(Occasionally an email comes from somebody who is too professionally involved with the Town/School/Union to have their name publicly associated with their comments. These writers are included as members of the NotThePTA Witness Protection Program. If anonymous opinions are good enough to terminate somebody's employment, I'm OK with using them to share an opinion or professional insight.)
I have been watching meetings and having regular conversations with Committee members and former Committee members for two years and I was shocked after watching the last School Committee meeting.
I have also read the Community School audit report. The audit report supports exactly what members have been saying for 2+ years. Laws were broken. Nobody is looking for punitive damages. Acknowledge the problem, correct it and move forward.
The dramatic "CYA" parade was an outrageous waste of time. None of the comments were relevant. The law was broken, fix it and move on. This last meeting showed, once again, that the primary concern of the majority of the School Committee is to preserve the Community School and destroy anybody who would dare question it.
How can Mrs. Crossman, who is a paid employee of the Community School, and a former Chairman of the Community School Executive Counsel investigate the illegal actions of her own group -- now as a member of the School Committee? How can Mrs. Marshall, a long-time School Committee and Community School Council member control the investigation of a fiasco that she helped create.
I agree with others (including both Bobs) that it is unlikely that anybody benefited personally from these shady dealings, but why is everybody so unwilling to admit that a mistake was made and move to correct it?
As much as I hate "anonymous" letters, I have to deal with some of these people on a regular basis. I have seen what certain members (and their relatives) do to other people they disagree with and I have little interest in dealing with that.
26 comments:
I missed the boat from what I heard the audit issues have been dealt with. I guess my hearing aide not working
Folks sure put an awful lot of time and energy into “defending” themselves and the Community School the other night. The longer I watched the more I kept thinking how strange it was that these folks, especially Lehane, were so wound up. Ask yourself this....you RETIRE from a job and 3 maybe 4 years later you show up at work to defend yourself? How odd is this?
If I didnt think there was something to this Audit report when it first surfaced, I do now.
You remember Central Falls RI. That is the city that fired all its teachers earlier this year.
Read the article. Pretty scary. See what happens to a municipality that does not get it financial house in order:
Annual operating budget - $16M
After-retirement health insurance obligations - $32M (I assume annual)
Pension obligations - $48M (I assume annual)
"That's $80 million for a city that has 19,000 citizens, approximately," appointed receiver Mark S. Pfeiffer said. "That's a huge problem."
That's an understatement.
If they had spent a little more time negotiating their school copier contract, they probably would not be in this mess.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/CF_REPORT_12-17-10_O6LGEUG_v52.34c8f37.html
1:28,
Your hearing aid is OK. Most of these problems were already addressed last year by the Committee that demanded the audit. From reading the report online, I gather that the final step is for the current Committee to acknowledge there was a problem and acknowledge that steps have been/will be taken to fix it.
They are VERY unwilling to admit that any mistakes were ever made! That's why we saw the mudslinging extravaganza on Wed night!!
Why would the current sc need to acknowledge past sc mistakes. What purpose does that serve. If thinks have been corrected whats the point
Are you sure the prolbems were taken care of last year. It seems to be Bob was beating the drum for the current sc to act on the audit.
Ethics division is way overdue on doing an investigation people. Someone send he last 6 months of DVD meetings and the audit reports should be enough to get started. Linehands minimizing the audit results and disagreeing laws were broken by using K-12 monies is incredible.
Bob Simmons doesn't believe anyone took money over the years, we believe he is wrong. We base our opinions on the strong reactions from these supposedly innocent people. The lengths they have gone to hide, resist, manipulate and destroy, drive the super out of town, isn't just overlooking a few MGL laws over the years.
The draft audit report contains response areas below every point raised in its management letter. It is up to the current school committee to approve responses to each point. Once the responses are received, a final report will be issued.
If they disagree with the conclusion of the auditors they should say so in the report and state the reasons why they feel the audit conclusions are wrong.
Why doesn't someone request, through Freedom of Information Act, copies of all of the Community School Minutes for the past 5 years including Executive Sessions?
If the minutes were reported accurately, it could be some interesting reading.
The Truth Maker would also add that given the fact that illegal transgressions occurred by present sitting school board members have taken a toll on the whole budget process for the school district.
As I have stated before it is to bad that the audit did not go back even further. The taxpayers would get an eye full as to how much money was diverted from educational dollars to the Community school and how long this illegal process has been goung on.
Thanks to the last two chairs of the School committee this issue is now closed. But wait this is one of the reasons they find a need to replace Dr. Johnson. She will not buy into what they illegally put together in a past life as it flys in the face of MGL>
The other reason that they do not state for firing her is because she is putting a budget together by the numers the Board of Selectman gave her to work with. The union led four do not like that idea, they want her to make up a budget by not laying any one off and asking for an overide.
This way no matter what happens they will say it was not there fault that things did not work out the way they wanted them to work out. The super is in a lose lose situation no matter what she does.
