Joint
School Committee and Phillipston and Templeton BOS July 31, 2013
The
meeting on Wednesday July 31st was held in the NMS Auditorium. There were two
agenda items – Choosing a date for the joint town meeting and choosing a
moderator.
After
some discussion, Rob Hubbard was selected as the moderator for the Joint Town
Meeting. A question was asked about procedure and protocol for the Joint Town
meeting. After discussion, it was decided that Town Meeting Times would be used
by the moderator to run this meeting.
The
school committee then discussed a date for the Joint Town Meeting. Both boards
of selectmen felt a cooling off period would be beneficial; as in having the
Joint Town meeting after Labor Day. The school committee had a difference of
opinion. The boards of selectmen were not allowed to vote on the date of the
joint town meeting.
The date for the Joint Town
meeting will be August 22, 2013 at 7 p.m. Location to be determined.
No
discussion took place at this meeting on the wording of the warrant article or
the amount, even though the school committee provided the
following document in its packet to the selectmen.
Proposed
Joint Town Meeting Article :
“Article 1 To see
if the Towns of Phillpston and Templeton will vote to raise and appropriate, transfer from available funds, or
otherwise provide $18,523,946 to pay
for the Narragansett Regional School District FY14 budget or take any action
relative thereto. “
The
figure of $18,523,946 is the same figure that has been certified by the school
committee. The figure of $18,523,946 would necessitate a $691,000 cut in
Templeton’s budget, because the school committee has not re-certified a new
assessment for the Town of Templeton.
Please
VOTE NO on August 22, 2013 IF Templeton’s assessment is
not re-certified at a lower figure.
My
opinions…supported by FACTS ! ! !
Julie
Farrell
In
my opinion, the school committee should direct the superintendent of schools to
freeze the budget until the budget issue is resolved. This action should
include freezing all salaries. The school district is currently operating on a
1/12th budget based on last year’s assessments. A budget freeze
would allow the school district to function until budget is resolved. This
action would allow schedules to be produced for the students…instead of waiting
for a vote on August 22, 2013.
now when you have a joint town meeting the majority rules ..so like I said before you have phillipston voters spending templeton money they have nothing to loose they already gave there share !!!!!
ReplyDeleteMike . If I understand correctly ,If it were a Yes vote at the joint town meeting then Templeton would have to find a source of money from somewhere like a override vote {Please not again }or cuts in town budget. I'm with you on this one . TELL me where in the Law books of the commonwealth does it say that a neighboring community has control of our tax dollars .And I am not talking about the department of education .
DeleteSo don't vote yes.
ReplyDeleteOr make a substitute motion in writing that is $691,000 less than $18,523,946.
ReplyDeleteThis is not good for anyone in town. The bad feelings will last for a long time, and if the school had listened to Mr. Spring, when he asked them to level fund this year, we would not be in the position we are in now. From what I understand, when the school was told no, for the override questions in years past. It also seems, they did not make any changes, in the way the departments were run. Sounds like they carried on as if they had gotten the money they asked for !! How does anyone do something like that ? Where did the money come from to make up the difference ?? Easy, they pulled a "Skelton", and took it out of their piggy bank !! How creative !! Ok, guess what, they want us to pay them back, along with the rest of the money they want for this year !! So, they have us over a barrel, or so they think. It seems to me like this is bad management, from the top down. Oh yes, we do have a school committee, How did they allow this to happen ? Don't they think they have any responsibility for allowing this ?? It has not been a big secret that the town is broke, so what do they not understand about no ?? I pray the people who will look at the town and school budgets, can see the forest, through the trees. It does not mean you ignore the vote of the town, just because you do not like what you see, or are told. It will all come out in the wash, Bev..
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ReplyDeleteWhy can't the substitute motion be in any amount? For example, it could be at the level funded by Templeton, $17,681,946,which would mean that Phillipston would save the $150k voted at their town meeting from free cash.
ReplyDeleteIt could be at that amount, minus $100, which would send a message.
It could be at that amount, minus $17,000, $17,664,946, which would send a different message.
Of course, the elected school board would need to certify any budget not equal to that which is presently certified.
Bottom line is any amount over what has been voted at the Philliston TM and Templeton TM will have only two ways of funding - and we have already done the override route so the only other place to get the money is from the Town Depts. We cannot raise more than the law allows. Wish everyone would understand that there is only so much money to go around. We hear so much about teachers losing their jobs why doesn't anyone care about Templeton Police Officers losing their jobs?
ReplyDeleteIt's for the kids??? No police department means the drug dealers have nothing to fear. Drunk drivers have nothing to fear. How can a town run like that? The people who are on "Gansett Greatness" have failed their own children, by not insisting the people they support, work with the town. The town is like a tree, (this is listen and tell), and the town government is the trunk. The school is a branch. If the tree is not strong, the branches can not get what they need !! Get it?? The branches live off the tree, the tree does not live off the branches. I am also very upset at how the children have been used in grown ups business. Have you no shame?? Guess not. Time for the administration to get down to business and do right by the people in this town, and Phillipston and level fund their budget. Templeton needs another year to recover from the bad management of the Echo Hill people. At that point I hope we will be in better shape to meet the needs of our departments. This is my opinion, Bev.
DeleteOkay let's go through this ONE MORE TIME - We cannot "Raise and Appropriate" unless we go for an override - been there done that!! We cannot "raise" the tax rate just for the sake of covering this. THAT IS ILLEGAL!!!! to use the word "Raise" means override. So what's left - "transfer from available funds" hmmm maybe Phiillipston will throw in some more of their free cash to help out Templeton. But seriously people we have NO AVAILABLE FUNDS! If this passes we will then have to have another Town Meeting to have all you voters decide which departments will lose some of their funding. Police, Fire, Highway, Town Offices, you will decide. And no this is not a threat - this is fact. To us the word 'raise" is very misleading we cannot "raise" the tax rate to cover the additional amount - that is ILLEGAL. The only way we can "raise" at this stage of the game (because we have already appropriated the rest of the money to other departments etc. remember voting at the May TM)is an override. Using the word Raise is very deceiving.
ReplyDeleteWe can reduce the budget authorization for NRSD if voters so choose. Then the school committee would vote on whether or not to certify the reduced amount.
ReplyDelete