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Sunday, August 18, 2013
Food for thought
On August 5th, the School Committee convened to discuss the outcome of the July STM and approve the warrant for the August 22nd Joint Town Meeting. As someone who was in attendance, I wanted to provide the citizens of both towns with further information leading up to this week's important meeting. The more information that is spread, the better, especially considering many could not attend the SC meeting due to a Board Of Selectman Meeting that had already been scheduled for that night.
The most important thing for voters to understand is the difference between the two numbers presented to the Town of Templeton. At the July Special Town Meeting, the School District presented Templeton with an altered figure of $561,000 , $130,000 less than the $691,000 which had been presented at the Ballot Box. However, at the August 5th Meeting, the number which was sent to Templeton included the $691,00 figure. WHY??? Two members of the School Committee pushed forward a motion to send Templeton the $561,000 figure, stating that it made no sense (and would only alienate voters further) to give the town a lower number one month, and a higher figure the next. However, it was struck down & the members were informed that if such a thing was done, it would require re-certifying the budget & that would move the earliest possible date for a Joint Town Meeting back 45 days. It seems like there are some on the SC who want compromise, but are getting shut down.
I'd also like to repeat some information that's crucial for JTM voters; just in case somebody has missed it. At the JTM, ANY number can be passed for the school budget; it is just a simple "majority rules" vote too, no 3/5 or 2/3 majority like most important votes. However, if the number passed is anything other than the number presented by the SC, it must go back to the SC & pass with a 2/3 vote to be implemented. If compromise is being shunned, do we think it's realistic the majority will agree to a different number?
Food for thought,
A concerned citizen.
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I will re-post this again because I believe there are some places that can be cut at the school without and adverse affects.
ReplyDeleteHere is some food for thought for all of you -
Superintendent wants a Technology Sec 110% raise from $12,580 to $26,520 ? states that there are more reports? How many more? How long will they take to do? Is it one report, one line on a report, 100 reports, this needs to be quantified to be justified.
Eliminate the Middle school principle and vice principle would save $173,880.
Put High School Vice Priniciple in Middle school office and handle discipline for both.
Eliminate middle school secretary save $58,591
Renegotiate raise for teachers to NO raise and no new hires save $60,161
Renegotiate for special ed teachers BES salary NO raise and no new hires save $42,219
Same for TC NO raise and no new hires save $66,194
Same for Middle school NO raise and no new hires save $12,286
Same for SN teacher District NO raise and no new hires save $26,708
No increase on Extended school year salary saves $6,500
Aides SN PT no raise and no new hires saves $22,163
Eliminate Elementary School Guidance Counselor save $96,889
Elementary School Nurse NO raise and new hires save $40,135
All custodial salaries for all schools NO raise and new hires save $146,224
Add up all the savings and it comes to $760,040 with NO TEACHERS RELEASED, SPECIAL PROGRAMS OR SPORTS ELIMINATED.
The School Committee and Superintendent have lots of room to work on cutting extra NICE to have raises and still provide all the students with a good education. The School budget is posted for all to read and look at if you look at the Current Adj Budget vs the Superint Budget you will see that there is room for cuts and compromises that does not affect the children in any manner.
and again I will ask you, if you cut the ENTIRE office staff of the middle school, including all the leadership, who is supposed to run the school? Maybe this time you'll answer.
Deletehuff those are suggested areas to show that there are things that the school can cut.
Deleteoh ok. I thought you were suggesting all of them. Some of those, ie pay feezes, make perfect sense.
Deletehuff n puff, give me a break. Like it or not the School Committee and Ms. Miller have not even tried to work with the Selectmen at all. This will cost the school people down the road, simply because they have not given any respect to the people who pay the bills. Not a smart thing for any of them to do, but that is my opinion. The person who has written the blog Not dumb enough to fall for it, has brought forward some pretty good ideas as far as I can see. Why haven't changes like this been looked at?? I do not appreciate hanging out things the children enjoy, as a threat to eliminate, if the school department does not get their way. I have not heard of one person willing to go down that road. I can not understand why the Gansett Greatness group would be willing to go along with this, but I know I will not. There was a very good blend of people working for the Craft Fair this year. That is how it has been and will be in the future, with luck and the determination of loyal people. Gladys managed to work for the town, and with the town in many ways, and yes she did love both. I will vote no Thursday night, and she would agree, and if you are thinking oh yah! I can say that because she loved and respected the elderly in this town, as much as her kids in all the classes she taught. Bev.
