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| Don't Worry, STEM will save us ! |
I'm a STEM supporter, I'm also a Canfield supporter -- but I'm concerned that the the chant of "STEM, STEM, STEM!" has become the standard answer to every question. I am also concerned that there does not seem to be much School Committee oversight any more.
The Town suggests a 2% budget -- the Schools come in with 4.5%.
The Schools endorse opening the pool -- even though they have no idea of the operating costs.
More than $500,000 was spent on a new technology platform (iPads) which essentially commits the District to future expenditures to maintain the program -- and there is no committee discussion. (Again, not a bad idea -- but it needed some discussion and tyhought)
The Superintendent was discussing Overrides with the Selectmen, before the School Committee.
I think its amusing that some of the same people that used to claim prior School Committees were rubber-stamping Superintendent's proposals, and used to make long. dramatic, nonsensical financial pronouncements now appear to be comatose. What has happened to that rush to make a public comment -- regardless of gaining any understanding of the facts?
Once again, it appears those self-proclaimed Budget Watchdogs have turned into little leg-humpers!
35 comments:
Wondering if I heard wht I thought I did watching last night's selectmen meeting? That there is the possibility that in the not so distant future another school may be closed, Oak Ridege or Forestdale? That would be in addition to Wing.
It’s been said many times before, but how and why consolidating school buildings and reducing staff to provide services to hundreds of fewer students actually increases both one time and recurring costs is lost on me.
We’ve already spent money on buildings, personnel and technology for stem and now more is needed. In fact, not only is one-time money needed but now we need to permanently increase taxes to help fund stem.
All of this is to be done – get this – to save money. How in the name of all that is holy do you save money by permanently increasing taxes?
Wing school will never close , it may get repurposed, or stay a school only politics will determine this outcome. The history folks will take the same stand they have taken on all of our historical buildings and that is to watch them decline and fall down into such a state of disrepair that no amount of money will ever make them whole again.
I am waiting to see how the town will find another over 6oo,ooo dollars on the towns side to give to the school side of the budget, when the towns budget is 200,000 less then required now.
Where is the thinking on this process going?
Override, really????? We are paying for bad windows, a bad pool, already supposedly had the need met for STEM, but no, now more, more, more.....time for the PTA mothers to have some serious bake sales....my wallet is closed.
....but we have a boat
I hear the sprinklers went off last night at Oak Ridge. Open up your wallets.........
Are you kidding?
I think many will be against any sort of increase for Stem, other than, maybe, it coming out of the school operating budget with no override for that budget.
Great comments on this subject. The SC does rubber stamp and does not get behind the numbers. I want to know exactly where the extra one year short term money is going to go; how it will save money in the long run. If I don't see those number, you can count my family and myself (four votes) as a NO to Stem.
As obnoxious as you and Guerin were at times -- you and your group seemed to be on top of the numbers. You also raised a lot of issues that people didn't want discussed and dragged some skeletons out of the closet. That ain't happening anymore.
Thanks... I think?
You must agree that any one looking in here may be asking why , it took so long for some folks to see the real picture in regards to many shadows being diverted away from the truth.
Our present type of government leaves a great deal of doubt among the brethren of the citizens and is not just in the education side of our town , but the towns side of the town.
To many handshakes behind closed doors will come back to roost our town in the end.
We have no one in place to write grants , for both educational and economic development. We do however seem to find some who deliver a good speech on what they will do. A lot of hot air if you ask me.
If we had in place a dedicated grant writer, Sandwich may well have found a way to obtain State dollars for the repairs to our high school, like many towns in Massachusetts have done, instead of using tax payers money.
The same goes for the well touted Stem program, If this approach has legs and is supported at the State and Federal levels, why have we not heard about a grant application, asking the state or federal government for some of the cost. This approach to Stem goes beyond just being supported by local tax dollars , if it is to succeed.
Now you can call that being obnoxious, or you can call it a game of smoke and mirrors, where the full cost is borne on the backs of those who can least afford it. If the Stem Program has all the support from the educational body of our country and it has all the merits of improving our children's educational experience, then why are they not supporting it with educational dollars?
Perhaps they do and no one in Sandwich knows how to fill out a grant properly to obtain it.
Perhaps they have filled one out and do not want to make it known, until we give them all of the money at town meeting.
Just think where we all would be had the town employed a professional grant writer that can speak on both sides of our problem issues here in Sandwich.
We had a grant writer for the schools...her name was Mary Ellen Johnson, PHD
The USS Folly was aquired through grant money. Whenever that stupid boat goes anywhere, your fire stations with paramedics are empty. Free? Hardly
You would be correct, but she received a monetary benefit for doing so if she got the grant.
It is all in the details and how the contracts get written up.
From the inception of the STEM Academy up until the last few months, NO teachers were on any committees. It was all Gil Newton and parents meeting every Friday morning to generate ideas. Only recently have teachers been invited to join the STEM bandwagon. Does it not seem backwards to leave teacher involvement out until the final leg of the STEM race?
