit appears to be dead, if John Paul Jones were here today he would probably something like "your right there are a lot of torpedoes in the water, and those British ships are kind of big and ugly looking, let's get out of here and look for a better day to fight." The right time to do anything is now. If you wait for the weather to be right you will never plant, and if you don't plant you can't harvest. [/quote] [/quote] smitty for someone who has all the answers you ask the wrong questions. In 2010 that's 5 years after Rita NISD was still waiting on a $772,000 reimbursement from the government. They carried a $274,000 deficit the same year. For all the anti-bond crowed that thinks you can just increase your maintenance budget to fix all the buildings it makes it kind of hard when you have a deficit. Maybe we can get the graphic arts department to print some money up, what do you think? You and the "Don't Care" crowd don't want any new taxes or bonds so that may be the only out of the box thing we can do, after all the Feds do it! Oh wait lets just do nothing and wait until the price of money doubles or triples and the price of buildings go up, now that's a good use of your money. [/quote] [/quote] smitty, insurance doesn't cover everything! A lot of home owners found out after Rita that homeowners insurance didn't cover fencing, and businesses found out that it didn't cover signage. Schools found out that it didn't cover a lot of stuff also and when the Government tells you they will take up the slack and then they take 5 years to do it, it kind of takes a lot of slack out of your budget.

Signed has been down for a while...don't know why!

I hope he makes his goal but either way after a good solid year he should have a great season next year!

[quote name="smitty" post="1016891" timestamp="1307406481"] After Rita came to town.  We have insurance, don't we? [quote author=dawgnut link=topic=84302.msg1016685#msg1016685 date=1307328106] [quote author=KDOSullivan link=topic=84302.msg1016523#msg1016523 date=1307274851] [i]Another factor is teacher participation. NHS teachers, for one reason or another, do not seem to sponsor as much outside of the classroom as they could. I remember a conversation with a now retired PN-G teacher in which I asked why Nederland didn't bring as many students to academic competitions as other local schools and his reply was that there just weren't enough Nederland teachers willing to sponsor the different academic events. That shocked me. I was amazed at the fact that Nederland couldn't get enough teachers to volunteer as most of the other schools in our district. I mean no offense to any Nederland faculty members because there are several good, dedicated teachers in NISD, but that, in my opinion, is deplorable. When the teachers won't participate, the problem isn't funding. A simple modification to the teacher contracts could fix that.[/i] That one sort of shocks me. Maybe it is because I was at a small school, but I and most other teachers were involved in extracurricular activities.  I know this year, knowing I was retiring, I gave up somethings, but I was still a senior sponsor, helped organize graduation,  helped and planned with the homecoming parade, helped, planned the Christmas Formal, and then coached 3 UIL academic teams. One of the things I will miss about teaching will be the kids outside of class. Those in UIL Academics, those kids who worked to help set up dances and parades, and those are not just the "nerds." Maybe it is a small school, but we had athletes, band kids, those in FFA all work because they wanted a good dance or parade. The modification of the contract might be difficult. If these events are held on weekends, it is sort of hard to force them to do so. Teachers are only paid for 187 days. Part of your problem might be you are not hiring the right people? I know some of the younger people that my former district has hired are reluctant to do anything extra. Part of concern about retiring was " who is going to pick up some of the extra jobs I did for the district?" [/quote] Don't kick the teachers to hard, most people don't know and some just don't care but NISD has had budget problems from the day that the ugly old lady Rita came to town. NISD had to spend a lot of money on several schools that FEMA promised to reimburse. It took several years to get a portion of the money back. When you keep reducing the budget a lot of things get reduced such as out of school activities. It cost money to run busses and such. Then you have the problem of escalating maintenance cost. Some very wealthy people in Nederland would have you believe that all you need to do is increase your maintenance budget and all will be well, another dream without foundation. Everything on this earth has a life, buildings included. After they have reached the end of life it cost more to maintain them than to build a new one. When you don't have any money the only way to increase the maintenance budget is to reduce your payroll, or you could pass a bond and build a new school and reduce your maintenance budget because you don't need as much with new buildings. But then according to smitty that's totally illogical! Besides parents not putting much weight on education these days, the American Spirit appears to be dead, if John Paul Jones were here today he would probably something like "your right there are a lot of torpedoes in the water, and those British ships are kind of big and ugly looking, let's get out of here and look for a better day to fight." The right time to do anything is now. If you wait for the weather to be right you will never plant, and if you don't plant you can't harvest. [/quote] [/quote] smitty for someone who has all the answers you ask the wrong questions. In 2010 that's 5 years after Rita NISD was still waiting on a $772,000 reimbursement from the government. They carried a $274,000 deficit the same year. For all the anti-bond crowed that thinks you can just increase your maintenance budget to fix all the buildings it makes it kind of hard when you have a deficit. Maybe we can get the graphic arts department to print some money up, what do you think? You and the "Don't Care" crowd don't want any new taxes or bonds so that may be the only out of the box thing we can do, after all the Feds do it! Oh wait lets just do nothing and wait until the price of money doubles or triples and the price of buildings go up, now that's a good use of your money.

