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| Dick can't make it .... but Hank may be available |
The Board of Selectmen is meeting with the School Committee and FinCom on Thursday night to discuss the budget. Given the BOS Chair's lack of enthusiasm for rambling rhetoric and meaningless phrases, he is probably the most capable person at the table to keep the proverbial discussion train on the track.
Nonetheless, he may want to make inquiry down at SPD prior to the meeting to see if he could borrow some pepper spray and a taser.
Just to keep the meeting moving along (and so the meeting doesn't begin to resemble the infamously ineffective Tr-Board meetings of yore), I would propose some ground rules and stipulations:
1) Any use of the word "transparent" earns the speaker a jolt -- unless the speaker says specifically WHAT it is they are trying to understand -- 9 times out of 10, people say they want to see more "transparency" when what they really mean is that they have no Goddamn understanding of what they are looking at --- or what it was they wanted to see.
2) Any use of the terms "Community Input", "Good Discussion", "outside the box", "process" or "roll up our sleeves" should be met with a long blast from the Taser, as well as a healthy squirt of Pepper Spray. The Community elected officials to do a job and make decisions. All decisions may not be popular -- some may even be stupid. But, make a realistic decision, move forward and adjust course as necessary. Nothing is written in stone --- but death by paper-cut (or paralysis by analysis) just delays the inevitable. People who disagree with the decisions have the option of running for office, supporting a more qualified candidate at the next election, or assuming the fetal position until the real estate market comes back so they can sell their house and move out of Town.
3) Embrace the concept the the School Department will NEVER return funds to the Town at year-end. State law allows out of District SPED tuitions for the coming year to be paid before the end of the current fiscal year. It will always happen. Let's all acknowledge this and move on --- instead of having the same discussion each year and pretending that fact was just discovered,
4) Acknowledge that the method of calculating Net School Spending was changed by agreement with the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee following the last override. One of the reasons the override passed was because if the local contribution to education was not increased, the State would have taken it out of local aid and given it directly to the Schools. I'm not saying the revised method is necessarily wrong -- BUT you can't compare current NSS with pre-2006 numbers and expect any meaningful analysis. That would produce the same thing that you find on the grass in a field full of bulls. (some have complained my language is deteriorating -- so I'm trying to be subtle!) The only meaningful analysis is WHAT is in the current budget and what it will be used to do.
5) Per pupil expenditure comparisons from Mass DOE are audited and consistent and are a far more standardized method of comparing actual education costs --- nice reference point --- but guaranteed to draw fire and distract from the main discussion of what NEEDS to be done and what would be NICE to do. It doesn't matter if Town X spends twice as much as Sandwich -- Town X may have had a Board of Selectmen that encouraged commercial development 20 years ago -- or it may be populated by folks who didn't retire there in 1972 with the expectation that a single power plant would pay the bulk of their Town's operating costs for the rest of their cranky lives. Unfortunately, Sandwich will never be able to spend what other Towns spend because Town Voters of yore restricted local revenue to residential property taxes.
6) Embrace the concept that Town Meeting approves a single budget line for the Schools and the School Committee controls the allocation of those funds. This is State Law -- regardless of whether the School Committee members are members of Mensa, or ride to meetings in a short bus. The theory behind the law is to prevent potentially uneducated voters and/or politicians from micromanaging or interfering with the professional educational mission of the schools. (Of course, it offers no protection from uneducated and inexperienced school committee members micromanaging or interfering with the professional educational mission of the schools!!)
7) The current budget projection shows a town-wide deficit of approximately $1.5 million --- but that is AFTER increasing both the municipal and school operating budgets by 3%. The Schools NEED a local budget number to produce a meaningful budget draft. For discussion purposes, wouldn't it be cleaner to assume a 0% increase (or a 2% decrease) in operating budgets?
8) After the local contribution and related deficit is calculated, the Schools still need to assume contractual wage increases (even if the teachers finally take their first wage freeze -- that only saves $500,000 -- they will still get $500,000 more for step, lane & longevity increases!
9) The Bus contract is up for renewal next year. Based on my last trip to Hess, and given the current lack of competition in the bus industry, that cost certainly ain't going down. The School Committee began having very preliminary discussions about bus fees last week, but that has the potential of being a slow torturous process -- they need to adopt the Nike motto: "JUST DO IT !!!"
