SC Agenda

Yup.  You guessed it .... copier contracts tonight.

Again.

Thank God we were able to elect 7 adults to supervise several professional staff people to pick out JUST THE RIGHT copy machines !  How do other Towns function without an elected Copier Committee ?

(Not a bad way to pass the time between lawsuits -- and certainly more fun than resolving contracts or figuring where to cut $3 million from the Budget!)

Is it hard to type with your head up your ...?

"Sorry about the rug.  I missed the Emptyprize..."

Given the option of purchasing the Emptyprize for use in housebreaking the puppy, my personal preference would be to replace the family room carpet.  But, sometimes more reasonable personalities prevail at our house ....

Last week's Emptyprize editorial was definitely a pile of puppy, ah ...., stuff.

I'm  not going to belabor the obvious -- yes, I voted for the Supt.  Yes, I renewed the Supt.  Yes, I think the Editor has his head up his  ...

I just haven't had the time to respond to last week's inane editorial.  But, I did receive the following comment from someone that I think would make a fine post all by its self:

Who’s putting Jaegermeister in the Kool-Aid at the Emptyprise?

The Community School Audit Part IV (The CCT Almost Gets It Right...)

The CCT finally mentioned last summer's audit of the Community School this morning.

Here's a few clarifications:

Yes -- The pool did pay utility costs last year.  But, only after kicking and screaming and fighting with the prior school committee.  OK, slight exaggeration -- but the only reason ANYTHING was paid last year was because last year's committee fought for it.  What about the 15 years before that?  Did the Community School not know they weren't paying the bill?

Yes -- The Community School did contribute some "in kind" services to  the School District -- BUT those "donations" were far less than the District's cost of funding Community School-related expenses and FAR LESS than the revenue from the rental of School facilities that the Community School was receiving!

Another great quote:  "A lot of things have been rectified since '09," she said. "We're definitely taking (the audit) seriously, but we have to wait for the final letter."    This raises two points:

1)  Yes, changes were made last year --  particularly the disbanding of the old Executive Council but Sherry and the Community School crowd fought against those changes tooth and nail.

2)  There is no "final letter".  The auditor delivered the Committee a draft report for them to respond to -- their responses will be incorporated into the Final report.  There can be no Final Report UNTIL they respond.

This can of worms needs to be cleaned out.  The programs need to be run with a very simple mantra -- no program unless it can be fully paid for by its participants.  The Sandwich taxpayers should not be expected to allow their K-12 education dollars to be diverted to outside activities.

The Emptyprise lives up to its name ...

This Just in .... Stop & Shop has moved the Craisins from Aisle 3 to Aisle 5.
  Grief Counselors have been brought in to assist shoppers ...

It's been a big news week.  A popular local Businessman and former Selectman was elected State Rep, and what some considered a badly needed investment in local infrastructure went down in flames -- along with a  local congressional candidate and a local state senate candidate.

But, that was nothing .... those small-potato stories were relegated to the bottom of the Emptyprise's front page this week.  Above the fold was reserved for the big stories .... Superintendent suing School District and the story with true Pulitzer potential, "Supermarket's Remodel Causing Some Confusion Among Shoppers"!

Holy Catfish!  Stop the presses!  I can see Les Nesman rushing over in the WKRP mobile news unit now to cover this crisis.  I was panicing when I rushed to Page 3 and couldn't find the promised continuation of the story.  Fortunately, it was just another typo -- the thrilling conclusion actually re-appeared on Page 7. 

With all the time and effort putting into covering these crucial news events that effect us all so  deeply (They moved the damn potatoes --- can you imagine the inconvenience!!), I could see why they just wouldn't have the resources to cover less-important stories.

That must be why the Emptyprise has still not reported on the fact that an independent audit has criticized the operation of the Sandwich Community School and supported the concerns of  former school committee members.  Ironically, they seemed to have plenty of resources available last year to criticize those who worked to make changes in the Community School to bring it into compliance with the law.

Funny how that works.

Just to refresh somebody's memory ...

