New version of Toledo Talk

Help the Toledo Public School district save money - I need your help. To assist, go to the site http://www.ideasfortps.com and submit your idea. If you have some insight into the ideas on the site, feel free to comment and rate the ideas up there. You do not need to live in the district to participate and anyone with an Internet connection can help. The site is set up as sort of like a live workspace where the ideas can be hashed out in public, so the good ideas will shine through and the district will be able to implement them.

If you are an employee of the district, a teacher, a student or in the administration, submit your idea. If you are a business owner or you work in a profession where you come across money saving ideas, submit you idea. If you have a good idea and want everyone to know, submit it. You help is requested.

The Internet is the perfect medium to facilitate the collection ideas from the community and it is a new way for government to operate. Governments should not be afraid because there are many people willing to help out (as all of you already know). This site is an attempt to pool the knowledge that resides in our community to help the district out financially. I hope you can take some time to help.

Visit the Web site and submit your idea:
http://www.ideasfortps.com

Thank you. It was also nice to meet Jr at the conference today. Thanks for coming!

Please distribute the URL for the site. In order for it to work we need many minds to the site as possible.

Chris

____

Here is the statement I prepared for the conference.

Today we are at the Business Technology Center a place where innovative companies such as Corillian and IPAYX which centered its operations trying to give Toledo a foot up in technology. IPAYX in particular has been ahead of everyone else in electronic bill delivery and it is great to have a company that is on the leading edge here in Toledo. Today I ask why can’t government be on the leading edge of engaging its citizens in using technology?

We are here today to announce ideasfortps.com. But this idea is not about technology, it is about people coming together to help out the district. I get frustrated when I hear some administration officials and some board members say that nothing else can be done to improve the budget. I took this as a challenge and started this site. To give the district credit they only have a few minds working on the problem of dealing with the budget issues and a few minds only have so much capacity for problem solving.

In the past year, technology and trends have changed. There has been a flurry of Web sites made popular by people coming together to share ideas, to network and to contribute their talents. Web sites like digg.com and youtube.com are sites where user rated popular stories or videos rise to the top. The OpenSource movement and Wikipedia are where people come together and contribute resources or knowledge for the betterment of a product or solution. This trend of the Internet facilitating people coming together to network and share is what is called the Internet 2.0. This inspired me to combine the ideas of the Internet 2.0 to help the society; we can call it Government 2.0.

In the spirit of Internet 2.0 I created ideasfortps.com. It is a forum for people to come together and submit ideas to the district. But it is interactive because users can comment on the ideas submitted and even rate the different items on how good of an idea they think it is.

Participation is needed. In order for this site to be successful, I need many minds coming together to comment, rate, and even submit their own ideas. Anyone with an Internet connection can do this, including, students in the district, staff, administrators, business employees and owners, or anyone that that cares enough about the district and wants to help out.

Now TPS can have 50, 500, or maybe even 5,000 minds working on their budget problems. The district will be better off for it as well as the city. And, maybe the district and other governments can learn a new way to dialog with residents and embrace the concept of Government 2.0 using the ideas behind the Internet 2.0.

Community ideas pay off. During my scouring of the Internet for ideas that other districts have implemented to save money to populate ideasfortps.com, I came across Tucson Unified, which through their BrightIdeas program have saved 2.1 million dollars from community suggestions. While Tucson is twice the size of TPS, significant savings can come from ideas submitted from the community. Currently on the site there is a buffet of ideas that total 10 million dollars on the site. Not all of them could be implemented, but I am hoping that more savings will be submitted once it is opened to a wider audience.

So, today I encourage anyone hearing this announcement to go and visit the Web site, comment and rate the ideas there or even submit your own. Together we can do this. Let’s show the district we do have good ideas. User privacy will be protected, so you have nothing to lose and everyone has everything to gain.

In closing, please help get the word out. Your assistance is important in making this project successful. Thank you.
posted by chrismyers to education at 2:09 P.M. EST     (14 Comments)

Comments ...

Chris, thanks for your efforts in creating this opportunity for the community to participate. Last year the 3 for Change candidates promised that they would engage the community and get their opinions. Even though you were not victorious, it is good to see you carrying through with good intentions. It is a shame that you have to do this from the outside, but there is a role for all of us. Do Robert Torres and Darlene Fisher support your efforts? Did they attend the press conference?

Again thanks for your efforts!
posted by sflagg at 09:01 P.M. EST on Tue Oct 17, 2006     #

Yes - this is a really good idea Chris. It's a good opportunity to consolidate usable input from the public.

It is a shame you are doing this from the outside - but this just shows me what your level of concern and dedication to solving problems really is.

Kate
posted by katie82640 at 09:32 P.M. EST on Tue Oct 17, 2006     #

Steve, yes an idea similar to this concept this was brought up during the election last year and was part of our platform. Instead of a simple electronic drop box, I made it an online "work space", which I think will be better.

Yes, Robert and Darlene were there. I did invite the whole board and administration to the press conference.

