According to Curt Brown's Dartmouth Beat blog, link here, Kathleen Horan McLean and Phil Lenz are the only ones to have taken out nomination papers for the Select Board and School Committee respectively. Horan McLean is running for reelection and Lenz for the seat vacated by Chris Perreira.
I think that we are in desperate need of new leadership on both the School Committee and Select Board.
Reading over Mr. Lenz's website, he seems to be on the same page as the current School Committee. We need someone who will question priorities and challenge the administration, I don't see it from him based on his website.
Ms. Horan McLean has lead efforts for an override but not articulated any other solutions than just raising taxes. I am sure she would argue that the re-energized Personnel Board and other minor changes are evidence that is not true. I disagree with her there. We need fundamental change, not nibbling at the edges.
But in the absence of another choice in these races, it seems it will be business as usual in Dartmouth government. Do you think anyone will come forward to run against these two?
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Business as usual
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22 comments:
clean house?
We need to scrap our current form of government, and incorporate as a city. There are to many scape goats at town meeting. It is to easy to point to some other board or commitee as the cause of our over spending.
I am not convinced that our town meeting form of government needs to be changed. We currently have entrenched interests in the town government that are not responding to our fiscal problems. What is needed is for those elected officials who set policy, such as the Select Board and School Committee, to demand appropriate action from our employees. The needed action is likely to go against the interests of those employees. I think that we suffer from a lack of leadership which could occur in any form of town government.
Our current form of government, provides to many scape goats. Everyone blames someone else as the cause of the problem. We need a city type of government, so that the number of people making fiscal decisions are reduced. At the very minimum, we need to make the school committee an appointed body answerable to the selevtmen.
Our town charter requires that the school committee be elected. I also believe that the Mass law requires the election of school committee members although I cannot find that requirement in the MGL index.
Charters can be changed. Also, i am not sure, but i believe that a mayor has alot of control of and input into the school committee.
With all due respect gentleman, when I read Phil Lenz's website I read all about change. But more importantly I see substance and ideas for change...not just the ideal talk about it. I am not sure why you don't see or read that but maybe you didn't have a chance to read a few of Phil's ideas for change so here is the link.
I also see someone fully knowledgeable about the issues facing the school department and very giving of his time to help solve them. I read right on the main page where Phil has 4 children in the system, a member of the School Building and Renovation Committee, Co-chair of the DeMello School Council, and webmaster for the DeMello School PTO website.
As I read it Phil vows to be an advocate for the children while as a taxpayer maintaining fiscal responsibility and accountability for education. Now let me ask you how would Phil be able to do that unless he was willing to ask the tough questions or do things differently?
Why belittle his campaign effort by saying that "he seems to be on the same page as the current School Committee"? This truly makes no sense to me for in proposing and committing to doing things differently then they are currently being done makes Phil the candidate for change. He gives me and many other parents as well as non parents hope that the negative impacts to the children currently in the system can be changed while maintaining a fiscal balance and he does this through his ideas, willingness to understand the issues and commitment to working hard to solve them. He already does this on the committees he volunteers his time to...which is evident to those involved in School issues or who know him personally.
Phil is far from a yes man so please I encourage you to take the time to meet and speak to Phil and then I believe you will truly see Phil Lenz as the School Committee candidate that is for change while most importantly being for the best education for the children of Dartmouth that our hard earned taxpayer money can afford!
Liz, I did read Mr Lenz's website (in fact I linked to it in the post) and here is my problem. I believe we suffer from misplaced priorities. See my post, "What are our priorities" For example, we spend $400,000 for sports programs at the high school and don't have enough textbooks and have no plan to update computer equipment. Will the football team get new helmets or jerseys and our students can't have textbooks? So it seems. Mr. Lenz wants a debt exclusion (read temporary tax increase) to pay for texts and computers. Will we have to do this every time we need these things? We should have a plan going forward to make sure they are provided. I think that we need to shift money from extra curricular activities to these needs. Mr. Lenz feels that the taxpayers are not paying their fair share (from his website, "In the wake of the expected 1.4.million dollar budget shortfall, it is becoming apparent the school system never mind the town wont survive without a override of some sort" And also from his website, "The parents of students pay the same taxes as others AND are forced to pay fees to allow their children to participate in school related programs such as sports and the after school programs or to even ride the bus. The parents are forced to shoulder a larger burden of public education than other residents. I will vote to not impose additional fees on parents during my term on the school committee."