10) The School District is facing two large lawsuits. Although a litigation reserve will increase the deficit -- it is essential that this contingency not be ignored. I would hope that a potential claim against School Counsel's Error & Omission policy would mitigate the cost. (I assume, however, that this reserve will never be announced publicly to avoid affecting settlement discussions)
11) This joint meeting would be a good opportunity for FinCom and BOS to ask the School Committee how they plan on handling the illegalities raised in the recent Community School audit -- and how soon the Committee plans to engage the auditors to look at Fiscal 2010's operations.
All sarcasm aside, it is imperative, especially this year, that the BOS quickly establish a budget target for the School Department to work towards. It's also imperative that the BOS make some tough, realistic, town-wide decisions. We need 1 Town Hall --- not 7. We also need a Police and Fire Headquarters building which won't be the first casualty in a hurricane. We need to make changes in the way we have been delivering services for years.
We obviously need to get some more community input, have some good discussions, roll up our sleeves, think outside the box, and AAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Don't tase me, Bro !!
14 comments:
Bobby the Truth Maker would ask if we do not do a little out of the box thinking, does that mean we pull up the covers and hide like inside?
My favorite words and best phrase is community input. Now this has a ring to it. Sandwich does have a large community, that should include young, old, past and present,along with the local papers we all read.
The delivering of services from the early days in Sandwich to now has not changed much, but if we are to grow as a communitry we need to change those services as well and fast.
Bite the bullet, bring up the process to get us into a more open type of Government
{ keep it on low} or use a little pepper and salt.
When we do bring up ideas, do it from an educational view point, that is understandable and not condescending. The people are smarter then you give them credit for.
Now I have been told if you jolt people long enough, that over time they get a little wiser in the thought process.
Now let us all be nice around the table tonight
Time for the adults to put their "big boy pants" on. If the adults act like adults this could be fun to watch. Otherwise, more can kicking.
What about the dump? If we are losing money -- shut it down and let people use private contractors -- or raise the revenue to cover the REAL costs of operating it.
Do we need 7 people standing around doing nothing? Wouldn't 3 people doing nothing serve the same purpose?
What about paying somebody $40,000 to guard the scrap metal pile so we can earn $5,000 --- who's kidding who ?
Why are we still talking about the pool? If the swimmers won't pay the costs of operating it -- drain the damn thing and move on!!
The Town Hall is an obscenity. We spent $4 million to provide offices for 10 people? Really?
Sandwich has accomplished nothing in 30 years.
Are any SC members actually going to this meeting? I've never heard of any of them meeting with BOS or FinCom.
What's the point of the meeting --- does Town hall need a new copy machine?
The Truth Maker would like to correct a few of the above comments
The town does not pay anyone #40,000 to guard the scrap pile. This was set up to be done with part time workers and the profit from the sale of the scrap paYED that bill, plus returned over $70,000 to the general fund.
In regards to the school committee meeting with the BOS and the finance committees that is a normal process that has occured in Sandwich for a very long time. Especially during the budget part of the year. In many cases it does not get publicized the way it should. It is a process that begins with who's fault it is and not how do we avoid any more finacial problems. Then work out a compromise between every one.
It was only recently that the Finance committee actually would allow any one to vidio film the meeting while it was happening. No more secret deals can be made and a better understanding of why we are in the mess we are in, can be seen on a daily basis if you follow these meetings.
As the adgenda's change so do the personal.
Some years it has been the schools and now it is the town problems turn, to be resolved.
Look for more money to be found to resolve our safety concerns and repair are buildings.
As long as the schools are not willing to work out the problems with the teacher contracts and resolving the finacial costs of the on going suits filed, we all will be faced with some process that none of us may like.
The town side of government have made some sacrifices on behalf of the budget, but we are all still waiting for the schools side to do the same. This is highly unlikely due to the present union led school committee. But we all can hope
boy Id like to have a comission on the pointless grandstanding at THAT meeting!!!!!!!!!!
The Truth Maker watched the meeting last night and this what I came away with.
We have two sets of bookkeeping one on the town and one on the school side. How is it possible for the numbers to not agree, as to how many new bus drivers were added to the school payroll? It would seem that the town accountant and the school business manager need to have a meeting and work out the disparities and come to a mutual agreed number.
The other obvious problem is the scam that was started by the past business manager and community school director. We have been told for years that the community school budget payed for all its employees health and welfare benifits, as is required under MGL
A number of years ago we found out that a deal had been made to defer this cost[a violation of MGL] onto the town side. A deal that was struck up by the Excutive board at that time which the present Chair of the School committee was a party of. They did finally pay the town the money they owed to get into compliance with MGl.
