District Finally Got The Message

I work for a fairly large district within a city known for its wealth. The schools are funded and the raise this year was 1% with increased costs for my insurance. So we have the usual budget issues.

For many years the school year starts with a "pep rally" that is held at my school, a very large high school. They'd bus in half the district's teachers. The district superintendent would give us a 10 minute speech telling us how great things were/are. Then a high priced speaker would give us a 20 minute spiel. High priced? Yep. We checked last year. $30k, not including hotel, flights, and meals. Now I'm sure some local businesses and civic groups probably covered most of it. But last year with our 2% rsise, that spending didn't go over well.

This years rally had no speaker. The superintendent admitted, "We heard you." Now if we could ditch the rally...