td

TD, The "official" acceptance of the job will be taken at February 9th's LCM school board meeting. I imagine that is when the celebrations will begin and the welcoming committee will be in full force. I expect there will be a larger than normal crowd in attendance at the Feb board meeting and even more well wishers in the parking lot wanting to have a chance to welcome Coach Crouch back to Bear Country. I've been told that through a good rapore with our neighbors at WOS, Coach Crouch will take over the duties at LCM immediately. At 1:01AM Tuesday February 10th, there will be a small bonfire in which all of the Coach's blue and silver wardrobe will be burned. He will report to Bear Country Tuesday morning decked out from head to toe in Green & Gold! The new "Captain" will have the "ship" at full sail with a strong wind at our back and the rudder pointed straight ahead in no time at all! Full speed ahead TD...Full speed ahead! ;D ;D OK, I liked all of that except the part about the burning of the blue and silver. There goes the good rapore you had with your friendly neighbors at WOS Where are the school board meetings held? I would like to attend and be one of the well wishers. I hope LCM wins 9 games every single year. 8)

I agree people don't like change. However, they are already getting change and better to get it all at once than a little this year and a little next year and so on. I don't know who holds what position at LCM so I don't know if this is a needed position or not but he must have a strong DC. They may already have one for all I know.

Not even a reply??????????? Come on Slam. Set the man off on the right track and help right the sinking ship.

Spelling doesn't bother me at all. I try to support the Bears when I'm not supporting the Mustangs. I actually have two signs on their field. I also have a nephew that plays baseball out there. I thought you were a true Mustang but sometimes when you speak you say "we" when you are speaking of the Bears. I'm fine with it either way I was just curious. I'm sure one day we will meet.

Skipper, I can't figure you out. One minute you are a Mustang and then the next minute you are claiming the Bears. Which is it? Most people support both except when they are playing each other. Most also has an allegiance to one or the other. Where does your loyalty really lie? ???

Slam, I think you and some of those other LCM guys like Green and Bold and others should talk to the school about having a "Meet and Greet" for your new coach. It would be a good gesture and get things started in a positive direction. Not to mention it would give a lot of parents an opportunity to meet him first hand. Also it would give the kids a chance to meet him in an informal setting. Getting the parents and the kids started in the right direction with the new coach is going to be the beginning of a different direction for LCM. I hope.

I really hate to say it........but.......but....I agree with you. I said it in a whisper so maybe no one heard me.

I agree with TF. However, I bet that he doesn't get replaced due to the budget cuts.

Congratulations Coach. Good luck.

That sure is a big spoon you are using to stir with! ;D

I agree with that. It was working early and then we just stopped getting him the ball. #3 for HJ was a man amongst boys last night. Seems like we should have made someone else beat us. Overall good game. From what I saw the better team won. At least they were better last night.

WOS has lost FIVE coaching positions that HAVE NOT been replaced. The most recent was from last year. A coach left and no replacement was moved up to the varsity staff, so the information that the board member who spoke last night about "alternative solutions such as giving up a coach" is erroneous and there was no opportunity to rebut the statement. That is another problem with the "system". The school board can sit there and discuss things OUT LOUD.....whatever comes to the top of their head at the moment, whether it is accurate or not accurate, and not a thing can be said to them. It's almost like being in a trial when the judge says, "Jury, you will disregard the last statement made by the key witness". It's a little too late not to have heard it! Same thing with last night. The board member just threw something out there without even checking out the facts and then had the audacity to be "embarassed" by the way the vote was handled to start with back in November. The board member even SAID that not enough information and input was gathered before they voted and THEN that same board member went and made comments that were unfounded and unresearched. Don't speak if you don't know what you are talking about. Don't vote unless you know all the facts and know what you are voting for or against. Do your homework!!!!! That's why you're there!!!!! I think you may have hit the nail on the head. There are some board members that act like they haven't seen any information on the issues that are on the agenda. I appears as if they haven't even looked or asked any questions about the things they are going to vote on. Do they not look over what is on the agenda? I would think that if they aren't going to research these items then how can they vote on them. The information they receive at the meetings isn't always accurate. Just like the cost of the busing.

I'm not sure. I would guess that coaches and all other positions will be looked at before next year. I did hear Coach Hooks say in a school board meeting that he lost 4 coaching positions last year that he did not fill this year.

Congratulations. I spent alot of time there. Probably more than I should have.

??? From TD Now all of the sudden they don't think they should pick out single items to cut. They think they should look at the whole budget to decide what is best to cut. Really? I wonder which genius came up with that idea. It seems they could use the $10,000 that was saved on the Dan R Hooks sign to pay for the busing. They said no one had come up with an optional way to pay for it. Now they have one. Dr. Collins himself told me they were going to fix the sign and then didn't so use the money he was going to use to pay for busing. It's just odd that they pick out one thing and then decide not to piece mill it? Had this been part of a $500,000 plan to cut the budget it would have been much easier to swallow. That would take care of this years cost...what about next year? I truly wish all the concerned WOS fans and district citizens good luck in trying to get this issue and other tough decisions resolved. It's not going to be easy. Well let's see I only had a few days to come up with that. ;D If we get it resolved for this year we can get to the root of the real problem and correct the entire budget. Seriously can a budget be piece milled like this? No. If it gets corrected and done properly you may not need to even cut the busing. For now I think we should have stopped hiring people. Unless I'm mistaken we have hired a few since the storm. How much sense does that make?