I think presenting the ideas in public is a great way to do it. I hope the district can respond on the site and tell the community which ideas they would consider. It would go a long way in showing they are working hard to consider all options. Regardless, I think any government should think about this idea as a way to engage citizens.
posted by chrismyers at 09:33 P.M. EST on Tue Oct 17, 2006     #

As long as the TPS refuses to engage in austerity measures commensurate with the fiscal emergency that faces greater Toledo, then nothing can or will change except the formation of catastrophes.

When you are in economic trouble, the first thing to go should be spending upon luxuries in order to conserve your lesser fiscal energies for necessities. Compared with teaching, an administrator with a title like "Diversity Coordinator" is obviously a luxury. The time for luxuries is gone for Toledo's basic economy and the TPS in particular. So:

Get rid of the "coordinators" and "facilitators" and all other parasites like them.

Student scores are not improved by tossing coordinators and facilitators at them. Those scores are improved by TEACHING. When I was at Start H.S. in the 1980s, teacher after teacher (esp. Mrs. Canelli) simply could not wait to get away from teaching and become one of the parasites. The parasitical class has taken over the process.

SO GET RID OF THEM. Offer them teaching positions (at standard rates) or pink slips.

If the TPS Board can't get rid of the blood-suckers known as administrators, then who the fück can, Chris?

I've asked before for a list of all the administrator titles in the TPS. No list has been offered. The least you can do is take a few moments of Pres. Fisher's time -- since you appear to have her ear -- and obtain such a list from her and post it here as well as in other places where public eyeballs are.
posted by GuestZero at 12:42 A.M. EST on Wed Oct 18, 2006     #

GZ, go ahead and post that idea on the site - to eliminate administrators. Feel free to post any other cost saving idea you may have.

Also, I wanted to add, there is nothing wrong with average Joes and Janes creating solutions to help out from the outside or inside. I decided to get this up because I was afraid of what I would run into inside the district. It took two weeks of working a couple of hours in the evenings to put that site together. I don't know how long it would have taken to work with the district or even if they would have embraced it from the start.
posted by chrismyers at 05:48 A.M. EST on Wed Oct 18, 2006     #

Chris, these links are not money saving or teacher compensation, but, these articles feed to me daily. If you haven’t seen them I thought you’d appreciate the information and use it if you can.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101600907.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101600906.html

http://www.appleseeds.net/servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=252
posted by Offshore at 09:20 A.M. EST on Wed Oct 18, 2006     #

There is ALOT of stuff/ideas showing up on this site. I like the ranking idea also.

You're right Chris...the community built the schools, paid for the schools and that's where the answers are.

The people know :-)

Just never had a place to work on ideas together before.
posted by katie82640 at 09:31 P.M. EST on Wed Oct 18, 2006     #

First step, vote for levies, until the state government takes the advice of the supreme court and creates a new funding system.
posted by junta330 at 10:50 P.M. EST on Wed Oct 18, 2006     #

Offshore, thanks for the links.

Everyone: I added some new polls to the site and increased the most popular items to 30. Visit http://www.ideasfortps.com to voice your opinion and see more items. Also, if you have an idea, please submit it.

There have been lots of hits to the site, not as much participation. Don't be afraid to help!
posted by chrismyers at 09:30 P.M. EST on Thu Oct 19, 2006     #

Junta, giving a school system more money when it refuses to control costs, is foolish. School systems only seem to act to control costs when the public votes down their goddamn levies.

Furthermore, what the SC said was not "advice", it was a command, but Ohio government has long been practically illegitimate. The legislature has had more than enough to time to obey the SC and craft a constitutional system of funding the schools. Since they haven't, they won't. Ultimately, the people of Ohio keep voting in candidates who support this inaction, hence practical illegitimacy.
posted by GuestZero at 04:47 A.M. EST on Fri Oct 20, 2006     #

Today the site was picked up on a major Education Blog and I got lots of hits from around the country. Read about it here.

If you have a good idea, feel free to submit it. I want to thank those that have submitted ideas and it appears by the usernames of some of the submitters, they are ToledoTalk regulars.

http://www.ideasfortps.com
posted by chrismyers at 06:38 P.M. EST on Mon Oct 23, 2006     #

from the link you posted Chris: "This is an interesting idea, the Toledo Public Schools are a little short on cash so a local citizen has created a website to generate money-saving ideas."

emphasis and humiliation added.
posted by katie82640 at 09:10 A.M. EST on Tue Oct 24, 2006     #

Thanks Kate.

Hey, if any of you have a blog or a Web site, I would appreciate a link to http://ideasfortps.com . If you know someone else who would be interested in helping out, please forward them the link or have them link to it.

Thank you for your help on getting the word out. The hits have been great. Don't hesitate jump in and participate! You DO NOT need to live in the district or Toledo to send an idea or rate the ideas there.

Thanks!

Chris
posted by chrismyers at 08:10 P.M. EST on Wed Oct 25, 2006     #

I wanted to ask, did any of you want to submit a poll question? I don't have the ability for users to submit polls, so post what you want on the here. It is a simple Web poll, so post the question and the answers someone can choose from and I will add it to the site for you. Let's keep the polls TPS related.

Thanks!
posted by chrismyers at 10:16 P.M. EST on Wed Oct 25, 2006     #

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