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It has been pointed out several times that the Sandwich Community School has been losing money and draining resources from the School Department for years.. Instead of working to resolve the issue, too many elected officials chose to yield to popular pressure and continue to sell the fable by diverting attention from the basic problems plaguing the program -- and driving out anybody who would question the situation. Their inaction may result in the complete elimination of not only the Community School program --- but also any public confidence in the credibility of local government.
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Last night’s Finance Committee
meeting was it for me. I have officially given up all hope, trust and
faith in local government and all elected and appointed persons.
Folks watching the Fin Com meeting
last night on local cable TV were treated to the following:
1. Evidently, by their reactions, Fin Com Committee members
want taxpayers to believe that they were caught totally unaware that the
Community School is a financial disaster and that they were unaware that both
the Schools and Town have been surreptitiously funneling hundreds of thousands
of dollars into the Community School operating budget for years.
2. The sole Finance Committee member who actually tried to get
to the facts (Bill Diedering) was effectively cut off and muzzled by the
Committee Chair. Lord knows, nobody wants to make anybody feel too bad or
actually be held responsible for what’s gone on.
3. After acknowledging that the Community School currently has
more than $135,000 in unpaid debts (including IOUs to the Town and Schools) the
Budget Director said of the Community School that: “their budget was currently
showing a profit.” How’s that? Except for a massive unpaid debt
we’re profitable? This is our school’s Budget Director? Think
anyone questioned that amazingly ridiculous statement? Of course not!
So, after years and years of
out-of-balance Community School budgets, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
dollars in unreported School budget and Town budget transfers to prop up the
Community School, and multiple written audit reports highlighting the long-term
and chronic financial problems at the Community School:
·
NOBODY on the Finance Committee
asked for a full accounting of the debt.
·
NOBODY asked when, if ever, the
Community School actually covered all of its expenses.
·
NOBODY asked why this mess has never
been publically acknowledged and documented by the Schools or the Town Manager,
and
·
NOBODY was brave enough to suggest
that it is well past time to pull the plug on this already dead patient.
I really do give up!
Don’t ask me to care and don’t ever
ask me to consider supporting a tax override for anything. My answer will
be: NO, because I just don’t care.
And, I don’t care because it’s so
very obvious to me that NOBODY in local government including our elected and appointed
persons cares either.
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For some background on this issue click here to see Community School Q&A (Kissing The Third Rail - Pt I) which appeared in this space in July of 2010.
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For some background on this issue click here to see Community School Q&A (Kissing The Third Rail - Pt I) which appeared in this space in July of 2010.
40 comments:
If anybody wants to question how long this problem has gone on, ask for a copy of the 2009 Community School Audit Report. That was the ONLY real audit that has ever been done of the Community School Program -- it showed a loss of $180,000 and outlined numerous management issues.
There were early reports from the Town's auditors that pointed out management issues with the program and all of them were ignored.
Anybody who has pushed for Community School reform was either fired (see Johnson vs. Sandwich), or left public service in disgust at the misinformation spread by so many Community School supporters -- many of whom probably believed what they were saying.
The Truth Maker would add that the community school issues date back long before 2009. [Now smile]
Dr Johnson was the only one to stand up against this long entrenched book keeping scheme and you all know what happened in that case.
The continued entrenched scheme is still alive and well, thanks to our elected officials and politically connected gtoups. that have looked the other way, because of more pressing issues, from the towns side of things.That is unfortuned for every one.
Let's be clear ...
This problem is a direct result of people not having the testicular fortitude to make unpopular decisions.
Like the parents of spoiled children .... occasionally somebody has to hear the words "no" or "stop".
As has been pointed out -- everybody who spoke out loudly on this issue was fired, not re-elected, or got fed-up and walked away.
There was nothing complicated in this situation -- it was clearly wrong. The only issue was who was willing to stand up to Marshall-Crossman-Kangas, the old folks in the swimming pool, and the local jocks.
