Sandwich High in Newsweek's top 500 Schools in Nation !!

Congratulations to administration and staff of Sandwich High for being named one of Newsweek;s top 500 high schools in the nation.  SHA was one of only two schools on Cape Cod and one of 11 schools on Massachusetts which made the list.



(Click here for Newsweek article)

A Bad Flashback ....

Last night's School Committee Meeting was like a bad flashback.

I have to admit, I've been comfortable that there are 4 responsible members on the Committee that actually have the best interests of the kids at heart so I haven't bothered to watch many of the meetings lately.  I will admit I have subscribed to the popular sentiment to just ignore the remaining three stooges until the clock runs out on them.

But, as last night was the Superintendent's last meeting, I assumed the Bitches of Eastwick would make one last effort to lend the meeting the gravitas of a midget mud wrestling contest.  And, at least in that respect, they did not dissappoint.

During a presentation on changes made in the SPED program, Hands Linnehan continually interupted with her own rambling cacophony of observations/statements/questions.  This brought to mind three thoughts -- (1)  What the hell has she been doing for the past two years, since she didn't seem to even understand her questions -- let alone the Superintendent's answers.  (2) Who cares about her personal "philosophy" ?  I would take the side of experienced, certified SPED teachers, and experience, professional, licensed administrators over the opinion of someone whose sole profesional qualification seems to be working in a school library.  Finally (3) What's the point -- the Superintendent is leaving next week.  Although, if the new Superintendent needs a good library book on Special Education, I'm sure he knows who to call!

Congratulations, Kaitlin & Company !!!

Congratulations to my old colleague, Kaitlin Meiss, and all her fellow graduates in the  Sandwich High Class of 2011! 

Kaitlin set a new record by serving three years as the Student Representative to the School Committee.   While she was always a  welcome participant in Committee discussions, its unfortunate that she was never allowed to vote. 

I suspect Kaitlin is far too polite to mention some of her most "memorable" moments on the Committee.  But, the one that sticks in my own mind was watching  Kaitlin, the Student Representative, politely pointing out budget lines to an elected, but clearly confused,  "fiscal watchdog".  (You have to love local cable!)

It would be encouraging to know that all of our elected representatives were as well-prepared, intelligent, attentive and respectful as Kaitlin.   ("Kaitlin, stop calling me Mr. Simmons !!")

Good Luck to Kaitlin, and all of this year's graduates!

Charter Review ... and escape hatches ...

"EXIT .... Stage Right ..."  

It's that time again. The Board of Selectmen has requested that residents interested in reviewing the Town Charter and discussing the need for any potential revisions submit a letter of interest to Town Hall by September 1.

Under the terms of section 9.2 of The Town Charter:

At least every five (5) years, the Selectmen shall appoint a Charter Review Committee to be composed of seven (7) members for a period not longer than six (6) months, who shall submit their recommendations to the Board of Selectmen and shall file proceedings of their deliberations.

I am sure there will be many ideas discussed -- some of the proposed changes may even be realistic.  But here's one for the list:

Section 4.3.3 of the current Charter requires that School Committee vacancies be filled by a Special Election if there are more than 8 months to the next regular election.  On at least one occaision, the Town was required to incur the expense of holding a special election to fill a single vacant seat. On several other occaisions, the Committee limped along with only 6 members. 

As an alternative, most Towns in the Commonwealth follow Mass. General Law Chapter 41 (section 11) which allows the vacancy to be filled until the next scheduled election by a joint appointment of the remaining School Committee Members and the Board of Selectmen.  (Ironically, the current School Committee Procedures manual actually lists the state law as the procedure for filling mid-term vacancies -- despite the Charter contradiction.)

I hope the new Charter Review Commission will give serious consideration to adopting this change. It might encourage members with other obligations (or who may have found themselves completely unqualified for their positions) to resign.  This would save the cost of a Special Election, and help ensure the public was fully represented  by a qualified and professional committee.

Sounds like a win for everybody!

Preservation or Extortion ?

"I once delivered the newspaper here --
so I think the Town should restore it !"

The CCT did their long-expected article today on the "wisdom" of last year's Town Meeting decision to not unload the Clark-Haddad Firetrap (aka The School Adminstation Building).  Liquidation of this "asset" has been discussed for several years based on the theory that its resale value, and its tax-generating capacity,  far exceeded the cost to repair and maintain a grossly inefficient and inadequate workspace.

Approximately three years ago, the School Committee concluded that the building was unfit for its employees, or members of the public and voted to "evacuate" the property and consolidate the administrative staff in available space at the High School.  Shortly afterward, the building was turned over to the Board of Selectmen for disposal or reuse.