Deletefirst off Bev, what the heck are you talkung about? second, I'm pretty sure the GG crew doesnt go along with any of this. They pushed for no cuts anywhere in town.
DeleteOne little detail I will add is its state Mandate to have a principle in the high school and Middle School. Even if the schools touch they are still separate entities. I guess you could cut vice principles but in doing so I think things will fall apart. Hormonal kids can be allot to handle. Keeping kids safe from bullying is very important. I know people look at the Dollar signs but can you really put a dollar amount on the life of a child? Suicide rate is rising amongst teens and I personally feel safety is very important. After all if anyone on here had a child who was or is being picked on and they felt backed against that wall wouldn't you want someone there to defuse that situation? Once every ounce of happiness is gone that child will end their life. It's a sad reality and I've seen it. This is why I've always supported the override. I don't support bad spending! But this town needs the money! I don't want the children in an unsafe enviornment and I don't want to cut police, fire, EMS services that we all may need at any given time. I still feel we are no closer to finding a solution.
DeleteHeres some more food for thought...
ReplyDeleteAfter talking to some people at the craft fair this weekend, I have a question. I was told that Supt. Miller asked the BOS at the Aug. 12 mtg., that since Mays voted upon budget is @ $30,000 per month less than the implemented 1/12 budget, where is the town going to come up with that money? If that is in fact true, then we are already @ $60,000 in debt and climbing every month.
So my question is this: Where is this money coming from & what is the town cutting to get it?
I guess we will have to cross that bridge when we get to it. Bev.
DeleteHuff n puff -
DeleteWhy are you worried about where this money will come from? The Town is not required to operate on a 1/12th budget , the school is.
Right, & the town is paying the bill. Every month the town pays the school to fund the 1/12, right? And that 1/12 was set by the state at roughly $30,000 more than what the town budgeted. How is the town getting the extra $30,000 to pay that bill every month?
DeletePlease VOTE NO on August 22, 2013
ReplyDeletePlease preserve public safety in Templeton
Can we find out who were the two school committee members are that wanted to go with the lower figure? This will be important to know at election time. On the 1/12th budget is that 1/12th of the amount that was voted at the May town meeting? The amount without the override? And why are people saying it is costing us 30,000 per month?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand,one of the reasons the school is looking for extra money is when the people of this town voted no for the request for a override, our School Committee and who ever was in the Superintendent's Chair, at the time, did not make any changes. They carried on like they had the money, taking it out of their piggy bank. Looks like they are still doing the same thing. Oh well, in my book I would call that bad management! Not my problem! I did not make these decisions, and when changes needed to be made, we all sat down and figured out what we needed to do! When do the people figure out Ms. Miller and her friends are not doing their job?? This is my opinion, Bev.
Deletethe 1/12 budget is level funding from last year. The prob is, that is still more than what we voted on. So every month, when the town pays the bill, it pays @ $30,000 more than we voted on. By December, the town will be @ $180,000 in debt, just from the 1/12 budget.
DeleteZebra, as far as the SC, I believe they all did but some realized they cant go with a lower number due to the "certification" process. If they recertify now at a different number, then the process starts all over again, throwing us even further into debt.
Delete
ReplyDeleteTomJAugust 18, 2013 at 8:26 PM
I agree with many of the points that were made. Unfortunately I can't completely agree with the "people can't afford it" argument. Before 'yall fly off the handle let me explain...If you could go back and look at *any* request for money in *any* city or town across the nation in *good* times or *bad* times, the argument is ALWAYS *we can't afford it* It's been that way since the wheel was invented. We could reduce taxes to nearly zero and there would still be some people that "can't afford it". How do we help those people? I do not have an answer. That is the conundrum. It's like trying solve world hunger on a local level. I don't know how to solve that problem.
Having said that, I might agree to an override IF I thought the money would be put to good use by the school department. By *good use* I mean not wasting money on programs that do not return value and money wasted on the latest unfunded and wasteful mandates by the DESE. You know what programs I am referring to. How about spending more on AP courses or Dual Enrollment for kids that go to college and who might be the one that cures cancer or discovers alien life. Until more towns "just say NO" there will be no changes in funding at the State and Federal levels. Unfortunately speaking like I do marks me as mean and uncaring which is NOT who I am.
Zebra - from what i've heard through the grapevine, the lower amount motion was brought forward by Mattson from Templeton & Twohey from Phillipston.
