[nagdu] Staff cuts at guide dog schools

[Buddy Brannan]

Hi,

Of course, cuts are everywhere, and cutbacks aren't unusual in any industry. Bearing in mind that the schools are all privately funded by donations, belt tightening is inevitable. 

I can't speak to GDB's situation, but here's what I can tell you about the Seeing Eye. 

No, renovating the facilities isn't exactly tied to staff cuts. In a nutshell, here's what we were told:

For the past several years, expenses have been increasing, while donations have not. Thus, more and more of the endowment that has partial funded the school has had to be used. Projecting these trends forward, it was determined that at this rate, the endowment would be exhausted in a matter of a few years, which would put the school in a financial precarious position. They therefore had to find places to cut, and, unfortunately, staffing cuts had to be made. No one likes staff cuts. No one likes it that knowledgeable men and women have lost their jobs. But they had to reorganize so that services could continue. This might be some controversial for an opinion, but I kind of think that cutting field reps and moving all follow-up services in-house might not be necessarily a bad thing. I wonder if perhaps we might have gotten too reliant on them and have started shouting for help before we really needed to? In other words, before using some of the tools and techniques we were taught, and trying to work through problems on our own first? I'm not saying this very well, and I'm sure that I'll get some indignant protests over this. Anyway, Seeing Eye is back to early '90's staffing levels now.

A separate issue was that, one way or another, the facilities needed to be upgraded to meet current building code. While they met 1960's residential building codes, there were things that weren't up to current code, systems that were being maintained, and so on. So they needed to update facilities, bring everything up to code, replace systems that were being nursed along and fixed as they broke, and so on. It was determined that it would be less expensive to, therefore, do some renovations and add features while upgrades were being made than it would be to go in and add those things later. This makes a lot of sense, really. And additional fundraising campaigns will be undertaken to offset some of those costs. Moreover, while we're talking about a multi-million dollar upgrade (that is, bringing all systems up to building code, replacing failing systems, and doing all the other upgrades, like adding an escalator and what not), it's a one-time improvement cost, with only ongoing maintenance to deal with afterwards, probably maintenance similar to what would have to be done regardless. Eighteen staff salaries would be ongoing and probably come out of a different pot anyways (this would be speculation). 

Clear as mud?
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Apr 17, 2013, at 10:09 AM, Deanna Lewis <DLewis at clovernook.org> wrote:

> Hi list,
> I have heard of some very big changes in a couple of guide dog schools recently, and am a bit worried by it.
> I know that two very well respected Guide Dog schools have had large staffing cuts recently. Both schools let go of trainers/field reps with years of experience. Also, both schools are also renovating their dormitories. I am wondering if there is a connection? And also I am worried that this may become a trend with the training programs? I hope not.
> Do you know of any other schools who have done this recently?
> What do y'all think?
> I hope not to start a big debate, but I am just worried that many of the schools are headed towards being less client driven.
> 
> Deanna and Pascal
> 
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