Southbridge Council Of The Whole Agenda - March 31, 2016

Council Of The Whole

MacKinnon Council Chambers

March 31, 2016

6 PM


Agenda

Is There A Meeting?

UPDATE (11 AM):  Councilor Manna has informed me that the presentation will be at a Council Committee of the Whole meeting next Thursday, March 31, at 6 PM.

According to the DESE Commissioner's Update on Southbridge Public Schools Receivership Activities:

School Year 2016-2017 Budget 

SPS and ESE staff members will present the school year 2016-2017 budget at a Southbridge Town Council meeting on March 24. In preparation, ESE staff members are engaging in conversations with the Southbridge Town Manager and SPS principals and administrators to assess the various needs and priorities for the coming school year. The final budget will be published on the SPS website immediately following the March 24 presentation. As I explained in the February memo, Paul Dakin, former Superintendent of Revere Public Schools, continues to provide support to the district and I have asked him to be my point person on the budget development process.

There is still no meeting scheduled for today or this evening according to the town's website. 

Can anyone clarify?

Congratulations Councilor Vecchia

Ken O’Brien

Kudos are due.

Over a year ago Councilor Albert D. Vecchia, Jr. spearheaded a concerted effort to stem the rising tide of local tax increases.

Monday night’s meeting of the Town Council confirmed his success.

The tax rate was set at $20.21 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. This was a marginal decline from the prior rate of $20.36.

Before proceeding I want to iterate, congratulations Councilor Vecchia and thank you!

The question that next arises is, “What now?” 

Planned Staff Cuts At Southbridge School Department

Ken O’Brien

On June 8^th there was a Committee of the Whole meeting of the Southbridge School Committee.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the impact of the level-funded budget approved by the Town Council.

The clip below is extracted from a much longer video of the entire meeting, recorded by Bill Bishop. In it Superintendent Stanton lays out the positions that she plans to cut to accommodate the approved budget.

Those wishing to see the entire meeting video can find it HERE.

Cut Chiefs Before Indians

Ken O’Brien

According to The Worcester Telegram, Superintendent of Schools Sheryl Stanton observed, “With the [restructure] proposal defeated, … more money will be needed in the budget to fill gaps the district has with instructional coaching for staff, positions it needs for English Language Learners, to develop a discipline program and support for students, and to create positions around truancy and attendance problems.
She said the team would have to go back to the drawing board to reassess goals as a committee and district.” 

Budget And Finance Subcommittee Of The School Committee Agenda - June 1, 2015

Budget And Finance Subcommittee Meeting

Room M100 - 25 Cole Ave

June 1, 2015

6 PM

Agenda

Southbridge Town Council of the Whole Meeting - May 28, 2015

Southbridge School Committee Meeting - April 28, 2015

Below you will find the April 29 meeting of the EHS subcommittee on the School Department Budget

Abrahamson Melts Down At Council Meeting

Ken O’Brien

Emulating the Wicked Witch when doused with water, School Committee member Brent Abrahamson staged another public meltdown at last night’s Town Council Meeting.

Speaking as an individual, rather than on behalf of the School Committee, Mr. Abrahamson voiced his displeasure with recent comments aired by the Town Manager and Council Members in a recent article in the Worcester Telegram.

What Does The Tea Party Really Want – IV

Ken O’Brien

The preceding installments have shown that the stated goals of the Tea Party - a reduction in the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit by reducing government spending and taxes – have essentially been met.

To go further in that direction would result in cutting into government programs in ways that even the Tea Partiers themselves have shown in public polling that they oppose.

Nevertheless, the Tea Party continues, in various incarnations, to exert a strong attraction for current and prospective Republican candidates. 

What Does The Tea Party Really Want – III

Ken O’Brien

The comparison below from the New York Times helps tell the tale of the alternative budget scenarios. Under President Obama's proposal, tax revenues over the next decade would average 19 percent of GDP a year, compared to 17.5 percent in FY 2014. The president raises $1.55 trillion in additional revenue, much of it from a one-time tax on businesses' foreign income and by capping deductions and exclusions for high earners. While spending—including new investments in universal pre-K education, free community college and expanded infrastructure—would reach 22.1 percent of GDP by 2025, that level would still be less than the Reagan and Obama era highs. The 2025 deficit of 2.7 percent of GDP would be in line with the current 50-year average dating back to 1965. (The People's Budget proposed by Congressional progressives would raise significantly more revenue—21.2 percent of GDP over 10 years—while spending more—22.8 percent—to fund major new infrastructure and jobs initiatives as well as new education programs and expanded Social Security benefits.)

What Does The Tea Party Really Want - II?