So I feel that his positions are not substantially different from those on the School Committee now. I did not try to belittle his candidacy and I am sure his volunteer efforts have been fruitful. Perhaps Mr Lenz would like to come here and tell us what changes he would make in the priorities of the school department. Is he willing to cut sports, band, after school programs, and other extra curricular activites to support adequate instructional materials and more teachers? That would be change!
I will take your word for it that Phil is a sincere candidate for school committee, however my comments apply no matter who is in office. We need to make the school committee acountable to the executive branch of town governmment. preferably a Mayor.
Again with all due respect Bill….what makes you an expert at knowing what the priorities of the school department should be? You recommend cutting sports, band, after school programs, and other extra curricular activates to support adequate instructional materials and more teachers. What do you think the consequences of that would be? What research have you done to support your proposed school priorities?
Phil has done much through his involvement in the schools, discussion with other parents, educators, non-parents, and also through the simple fact that he is a working class parent of four children.
Again Bill with all due respect as blogging does not always sound respectful when you are disagreeing with someone’s opinion but how many children do you have in the school system and what are their ages? I ask this question for I truly think the needs of children have changed greatly in the last 5-10 years and I think it's difficult for people without young children or direct involvement in the schools to see or understand this.
Now my reference to the needs of children has to do with the changes in the household that impact the child which in turn impact the schools as well as the average citizen. For example, do you know how many children in the DPS come from low-income households? These children are the ones most at risk for deviant behavior after school for most of them come from a household where both parents are working or one parent households making supervision in question. This is one of the very important reasons why after school programs like band, sports, etc. need to be funded, for these children cannot afford to pay for them but they are the ones most in need. As a taxpayer this becomes your problem if one of these children were to get involved in an illegal activity like property vandalism, theft, gangs, etc. The pressures and temptations that face our children have grown considerably in the last few years making the job of parent supervision extremely important but with the need for many parents to both work outside of the home the supervision of children has becomes a problem for all. Now you can take issue with parents and say that it’s their fault….agreed but placing blame will not stop the consequences of the problem.….and this is but one example.
Bill how much time have you spent in a classroom, speaking to a principal, a teacher, other parents? I think I for one would value the opinion on school priorities from someone that took the time to understand the issues and consequences facing all of these people and maybe you have done that, if so please explain why you have this point of view.
Liz,
I want to thank you for your willingness to discuss the issues here. I think it is just what is needed. Please feel free to disagree with and challenge any comment here by me or anyone else. That's really the whole point of this blog, discussion of the issues.
First, let me put aside what are my qualifications to run the school department or where and when my kids attend school as I feel these are not relevant to the argument.
My point is this. You want more funding for the schools but there are many people in Dartmouth, probably a majority, who don't feel our tax dollars are being spent wisely. Dr Russell pointed out in his public forums that only about 1/4 of residents have children in our schools. So you need to convince a lot of people who don't have children in school to vote to increase funding.
When I hear that the schools have no money to replace 15 year-old textbooks, I wonder where were they 5 years ago or 10 years ago. Did they have no plan to update books as they went along?
When I hear that the department is closing two elementary schools and then, a few months later, apparently want to reopen one of the two , I wonder who the heck made the decision to close them?
When I hear that there are two principals at Quinn School, both making over $100K, I wonder how many textbooks would one of those salaries buy? I don't want to debate whether or not these two are great educators or hard working. The question is, did it help our students more than having textbooks? As I asked, what are the priorities?