Lol, not in America. We don't put up with politics in our schools.

[quote name="KDOSullivan" post="1016523" timestamp="1307274851"] [i]Another factor is teacher participation. NHS teachers, for one reason or another, do not seem to sponsor as much outside of the classroom as they could. I remember a conversation with a now retired PN-G teacher in which I asked why Nederland didn't bring as many students to academic competitions as other local schools and his reply was that there just weren't enough Nederland teachers willing to sponsor the different academic events. That shocked me. I was amazed at the fact that Nederland couldn't get enough teachers to volunteer as most of the other schools in our district. I mean no offense to any Nederland faculty members because there are several good, dedicated teachers in NISD, but that, in my opinion, is deplorable. When the teachers won't participate, the problem isn't funding. A simple modification to the teacher contracts could fix that.[/i] That one sort of shocks me. Maybe it is because I was at a small school, but I and most other teachers were involved in extracurricular activities.  I know this year, knowing I was retiring, I gave up somethings, but I was still a senior sponsor, helped organize graduation,  helped and planned with the homecoming parade, helped, planned the Christmas Formal, and then coached 3 UIL academic teams. One of the things I will miss about teaching will be the kids outside of class. Those in UIL Academics, those kids who worked to help set up dances and parades, and those are not just the "nerds." Maybe it is a small school, but we had athletes, band kids, those in FFA all work because they wanted a good dance or parade. The modification of the contract might be difficult. If these events are held on weekends, it is sort of hard to force them to do so. Teachers are only paid for 187 days. Part of your problem might be you are not hiring the right people? I know some of the younger people that my former district has hired are reluctant to do anything extra. Part of concern about retiring was " who is going to pick up some of the extra jobs I did for the district?" [/quote] Don't kick the teachers to hard, most people don't know and some just don't care but NISD has had budget problems from the day that the ugly old lady Rita came to town. NISD had to spend a lot of money on several schools that FEMA promised to reimburse. It took several years to get a portion of the money back. When you keep reducing the budget a lot of things get reduced such as out of school activities. It cost money to run busses and such. Then you have the problem of escalating maintenance cost. Some very wealthy people in Nederland would have you believe that all you need to do is increase your maintenance budget and all will be well, another dream without foundation. Everything on this earth has a life, buildings included. After they have reached the end of life it cost more to maintain them than to build a new one. When you don't have any money the only way to increase the maintenance budget is to reduce your payroll, or you could pass a bond and build a new school and reduce your maintenance budget because you don't need as much with new buildings. But then according to smitty that's totally illogical! Besides parents not putting much weight on education these days, the American Spirit appears to be dead, if John Paul Jones were here today he would probably something like "your right there are a lot of torpedoes in the water, and those British ships are kind of big and ugly looking, let's get out of here and look for a better day to fight." The right time to do anything is now. If you wait for the weather to be right you will never plant, and if you don't plant you can't harvest.

