2010 TRSD Deliberative Session from Timberlane Education Network on Vimeo.
Mr. Acciard began by asking a question about what went into one of the budget's line items, and it took the school board business manager to answer as it was clear that the budget committee had no idea what went into the budget. He then asked who "put numbers to paper"? The answer.... The superintendent! Acciard then stated that this was improper and quoted State Law, in the form of RSA's to back up his claim. As I was watching this exchange, I realised that the school board attorney, Mr. Peter Bronstein was sitting right there to the superintendent's left, not saying a word in contradiction of Acciard's quoting of State budget law.
But there were many more revelations tonight, Superintendent LaSalle stated, in response to a question from Selectman Bennet about his pay and raises, that the public " has no say in what he makes"! THE ARROGANCE! This was preceeded by school board budget committee Vice Chair, Len Mullen from Danville, stating that; "the budget committee did not prepare the budget". He also stated that there was no legal public hearing, no research into the validity of the numbers, no verification of the superintendent's role in the budget preparation, etc. In fact Superintendent LaSalle ADMITTED that there was no Quorum for the budget committee public hearing. When Acciard then asked how the school board could present the budget for consideration when there was no LEGAL public hearing, LaSalle claimed that "we consider it to be a legal meeting, the budget was presented". The Attorney, of course said nothing in answer to Acciard's questions about the law, or his quotations from the law.
This was followed by an ammendment by Acciard, to reduce the operating budget to $56,760,388.00, which he said was last years spending, from the budget he "obtained last week from the SAU" plus the Federal Government's COLA adjustment, less the Teachers raises which are in a separate warrant article. There was much discussion on this, culminating in a statement from Acciard about the quality of his education at Timberlane 30 years ago vs. the lesser quality education received by his four kids at Timberlane. This was answered angrily by a teacher, Mr. Dube, who stated how hard he and his fellow teachers work, and he would not stand by and listen to his work denigrated by Mr. Acciard. Although Mr. Acciard made no personal comments, he was discussing the quality of the district's "product" for the amount they were "charging". Acciard pointed out, to LaSalle's agreement, that the budget divided by the kids enrolled amounted to $14,500/kid! Acciard then pointed out the tuition at some of the surrounding schools providing a better quality education for a fraction of the cost. This is what led to the teacher's anger. These budgetary points were echoed by a number of Atkinson residents to no avail.
As is usual at the school district, the discussion deteriorated into "it's all about the kids" with superintendent LaSalle reading an extended list of the cuts he would have to make to comply with Acciard's ammendment. Acciard and Mrs. Heaney claimed that his list totalled $15,000,000, and they were only asking for last years spending plus COLA, LaSalle claimed his list of cuts were less than $5,000,000, and the question was moved by the husband of budget committee member Michelle O'Neil.
The budget passed as written, the questions about preparation were never answered, the teachers left feeling underappreciated, and once again the taxpayers were left footing the extraordinary bill.
221 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 221 of 221I would recommend people scan the minutes of the budget committee minutes.
http://www.timberlane.net/Budcom/minutes.htm
Per the bylaws, we meet twice in March (same date), once in April, once in September, twice each in October, November, December, and January.
The April meeting is the SAU's Big Picture presentation. In September, we tour the facilities. In October, we listen to administration presentations. In November and December La Salle presents his budget. Last meeting in December, the committee recommends all warrants. In January, the budget is presented to the public. The second meeting is generally cancelled. In February, we have the deliberative session.
We discuss and debate individual line items. In fact, we often spend hours discussing thousands of dollars...out of a $62m budget.
"What is happening at the high school that is causing such a decline in necap scores? I can't post them all here but in looking at the elementary and middle school scores, there seems to be a big improvement at the middle school and the elementary school scores are strong."
I attribute this to the fact that we do not differentiate kids by ability. The further kids go, the further some fall behind. Slowing the classes to accomodate those falling behind holds everyone back.
Talking points from the SAU:
http://danvilledelivery.com/2008/06/01/view-from-the-top/
From the 04/10/2008 TRSD Budget meeting
Mr LaSalle comments on the facilities
"I can’t tell you, quite honestly, whether of not, for instance, that high school has another renovation left in it.
The construction in the 60s and the 70s was very subpar by today’s standards…second to that look at what we’re
spending to maintain what we have versus what would it cost to put something new in place. With new your major
repair bills go down to zero and your efficiency from the standpoint of utilities goes up…you have to look at what
is the real cost of that bond. I don’t want to sell a concept of renovation or a new high school or a new middle school"
Talking point from Rob Collins Danville SB member
http://speakoutdanville.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=2255
2/8/2010
by Rob C » Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:42 pm
safety frog wrote:
So these reported food safety violations have been allowed by the SAU and school board to exist since 2005?