Ms. Linehan claimed last night that she did two evaluations of the Superintendent last year.  She knows this is nonsense.  There was one review done and both her and Ms. Marshall refused to make any written contribution to it, or verbally supply any specific reasons for their scores.  The review was concluded during a public televised session on April 28, when member comments were read aloud, and every member was given the opportunity to make additional comments as they felt appropriate.  Neither Marshall, nor Linehan made any additional specific comments at that time which had not been previously incorporated into the written document.

The below memo was previously appended to the minutes of the April 7, 2010 Executive Session minutes.  Copies were also previously supplied both to School Committee Counsel and the District Attorney's Office.

Addendum to 4/7/2010 Executive Session Minutes

Jessica Linehan submitted a pre-printed statement for inclusion in the minutes of the 4/7 Executive Session before she left the meeting for the evening.  This statement is intended to respond to and clarify that statement.

At the beginning of the review process, I requested that all members submit written comments to me for inclusion in the consolidated review document via email.  I noted that the use of email is not prohibited for such purposes if these comments were to be delivered solely to me for inclusion in the consolidated document and were not to be circulated to other members.  Ms. Linehan chose not to submit any written comments for the document.

This draft document was discussed in Executive Session on September 9 but was NOT completed or voted upon by the Committee because a consensus was reached that the evaluation date would change to March 31 for two reasons:

(1)   The use of a review period ending on June 30 meant that new committee members with as little as 6 weeks of experience would be evaluating the Superintendent.

(2)   The March 31 date more closely approximated the June 30 contract end date.  This would allow the contract terms to more closely correspond with actual evaluation results.

On March 17, a discussion draft of the prior incomplete evaluation document was distributed to members for review and discussion at the next meeting.  There was no discussion of the contents of the document.  This working draft had been marked up only to serve as the starting point of contract discussions.

The Chair did NOT arbitrarily inform the Committee that the evaluation date had been changed – the Committee had agreed to that previously, as had the Superintendent.

Any performance-related discussions were inextricably linked to discussions of the Superintendent’s employment contract, which is an allowed use of Executive Session.  I would also note that the employee evaluation form itself is not a public record.

A public discussion of the Superintendent’s evaluation is scheduled for 4/28, concurrent with discussion of the extension of the Superintendent’s contract.

RFS

PLEASE -- Before you say "The meeting was invalid and so was the contract, blah, blah, blah ..." -- Please click here for one more explanation. as to why you may be wrong.  

The Gloves Are off (Part II)

As expected, the CCT reported today that The Superintendent has filed a suit for breach of contract against the Town, the School Committee, and (as a nice touch!), Marshall, Linehan, Kangas & Crossman personally.

Despite the lawsuit, the Committee voted to approve a contract with the Mass. Association of School Committees (MASC) to serve as the headhunter to lure some silly bastard into joining their flea circus.  There was no discussion last night of what this contract will cost, or what the contingencies are (ie. do we pay if she stays?).  

But, what the hell it's only money!

After watching last night's meeting, one viewer commented that "it appears somebody took their Stupid Pills last night."

The Committee also decided to discuss the evaluation process they will use for the Supt -- yes, the Supt they have already fired!   Let's see if we can follow that thought process:

1)  Supt gets good evaluation last April and gets contract renewed for two years

2)  Supt gets fired in June

3)  Supt files a lawsuit

4)  Supt gets another evaluation (six months later)

What possible purpose is there in evaluating somebody who has been fired? 

Do they have that much free time?

Do they think their evaluation will in any way aid the job performance of somebody they have already fired?  

Do they think the Supt even cares what they think -- or that their completely uninformed, uneducated, opinion has any value to anyone? 

Are their egos so inflated that they think that people care what THEY think?

You can't make this stuff up.

No Surprises ...

As expected, the proposed Capital Debt Exclusion went down in flames.  I'm not saying it wasn't needed -- just saying that given the obvious mood of the electorate, it seemed pretty apparent it wasn't going to fly.

It's unfortunate that it may jeopardize state reimbursement for the school roof projects.  I would hope the School Committee would get a little more involved next time and propose the roofs as a separate article explicitly tied to the State reimbursement.  But -- the whole capital maintenance process has historically bypassed the School Department (not just this School Committee).