[quote name="PN-G bandkid" post="1016434" timestamp="1307230685"] [quote author=smitty link=topic=84302.msg1016425#msg1016425 date=1307225483] Maybe, like ol' Smitty has been saying, too much emphasis has been put on non-priority things!  I remember a couple of years ago we gave the HC a 17,000 dollar raise because he threaten to go to LaMarque.  We didn't really have the money but it was given anyway.  Foolish decision!  Would they have done the same for a teacher that threatens to leave?  I think not!   So, if KDOSullivan is right, the people with blinders on, like NHS and Penny -- you'll become a dollar one day! -- will understand that what they believe is causing NISD to become just mediocre academically!   [quote author=KDOSullivan link=topic=84302.msg1016315#msg1016315 date=1307194088] [quote author=James Mosley link=topic=84302.msg1016084#msg1016084 date=1307094689] Penny is dead on right with everything. Sad to say but I tell young men we hire who are moving into our area with family to raise their kids somewhere besides Nederland. Currently Nederland does not understand how to prepare for the future. Very sad. [/quote] This is just from the few kids we see transfer to my "former" rural district. About 5 years ago now, we had a small influx of kids transfer from Nederland to the district. The district I was in was 2A, in a rural setting. It has an "open" enrollment, and there is no out of district tuition charged. The kids generally lived with a relative or even drove to the school. Most would say " We had to get out of there." I was surprised at how far behind the kids were academically. I don't know what is going on there, but a kid who transferred from Nederland with A's and B's, would make B's and C's in our district. The kids would even make comments at how "hard" we were. I don't know what is going on there, I had always thought of Nederland ISD as good district, but in the last 5 years, I have changed my mind. It makes me wonder????? [/quote] [/quote] No, the extracurricular budget doesn't have anything to do with it. Nederland is hurting academically because, frankly, Nederland's policies allow it. For instance, exemption policies at Nederland allow students to exempt a mid-term or final with as low as a 70 average and I believe all Nederland students, underclassmen included, are allowed to exempt all classes all of the time as long as that requirement is met. PN-G, on the other hand, only allows underclassmen to exempt three classes per semester without repeating an exemption in a class for the second semester (with special circumstances applying to math and science classes based on TAKS scores) and only allows students to exempt classes in which their averages are at 80 or above. Another difference between NISD and other districts is the condition of facilities. Students tend to focus better and give more effort in clean, well-kept environments. As has been said a dozen or so times in this thread alone, Nederland's schools are in bad shape. That has an effect on student morale and focus. Examples of this concept can be found by comparing NISD with districts that have kept their facilities in good shape over the years and even within NISD itself; Nederland's academics have fallen behind while NISD's band and theatre groups have excelled in their new facilities. Another factor in academic success is extracurricular participation. Studies have shown that students who participate in extracurricular activities have better grades, better conduct, and a higher level of focus than students who do not. Although NISD does have some award-winning extracurricular programs, such as the band and Westernaires, NISD's extracurricular groups are not as big or as numerous as those of many other schools of similar size. I would argue (and bear in mind that this is an outside perspective) that about half of NHS students participate in at least one extracurricular activity - a portion which could be much larger if the right steps were taken. Standards and curriculum difficulty also come into play. [color=red]I know that Nederland's chapter of the National Honors Society grants automatic membership to anyone with a 3.75 GPA or higher[/color]. Other schools typically add in an application process of some sort that requires a demonstration of leadership, community service, and success in areas outside of academics; special considerations are also normally given to students in honors classes. Curriculum comes into play in that it appears (again, outside perspective) that NISD has settled for the minimum state requirements. The student that transferred into PN-G that I mentioned earlier talked about how he had never seen many of the things in our reviews and even said at one point that he had written more in our English classes in the two months he was here than he had the whole previous year at Nederland; considering what we had done in those classes up to that point, I feel certain that Nederland is settling for the state minimum providing that he was a good example of Nederland's average honors student. Typically, schools establish a district curriculum that exceeds the state requirements, and they also normally provide extra curriculum resources (NISD may or may not provide them, I'm not sure). Another factor is teacher participation. NHS teachers, for one reason or another, do not seem to sponsor as much outside of the classroom as they could. I remember a conversation with a now retired PN-G teacher in which I asked why Nederland didn't bring as many students to academic competitions as other local schools and his reply was that there just weren't enough Nederland teachers willing to sponsor the different academic events. That shocked me. I was amazed at the fact that Nederland couldn't get enough teachers to volunteer as most of the other schools in our district. I mean no offense to any Nederland faculty members because there are several good, dedicated teachers in NISD, but that, in my opinion, is deplorable. When the teachers won't participate, the problem isn't funding. A simple modification to the teacher contracts could fix that. And for the record, Nederland's revenues may not be as high as PN-G's, but we're a Chapter 41 district. After the state takes our money away each year, we actually have less to work with than NISD. [/quote] You need to check your facts on this one Band Kid, my daughter had a higher GPA than that and she couldn't get in :o