Anybody who tries to pass the buck on this issue is only kidding themselves -- and is deserving of public ridicule.
I hope some qualified folks come forward at the next election.
And why was it so easy for Bud to find a spare $100,000 to prop up the Community School?
I thought this guy ran the Town on gum, a paper clip and a shoestring?
Apparently, Bud does have a secret slush fund and it’s got more than a few bucks in it.
My test for whether government has failed us is simple. I ask myself: would I or anyone else spend their own, hard earned money this way?
Nobody would spend their own money or run a business the way the Town has operated the Community School. This is a fact.
Guerin is right – what else could you conclude but that taxpayers have been and are being abused and that no one on any board or committee believes that they are accountable and responsible.
Let's play a game - everytime you read 'cost expected to be about $500,000' in this week's Enterprise, take a drink. Oops - the entire town is now drunk!
And can someone explain to me how there is not any talk about going after the company that never installed the fastners to secure the cement sills at the high school in the first place?
The Truth Maker would add that another $300,000 for the library fix. It appears that the a few items were not included in the $500,000 that was approved at town meeting.
Where have we heard this one before[ Oh the town hall project]. Where are the selectmen on these projects. Put out an estimate and then get the funding and come back again for a second bite, what a way to operate a town.
One thing for sure we should be going after the contractor on the school for not installing the sills properly. Why should the town be the one to foot the bill for shody work. Where was the building Inspector when this was being done?
And wouldn't it be nice if the town tried getting bids from contractors outside of the inside circle? It might be amazing to see the real numbers!
5:08, there HAS been talk of going after the company... at least at Selectmens meetings, not sure where you're looking for it. But the statute of limitations has passed, and the company is out of business.
The Truth Maker watched the Finance meeting and an reasonable answer was given.
On the other hand the $100,000 dollar gift to the community school will be coming from the Sandwich School District.
How does tax payers dollers for our school children get into a revolving account, where the money they make can only be used in that line item.
Why are $100,000 in school appropriations allowed to be given to a business that is not showing a profit and is this in violation of MGL?
What happened that now makes this a legal transfer of money.
Something is not right and no one is questioning this transfer of tax dollars to the community school?
The Truth maker would add the town of Sandwich has been sticking its head in the sand so long now , we will not need to lift it up to breath any more. The recent storm has done its damage, thanks to the neglect and disrespect by those using it. We have no more sand to hide in
Yes, everyone has their heads in the sand in now the sands gone. Well written.
Several years ago town government (the Manager and Selectmen and others) suggested that the Town’s capital planning had failed to properly plan for and fund on-going repairs to the tune of many millions of dollars. Sure enough, no one was actually held accountable for the past planning mistakes. Heads back in the sand.
Town leaders (as always) suggested that a one-time massive override was the solution and Town Meeting said “no”. So, do you think anyone in a town leadership position followed up on the obvious capital need and significantly re-budgeted and re-prioritized budget moneys for capital repair? Of course they didn’t! Heads back in the sand.
Has anyone ever been held accountable and responsible for any of the nonsense (poor planning, lack of planning, poor execution, poor oversight, etc.) that routinely goes on with this Town’s government’s management function? (That’s a rhetorical question).
Planning today amounts to little more than wishing and hoping that taxpayers decide that now is the perfect time for a massive tax increase or that the State or Feds send millions in financial aid and disaster relief. It’s ironic that the number one objective of the aid requests would be sand replenishment – I guess everyone needs somewhere new to stick their heads for the next twenty or so years.
Let’s be clear, the Sandwich school system is screwed. Enrollment is way down, teachers salaries continue to rise, performance lacking and the only thing the SC can agree is the date and time they have their meetings. Taxpayers need to revolt. We need a new direction, massive layoffs and close a school.
Maybe, but doubtful, enough people will go to town meeting and vote down the school budget.
And then there's the pool.