Now last night, once again we find out that the community school benifit and welfare program is once again being paid for through the towns side of the budget. At a tune of $200,000
Now if we couple that number with the pool cost loss along with the early morning loss we now have aprox $400,000 of which the Community school is not making from the charges being placed on the programs they are operating at the High School
Some very serious discussion needs to take place in and around this account. We can not afford to be operating this account at the cost of the taxpayers and in violation of MGL when it come to this type of loss.
It is apparent that the present union led school committee of which severel had an active role in, do not want to bring any conclusion to how they go forward in rectifing this ill advised process.
We the taxpayers have been paying this loss through our tax dollars at the detrimite of our educational process for our children and also at the expence of not having enough cash on hand to repair our buildings.
Where was the Union leadership that allowed this illegal procese from occuring in the first place?
What are we going to do about it going forward?
How do we as a town recover all the incremental illegal charges from the Community school Budget and make the system whole again?
The issue appears to be the number of Bus drivers versus the number of Bus Drivers taking benefits. Bud's issue is that any town employee working > 20 hours/week COULD request benefits. It is conceivable that some of these bus drivers may surpass the 20 hour rule and request benefits at some point in the future and the Town would be liable for that cost.
Simple solution is to restructure the budget so that the School carries all payroll & related benefits cost --- as well as any risk associated with people unexpectedly adding benefits later. That would ensure strict enforcement of the 20 hour rule -- and eliminate any further discussion of the issue.
Does the high school have a swim team and if so what part of the pool expense is attributed to them. Also what % of Sandwich residents use the pool vs out of towners
i think it was made clear that Bud was outright blaming the 100000. excess in recent insurance costs to the fact of the new bus drivers being hired and signing up and that is simply not the case... the raise in insurance cost is due to retired staff and new staff hired to partially replace them where needed. everyone needs to calm the hell down in this town and begin with some simple honesty instead of putting misleading questions of doubt fueling the fires all over the place, back off of MEJ and look around everywhere else and sharpen your friggen pencils.
The high school has both a girls and boys swim team. The girls swim in the fall season and the boys swim during the winter season. Go Blue Knights!!
To my mind it is not a question of if we need a community pool that allows us health, recreation, and educational benefits. The question is how do we pay for the upkeep. There was a breakdown of usage last year that determined what the H.S. paid out of their athletics budget for use of the pool. While some might argue we can't afford to have a pool in our schools, I disagree. Parents pay an activities fee for their children to be on the swim team like any other sport or activity plus their portion of the taxes in regards to the H.S. operational budget.
Now that we have a clearer understanding of what the pool costs, we should be able to make better choices for budgeting. It has been the impression of the public for years that the Community School pays for operation and maintenance of the pool through their revenues and not just revenues of pool activities. But Since the School Committee took a tighter hold of the reigns a few years ago and now with the evidence of the complete audit, we know things are not as they seem. Sorting through this should be practical and we need to make sure we aren't taking educational dollars to pay for the pool or any thing else. It is that simple.
Where the schools atheletics department budget is concerned, I think also we need to make sure fees being paid by parents are being distributed through a fair process of perportion. Parent's are being taxed twice and frankly nickled and dimed to death. It would be nice to fully understand the way the athletics budget breaks things down along with other activity fees that then turn around and pay stipends (small salaries) to teachers for their work outside the school day. I also wonder if it is cost effective to rent our pool to another swim team rather than use those hours to generate a different kind of income that allows us to build programs and more income.
FYI Our high school swim teams only use the pool for 11% of the time. What a corrupt mess this has been for twenty years. No wonder Sherry and a few others protecting the Comm School were psychotic about the dismantling of the Exec. Counsel and the cut thru b.s. motion to appoint MEJ and they didn't get the puppet super that would continue the scams with the K-12 monies. How do they all sleep at night knowing they took ed dollars to pay for their buddies swim time.
Bud Dunham Police and Fire dept. game is to put all blame on the schools, this is to deflect away from all their overtime and b.s. budget games too. Our town is a mess and there is no light at the end of the tunnel either!
The Truth Maker would like to correst a comment I made in regards to the town paying for the benifits for the Community School. A practise that was done once upon a time.
The town manager, stated that he needed the extra 200,000 just in case the Community School was unable to pay the bill through the account set up by the Community School.
The budget side of the Town pays all folks on the payroll, no matter Town or school employees.
That is, except for those accounts that are set up as revolving and they must find the money out of the money they raise to pay this bill.
Golf course,marina and Community school fall into this account for all practical reason under MGL
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