Ken O’Brien

The chart below (prepared by the Congressional Budget Office) tells an important part of the story. Since 1965—the year Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs were signed into law—federal spending has averaged 20.1 percent of America's total economic output. During the same five-decade time frame, Uncle Sam's revenue has averaged 17.4 percent of GDP per year. But across that span, Washington produced a balanced budget in only five years. In 1969, a booming economy and LBJ's Vietnam surtax filled the Treasury's coffers to 19 percent of GDP. Uncle Sam was also in the black from fiscal years 1998 through 2001, as the Clinton expansion and the dotcom boom (with its large capital gains paydays) brought in a tax revenue haul that reached 20 percent in 2000.

What Does The Tea Party Really Want - I?

Ken O’Brien

The Tea Party as a political movement traces its origin back to 2009. It is known for its conservative positions. It demands a reduction in the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit by reducing government spending and taxes. In many ways it constitutes the conservative core of the contemporary Republican Party.

During a recent floor speech, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) described conservative objectives this way: "A balanced budget approved by Congress will help make the government live within its means and set spending limits for our nation. Hard-working families are fed up with [President Obama's] spend-now, pay-later policies and are closely following our effort [on] a balanced budget." 

Spending Our Way Out Of Level IV

Ken O’Brien

Today’s Worcester Telegram contains an articles by Brian Lee titled “Southbridge schools seek big budget hike”.

In that article Acting Superintendent of Schools Sheryl Stanton makes the observation, “Southbridge is a Level 4 underperforming district with 2,262 students. It projects an enrollment increase of 88 students in 2015-16, Ms. Stanton said.

Its per-pupil spending is $13,366. But similar districts that are working to shed their underperforming status, such as Salem, Holyoke and Randolph, spend $14,873, $16,151 and $15,587, respectively.”

She doesn’t mention other school districts that are also Level IV such as Athol-Royalston, Fall River and New Bedford that spend $13,378, !3,534 and $12,802 per pupil respectively.

MTA President Madeloni on Governor Baker’s Proposed Budget

Governor Baker’s proposed budget is troubling for its lack of vision and absence of meaningful investments in education and other vital community services. Although some of the governor’s ideas appear positive, his budget is ultimately a proposal that shortchanges students, families and our cities and towns by including cuts to kindergarten expansion programs and providing inadequate funding for our public schools, colleges and universities.

While keeping school districts at foundation levels, as is constitutionally required, Governor Baker’s proposed spending plan fails to address the fact that many of our communities already face significant shortfalls in the resources they need to provide children with the schools they deserve. Public education is the center of our democracy and the heart of our future, and the Commonwealth’s spending priorities must recognize that. 

"Money we are spending on athletics...borders on the obscene" - Abrahamson

Video By Bill Bishop

Southbridge School Committee Meeting Of The Whole - March 18, 2015

Video By Bill Bishop

How The Republican Budget Screws The Middle Class

Ken O’Brien

“The simplest way to understand these budgets is surely to suppose that they are intended to do what they would, in fact, actually do: make the rich richer and ordinary families poorer,” wrote Paul Krugman, The New York Times ‘columnist and Noble Prize-winning economist. “We’re looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry.” 

The GOP-controlled House and Senate budgets drastically cut spending on education, retirement, environment, road and bridges, climate change, immigration, job creation, Obamacare, food stamps, and other social welfare programs. At the same time it gives the Pentagon a blank check, and includes tax cuts for the rich and corporations while raising taxes for lower-income Americans. That’s the analysis by the National Priorities Project (NPP), not just Krugman, and they make an even more disturbing point. 

Budget Questions For The School Committee

Ken O’Brien

On Wednesday, March 18, there will be a committee of the whole meeting of the Southbridge School Committee. This meeting will be held in Room M100 at 25 Cole Avenue. The purpose of the meeting, according to the agenda, is a budget work session addressing the current budget and the Superintendent’s proposed FY 2016 budget.

Yesterday I presented an analysis of the FY 2014 budget data based upon its comparison on an expenditure per pupil basis with other school districts across the State. 

Examining The Southbridge School Budget

Ken O’Brien

Speaking in the March 13 issue of The Southbridge News, Acting Superintendent of Schools Sheryl Stanton said, “We are not seeing the increase to the overall school budget that we need to impact some of the high priority issues. We need more people aware and educated of this. We need to make an argument as to why these expenditures are required.”

In order to look at the district’s budget in a meaningful fashion, I have taken the most recently available data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This data compares the FY 2014 budgetary data for 307* of the State’s school districts on an aggregate as well as a per pupil basis. (http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/statistics/ppx14.html)