I have to assume that there will be an Override attempt in the Spring -- I would hope that establishing specific capital maintenance reserves would be part of that package.  Perhaps the BOS could propose  a local bylaw that REQUIRES a certain amount be reserved for Capital maintenance each year?  That may prevent future Boards from diverting maintenance funds to operations.  It will also force Boards and taxpayers to face drastic issues -- the biggest issue being that we can not spend what we do not have. 

It's a popular opinion that Jim Pierce's last minute "We have More Money Than You Think" tour of the PTA's and his BOS slideshow on SACAT did more harm than good.   Do we have money or don't we?   If the intent was to make folks more comfortable about raising their taxes now in advance of another (smaller than expected?) Spring override -- the effect was exactly the opposite.  The discussion badly eroded confidence in the original budget projection as people decided to sit back and let this mess work itself out.

It is crucial that the BOS finalize a budget projection, assign a dollar value to the school budget, and then outline what town services will  be eliminated to meet that budget.  The Schools can then determine what they will need to cut -- and the public can decide what (if anything) they want to pay for in the next Override.

Time to Hit The Reset Button

If Sandwich was a video game, I think we have almost arrived at the point where you would hit the reset button, grab a drink, and then start over.

While everyone is certainly welcome to grab a drink, there just is no such thing as a real life "Do Over".  The best anybody can hope for is that the bad things stop and something better (or at least not as bad) starts.

There aren't enough politically active people in this Town to hold a really good bake sale -- let alone a recall election, so, its unlikely we will be getting any new 'talent" on the local boards until May.  So here's a few ideas to pass the time until then:

I would propose that:

No More Community Auditions!

The School Committee met with two Headhunters on Wednesday night to discuss the search for a new Superintendent -- The Gang of Four seems pretty determined that there will be a new Superintendent next year -- apparently, even if that does mean writing the existing Supt. a Really Big Check to pay-off her previously-approved contract!! (and writing some other pretty big ones to her lawyers, the Schools', and the Town's!).

Interestingly, Cape Cod Collaborative pulled out of the running for the headhunting assignment. Many will remember that CCC has been at odds with the Sandwich Schools since Dr. Johnson pointed out that she could save over more than $1 million over a three year period by purchasing 3-4 vans and taking over some SPED transport services which drastically reduced payments to the Collaborative, but also seriously decreased costs to Sandwich taxpayers.   (This was the issue that Linehan had her knickers in a twist about -- she is still convinced that the savings are overstated because some costs must be hidden somewhere -- maybe they're being paid from the Community School account!)

In the "Isn't it a Small World Department", Peter Cannone is one of the lead consultants at CCC and a former Sandwich Superintendent.  I never met the man, but I saw him on TV addressing the Selectmen and complaining that he was being vilified by Dr. Young, the School Committee and the State's EQA Audit which said the District  lacked consistent curriculum, professional development, etc.  Sherry Marshall has also quoted Cannone for years when arguing against change, and discussing how things "used to be" .   'Nuff said?

Not that my endorsement means a damn thing -- but I was very pleased to see the Mass.  Association of School Committees as a finalist.  MASC has been an important source of information for School Committee members for years.  Jim Hardy from MASC has been working with Sandwich for almost two years re-writing the Committee's policy manual in an effort to get it into compliance with current educational regulations, labor laws, and good management practices.  

I suspect Jim has had plenty of local "input" on the current state of affairs in Sandwich and, I'm sure, some of the past personnel fiascoes.  Unlike the last amateur search committee, the MASC should be able to ascertain some appropriately qualified candidates for the Committee to chose from.  (I can not imagine choosing the highest paid employee in Town using a group of volunteers who might as well be judging "Community Auditions" with Dave Maynard!).

How much will we be budgeting for search-related expenses in the current year?  (and where will we find the money?)

It will be interesting to see how the search contract gets worded.  We still have someone sitting in the Supt. seat -- who will be on the hook for aborted search expenses in the event the current Superintendent remains the current Superintendent?

Speaking of employment expenses, what about Minkoff?  A case was filed -- has the School Committee established a reserve fund for legal costs and/or a potential settlement or damages.  That could very likely be payable during the current fiscal year?

This would be more fun to watch -- if it wasn't threatening my Kids' educations -- or my tax bill.