Rob wrote:
They have been managed for some time. They were documented in 2005.
safety frog wrote:
Are there other safety violations that the school board and SAU has knowledge of that have not been corrected?
Rob wrote:
I'm sure there are (See below).
safety frog wrote:
...what frustrates the taxpayers of Danville is why does the nonsense continue? Why does the school board allow safety
violations to even exist, but then continue to support the SAU leadership and give them monetary raises when safety
violations should have been corrected in 2005 or 2006?
This Crabtree report should have been used up front by the school board to fix the safety violations in 2006!
Not come up after the fact in 2010 when a concerned parent asks a question on a speakout forum.
I have lived in the district for 19 years and do not recollect this Crabtree report being used to ask for fixing a
safety violation. The district is darn lucky that no one has tied these violations to a food borne illness and sued
the crap out of the SAU, or the loss of life to food poisoning. Where is the SAU's insurance underwritors or risk
assessors been all these years?
Rob wrote:
These are excellent questions and I don't know the history since 2005 BUT I do know every year the
"Maintenance and Renovation Projects" list is pulled together by the Facilities Committee for the budget
process and it is very long, getting longer every year. This year the initial list was brought to the SB at
the 10/15 meeting. It totaled just under $3 million dollars worth of maintenance and renovations at TRSD. These
projects are then given a time line with more pertinent items placed in the 2011 column and others placed in the
"1 to 2 years" or "3 to 5 years" columns (keep in mind the further out the time line the more you can increase the
$ amount of the project). All of these items are then dropped into the budget that is looked over by the Budget Committee. The end result is many of the items are knocked off the list entirely and have to wait until next year ultimately pushing other projects further out OR they are turned into Warrant Articles like this one.
Believe me I would want to fix all of our building issues quickly as well but there isn't enough $ going around to do it.
We prioritize and bring what we think is palatable forward to the tax payers. Let me be very clear, we do NOT put any
children at risk and we do fix items that need immediate attention (i.e. septic system, Danville kitchen, etc...).
This opens up the conversation, and I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind here, to the larger picture which begs
the question why are we running around piecing together older buildings? When we find ourselves putting out fire after
fire and renovating one kitchen here and a drainage system there we end up paying the entirety of the cost from local
property tax. If we were to replace large portions of schools or begin building new (i.e. the MS and HS) we would not
only mitigate MANY maintenance and renovation issues but we would have help in paying for these projects (50% once the
state reinstates the building fund) AND we would have state of the art infrastructure for our academics. All of this can
be done and should be done as we move forward because if we do not we will continue to dig ourselves into bigger and
bigger holes that we will eventually not be able to climb out of...
This is the onus behind the Capital Improvement Plan we put together last year. A responsible way to improve our
buildings without swamping the tax payers.Rob C
The school board has the SAU talking points down!
To 3:05;
The only truth in that statement is that if the budcom changes any line item, but still leaves money in that line they have created a spending purpose, that the SB can move money into that line from another underexpended line.
However, if the budcom zeroes a line the SB is forbidden from spending any money for that purpose during that year, assuming it passes the ballot.
For example; say the budcom reduced the line item for, say, superintendent's pay to zero. The SB is forbidden from spending any money on the superintendent. He can still work, but it would be for free.
People often speak of the district's 'bottom line' budget. Michelle O'Neill described the budget in this way...
"The School Board and the Superintendent have the authority to spend the School Budget any way they want. When we vote in March on the School Budget, it's a bottom line budget. Essentially, they can rob Peter to pay Paul.
As far as I can tell, there is no accountability to the taxpayers on how the money is spent. As long as they don't go over the budgeted amount, and follow the State and Federal guidelines, they can spend the money any way they want.
Presentations made to the Budget Committee in October and November for the following school year are really a joke, because once that school year starts, how the money is spent is usually very different than what was presented."
I suppose this is based on authority granted in 32:10...
32:10 Transfer of Appropriations. –
I. If changes arise during the year following the annual meeting that make it necessary to expend more than the amount appropriated for a specific purpose, the governing body may transfer to that appropriation an unexpended balance remaining in some other appropriation, provided, however, that:
(a) The total amount spent shall not exceed the total amount appropriated at the town or district meeting.
(b) Records shall be kept by the governing body, such that the budget committee, if any, or any citizen requesting such records pursuant to RSA 91-A:4, may ascertain the purposes of appropriations to which, and from which, amounts have been transferred; provided, however, that neither the budget committee nor other citizens shall have any authority to dispute or challenge the discretion of the governing body in making such transfers.