The teachers were "congratulated" by the STEM Parents Group for being "appointed" to the Academy. "Shifted" is the word that needs to be used. Teachers are being "shifted" up to STEM whether they like it or not. "Appointed" is a word used for a valued position. If teachers were valued wouldn't they have been the ones building the program and not parents?
The STEM schedule calls for 7th/8th grade students to have classes every other day resulting in 120 instructional hours per year. Currently 7th/8th grade students have 180 instructional hours in their core classes. Students are losing 60 instructional hours for core academics. Mr. Newton tells parents that there is nothing to worry about because students will be involved in Project Based Learning and that will make up for the missing instructional hours. Seriously? 60 lost hours is 60 lost hours.
Teacher workload will increase from 90 students (average) to 130 students. It doesn't matter what Mr. Newton or Dr. Canfield or Dr. Booras say -- increasing student numbers by 40 is a significant rise. Do people really think that teachers are going to be able to give the same amount of individual attention and feedback with 40 more students? Class sizes will remain fine because of the every other day schedule but this increase in the number of students teachers are responsible for seems disproportionate to the high school teachers' class loads where there are some classes running with 9 students.
High school teachers are teaching the STEM electives. Hmmmm...is STEM about what is best for students OR what is best to keep high school teachers employed?
STEM is going through regardless of funding, and cuts will be made to the elementary schools (as in no more co-curricular classes like art or music or library) and/or there will be possible cuts at the high school. Sacrifice the other students for STEM seems to be the deal. Little kindergartener you don't need to explore music or art because the STEM students need two engineering teachers, and two PE/health teachers, and their own social worker and a nurse, and two art teachers, and a technology teacher, and a director and vice principal.
If someone is not "Rah rah STEM" any words critiquing or questioning the STEM Academy are quickly SHUT DOWN. Anyone who has been to meetings about STEM has seen Mr. Newton do this.
Newton's idea: Let's have a STEM Opening Day so the STEM Academy staff and students have their own back-to-school celebration a day before the rest of the district goes back. Message: STEM trumps all.
7. Sports. Ugh. It was said by Mr. Newton at the initial public meetings AND to 6th and 7th grade students that there would be a comprehensive athletics program. Anyone who attended the last meeting with the athletic director saw that they are backtracking on that promise and things seem to be a complete mess. BUT...let's get ANOTHER committee together to figure it out. Are we not paying Mr. Newton and the athletics director LOTS of money to figure this out without the public?
There is no "understanding of the facts" because administration spins the facts or just omits them. There is the saying "butter would melt in his mouth" -- well, there is more than butter that would melt in the mouths of Canfield, Booras, and Newton. Perhaps the STEM Academy students can research that in one of their Project Based Learning studies...IF they have enough time.
it looks like the teachers union is is starting to go on the warpath --- in their usual sneaky manner.
I see the prior comment as an attempt at creating hysteria with the easily-panicked k-8 parents.
Sounds like a high school english teacher isn't getting enough attention any more!
First, Marshall Law. Now, Newtons Law.
The talk around town is that the board of selectman are going to extreme measures to enable this stem program to go forward, by having more money coming from the budgets of the other town services , just so that an override will not brought forward to town meeting.
I am not part of any teachers union, but I find the present proposal to place the stem program in a better financial picture then what it is , gives me reason to be concerned about what may be happening to those services the town will be losing to change the budgets on both sides of the isle.
When one considered that no one has applied for any grant funding for any of the latest funding for the schools from tax payers money, it makes you wonder how some folks are not getting laid off, like in a normal chain of events would occur when you over spend your budget when you are losing business[children] to other sources and the staff remains the same. If the stem program is implemented on the backs of the town side budget this year, next year we the taxpayers will be paying for it to keep it going, once they bring in higher paid positions to operate it. The only money being saved is already accounted for in the following years budget to operate the district.
At anon 4:44 -- Parents SHOULD be panicked. I don't know whether to be flattered you think I am a high school English teacher or that you think I am a sneaky member of the teachers' union. My bottom line, FYI, is the kids -- WHAT IS BEST FOR THE STUDENTS OF SANDWICH?
It's for the children .......
Quick, grab your wallets!!
I'm not sure what she was complaining about .....Gil Newton has been a great teacher for years.. Both at SHS and CCCC. We're lucky to have him running the program. And Maureen Wiklund has been very involved --- she has always put the kids' interests first (ahead of the union and political nonsense). We couldn't ask for better teachers in the program.
Sounds like somebody has ulterior motives? Are they maybe filling positions by qualifications instead of seniority? That would certainly generate some protests!
Ahh...the Maureen Wicklund card. Now THAT makes everything valid. Wonder what she thinks of the cut in English time. Don't 6th graders have 2.5 hours a day of English for a total of 12.5 hours a week? And what will 7th/8th have at the STEM Academy? On weeks they have English M-W-F they will top off at a hefty 4 hours of instruction. On T-TH weeks...2.7 hours. Yikes! Parents SHOULD be alarmed. Currently 7th/8th graders have 5 hours a week. Once again, to review, they will be losing 60 instructional hours in the current configuration for the STEM Academy.