Now I concede that I am not qualified to run the school department. But given the examples above, it seems an open question whether or not our current administration is either.
All I was trying to express was that I have reservations about whether Mr Lenz would change the course which has lead us here or just try to get more money for the same faulty decision making.
Once again, I invite Mr Lenz to comment here or if you would like, I will provide you or him with permission to post here and respond to comments. Then we all can get to know more about what everyone thinks.
Finally, some want the schools to correct the ills of society. The schools can not and will not solve societal problems, they do not and will never have the resources needed.
Dear Bill T,
First off, thank you for going to my website and your interest my campaign. I have noticed some of your links to budget and school department information. These documents your mention are in fact my own creations to assist the public in understanding the budget process. I have run my campaign so far on a platform of transparency of information. There is an incredible level of misinformation and distrust of all elected officials in Dartmouth as I’m sure you would agree. The first change that is needed is to simply inform the public about what is actually happening in the schools and why. I have been using my website as an information portal of sorts to increase the flow of information. The second change I have already been working for is a change in the meeting structure allowing for a question session with the entire school committee present instead of the present policy of comments only and limited to the agenda. After discussions with the superintendent this morning, I can announce now that the agenda’s will be available the Friday before the meetings via email if desired.
Onto the crux of your comments regarding cutting sports, band, after school programs to support adequate instructional materials and more teachers. I simply don’t agree and I’ll explain why. There have been many studies that have shown the most dangerous times for children are from 2pm to 5pm or simply from the time school lets out to the time their parents come home. The programs you mention allow hundreds of children to participate in sports, music programs, after school instructional activities that are already subsidized by the parents. They learn valuable life skills such as teamwork and self respect. These children would be home alone or out on the street without these programs. The academic and social growth with these programs is at least as important as in a regular classroom. Your call for more teachers is noble however after the failure of the override last summer and the closing of the two schools there are simply no available classrooms for them to teach. Yes, every single classroom is currently being used in one aspect or another.
Fiscal responsibility is extremely important also because one dollar wasted is one dollar less of an education my children receive. I don’t agree with the large payouts administrators have received however I also understand their contracts were written that way a number of years ago and legally cannot be voided. I’m calling from this time forward new hire administrators sick and vacation time be limited to perhaps 2 weeks each for a total of four weeks instead of 10 weeks currently available.
These are a few of the changes that I’d like to see as a member of the school committee
Thank you
Philip Lenz
Candidate for School Committee
Kabudda43@voteforlenz.com
Mr. Lenz, Welcome to our discussions here and thanks for stopping by. I want to commend you for your willingness to engage about these issues and to volunteer your time to serve the community.
Thank you also for your advocacy for openness and transparency. Both the items that you mentioned will be helpful to the community. One or nquestion, Could the School Committee agenda be published on the school website? The town side publishes their agendas on their site and I find that quite convenient.
I concede your point that kids may get into trouble after normal school hours and that sports, band and after school programs give them a positive outlet and teaches valuable life lessons. But my question is not whether those programs are worthy, it is one of priorities. Given the budget constraints faced by the town and schools, can we afford to continue these programs at the expense of the other kids? Let me elaborate. Reading the sports page, I see the same names mentioned in every sport season. So it appears that the same kids, the more athletic ones, are involved. It seems that the sports programs benefit a few hundred of our students. The band also involves a hundred or so kids. After school programs, a few hundred more. So the reach of these programs is limited. But every child goes into a classroom, uses textbooks and computers. If we choose to spend our money on sports, band and other extra curricular activities and the result is larger class sizes, lack of instructional materials, and inadequate technology, then I believe we are making the wrong choices.
Now, it may be that more money will solve everything, but I and others have doubts about whether we can trust the fiscal responsibility and priorities of the school administration. Until those concerns are addressed I don't think an override will pass. Please see my post "A La Carte override" for more info on how I see that.
