Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
Southbridge Property Taxes – Explained?
Ken
O’Brien

Now, I want to begin by saying that my criticisms of
this discussion are not directed against Wil Counoyer. He is essentially a
technician using State laws to guide his obligation to determine a tax rate
that will fund the budget as well as any subsequent additions thereto as set by
the Town Council.
There may be criticisms that can be leveled as to
how those decisions are allocated, but I am not in a position to evaluate that.
Rather, my criticisms are directed at the aggregate consequences of the tax
rate that was enacted as a consequence of the Council’s prior actions.
State Education Officials Plan To Dump MCAS
Ken
O’Brien
from
State House News Service
State education officials will decide next fall
whether to switch from the old standardized tests to a new model under
development around the country, and already policymakers have voiced the need
to shift public schools' testing approach.
"Higher ed cannot do what it needs to do unless
we change the current system," said Higher Education Commissioner Richard
Freeland at an education forum Wednesday morning. He said, "If we don't
get it right this time I suspect it is going to be a very long time before we
revisit it."
This spring a little more than half the school
districts around the state will administer the new Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers while the other half will stick with the
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Stanton Appointed Superintendent
Ken O'Brien

Enforced Silence Or A Lack Of Vision – Or Both?
Ken
O’Brien
I recently ran an image that showed the School
Committee chair saying that she could show terrorists how to constrain free
speech without engendering blow back.
A few critics thought my expression was over the top
or lacked any humor.
Perhaps they missed the point that I was making.
Whether the item was humorous or not was somewhat
irrelevant. What was intended was to illustrate the irony that the ability to
express an opinion could be far more effectively limited by distorting the
rules than by actions that inspired popular outrage.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Telegram Opinion Piece Targets Southbridge Schools

A system in turmoil
The public schools in Southbridge face more than enough challenges for any system, including a need to raise academic achievement and help many of their students find stability and direction. The last thing the town needs is instability in school administration. Unfortunately, that has been the case for years.
Meeting in emergency session last Wednesday night, the Southbridge School Committee accepted the immediate resignation of Patricia Gardner, who had been superintendent for less than a year, and was the target of complaints from system employees over what has been called "a serious account of unprofessional behavior."
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Southbridge Infrastructure Funds Increased By $242.7 Thousand
Ken
O’Brien
On Thursday Governor Charlie Baker, in one of his
first actions in office, directed Acting Secretary of Transportation and Chief
Executive Officer Frank DePaola and the Massachusetts Department of
Transportation (MassDOT) to follow through on the Baker-Polito administration's
commitment to release immediately $100 million in Chapter 90 transportation
funds critical to job creation, public safety and economic growth.
"I am pleased that one of the first acts of
this administration is to fulfill our commitment to ensure local governments
have access to the infrastructure funds they have been promised for
transportation upgrades," said Governor Baker. "The release of these
funds represents a step towards creating better jobs and building stronger
communities in Massachusetts."
Friday, January 9, 2015
Southbridge School Committee Meeting - January 13, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Wall Street's Next Bubble - Fracking
Ken
O’Brien

History appears to be repeating itself. However, this time the target is the world energy market.
Collapsing crude oil prices due to oversupply are reaching critical levels. They threaten Wall Street banks, investors and a dozen countries.
Foremost among these are Russia, Iran and Venezuela, where revenue losses have caused severe financial degradation, and economies are about to implode.
While Americans are today enjoying $2 per gallon gasoline, Wall Street's analysts are predicting an imminent energy market collapse. This will bring financial institutions to their knees once again, and taxpayers are being set up for another mandatory bailout.
Moving Forward
Ken
O’Brien
Southbridge now has its fifth Superintendent of
Schools in just
over two years.
Ely, Wiggins, Nembirkow, Gardner and now Stanton.
Eric Ely was the last chosen by anything approaching
a community-based process. Even in that case, however, the process was
compromised.
All four have departed under clouds of varying
density and magnitude.
According to today’s Worcester
Telegram Mrs. Stanton has been named “acting superintendent”. (Question to
the chairman, “Is that a legal title?”)
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Breaking News: Gardner Resigns
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Sheryl Stanton, the district’s Assistant Superintendent
for Teaching & Learning, has been named to fill the post for the time
being.
In a joint statement, the committee and Ms. Gardner
cited "philosophical differences on how the School District should move
forward" as the reason for ending their working relationship.
What Will They Do?
Ken
O’Brien
The agenda for the meeting has only two components
of substance on it.
Vote
to enter executive session pursuant to:
1. MGL c. 30A. Section 21 (a) (2), to discuss
the Superintendent’s contract.
2. MGL c. 30A, Section 21(a)(3), to discuss
strategy with respect to collective bargaining: all bargaining units.
Fox News Is OFF the Dish Network
Ken
O’Brien

Because Fox News has played the victim instead of
offering a fair price to for its weak programming, Dish dropped the
conservative propaganda channel, including Fox Business, much to the delight of
Americans who value their brains.
Maybe He Was Wrong?
Ken
O’Brien
During the 2012 presidential race, something you may
still remember, wealthy Florida real estate person David Siegel got
a bit of notoriety for sending his Westgate Resorts employees a
maudlin form letter. He noted that while he couldn't "tell you whom to
vote for," their jobs would be "endanger"-ed if the cruel
President Barack Obama was not unseated by fellow wealthy person Mitt Romney.
The ostensible cause was that his fragile empire could not possibly stand
another four years of the sort of deeply onerous taxes that Siegel imagined
Obama had been imposing, and that if he was going to be taxed anymore he was
going to close his company and go be rich on a Caribbean beach.
Monday, January 5, 2015
About Those Property Tax Bills II…
Ken
O’Brien

However, they should have listened to, and
evaluated, the immediately following portion of the chief assessor’s
presentation. In this he compared Southbridge’s standing relative to the rest of
Massachusetts in terms of their average tax bills.
For those of you who don’t recall this, let’s take a
look at the video.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
About Those Property Tax Bills…
Ken
O’Brien
Having been told we would have about a 5% tax
increase, I was somewhat surprised when I opened the bill.
My property tax had gone from $712.13 per quarter to
$778.22 per quarter. That’s an increase of 9.3%
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