Maybe they view those projects as being a higher priority. What makes their decisions ridiculous and what business is it of an outside group/newsrag to determine such? It would be great if folks played a more active in their school boards and fully understood the entire picture. I would be curious as to the parental involvment the schools receive. It is truly sad when the only things coming from a school appear to be negative and adversarial between the community and school. I can only speak for myself but I am in the school as a parent every single day. There are many many things I do at the school and for the school. Not only do I volunteer my money but also my time, for athletics and academic programs as well.

Now all of the sudden they don't think they should pick out single items to cut. They think they should look at the whole budget to decide what is best to cut. Really? I wonder which genius came up with that idea. It seems they could use the $10,000 that was saved on the Dan R Hooks sign to pay for the busing. They said no one had come up with an optional way to pay for it. Now they have one. Dr. Collins himself told me they were going to fix the sign and then didn't so use the money he was going to use to pay for busing. It's just odd that they pick out one thing and then decide not to piece mill it? Had this been part of a $500,000 plan to cut the budget it would have been much easier to swallow.

I was there but I will leave the reporting to the reporters unless they miss something. ;D Just kidding I know that never happens.

If this passes and it could look for our enrollment numbers to go down further.

I'm not going to call you names. I can disagree with you without calling you names. I personally don't want something for nothing. Unless I have a drastic change in my life my children will never need this program. But going into the school every single day and knowing alot about the kids and the way things are leads me to believe it's necessary. Just for the record, I also don't believe in continuing to give when nothing is received in return. In my opinion this is a needed program. We will just have to agree to disagree.

Thanks for your opinion but you seem to have lost touch with WOS. We are not spending money on getting better teachers. We stick with what we have and continue to be low performing. We do have tutorials and the athletes do attend them. If my any of my children had a problem in school you can bet I would be there. If they were having trouble with the TAKS you can bet I would be there. BTW there are other districts that bus. Newton is just up the street and they bus. They also bus in Beaumont.

That's new? How else do you deal with problems? I don't think I needed the president for that one. I thought Obama preached "Spreading The Wealth". With that logic maybe another richer school district could provide transportation ;D The crazy thing is the school district has plenty of money. The State makes us give it away to poorer school districts and now we have a 2 mill. deficit. I'm not a math major but something doesn't add up. I'm not sure of all the specifics of the "Robinhood Act", but I think that has to do with budget and spending when it first started. I think (heavy on the think) that you had to have a plan to use the money or portions would be sent to less tax based school districts. Many schools (Evadale comes to mind) used money to build new facilities like their gym. (awesome place ) Again, I don't know the specifics, but I thought it was a "use it or lose it" type thing...I must be off somewhere. I don't know the specifics either but I think (heavy on think) you are wrong about that because anyone can find a reason to use it. Just as you said, build new schools and better facilities.

That's new? How else do you deal with problems? I don't think I needed the president for that one. I thought Obama preached "Spreading The Wealth". With that logic maybe another richer school district could provide transportation ;D The crazy thing is the school district has plenty of money. The State makes us give it away to poorer school districts and now we have a 2 mill. deficit. I'm not a math major but something doesn't add up.

That's new? How else do you deal with problems? I don't think I needed the president for that one.

Am I the only one that wants to know how we get 2 mill. deficit and then start worrying about how to cut? The whole thing is a mess and yes it is going to be ugly. My problem is how did it get this way. Who wasn't on watch when they were supposed to be. I know it isn't as easy as this but it just seems as though you would see it coming. Those are very good questions, td. Questions which you guys deserve answers to. I agree that you have to chip away and the deficit. I'm not arguing that point. But you have to take into consideration that it's WOS and you can't just lump all schools together. Other schools may be different. Like it or not football drives this school. Take it and other UIL activities away and you can just shut the doors. It's one of a very few positives left as a whole. My kids get a great education from WOS and have never had a problem. That being said the overall TAKS scores aren't where they need to be and something needs to be done about that. I can tell you if anyone of my children struggled in school they would be at another school. Just as we need to fix the budget we need to fix the academics. Lets start making changes there. I said it yesterday and I will say it again, low scores at the same schools for a few years and no changes made. Maybe just maybe this is how we got our budget in trouble, deficit after deficit and no changes and now look where we are. Let's open our eyes and see it coming. Even though we could have seen this coming several years ago. Make changes if they don't work make different changes. If someone comes to work for me and they can't get the job done then I have to keep looking until I find someone that can get the job done. It seems the school could work the same way. Just because you hire someone doesn't give them a lifetime job. If they aren't getting the job done find someone that can.