ReplyDeleteSo, help me understand...last year after the joint town/school override failed, the town cut services, reduced operations from 5 days to 4 days, reduced and froze salaries of town employees and restricted purchases in order to balance budget to reduced amount. The school instead of cutting, used money from their savings account in order to balance budget to requested amount. By doing so, the budget amount last year (with the savings money included) was used by the state to set a 1/12th budget for this year. So, already the town is on the hook for that difference that wasn't approved by the override which is @$30k over budget each month? Why wouldn't the state use the minimum contribution number instead? And if the town is paying more than the minimum contribution, then where is that money credited to if it isn't used in the formula?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have heard 18 positions were eliminated at the school. Was this during last year's budget (2013) or for this year's budget (2014)? I noticed that Ms. Miller didn't fully answer this question at the Advisory Board meeting when asked. Does anyone know the truth on this question? How many were eliminated, how many were just transferred when ET school closed, and how many were not filled due to retirement? And were salaries frozen during last year's budget (2013) and/or this year's budget (2014)?
If the school doesn't need the full $691k amount that they are asking the town for because of an unexpected higher amount given from the state for 2014 budget, what are they going to do with the extra $130k if they do not reduce the amount to $561k on TM floor?
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DeleteTempletonian, are you sure you're not a selectman? Because you sure sound like one.
ReplyDeleteThe school has been useing that account now for a couple of years to ease the burden on the town. As we are now learning, the "certified" amount is a very powerful number that the state will back up. So in order to avoid this mess earlier, the school bailed the town out since the town never wanted to fund the school.
Now it's time to pay the piper. The state level funded at last years amount, which proves it (the state) was in agreement. Only now, the school cant bail us out. The town is on the hook for the full amount. As was stated when Mrs Farrell brought up lowering the minimum contribution, that number doesnt really mean anything. It' whatever the SC certifies and the state agrees with.
So I ask again. Since we are already @ $60,000 in debt & climbing, where is that $ comeing from and what services are being cut to get it? Our BOS keeps saying vote no to protect public safety when in fact THEY have already guaranteed cuts THIS YEAR just to fund a 1/12 budget that they should have avoided by knowing the effects of a failed override and pushing for a yes vote.
Huff, I do not have thick enough skin to be a selectman. I'm grateful that there are brave citizens that do and step up to take the heat and have the guts to make tough decisions. I just watch all the meetings and try to figure out what the hell is going on in this quaint little town.
DeleteI, too, would like some answers to my questions. From what I understand, it is a HUGE no-no to use savings money to balance a budget. I don't think the school did anyone any favors doing this for the past 4 years and I certainly don't think the town did the right thing by doing the same thing for the past 8-10 years. We would not be in this pickle if this didn't occur on both sides.
I think the best thing the school committee can do is to list specifically the cuts that have been made to reduce the budget for this current school year as well as show what was cut in the past school year. It has not been made clear even though many have asked time and again. The biggest gripe is that the town cut to bare bones their budget last year and level funded this year. I think the average citizen wants to see the same efforts made by the school.
It seems that either way, the town will have to have another town meeting to cut even more from its budget regardless of a yes or no vote. I believe that it is not up to the BOS to make the cuts, its up to the citizens at town meeting to make the cuts. This is why we went line by line at the 2012 ATM to balance the budget. The Advisory Board can make suggestions and do a lot of the research to come up with said suggestions. But its up to the citizens to vote on them or amend them. I also don't think its the current BOS's fault that the $30k deficit exists. It was the vote of the citizens at the polls that did that. And, since the citizens voted no twice, the BOS has an obligation to respect that vote and try to oversee the town in the aftermath.
So, if anyone has any of the answers to the questions posed, it would be greatly appreciated.
If the school did what you claim, it is very sleazy. It's dirty politics, like they practice in Chicago or Boston. There is a mechanism for an increase in budget, and that mechanism is a proposition 2 1/2 override. An important civics lesson, one that is not taught at the party conventions which you attend, is you must accept the election results for our form of government to survive. Democracy means we have a discussion, then we vote, and we all abide by the results.
DeleteIf what you say was part of a plan, shame on the school committee.