12:52... not sure what you're talking about. Enrollment is down, yes, but not "way down" compared to the population trends region-wide. And because of the decline, 7&8 are being consolidated with the high school. I'd say that's a "new direction." SC hasn't bickered in years... maybe that's part of the problem - no naysayers on that board! And lastly, maybe you haven't been listening, but Wing's moldy days are numbered, so there's your closed school.
7:39... you want to see Sandwich go down the toilet as a place to live? Go ahead and vote down the school budget and see what happens.
11:00
Your silence on increased salaries is deafening....
The Truth Maker would ask
how many doctors are we employing in our schools now?
The advent of the recent break in the pool that allowed water to vanish, must make every one realize that the fat lady has sung for this project to continue.
What is next to fail with this ever increasing burdan?
It is a sad time here in Sandwich for sure
This is the new world we live in. Pay more, get less. The kids are STUPID!! They can't interpret what they read, the are inarticulate. The cannot spell articulate!! And the test scores only prove that the bar has been lowered so many times, it could be a party game! Is that the plan? Send kids out into the world dumb and entitled? Is that the plan here? PAY MORE - GET LESS, it's just so typical these days. I'm in for the revolt.
According to the Cape Cod Times, which can be as reliable as mother nature, the new Mandarin teacher is only teaching 24 students. Is she getting a full-time teachers salary with all the benefits to just teach 24 students?
To 11:00 the school department budget is way bloated. It has continually gone up each year, as student after student, 25% in the last many years, have left the district. By residents saying no to there budget it will force the school department to make cuts that need to happen, instead of having amazing surplus money at the end the school year. In these tough economic times, why does this town allow a budget increase to see monies left over at the end of the year?
In both the school, the municipal, the state, and the federal budget, there is "bloat". At the local level however it does the most damage, especially when you consider the conservative culture the town has, which is understandable given the ramifications of rapid growth. "Bloat" takes on many forms. Specific attention each year to operational efficiencies is not in the culture of local government. Run away union pay and benefits is something all towns our size are struggling with. When you add how little accountability there is for all our employees, operations, etc and include that for decades public employees were trying to catch up with private, well it looks a lot like what Sandwich and like communities are trying to deal with. Every heard of the negative side of cottage industry? We do need to continue to demand accountability but in both the school and municipal side.
The Truth Maker would add that accountabilty is parmount to operating a honest government. As long as we have some whom feel that those of us who pay the taxes do not need to be accountable to for where our money is spent, we will continue to have problems with every aspect of how we operate the schools and our town.
Just look at all of the inside political calculations going on , just between most of the towns committees and you wonder why nothing ever gets done.
Can Do Better, So What? Your lecture sounds like an elected official trying to justify the complete paralysis of our local government.
This crap happens because elected officials don't have the balls to do the right thing -- they like to "get along".
Nobody asks any real questions, So, nothing changes.
People are so fed up with this local government they have just tuned it out --- except to say "no" to everything --- no police/fire palace, no library, no override.
This crap happens also because citizens don't plug in beyond belly aching. This crap happens when the government is dysfunctional for what it needs to do. People have turned off to local government and it probably does have to do with balls.
The Truth Maker would say that many good questions get asked every day, but the problem is no one answers them.
Let us start of with the beaches and all of the questions that have never been answered.
Why was Landers , a tax payer here in Sandwich, never told about a bid process to bring sand onto our beaches./ Why did it take a private company that did not get paid to remove the storm debree from our coastal shore line, instead of the DPW
Why is it that the Natural Resource Department still allowed every one to walk all over the damage dunes, causing more erossion every time we had another
storm?
How about all of the questions concerning the Sandwich Economic Inititive Corporation,
What happened to the $50,000 we gave them?
How about submitting a unbalanced
budget to the Finance Committee.
from the board of Selectmen.Whos bright idea was that?
Look at all of the unanswered questions from the building of a new safety complex.