I don't want to get into what buildings should be used or whether a secretary at the Middle School should be a priority. These details can be worked out. But the needed funds will not be provided unless the public believes the schools are making the right choices.
As a candidate for School Committee will you commit to making curriculum and instruction (i.e. books and teachers) the top priority of the department? That is my basic question.
I see that Phil has responded to your questions so I encourage you to continue your discussions with him for as a School Committee member he will take action while I will continue to engage people in dialog and understanding of issues facing the schools and the town. But I will make one final point to address your concerns. For yes Bill your point is exactly my point that about 5-10 years ago the school department had to change funding priorities based upon the changes they were seeing in children. So yes 5-10 years ago monies were budgeted for textbooks but the School Adminstration as stewards of our children's safety, well being, and education decided based upon their knowledge, expereince and expertise to change funding priorities to meet the children's needs. For what good are up to date instructional materials when you have no students to teach due to an increase in the drop out rate, crime, drug use, suspensions, etc.
The same holds true for the need of two principals at the 1,000+-student elementary school. Both principals and an assistant principal are needed to get that school to work as it had never been done before and there are many issues of safety, curriculum, etc. that they are needed to address so again yes the decision was made that these administrators were needed for the well being of the students first over text books.
All these things don’t change the need for textbooks Bill the school department has just had to adjust their funding priorities based upon the children’s needs not to mention the increased State Department of Education mandates.
All of these changes we are generally unaware of as it is the job of the school department to educate our children so in my opinion the big problem here is a miscommunication of the true needs of the children. Part of that is our fault for not paying attention until it gets to the desperate point of an override for people don’t understand how we have gotten to this point and begin to distrust the need.
As I see it the School Department and the Town for that matter have a major communication problem and that leads to the distrust of our administrators. They have been unable to communicate their needs to us before it became a crisis. Now we receive their message in a negative distrustful way as we just can’t understand how they got to this point.
Spending time in the schools, with our administrators and teachers helps to understand how we have gotten to this point and working with our administrators which sometimes means questioning their decisions is good but only if those questions posed come with some solutions for I am truly tired of listening to people disagree with the decisions that our administrators have made but offer no viable alternative ideas or solutions based upon a true understanding of the problems. For yes Bill change is needed but why continue to question the priority changes made by our administrators without full knowledge of the problems they and our children are facing? They are extremely competent people, in my opinion it is us who are at fault, as we have not given them our attention until now.
And sadly our attention now is in the form of judgment without full knowledge of the problem and this is getting us nowhere. For it is much like the Salem Witch trials where someone has declared mismanagement and we have wasted a better part of 2 years looking for examples of that and have found very little to justify that. For spending money on after school programs over text books is not an example of mismanagement it is just an example of administrators doing their jobs to adjust to the needs of our children which should never be used as an excuse to vote no on an override to fund such needs.
While you may disagree with their priorities Bill, I respectfully disagree with your qualifications to make such a judgment but I once again thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns.
Liz, I can see that we share some areas of agreement. You say that the job of our school department is to educate our kids, I agree. You say that there has been poor communication. I agree. You feel that safety and well being of kids at school is paramount. I agree.
But then you say that the schools shifted their priorities away from education to other things. This is where we begin our disagreement. Education comes first in my view. You question my qualification to comment on school administration. I did not create Quinn school, our, in your words, "extremely competent " administrators did. The public statements by those administrators and comments from parents all seem to point to that as a mistake. Yes, I now want to hold those responsible for that decision accountable, don't you?
You say I have not proposed any solutions. The solution that I offered was to refocus our priorities on curriculum and instruction. Why is that misinformed?
Look, if your goal is to convince people to vote for an override to get more money for the schools but we are funding extra curricular activities over textbooks, the operride will fail. That may not be fair in your view but it's true.