Actually, 603 CMR 41.06: excess & Deficiency funds states in part that a regional school committee may use all or part of the certified balance in the E & D fund as a revenue source for its proposed budget. If the certified balance in E & D exceeds 5 % of the proposed budget the regional school committee shall use the amount in excess of 5% as a revenue source. The superintendent already has stated on camera that the district may be able to put into the E&D fund 100 to 150 thousand dollars from this school years budget which does not sound to me like there is a bare bones no holds barred budget in place to begin with. I also have it on good knowledge that with the increase in state aid received by the district that the number needed to meet the budget figured by the school district would be around $550,000.00 (that is a few hundred dollars short of an exact figure) I am not sure how true the statement is "that the state will back up" unless someone is a fortune teller or a deal has already been struck. My last question is how do we deal with two MGL (state laws) that say two different things, one is appropriating authority, that is town meeting vote to set town budget, selectmen nor school committee can just take X amount of money and spend it here or there, the law is that is the job of the taxpayers. The other law says the education commissioner has the power to set the school budget. Which is it and what happens if the appropriating authority (taxpayers) do not appropriate any more money, will that be the time when the taxpayers (citizens) find out that their vote does not count? Is that when they find out they do not have a democratic process but a dictatorship from Boston and if that is the case, why bother with the expense and time of a town meeting vote? Just have someone from Boston come in and tell the taxpayers this is how you will spend your money. Perhaps that is a question for our state representatives at office hours or through the newspapers.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting item is 603 CMR 41.05, regional school district budgets (4) (a) if the operating budget for a district has not been approved by July 1, the superintendent shall notify the commissioner who shall establish an interim budget......The interim monthly budget shall be 1/12 of the district's budget for the prior fiscal year or such higher amount as the commissioner may determine. Perhaps the commissioner looked at both the town and district budget and realized the town can not afford more. Why would a commissioner invoke a budget that would create more fiscal discourse & turmoil as in more shortages? Unless the education commissioner is reckless and only cares about funding schools and does not care one bit about who pays the bills including his salary. I wonder how the commissioner would answer that question.
ReplyDeleteJeff. I respect your insight and info, but just to be devils advocate for a sec., isnt it the EC's job to only worry about the schools? Kinda like the mortgage company doesnt care where or if I get the money for the car payment?
DeleteWell reality time may be just over the horizon, and I hope with all my heart, the reality hits the School Committee where it hurts them the most, the wallet. In my opinion, the people who run the show should be ashamed of themselves. When you have a business and the loan you applied for is not approved, due to poor sales, or a rough economy, you do not spend, spend spend! You act responsibly, and make changes to your business. If you spend more than you take in someone will pull the plug, eventually. I think what the School Leaders have managed to do is borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Well that is fine and dandy, so now they are up the creek with out the boat or the paddles, and want the people of this town, to to do what we told them not to do, "spend money they did not have." Because they did spent it, and behave like irresponsible children, the people of this town are going to be punished for being financially responsible, in order to get the town back on its feet. I am sorry, that does not wash with me. Their plan may have been alright if the town was not in the financial mess it is in. Guess what, we are in a financial crisis and have been for over a year. or more. This fact should not have been lost on any of the School Officials. It is not like we have kept it a secret. I have had enough of fuzzy math, vague mandates, and created positions for people who fit in. I really think some people on the school side may have more than a little explaining to do to this man who is the Commissioner. I do not think anyone should take a person like him for granted. If he or she, has a position that powerful I am sure he can see the forest through the trees. I am sure we can find a person or two to give this man a clear picture of where we are, and how we got there. Bev.
DeleteI would say this town is trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. Thus the trying to take over light and water, and lower the minumum contribution to the school. This town needs to pay more to keep its services bottom line. Not milk what little is left from all it's entities. The people need to come together pay a little more to save Templeton then let's get that mall project done so the burden will come off the tax payers.
Deletebut in the beginning, they do care or should care, if you may actually are able to afford it and notice I am not saying vote for or against, just trying to put out the mechanics of the whole process.
ReplyDeletePI - you're one of those people who's so smart you also know what kind of music everyone wants to hear.
ReplyDeleteGet this, the people have voted, you lost.
23skidoo yes you by people not seeing we will all lose in the end is where you have lost the path! This blog is one genre so I thought its time to Pandora the hell out of it! ;) If only Templeton ran like Phillipston! We might get somewhere! ;)
ReplyDeleteExcuse me Phillipston also voted down the school override a much small amount than Templeton. they are using their free cash do you think they will do that again next year?
ReplyDeletePhillipston always comes up with their share! Templeton needs to do their share! Stop with the excuses put your money where your mouth is. You want services then its time we pay for them. In a perfect world everything would be free but this is reality! Money makes the world go round. Keeps us safe, and provides education to our children.
ReplyDelete