(c) A statement comparing all legislative body appropriations against all expenditures shall be deemed adequate for purposes of the records required by subparagraph (b), so long as every expenditure has been properly authorized and properly classified and entered and any expenditures exceeding the original legislative appropriations are offset by unexpended balances remaining in other appropriations, in which case the governing body shall not be required to designate the specific source of each transfer.
(d) Any amount appropriated at the meeting under a special warrant article may be used only for the purpose specified in that article and shall not be transferred.
(e) The town or district meeting may vote separately on individual purposes of appropriation contained within any warrant article or budget, but such a separate vote shall not affect the governing body's legal authority to transfer appropriations, provided, however, that if the meeting deletes a purpose, or reduces the amount appropriated for that purpose to zero or does not approve an appropriation contained in a separate article, that purpose or article shall be deemed one for which no appropriation is made, and no amount shall be transferred to or expended for such purpose.
II. As used in RSA 32:10, I(a)-(d), concerning transfers of appropriations and records thereof, ""purpose'' refers, in addition to its meaning in RSA 32:3, V, to individual line items in whatever detailed budget or chart of accounts is regularly used by the municipality. The general wording of a vote adopting a budget or portion of a budget shall not be considered a ""purpose'' to which an amount may be transferred. The definition of ""purpose'' as used in RSA 32:10, I(e) shall be the definition of ""purpose'' under RSA 32:3, V.
To MAcciard 6:27,
What you are saying is correct and how it SHOULD be done, but is not how it is (or at least used to be) done with the TRSD BC. They are not allowed to change a line item, only the bottom line budget number. Len, is this still the case?
I'd have to say that they (we) are at least unwilling to change a line item.
In the two years I have been on the committee, the process has been to ask La Salle to change something.
There has been a complete turnover of the committee with the exception of Michelle O'Neill and Charlie Balanof.
There has been no training and the RSAs are vague enough that no one is sure what can be done. (take a look at "in With Both Feet" on http://danvilledelivery.com/trsdbudcom.shtml)
Having Brenda Copp on board was a great deal of help as she brought budget experience, but her efforts were thwarted at every turn.
I think the committee needs to rewrite the bylaws to define a process that results in the preparation of a budget in accordance with RSA 32:5. Everyone needs to agree on process, calendar, roles, responsibilities, definitions, and interpretation of the applicable RSAs. I proposed we do that on 4/9/09 and again on 2/4/10. On 4/9/09, I did not get a second. I forwarded a strawman ((http://www.danvilledelivery.com/documents/bylaws.pdf)) to members over the summer and I don't recall getting a single response. On 2/4/10, I lost 6-1.
We need to seat members who support change.
"What is happening at the high school that is causing such a decline in necap scores? I can't post them all here but in looking at the elementary and middle school scores, there seems to be a big improvement at the middle school and the elementary school scores are strong."
I can say that I have seen a strong difference in the curriculum applied in the recent years. I have a first grader (Pollard) and a sixth grader. In first grade, my now six grader colored and did basic creative writing (spell as it sounds self teaching) to match the pictures she drew...and no math what so ever until the Everyday Math implementation during her second grade year. I credit to "none to all" math approach with a lot of the bumpy transitions they had. No spelling until grade 2 either. Contrast that with the fact that my now first grader has math homework most nights, spelling words and tests every week, and langauage arts homework FIVE days per week. Yes, even on Fridays. This is in addition to the writing journal he is working on AND his invention project. In short, my first grader has 2-3x the homework my sixth grader has. No, I am not tying homework volume to grades by this, just saying that I see daily evidence that the younger child has so much more academic based focus at school five years after my older one went through the same school. Yes, level kingerdarten curriculum helped, but the difference between the two educations is much greater that that. I am happy to see my first grader manage it well, yet sad it illustrates the gap that the older children have due to either no or partial exposure to the newer initiatives. BTW, no disappointment with the MS yet on the type of work and expectations they have for my older one. They are leaps above what she did in fifth grade. I just hope it stays this way. What I hear from parents of older children worries me.
Except that the elementary kids always did better on the standardized tests.
anon @12:31
Interesting observations: I have kids seperated by a few years. Overall, I have felt the older ones were more prepared than my younger one is. Older kids were drilled on math facts, more reading, more writing.
NECAP Scienc results: for current 12 graders.
Proficient with distinction
school 0% state 1%
Proficient
school 17% state 23 %
Partially Proficient
school 52% state 47%
Substantially below proficient
school 30 stae 29%
This class was the last class which had students which were allowed skip physical science as freshman and go directly to Biology. For these studens, the sequence would be freshman bio, sophmore chem or physics, junior chem or physics.
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