[quote name="KDOSullivan" post="1016420" timestamp="1307223406"] [quote author=dawgnut link=topic=84302.msg1016407#msg1016407 date=1307220004] [quote author=PN-G bandkid link=topic=84302.msg1016336#msg1016336 date=1307205173] [quote author=KDOSullivan link=topic=84302.msg1016315#msg1016315 date=1307194088] [quote author=James Mosley link=topic=84302.msg1016084#msg1016084 date=1307094689] Penny is dead on right with everything. Sad to say but I tell young men we hire who are moving into our area with family to raise their kids somewhere besides Nederland. Currently Nederland does not understand how to prepare for the future. Very sad. [/quote] This is just from the few kids we see transfer to my "former" rural district. About 5 years ago now, we had a small influx of kids transfer from Nederland to the district. The district I was in was 2A, in a rural setting. It has an "open" enrollment, and there is no out of district tuition charged. The kids generally lived with a relative or even drove to the school. Most would say " We had to get out of there." I was surprised at how far behind the kids were academically. I don't know what is going on there, but a kid who transferred from Nederland with A's and B's, would make B's and C's in our district. The kids would even make comments at how "hard" we were. I don't know what is going on there, I had always thought of Nederland ISD as good district, but in the last 5 years, I have changed my mind. It makes me wonder????? [/quote] Ditto. A student transferred from Nederland to PN-G this year. Within three weeks, he dropped his two AP classes and he was gone a month later. The whole time, he talked about how much harder it was here and he always needed help to understand the work, even on the reviews. The sad part is that he's not the only student to come to PN-G and end up in that situation, and they're not just from Nederland. [/quote] That's why on awards night for seniors every year we have so many major university's giving out 4 year rides, I'm sure it's because they want to dumb down their enrollment ;D    [/quote] There is something wrong with Nederland, there really is. When our son was born years ago and we moved back to this area, our top choice school districts were PNG, Orangefield, LC-M, and Nederland. We wound up in LCM basically because we got more property than living in Mid-County. I'm sorry, but after I have taught a number of kids who came from Nederland and they enrolled in my AP classes and couldn't hang, well, there is something wrong. dawgnut, percentage wise, all schools wind up with about the same number of full scholarship kids. I wonder from time to time how much politics is involved in these scholarships? Look, our top 15 kids got a ride to a 4 year school, and we only walked in the low 80s. ( And many of the others got some form of scholarship.) [/quote] Your right something is wrong, but it's not just Nederland! If you look at some of the recent studies on education you would find a startling trend. Most kids are not a whole lot smarter when they get out of the University than when they began. We still think of Universities as a place of higher learning, but they are really just a business. And that being what it is means that they can't fail them all. High Schools are no different. The real problem is we don't value education in this country any longer. We know who won American Idle, and what the top movie at the box office is, but the average student can't tell you how to find the circumference of a circle. All education is important, not just the class room, but we aren't smart enough to figure that out either. And before all the educators jump up out there just know this, I work with your best and brightest and it's amazing what they don't know. The bottom line is we could cut all activities except the class room, and hire enough teachers so that each student could have their own and until the parents make education a high priority it wouldn't make a bit of difference.

[quote name="PN-G bandkid" post="1016336" timestamp="1307205173"] [quote author=KDOSullivan link=topic=84302.msg1016315#msg1016315 date=1307194088] [quote author=James Mosley link=topic=84302.msg1016084#msg1016084 date=1307094689] Penny is dead on right with everything. Sad to say but I tell young men we hire who are moving into our area with family to raise their kids somewhere besides Nederland. Currently Nederland does not understand how to prepare for the future. Very sad. [/quote] This is just from the few kids we see transfer to my "former" rural district. About 5 years ago now, we had a small influx of kids transfer from Nederland to the district. The district I was in was 2A, in a rural setting. It has an "open" enrollment, and there is no out of district tuition charged. The kids generally lived with a relative or even drove to the school. Most would say " We had to get out of there." I was surprised at how far behind the kids were academically. I don't know what is going on there, but a kid who transferred from Nederland with A's and B's, would make B's and C's in our district. The kids would even make comments at how "hard" we were. I don't know what is going on there, I had always thought of Nederland ISD as good district, but in the last 5 years, I have changed my mind. It makes me wonder????? [/quote] Ditto. A student transferred from Nederland to PN-G this year. Within three weeks, he dropped his two AP classes and he was gone a month later. The whole time, he talked about how much harder it was here and he always needed help to understand the work, even on the reviews. The sad part is that he's not the only student to come to PN-G and end up in that situation, and they're not just from Nederland. [/quote] That's why on awards night for seniors every year we have so many major university's giving out 4 year rides, I'm sure it's because they want to dumb down their enrollment ;D 

Hey I looked in the "New Nederland Standard Dictionary" under teacher, and it said "Not smitty" and you being the most enlightened one amongst us, what gives?

