Some other numbers

Tying up some loose ends from last week:

• The City Manager at last week's Council meeting suggested that he will be asking that the City Council to change the amount the City takes from grants received for administrative costs. This is a bit confusing, as the schools administer their own grants, but the City does take a bit--right now it's 1% or about $400,000 a year--for things the City does around the grants: issue purchase orders, send out a request for proposals, etc. The Manager suggested that the City will be raising its take from 1% to 3%, or up to $1.2 million. This would have to be approved by the City Council. There's some question as to whether the schools are indeed getting $1.2 million in services from the city around grants. I've also been asked--and I don't know the answer to this--if the schools could simply tell the city that it will be entirely administering its own grants (as does every little non-profit that gets grants). I don't know if the city allows this.
• You may have seen floating around a list from the Boston Herald of 2006 City of Worcester salaries. Some were alarmed at the presences of Instructional Assistants on high on the list, seemingly making over $100,000 a year. It isn't so. The third column gives the actual amount those people made; the final column is some numbers arrived at by the Herald which bear no resemblance to reality. IA's are paid a barely livable salary; many are working multiple jobs to support families, and their salary schedules do not go anywhere near that high.
• The budget office is bustling...the Manager has promised a city budget to the Council for Friday. Word has it that it will also appear online when it's complete!