After the BOS concluded the building wasn't even appropriate to store files in, it was proposed to Town Meeting that the building be liquidated as surplus.

After some overly dramatic grandstanding and completely irrelevant commentary by the usual suspects -- with no concern and/or grasp of the municpal budget situation, Town Meeting decided this "dumpy little building" (as one speaker described it) should be retained..

Remember, this is a Town that has both the Police and Fire Headquarters buildings perched in a flood zone at the edge of a marsh on the far northeastern corner of Town.  This is also a Town that has municipal offices spread across at least six locations -- despite spending $3.5 million to renovate Town Hall (which actually reduced the available office space!). 

More importantly, this is a Town with approximately $25 million in unfundable deferred maintenance --- not counting the projected $25-50 million dollars needed to renovate/restore/repair the Wing School.

And we're wasting time talking about the Clark-Hadded Home for Wayward Rodents?

It's amusing that this year that, despite the usual grandstanding, the sale of the Deacon Eldred House virtually flew through Town Meeting.  One of the Selectmen is quoted in the CCT this AM that they "did it right" this time and got the Historic Commission "on board" first. 

The Deacon Eldred sale would relieve taxpayers of the burden of maintenance costs, generate some sale revenue, and (unless its purchased by a non-profit) even generate some useful tax revenue.  But, probably more pragmatically, a sale would prevent the Deacon Eldred from looking like the Clark-Haddad.

It's too bad nobody thought of that last year.

Yip, Yip, Yip ....

I've received a few cranky little emails from somebody (at least it appears to be the same person based on the consistent grammatical, spelling & punctuation errors!) bitching about unfair treatment, favoritism, etc. related to my comments on the New School Committee.

I'm not sure what some of the comments were actually referring to -- since I've been off the Committee for more than a year (something they should have known -- particularly if THEY are still on the Committee themselves!).  I always liked the expression that you can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed person -- and I think our latest correspondent may just have their tinfoil hat screwed on a little too tight.  

The reality is we have a new Committee that represents the views of a large number of taxpayers.  This was not a one-issue election.  Last year, one of the clueless claimed a "public mandate" because a small group turned out to evict those that were threatening their special interests.  This year the rest of the Town showed up to  replace a 20 year veteran with two complete newcomers by a margin of almost 2 to 1 because they wanted their school system back.  They wanted the primary objective of the District to be providing the best education possible for their kids -- not just providing lifetime employment with regular raises and irregular evaluations, or protecting the free use of taxpayer-funded facilities, to certain special interests.

The New Committee is facing some big challenges: an uncooperative (and overly dramatic) union leader, a Community School program that runs at a major deficit, a worsening municipal financial situation, serious deferred maintenance costs -- especially the Wing School situation, a new Administration, and a student population that is declining as parents divert their kids to other school systems.

None of these issues are new -- but none of them were addressed by the prior Committee.  At the risk of sounding like a cliche' --- lets stop talking about 2010 (and 1972 !!)  and START talking about 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, etc.

Sign of the Times ...



Residents of Wing Blvd. have begun organizing neighborhood home 

clean-outs in advance of the "Pay as You Throw" trash program.



It's Time .....

As has been discussed for the past two years, Pay as You Throw (PAYT) is almost here.  The required disposal bags come in a variety of sizes.  The above example is the "Local Government Size" -- it is designed to hold the entire Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, and everybody who showed up at the last Town Meeting.  (This replaces the earlier model which required two separate bags to contain the School Committee.)

There will be several smaller styles available including the "Lets Build a Boardwalk and/or Library" size:

There will also be a "WTF, Nobody ever told me about PAYT!!" style (I think I saw somebody modelling this one at the last Town Meeting):

Click here for Town's Official PAYT information.

Press Release

The Wing School Renovation Study Committee is pleased to announce its newest member:

Good luck to The Captain and all his colleagues on the Committee.

OK, Now What?

We have a new cast of characters, but we still have some long-standing basic questions to be resolved by the New School Committee.  Without even touching on the very serious personnel issues which need to be resolved, here's a few questions that spring to mind:

1)  Who's supervising the School Department if the Superintendent isn't allowed on-site?  Will the Committee discuss requiring the position of Assistant Superintendent be restored and continually staffed in the future as a matter of policy?  The Town Charter specifies that there will be an Assistant Town Manager.  (It also specifies that no elected member of the BOS is allowed to act as the Acting Town Manager!)

2)  Is anybody concerned that increases were processed by Payroll with questionable or non-existent approvals as well as non-existent or incorrect social security numbers (I would expect the School would eliminate the SS info on all forms going forward -- I am sure the Town Accountant could do without it).