Southbridge Mid/Hi School Students Sent Home

Massachusetts State Police bomb squad responds

Ken O'Brien

(Updated 1:35 PM) Students at the Southbridge Middle/High School have been sent home for the day.

A posting on the school website says, "Due to an unanticipated issue at the middle high school, the building has been evacuated. Because the students are not clear to re-enter the building at this time, we have contacted the bus transportation company for students to be sent home within the hour. If your child does not take bus transportation, please arrange for someone to pick your child up at the middle/high school.

All children are safe and accounted for and there is no danger to the student population."

From The Joad Family To Welfare Queens

As it increases its hold on the American political system, the right is gradually unmasking its contempt for the poor.

That “unmasking” is behind two recent bills that caught the internet’s attention this week. Kansas and Missouri’s legislatures are working to target the social services provided to the state’s welfare recipients, limiting how people on welfare can use their assistance. In Missouri, a bill awaits Gov. Sam Brownback’s approval that would ban soda, energy drinks, cookies, and chips. Curtailing spending on snacks and soft drinks might be defensible from a public health angle (former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg would be a fan), but the state is also targeting steak and seafood—which speaks, ironically, less to concerns about welfare and more about policing what poor people do.

Scapegoat Economics

In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008 the United States has repeatedly participated in the blame game with immigrants and with ethnic minorities. Now it is extending domestic scapegoating to still others. Governors in the US now increasingly attack state employees, their unions and pensions as if they, rather than the crisis, had suddenly become the economic problem. Mayors across the country do the same to municipal workers. Of course, both state and municipal budget problems since 2008 are primarily the results of high unemployment and reduced consumer spending. In short, it was and remains the crisis since 2008 that played and plays the key role in cutting governments' tax revenues and hurting government budgets. Growing and more effective tax-evasion strategies of business and the rich have had the same effect. Responding to lowered tax collections, politicians fearful of damage to their careers refuse to raise tax rates. Instead they embrace spending cuts that they justify by means of scapegoat economics. 

Southbridge School Committee Agenda - April 14, 2015

Southbridge School Committee Meeting

MacKinnon Council Chambers

April 14, 2015

7 PM

Public Hearing on the Fiscal 2016 Budget at 6:30 PM

Agenda

Southbridge Town Council Agenda - April 13, 2015

Southbridge Town Council Meeting

MacKinnon Council Chambers

April 13, 2015

7 PM



AGENDA

Prison Profiteers

by Chris Hedges from Truthdig

If, as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” then we are a nation of barbarians. Our vast network of federal and state prisons, with some 2.3 million inmates, rivals the gulags of totalitarian states. Once you disappear behind prison walls you become prey. Rape. Torture. Beatings. Prolonged isolation. Sensory deprivation. Racial profiling. Chain gangs. Forced labor. Rancid food. Children imprisoned as adults. Prisoners forced to take medications to induce lethargy. Inadequate heating and ventilation. Poor health care. Draconian sentences for nonviolent crimes. Endemic violence. 

Fox News Lies About Ban The Box?

Moriarty Changes Position On Insurance Vote

Ken O'Brien

Council Chairman Shaun Moriarty voted against the proposal to have the insurance plan for town employees mirror the GIC benchmark plan at the March 23rd meeting of the Town Council. With the proposal scheduled to be taken up again tonight, Councilor Moriarty has changed his position.

He explained his change of heart earlier today on his FaceBook page.

Turning Around Southbridge Schools

Ken O’Brien

“Across the United States, approximately 1,235 high schools serving 1.1 million students—only 5 percent of the nation’s high schools—have graduation rates at or below 67 percent. While the high school graduation rate recently reached 81 percent in 2013, the number of chronically failing high schools remains much too high. Among this group of failing public high schools, approximately 7 percent of students—who are overwhelmingly low-income students of color—are attending schools where it is not likely that they will go on to college or career.”

So reported the Center for American Progress in Dramatic Action, Dramatic Improvement: The Research on School Turnaround issued at the end of last month.

On January 27 of this year, in an article titled “Graduation rates up, dropouts decline”, the Worcester Telegram reported that Southbridge had a dropout rate of 69.9%, just missing the cutoff referenced above. 

The Council Needs To Observe Procedure

Ken O’Brien

The Town Council Rules and Regulations are quite explicit. Rule 18 states,

All rules of procedure not considered herein shall be governed by “Roberts Rules of Parliamentary Procedure”.

This rule has a significant bearing on the agenda that has been issued for the Council’s Meeting of the Whole this Tuesday. 

The Huffington Post Interview With Elizabeth Warren

Town Council Of The Whole Agenda - April 7, 2015

Council Of The Whole Meeting

MacKinnon Council Chambers

Tuesday April 7, 2015

6:00 pm

Agenda

Southbridge School Committee Budget Finance Subcommittee Meeting - March 30, 2015

Video by Bill Bishop

Moriarty For State Senate: An April Fools’ Joke?

It was a joke!!! HA HA


Ken O’Brien

In a posting on another site Southbridge Town Council Chairman Shaun Moriarty makes a surprising announcement.

According to the post, Mr. Moriarty will not seek reelection to the Southbridge Town Council. Instead, “After much discussion, debate and consideration in recent weeks and months” he has decided to run for State Senate.

Naturally, given the calendar, one has to ask, “Is this an April Fools’ Day joke?” 

April Fools' Day