What about the questions in regards to the way the library wants to increase the salaries of it employees and why it now is asking for another $300,000
on top of the $500,000 we gave them to redue the heating system.
What about the questions in regards to the ill road conditions all over town.
What about the question in increasing the fees for the transfer station, after we all were told that the cost savings does not show the reason to do so
No one is listing, with this present government system and if they are, they are keeping it behind closed doors
Can we add to the list of questions why no one is fighting the Wildlife Division who will not allow citizens to plant beach grass on the dunes because they don't want to lose the nesting ground for the shore birds?
We Can Do Better /(name omitted),
You string words together like nobody I've ever heard before (which is why I know this came from you). It's too bad so few of them make any sense in the order you put them in. Not only can "we" do better, but so can you. Please say something concrete once in a while instead of babbling on, and on, and on, about "local government culture," or whatever on God's green Earth that even means.
What SPECIFIC lack of accountability are you talking about?
I removed the name from the above comment to avoid a protracted argument over (a) whether the assumed name was accurate (b) whether the target thought the sentiment was fair.
If the person had signed their post I would have had no problem running it as submitted.
In fact, I agree with the writer's sentiment entirely -- I am sick of listening to bullshit about "culture", etc.
I have to watch meetings on tape so I can fast-forward through the verbal diarrhea that passes for "discussion" of issues lately. Almost nobody takes a stand on anything anymore.
What is most sad is that for a majority of folks, myself included, we can not speak out or use or name on this blog because we will suffer "payback" from ticked-off management running the town.
Can anyone tell us why the gentlemen in charge of our Natural Resource division was allowed to take vacation during a time when homeowners need answeres and quick decisions regarding the beaches? Although I'm not on the beach I can imagine the stress these homeowners are going thru and to have the "head honcho" not available is another disservice to residents. Also he tells folks he won't return calls for 48 hours. Imagine 2 days for a return call, ridiculous. So you wonder why we can't replace beach grass,it's because of the incompetence running the Natural Resource Deptartment, and town management saying sorry no vacation right now, our beaches and homeowners are in crisis. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had management say sorry, we need you at the office and you'll have to postpone your vacation.
The Truth Maker would add that given the present course of in action by those in charge of our Natural Resources we all may well see further destruction to the barrier beach at Town Neck.
One needs to listen when this subject is brought up at the selectmens meetings.
They tell you that they can not plant beach grass on the FRONT part of the beach only. They can provide some means of protection along the whole back of the Barrier beach dunes if we had a plan in place to do so.
It is critical at this time to affectively stabilize the whole back part of this barrier dune structure, Renourishment,plantings and placement of a snow fence to keep it from being damaged further.
We can not change the front conditions, but we can assist the back of these dunes to prevent further erossion problems.
Money can be used from the Community Preservation Fund and it should be. If the Trustees of the Sandwich Beaches put together an application to do so.
If this money can be used to pay for more studies, which has not brought this town one concrete able fix so far. Why not use the remaining money granted by town meeting to actually start a restoration process on the parts of Dunes we can stabilize now ?
That is why last week we asked that the Board of Selectman to put in place an emergency plan to do what has been described above. Lets not wait until the tourists show up and tell every one , we still are attempting to decide when to get of the pot and do something, We have the time now, we have the money now, We just need someone from the Board of Selectmen to direct the Town Administrator to have our Natural Resource department engage the process today.
As to protecting the Plovers or not on the beach itself. One must understand that is part and parcal to the whole problem as to why the town is in the state they are now.
We failed to protect the birds that are protected under the Endangered species act and our natural resource department failed in working with the federal and state in applying this act on the beach front itself for so many years that it has alienated one of the strongest lobbies in Washington. Please do not blame the birds for our problems with beach erossion, that have been caused by humans. That approach will only further bring this situation to levels we do not want to see. That is why we are in the mess we are in now.