Mr. Newton is no doubt a stellar teacher but why are we only hearing from him? Why is "Newton's News" only information he is providing. Why aren't the teachers writing news about what they will be doing? Oh wait. That's right. They haven't been involved until recently. Maybe the next issue will have a "guest" column by one of the amazing STEM Academy teachers.
The way the group of teachers were talking (overheard one morning in a local restaurant), STEM seems to be a "curse" upon a teaching career. Cue broken record here...could it be because the STEM staff will be tasked with the expectation of delivering a curriculum in 60 less hours with 40 more students? How can ANYONE see that as a good thing? Ulterior motive or not.
"Overheard in local restaurant" ? Yeah, sure!
Sounds like the union has their back up but doesn't want to be seen publicly as being against change!
I predict that very soon we will hear that STEM will be short-changing the "Gifted & Talented" students. Once that group starts yipping, the next round of "overheard rumors" will involve reductions in Special Education.
Finally -- The Big Gun will be used -- "STEM will negatively impact the Athletics Program!" That should get another group yipping!
Pull up a chair, friends! The fun is just beginning!
Interesting concerns on the number of hours involved in certain subjects. I wish somebody was concerned about the number of hours wasted watching foolish Disney movies, playing board games, having classroom parties, discussing fundraisers for outside charities, selling junk for the PTA, waiting while teachers talk to their colleagues -- or on their cellphone.
Maybe somebody could squeeze a little learning time in around the huge number of "in service/late start/early dismissal" training days which just happen to come around long weekends, holidays & vacations? (Most people need to keep their professional certifications up on my own time.)
Anybody want to push that can of worms?
Annoyed Parent, I couldn't agree more. The amount of facebook posting during school hours by certain teachers could equal a whole class period. Not to mention the never ending " respect assemblies". When I was a kid, you were respectful or you missed recess, went to the principal, etc. , now they dedicate assembly after assembly to it.
My child had the former Union Leader. She was out of class, more than she was in class...she had very important work that didn't seem to include classroom "hours".
To 345 that news was well known by many in and outside of the school district.
She spent a great deal of time working her agenda in getting rid of the previous Super along with those that made the unwise decision to fire her, Now look at who is crying.
It is and was a wonder that the members did not remove her from the position, sooner , before they wound up with so much damage to themselves in the name of the children
An override will spend money so that the school can spend more money. I wish I had thought of that !!!! To bad STEM is unfunded
With all due respect to Dr. Canfield, what magical powers does this man have that has mesmerized the entire BOS and SC into unquestionable, and breakable support?
We still HAVE a School Committee?
You are now entering $13.72 per thousand property taxation
Did anyone read the police logs? Police called to Wing because 2 staff members are harassing each other? What is going on in the school system?
The latest is money has been found for the Stem programs and no override. We will all need to watch this one as it plays out. I am sure that this should be a very interesting process to follow as we get close to town meeting.
As a side note it is recorded in the minutes of the SEIC that a group is asking to rent out the new high school fields that our tax dollars are involved with, so that some competitive type of use
can be accomplished. Watch out for this one as it is led by the same person who promised that Sandwich would never use any tax money to found any project they do. We all know where that one went. I wonder who will obtain the financial benefit of this proposal. My question is once the field for the high school is complete at some expenses from our tax dollars, for the Sandwich athletes to use. How is it that some can now make a profit on renting it to other outside users if that is the case.
Where is the logic in that thinking?
Damn. No override to vote down. Bud Dunham is ruining all our fun. Got to save those overrides for our Public Safety warrior. They deserve their turn....just sayin...
So, according to today’s paper, as if by magic, now the Town can afford STEM without an override. It’s amazing just how much money floats around in these budgets.
Every time Bud and others say that they operate this town on a shoe string I laugh. Budgeting in this town is a joke and a sham. Oversight, by FinCom and the Selectmen is non-existent.
And, now the Super has announced that his “savings” won’t actually reduce the school budget. Instead, the “savings” will simply slow the rate of growth of the budget.
I can’t wait to tell my wife that I’ve “saved” $1,000,000 in next year’s family budget. Instead of spending my paycheck plus an imagined $1,000,000 bonus, I will just spend my paycheck.
Hooray, per Dr. Canfield’s math magic, I’ve just saved $1,000,000.
I say again: Budgeting in this town is a joke and a sham. Oversight, by FinCom and the Selectmen is non-existent.
To Truth Maker: I'd actually like to know more about this renting of fields to other (non-town) competitive events. If we build it, they will come. How can collecting rental fees be a bad thing? The Sandwich athletes are out of there at the end of June. If we can collect some revenue to pay back the tax dollars spent, that seems like a good thing. It would be nice to see some activities going on there during July and August. It could also bring revenue to restaurants, motels, and general commerce. I could be reading your statement wrong, and I haven't read the minutes of the SEIC meeting. What am I missing?
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