Well, here we are folks. Its budget time and per usual, the school board, selectmen and finance committee are meeting in panicked filled, last minute, special meetings as once again somehow, somebody has put us all smack dab in the middle of a financial pickle. Every town department needs money, buildings are literally falling down and there is very little dough left in the cookie jar.
Maybe somebody should have not rushed and spent money on I-pads before responsible someone’s could have had an informed discussion of spending priorities? Maybe.
Maybe somebody should have not rushed and spent money on Community School pool bills and maintenance before responsible someone’s could have had an informed discussion of spending priorities? Maybe.
Maybe somebody should have not rushed and spent money on Community School health insurance payments before responsible someone’s could have had an informed discussion of spending priorities? Maybe.
The three (3) spending decisions mentioned above represent about $500,000 of un-budgeted, un-planned for, non-prioritized spending. It’s likely that a lot more than that has been spent during the year that also was not budgeted and not prioritized against other competing needs.
Our town’s financial troubles are the result of a lack of leadership, a lack of effective financial controls, poor day-to-day management and the total failure of our Boards and Committees to affect real, meaningful financial oversight and discipline. Some things never change.
The tri-boards should have discussed how hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on un-budgeted projects and needs without a thought to how other competing, and compelling, and prioritized projects would be paid for. But, they didn’t.
Once again, nobody’s held responsible or accountable. Evidently, these things just happen; it’s nobody’s fault; just bad luck.
What’s wrong with our Town’s finance and budget oversight and management system will never be fixed because no one is willing to suggest that something is actually broken; with the one exception being our Town and its taxpayers. For sure we’re broke!
6 comments:
The highlight of last nights meeting was the FinCom Chair inviting motions to adjourn while Kangaroo was still delivering her very "dramatic" (and pointless -- since the vote had already happened) monologue.
The School Committee played dead last night. Some members did not even appear to be there (maybe they were off-camera?). Kangas was ridiculous - absolutely obnoxious. Crossman's biggest concern seemed to be the school wouldn't look pretty next year when the Accreditation team arrived. Killion tried to pull it together but was just out-gunned at every turn.
So with all the talk about the students leaving the district and their money going with them, here's what it will take to get my kids back into Sandwich Public Schools. 1. Get back to the basics, teach the kids to read, write, do math. 2. Stop pandering to the delinquents and their parents, in other words, don't put up with disrupters. 3. Run our schools as the town sees fit. That means get the state and federal government out of the schools. That will mean uprooting the financial ties, which leads me to No. 4. Get the unions out! Bring in teachers who want to teach without the demands, extortion, excessive packages, and "coast along" mentality. With the increasing amount of Federal input and standards (Common Core), there's no way in hell I'll put my kids back into this public school haven of mediocrity and sell my kids short of the thrill and necessary skills of learning self-achievement. It will take a lot of courage to cut the federal and state ties, but the benefits are staring back at us with wide-eyes and wonderment about why we didn't at least try.
nice thoughts. but here's reality --
theres no way anybody is going to pass up the state federal funds
there's no way to get rid of the union
what does "Run our schools as the town sees fit" even mean? do we want the same idiots who originally screwed up the system (or allowed it to be screwed up) to keep running it -- only without state/federal funding and without any sort of standardized curriculum?
Are you bringing in seven more men from Saugus to start over?
your comments would make great sense ..... but only if we were out drinking -- and closing time was rapidly approaching.
look at this years candidates , 3 people for two seats --- Do you want them re-shaping the school system into your version of utopia?
i wouldn't hire any of the three for anything more complicated than a deli counter.
Ya, I guess my thoughts were a little dreamy. All I think about is when I went to school. There were standards set and abided by. I learned a lot more than I thought I did, and I don't see why we can't just raise the bar instead of lowering it. I don't think STEM is going to be as great as everyone thinks because it's just the same with a different name, and actually a little stranger. I've been reading about it from different sources and am not really impressed with the ties it has.
I had been watching the replay of the Tri Board meeting and was irritated by it all. Your points are duly noted. I just wish we could stop all this crap and just teach the kids. Sometimes simple methods are the best and with all that funding comes all kinds of strings attached. And those unions, Uuuhhg, don't get me started on the heavy weight that drags down on our suffering school system. Thanks for bringing me back to the real world.
"Sandwich Charter Public High School"... Has a nice ring to it.
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