“The urgency of negotiating a new contract really isn’t there,” Amber Dixon, a recent interim superi

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Like the rich folks in the famous television show with a similar name, employees of Buffalo public schools routinely spend a great deal of money on extravagant things like plastic surgery, bellagio hotel history airline travel, expensive hotels and limousines.
EAGnews recently completed an inspection of credit card records and the check registry for the Buffalo City School District in 2011. We also filed a freedom of information request to measure the latest cost of the district's bellagio hotel history infamous employee cosmetic surgery program.
The amount spent on cosmetic surgery for teachers came to $2.7 million. The total cost for hotels, airline tickets, limousines and the like came to $196,986. You read it correctly. A struggling public school district with a budget deficit of nearly $50 million spent almost $3 million in one year on plastic surgery and travel. District officials declined an invitation to explain these expenses before bellagio hotel history publication of this story.
We don't suppose bellagio hotel history the taxpayers of Buffalo will be too amused the next time they are asked to approve a tax increase bellagio hotel history for general operations. School officials have already demonstrated they can't handle large sums of money in any sort of responsible fashion. Who in their right mind would give them any more to waste?
As the Atlantic put it in a 2010 story, "Hair removal. Miscrodermabrasian. Liposuction. If you name the procedure, it's probably covered. This is a city where the average teacher makes $52,000 bellagio hotel history a year. The plastic surgery tab would pay salaries for 100 extra educators."
The program is the result of a negotiated provision in the Buffalo teacher union collective bargaining agreement, dating back to the 1970s. In later decades cosmetic surgery boomed in America and doctors began advertising to Buffalo teachers in their union newsletter, according to the Atlantic.
When the program was exposed to the public a few years ago, Buffalo union boss Philip Rumore said he would be glad to drop the perk in the next round of contract negotiations. But Buffalo hasn't had a new teachers bellagio hotel history contract since the last one expired in 2004, according to the Atlantic.
That's because the state of New York allows teachers to keep working under the terms of expired contracts until a new pact is negotiated. Why would the Buffalo union want a new contract when the old one pays out so well?
"The urgency of negotiating a new contract really isn't there," Amber Dixon, a recent interim superintendent for the district, told The Atlantic. "You get to keep your benefits. bellagio hotel history You get to keep your cosmetic rider. You get to keep your 2.5 percent step increase. It makes getting back to the table difficult."
"Pursuant to your FOIL request dated October 15, 2012, the Buffalo public school district spent $2,728,201 on cosmetic procedures for members of the Buffalo Teachers Federation for the period of June 2011-July 2012."
Let's see. The district had nine credit card charges for a total of $7,541 at the Hyatt Hotels Regency in Jersey City on July 11, 2011. Sounds like fun. There were eight charges for a total of $4,011 at Hyatt Hotels San Antonio on Feb. 28, 2011.
Five transactions at Residence Inns Downtown bellagio hotel history Tampa on Feb. 3, 2011 came to $4,975.  There were 11 charges totaling $4,163 at Residence bellagio hotel history Inns Greenbelt on May 15, 2011.  There were nine charges at the Hilton Saratoga Hotel on May 3, 2011 for $2,465.
bellagio hotel history It appears that checks were the preferred mode of payment for instate lodging. One check for $1,828 was written to the Darien Lake Theme Park Resort on July 8, 2011. Another for $1,560 was written to Marriott Hotel Corporation bellagio hotel history in Albany bellagio hotel history on Sept. 2, 2011, while one for $1,428 went to Hampton Inn and Suites in Poughkeepsie on April 15, 2011.
That's bellagio hotel history a lot of frequent flier miles. To be fair, the school district appears to have made an effort to fly budget airlines, like Jetblue, on a fairly frequent basis. But there were also plenty of bookings on more expensive airlines like United, Southwest and Delta.
Let's not forget the limousine costs. District credit cards were used for $669 worth of service from Kings Limo Service, Moon Limo Services, RTC Chauffer Service and VC Limousine Service on various days in 2011. School officials, as mentioned above, failed to respond to our offer to explain these costs. But based on what we've heard from other districts around the nation, we can almost guess what they would have said:
Some or most of the money spent on travel came from state or federal grants. Some or most of the money was used for professional development trips. Expensive hotels were used because that's where the conferences were.  Some of the money was spent on student travel.
Tax money is tax money, whether it comes from school coffers or the state or federal bellagio hotel history government. And Buffalo school officials spent a lot of it on questionable transactions in 2011. They may not have offered us an explanation, but we think they owe one to the taxpayers of their city.
No your little band of privatizers like to tell half truths and whip up all the cheerleaders like you to do their pitchfork and torch routine outside city hall. Ignorance isn t bliss it s alive and well at EAG. Keep drinking the privatizer kool aid dude.
1) A few years ago (about 10) the district had multiple bellagio hotel history insurance companies provide policies for the district. The district knew it could save a few bucks if it went to one health care provider. So, without negotiation, in a move to save money, but not share any with the employees (teachers) who actually provide the service they moved to a single provider.
Uh-oh the district had to comply to restore the previous level of coverage. Their only option?? Self-insure (as nobody would provide the rider except at large cost). Of course, self insurance is great if nobody collects on it, but alas, people learned of the district s self-insurance pot and decided to use some of that cash.
FOUL! Cried the district, see those greedy teachers, getting free surgery. But you never heard anything about this rider in the past 40 years or so that it had been in the contract. Only when the district began self-insuring did they start to make a big stink. Could the district save money by negotiating bellagio hotel history this out? You bet.
This is pure bullshit. bellagio hotel history Please tell the history of the cosmetic rider if you know it. No I didn t think so. Did you know that unions have to negotiate anything in a contract with management? Yeah that s true, management had to approve bellagio hotel history this but you don t know anything about it or why it s still in the contract. You also failed to mention that spending is down from close to half a million when the last Super was in power. Oh is that because he was a charter supporter ? But then again you re not here to tell the truth just to waterboard it til yo can make it fit your shameless hack agenda. Hey I am waaay impressed with your grizzled vet of two whole years of teaching junior high. Wow. He might have last 20 minutes with the jr high guys I ve taught. No, probably bellagio hotel history more like 10. People see through all of your lies and your pathetic attempt to make money off kids. Your game is about over so enjoy it.
Union thugs ? You have the Walton family in your corner the greediest, most miserly bunch of shitheads to ever under pay a worker. With the company you keep you really need to be careful about name calling. How about kiddie fiddler KJ, you know Mr. Rhee who forgot to put his clothes on when he wanted to hug a teen age girl in his care? Have fun being Goliath for now but we all know how that ended up.
The more I read of this rag the worse it gets. Even James OKeefe would be embarassed to be associated with this level of lowlife hackery. Good luck getting rich while screwing kids out of their educations.