Our Town Manager boasted to me at a party once that the Town’s largest employer was the town. He was quite proud of this fact. In effect, we’re a community where every third somebody is on the government dole.
This town has long been the employer of choice for a certain group of folks, who were born here, raised here, went to work here and will die here. So, did their parents and so will their kids. Our payrolls are full of parents, kids, siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles. I am pretty sure that sisters Nepi and Tisim still run our human resource department.
There isn’t anything wrong with this model except that it means no new blood, no new ideas and no alternative perspectives ever reach government and our town offices. It’s a model built on good enough always being good enough. Don’t ever expect more than just good enough and you’ll be completely satisfied with what you get. This is the secret to success and happiness in our quaint village. Settle folks - It’s the Sandwich way.
The Truth Master would also add , why do you think that a Natural Resource officer , that sits as a PAID member of the Community Preservation Committee has not put forth any proposals to stabilize the barrier beaches. ?
On a different topic (education): I am wondering something about this STEM academy and if they plan on introducing and using the Common Core curriculum. This Common Core is seeking out nationalization of education system, using biometrics, and lots of big fancy ways to teach simple problems. It's invasive and it appears in some cases actually changes history. (i.e. I've read in they call the 9/11 highjackers "freedom fighters"). I would start to ask questions if Common Core is to be implemented in Sandwich Schools before we get all gung-ho about the facade. Here's more info. It's just one page of many that try to explain this strange new world heading straight toward your kids. Everyone should educate theselves a little bit about Common Core, the good and the bad, before we just sign onto this. http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/13412-whos-behind-the-common-core-curriculum
Uh-oh ..... Time to get your tinfoil hats on !
The Truth Maker would respond to writer in Sandwich Enterprise Mrs Koenig in regards to the discussion of the new safety building on Mr. Hunt blog.
Apparently she does not know how a blog functions as she indicates a number of people have posted [69] that in fact the posts in many cases are by only several people. Had she bothered to read all of the posts it would have become even more clear that many of the posts had nothing to do with the safety building, but more to do with beach erossion. One anonymous post does not mean that each one is an different individual, even though many are by sitting selectmen and are afraid to put up there own name.
Amen to "Its all ok"! Let's keep our fingers crossed that the one person hired outside of the Sandwich norm (Dr. Canfield) will keep it up and hire someone new for the principal position at Wing. Wouldn't it be nice to have a new perspective for the first time in 20 years?!?
TM, you know Judy's motto --- "never let any facts get in the way of the story".
The only thing more pathetic than her column is that the editor thinks they are worth printing !
At 3:45: Tin Foil Hat? I think I know what you are getting at. Ha Ha, very funny. We don't even KNOW if Common Core is the curriculum. I was just asking if anyone knew. Parents should know if this is the plan or not so they can do the research. If nationalized education geared toward social justice is the way they want to go, then fine. But they should have the chance to research it first. And if people think then the federal government running the schools and keeping track of the kids is okay, then fine, the feds really are great at running everything (sarcasm). Just say "bye bye" to your little angels in the morning knowing the schools will take better care of them than you, the parent, will. Using Common Core is just a question that needs to asked and answered.
I looked it up, and Yes.. the STEM Academy does seem to be implementing Common Core standards. Do the research and read the good and the bad. Just know you are getting into a nationalized managed education system.
The Truth Maker would ask how long does the community school continue to have the Public school pay the bills for them?
Now it seems that the reasons are on some one else, At least that is what is stated in todays paper.
If the community school is unable to meets its payroll, than something needs to be done.
Perhaps all the money that has been put aside for the stem program will have to be tapped into, that will be an interesting decision, for sure.
The town is coming apart at its seems right now and where are the managers in stabilizing all of the finanacial woes for the 2014 budget year?
Wow, just read "it's all OK"...very profound. Had a conversation today with someone on this very subject. Also on how many 6 figures salaries we have in town, many of which are due to overtime.
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