[quote name="The-NHS" post="1015160" timestamp="1306767355"] [quote author=smitty link=topic=84302.msg1015152#msg1015152 date=1306763988] Economic Development Corporation.  It's with the city.  It's used to increase business for Nederland.  Looks good on paper.  And could be.  But it takes in a lot of money but not much of it goes out. [quote author=mat link=topic=84302.msg1015146#msg1015146 date=1306760211] [quote author=smitty link=topic=84302.msg1015143#msg1015143 date=1306754563] Shut down EDC?  Yes!!  Another waste of money.  Can you defend it with positive facts?  I'm willing to listen! What I'm gaining from you is that you LIKE to waste money.  And any discussion of what's REALLY important is foreign to you.  But stick around!  The teaching never stops!!  Whether or not one chooses to listen!!     ;) [quote author=Penny link=topic=84302.msg1014491#msg1014491 date=1306469097] OOOOPS, forgot to Smite you Smitty, my bad.  Okay, took care of that.  And, I so thank you for living in our little community.  Smitty, should we SHUT DOWN THE NEDERLAND EDC also? Just wonderin [/quote] [/quote] What is EDC? [/quote] [/quote] And I'm not sure anyone on our EDC has any knowledge in economics or how to build up nederland. An example of the EDC's work is Sanderson's Restaurant. [color=red]To my knowledge the EDC gave money to Everett to start it all up.[/color] Correct or no? please give the correct story if I'm wrong. [/quote] So what's the point?

[quote name="smitty" post="1015143" timestamp="1306754563"] Shut down EDC?  Yes!!  Another waste of money.  Can you defend it with positive facts?  I'm willing to listen! What I'm gaining from you is that you LIKE to waste money.  And any discussion of what's REALLY important is foreign to you.  But stick around!  The teaching never stops!!  Whether or not one chooses to listen!!     ;) [quote author=Penny link=topic=84302.msg1014491#msg1014491 date=1306469097] OOOOPS, forgot to Smite you Smitty, my bad.  Okay, took care of that.  And, I so thank you for living in our little community.  Smitty, should we SHUT DOWN THE NEDERLAND EDC also? Just wonderin [/quote] [/quote] Teaching????

[quote name="The-NHS" post="1014722" timestamp="1306541260"] We need to get all the bums out of positions in nederland and get people in with a drive, vision, and passion. I would vote ned graduates in their late 20's or 30's before I think about voting for a bum contempt with the same ole crap going on right now. [/quote] The problem is that everyone talks about what's going on, but no one bothers to vote. Look at the numbers from the last election. For a town of 17,000 the turn-out was not very good.

[quote name="Penny" post="1014490" timestamp="1306468826"] Look, now we know where Smitty's coming from.  He's on a SPORTS website prodding all us idiots to get rid of extracirriculars... "sports"... football, so we can build our schools.  That's what he's said.  That's what he is.  Nederland needs to tell our kids to quit competing, sit in algebra, and watch everyone else be all they can be, learning to compete in sports with their education.  Our kids don't get to do that, it's the responsible thing to do.  That's his solution for you Nederlanders.  Suck it up, you can't have the best, you can't even have good.  You can't give your kids what they deserve.  They can't have a complete education.  Smitty has spoken. [/quote] Penny a wise man said it better than I could ever say it. "The lessons we learned about "the team" later becomes our family, our church, our city, our state, and our country and they last the rest of our lives. Football did more foe us than we could ever do for football. In some cases, it got us through school because we had to pass to play. In some cases, it kept us out of trouble-we didn't want to be kicked off the team. It taught us to Compete because that's what life is about. It taught us to play within the rules of football AND life. It taught us respect for our teammates AND opponents. Most of all it taught us the value of hard work and sacrifice for the good of "the team" O.A. "Bum" Phillips