I think a letter to The ATG office is in order as the present school committee is violating MGL as to how they are suppose to work as a board. The policy about command starts at the top and not the bottom. The long wasted time last evening by the flappr[hand waving ] to circumvent the school policy is one thing, but they would also be violating mgl if they did in fact decide to take the vote to do so.
The superindendant of every school district is charged to make up the budget and present it to the school board. That is what we pay them to do. Since when does members of any school board have the right to micro manage that process.
This school board has been given parts of the budget every week with full explanations , yet we have one dummy making a statement, I have no questions until I see the whole draft. I bet she will not have any questions then as well, because she is not really interested, in my opinion about the children of our district. It is all about the vendetta the four have agreed to participate in.
12/17 3:51 pm: It is incumbent upon the current SC to acknowledge the mistakes and respond to the audit report on how these mistakes have been rectified. Based upon the grammar in your posting, I suspect that this may have come from a current SC member. If it did, then God help us because you obviously have not clue on audit protocol.
Can the BOS relieve (fire) the SC of their elected duties?
What was the date of the last audit?
Was there a specific timeframe the S.C. needed to respond to each audit point raised?
Why haven't they responded and posted there answers publically yet?
Instead we see the emptyprise continues to join the witch hunt against the superintendant.
Why hasn't the CTT and Emptyprise demanded the answers to the above questions?
1. The one and ONLY CS Audit
2. NO
3. Not bound to do so
4. Because they don't have to.
Do you seriously think an elected Committee should not respond to an audit by an independent accounting firm that points out that there have been illegal practices?
(In previous years, there were procedures done by the Town's accounting firm that pointed out exactly the same problems -- they were ignored also.)
If they disagree with the findings, they can argue their point --- but the issue isn't going to go away by ignoring it.
6:13,
The SC is an elected body --they don't work for the BOS! The only remedy allowed by Town Charter is a recall election.
5:35,
Why don't YOU look through 5 years of minutes and get back to us!
I do think the audit needs to be expanded. I wouldn't be surprised if the refusal to acknowledge the audit --- as well as ignoring prior year procedures, might raise an eyebrow in the AG's office.
has anyone got a tylenol...my head hurts!!!!!
SEA union contract article X sect 4 = "A copy of the Superintendent’s proposed budget will be made available to the Association at the same time as the public presentation to the Committee". My question is does this include the draft BullShit they want on the table now? Arent we still in negotiations? humm time to call my cousin up in mad martha coakleys office, or a least link him on to this site and get some forceful action slapped on these idiots of the lopsided table.
Nice Catch --- Send it up to cousin Vinny and lets see what Mad Martha has to say!!
12/17/10 1044
Yes and don't underestimate the supt's degree from Columbia nor her. She already told them Wed night that she has the budget with a 2M deficit balanced. Which all seemed to fall on deaf ears. So I imagine she could give them the final copy tomorrow. I would bet she knows a holiday budget party is planned for 201 Main St. and she is not providing the appetizer nor the dessert.
If you think something fishy was going on in the past -- feel free to follow up on it.
My own personal opinion is that I'm not wasting my time chasing historical problems. There's still plenty of current problems that need fixing!
I don't want this site turning into the headquarters of Paranoia, Inc. My only objective is to point out the inequities, flaws, and stupid actions that are going to drive the District and the Town over the cliff.
People NEED to ask their elected officials their questions directly -- forget what you hear on the soccer field or at the deli counter at Stop and Shop--- ask the people who should be accountable to you !!!
I am not at issue with the past, I am concernered that SEA wants to see the budget now for FY12, and that they are still in contract negotiations... why are they pushing MEJ on having it yesterday? what SEA instructed, influential changes are the fearsome four going to push into MEJs Budjet before she can submit it. I dont underestimate MEJ & I completely support her and have had enough of the abuse she endures at these meetings. P.S. lets not forget Bud finally was a witness to this on Wed. night. It is flat out abuse to MEJ and she better be including the constant emotional battering in her lawsuit!I hope she scratches the budget numbers on a dunkies napkin and gives that to them!
The Truth Maker would like to add a little to what MR. Bob has stated above.
Yes it is true, that what has happened in the past can not be changed.
We need to go forward as a town and attempt to correct what ever we can, in order to prevent these illigal situations from occurring again.
As another wise man once stated, you can not fix the past until you recognise the mistakes you made. Until those that participated or were involved in this action accept the facts, nothing will ever change.
Healing, can only come when you accept what your involvment was and it is stated so publically. Healing can not begin until we as a community understand the sincerity of those statements and they have a ring of truth to them.
Yes we need to move forward, but how do we in the community do so, when those that actually were part of this illegal process, do not accept or recognise what they did as being wrong in any way????
So, the BOS has the power to fire the Town Admistrator but not a volunteer board......is that correct?
11:06, of course that's correct! The School Committee is elected by voters. Another Board doesn't have the ability to fire an elected board.
The School Committee doesn't work for the Board of Selectmen, the Town Manager does!!!
Read the Charter.
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