It appears that certain School Committee members spent far more time working on their hair color this summer than they did reading Mass General Law!
First, Kangas questioned whether or not the School District should return the funds received from Facilities Rentals to the Community School Program. She apparently thinks its a good idea that the buildings are maintained using educational tax dollars, but that any rental revenue derived from the use of the buildings be diverted to subsidize Community School operations. Under that same philosophy, maybe I should put an ad on Craig's List to rent out her house!
Then, the Pool Task Force presented their recommendations -- except they had no documents, no budget, no drawings, in fact, no written document of any kind -- AND they claimed they had already authorized school funds to be expended for modifications to the pool area. There are two giant red flags on this play:
1) Regardless of whatever charge the Task Force thinks they may have had -- the purpose of a task force is to make a recommendation which would be acted upon by the entire committee. Two Committee members on a Task Force are certainly not authorized to spend money -- or make policy by themselves.
2) How can they justify spending School District funds to make modifications to the pool for the benefit of the Community School? Pool costs should be paid with pool revenue -- NOT educational tax dollars!
Cahill & Killion should be congratulated for sticking to their guns and standing up against this nonsense. It's unfortunate that they were the only ones.
Following the initial presentation of the Community School Business Plan, it appears that Dr. Canfield can recognize the skunk at a lawn party when he recommended forming a group of three Trustees to review the Community School and propose strategies to preserve many of the Program's valuable offerings. I would hope that these Trustees have some independence and some management experience -- not just the usual group of chlorine-soaked folks with too much free time. Independence should be a huge qualification for this group. They need to be willing to make unpopular recommendations.
I would hope that the first recommendation that comes back is that each program must cover its own costs and an appropriate share of the administrative overhead. There is no reason that the parents paying for pre-school, or Drivers Ed should pay for their own program AND contribute to the costs of operating the pool. If the pool can't cover ALL of its related costs, it needs to be drained -- or receive separate funding from Town Meeting. Sandwich taxpayers should not be obligated to use education dollars to subsidize swim memberships for anyone -- let alone the residents of Barnstable, Mashpee, Falmouth, etc.....
4 comments:
Amen Bob!
Welcome Back!
I'm certainly not surprised at the Three Stooges' votes, but I was surprise at the new members going along with it. I expected more thought from them. How could the Committee approve a proposal that wasn't written and didnt even have a decent budget?
Cahill should have ruled the motion out of order until they presented an actual proposal for review and approval. The changing curtains on the deck sound silly --- I cant see many people using them.
I have no answers just questions:
1. According to the Community School managers and the Community School auditor, and the new superintendent, the Community School has LOST money for at least 3 years runnning. Lost money.
2. According to the new Superintendent and the Town's Auditors and MA state law, spending school dollars on Community School programs and project support is ILLEGAL.
How is the Community School "Lets build cabanas" plan to be paid for? Reread 1 and 2 above before answering.
What town budget is being used to cover the deficit spendng of the Community School? Re read #1 again -- money from some account HAS TO be being used to cover the accounting short falls. The Community School has LOST money for 3 straight years.
Is the accouting treatment being used to cover these ongoing operational losses apprpriate? Is it Legal? Shouldnt Town Meeting or the Finance Commitee or both know how this book keeping gimmericary works? Shouldnt Town Meeting be asked to authorize the financial support obviosly being provided?
Well said Bob Guerin. For years SC members, yourself included have tried to make the public aware that education dollars are at stake because of the Community School. Clear discrepancies with state guidelines showed up after a complete audit. But traditions and a culture of governmental dysfunction just wouldn't wake up enough people to actually do anything about it. And of course the School District has autonomy on so many levels. A solution has to come from the district and the school committee.
The Community School started out directly under the municipal side to begin with, but they don't want it back. Time and again anecdotal dialog masqueraded as discussion about this subject. For an entire year the SC was reduced to non-action on this subject because of bias by some of it's members. Citizens from our town and other towns, came in front of the SC to tell their tale of betrayal after feeling programs like the adult swim were being threatened. All the while nothing changed. The problem that was glaring just got kicked down the road.
I for one was very happy indeed to hear Dr. Canfield's decisive and rational suggestion. Let us hope we can come to data driven conclusions that will be of help to the challenged budget scenarios ahead and in keeping with legal mandates. A community school is a wonderful thing, but it has to be appropriately run and it simply can't be subsidized by educational dollars. The town does not get dollars from the state per community school student or participant.
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