Town of Braintree

Conspiracy of Unbridled Cooperat

Why do I have the sense that a conspiracy of unbridled cooperation exists between the school department and those elected by the town to regulate their expenditures!

We have the School committee meeting on a regular basis with the school?’s employees union while planning the schools next budget demands and is, I believe, part and party to the process
instead of regulate and advice.

I believe that they are confused in their roles as elected representatives of the people of this town!

The schools should be run by the school committee not the teachers unions in their demands, and certainly they ,the school committee, should not be a part of the demanding party!

The school committee has the finance committee as a source of information, advocacy and financial advice.

This school committee chair has stated in public her demands for a progressive town in regards to school funding! This from one elected by townspeople to govern expenses!

Our school committee chair has stated publically that they agreed to raises for teachers knowing we would need a prop 2 1/2 overide to pay for it.
This raises some interesting questions.

Does she realize all town employees will expect the same thus insuring the amount needed in the overide will only increase?

Is it not a little arrogant to challenge taxpayers in this way when they have clearly expressed their inability to pay more?
Our high school teachers get one prep period and one ''special duty'' period per day. If they spent one of those periods in the classroom it would be as if we hired a dozen or more teachers.
The selfishness of the teacher's union will inevitably lead to fiscal strife and pressure resulting in lay offs and a further degradation of services in the community.


By Part by Frankreport,, I stole it

what I am saying is...

The additional $73,000 foundation reserve award money from the state is for the schools to use for the schools. The state gave it out based on recent reductions in chapter 70 local aid. The Schools can use it as they wish.

You are absolutely correct that we must be very careful of spending one-time revenues on recurring expenses. This is something I and many others continue to warn against (both publicly and privately). Using one-time sources of revenue for recurring expenses is what has led to this town's structural deficit. And, in my opinion, we will never get out from behind our fiscal problems if we do not address the structural deficit.

I have made that point abundantly clear and that is part of the reason I called the contract settlement fiscally irresponsible. But I am not one that is going to sit here and bash the School Committee over and over because I disagree with a decision they made. We have a disagreement and there is a process to address those disagreements, ending with a vote at Town Meeting in May.

We have not given the school department a dime in extra money yet. That is still to be decided at Town Meeting and I expect some tough and diverse discussion on the subject both at our FinCom meetings as well as on the floor of Town Meeting.

Again, Town Meeting will have the opportunity to vote not to give the Schools extra money to fund their contract settlement. If that happens, the schools will be forced to absorb those costs within the budget provided by Town Meeting.

This is a discussion we've been having for months and will continue to have right through Town Meeting.

Take care.

-Ted



By Ted Langill

Always happy to provide info...

Although others are probably smarter than me and stay away from engaging people on this board with their real name. I just hope it gives the information a little more credibility than if it came from ''anonymous.''

The foundation reserve award is a grant the state department of education gives out to school districts for various circumstances. Braintree received there money ($73,000) based on recent reductions in local aid (chapter 70 - which is the annual local aid a town received to help fund school operations).

As far as the contract...I'm sorry, I must have had a typo. It is Chapter 150E, not 105E. Again, my apologies if I mistyped.

Laws (legal wording) are not always the easiest to comprehend, but it basically lays out how public collective bargaining agreements are to be dealt with, saying the employer (i.e. the town) shall submit to the appropriate legislative body (in our case, Town Meeting) within thirty days after the date on which the agreement is executed by the parties, including the request for additional appropriations. The law further states that if rejected, it is returned to the parties for further bargaining. However, at the end of the section it says ''The provisions of the preceding two sentences shall not apply to agreements reached by school committees...'' And then it makes reference to the other chapter I mentioned (71, section 34) that says we can only appropriate a total amount and the schools can spend it how they determine. In other words, we cannot say to the schools, here is x-amount for salaries and here is x-amount for everything else.

We have known and been told many times the schools have this right and their contract does not need Town Meeting approval. The laws have not changed and so we do not need to get a ruling every year. I knew the law existed and I simply tried to locate the exact chapter myself...something I am somewhat familiar with doing.

People may not like how it works, but short of chaging state law, that is the system we must work within.

As far as when the contract becomes binding, my understand is as soon as both the School Committee and the Union ratify it. I am not certain if it needs some level of approval (rubber stampish) from DOE or not?

I will not pretend to have the memory you seem to have, but maybe the SC never started allocating money before TM in past years because they ddin't have available funds to use like they do this year.

Take care.

-Ted

By Ted Langill

Town Meeting

Town Meeting will not have an opportunity to affect this contract at all. Since the schools have entered into this agreement and have begun paying on it, they are on the hook for the contract. This means that the Town is going to be forced into getting less for their tax dollars because of the school committee's actions.

Where is the outrage? Why should they get to keep all of the ''found'' money when their budgets have been set? Why doesn't the money get returned to the general fund like many other departments? Didn't I hear that the building department raises a lot of monies and fees but can't use those funds to support their department? Instead it goes to the general fund. What's wrong with expecting the schools to do that. Where is the message from our fiscal watchdogs?

You've set it all when you say, ''We have not given the school department a dime in extra money yet.'' I've been around long enough to know what's coming down the road..

By TMM