Dear Bill,
In response to your question of posting the agenda’s on the schools website. At present this is not possible on a consistent timely basis. Generally, the agenda for the School Committee is completed on Friday afternoon for a following Monday night meeting. The computer technician whose responsibility posting the agenda falls to is extremely busy and would only be able to accomplish the task if he were provided the time. Since he is out of the building on service calls frequently during the day, he is simply unavailable. I’m sure you can understand. Simply send an email to Joan at bush st and you will receive the agenda Friday afternoon.
In response to your concerns, there are 636 students whom participate in Sports programs, band etc… after school at DHS. There are currently 1254 students so simple math makes that more than 1 out of 2 participate. Most of the athlete’s in football or the larger sports quite often don’t play during the games for a variety of reasons (underclass, ability or lack thereof, etc….) this doesn’t reduce or eliminate their participation and enjoyment or growth as individuals. Yes if you restrict yourself to simply reading the paper for your knowledge of Dartmouth sports, you would see the same names perhaps because every sport has its “stars” during the year. These numbers also do not include participation at the DMS and elementary schools.
Your question of priorities over worth I believe has been answered. Because the programs are worthy, they are a priority. They are worthy enough for the parents to be paying fees for their children to participate, stars and benchwarmers all.
Trusting the School administration with our tax dollars begins with correct and useful, easy to access and reliable information. If I am elected my website will continue to be an information portal for the residents of Dartmouth to use. If there are questions anyone has, a simple email will bring a prompt answer. I have come to believe through meeting people and having discussions such as this, that the majority of people in Dartmouth don’t know exactly what’s going on in our schools. With whom that fault lies is debatable
More money than the state mandated minimum net school spending is required if positive changes are to be made in our school system. I am not saying blank check, carte blanche however. Fiscal responsibility is required to prevent wasting of this opportunity for improvement.
In answering your question “will you commit to making curriculum and instruction the top priority of the department?” I believe curriculum and instruction are important facets of our children’s education; however they must be balanced with the overall needs of the children. The School Dept is required not only to teach our children but to also keep them safe and healthy Add to this the increase state mandates from the State Board of Education (unfunded) and it becomes apparent that several” top” priorities must exist in our education system.
The two principal’s at Quinn. Unusual yes but not without precedents. Thru discussions I’ve had with senior members of the school system (some retired) Demello School had for a time co-principals when enrollment was over 700 back in the late 1960’s. Also the DPS school administration spent a considerable amount of time meeting with the administration of the Mansfield, MA Public Schools as they have 2 elementary schools with about 1,000 children in each that have 2 principals and one assistant. The first Jordan/Jackson Elementary school houses grades 3-5 and the second is Robinson Elementary School which houses Mansfield’s’ K-2 students. Here’s a link to learn more about those schools http://www.mansfieldschools.com/schools.html.
One more thing to note, it is my understanding that when the principal of Potter school retires at the end of this school year, a principal TBD will move from the Quinn School to the Potter school and will be replaced at Quinn with an assistant at substantially lower cost.
Thanks again for your questions for it is my hope that this information will help you and others learn more about what is happening in our schools to make them a safe, healthy learning environment while maintaining a fair fiscal balance.
After talking with Joan via e-mail Thursday morning , the agenda will be posted on the district website Friday’s before a scheduled meeting or remains available via email. The preferred method will be the website where it will be available for download. Thanks
Phil
also disregard the double posting
Phil, Thank you once again for your efforts in getting information, such as School Committee agendas out to the community. That helps us all.
I don't feel that saying that since a program, any program, is worthy therefore it is a priority is an adequate answer. There are many worthy programs that are not funded, a police School Resource Officer for example. Since you are running for School Committee and, if elected, will be setting the priorities and budgets for the school department, I think it is proper to ask that you define what you would set as your priorities. I don't want to limit you to my choices, so would you be willing define a list of your priorities, top to bottom?
When discussing school funding, you and others have alluded to unfunded state mandates. What are these mandates and what do they cost? Does the burden of these mandates fall more heavily on Dartmouth than other districts? If so, why?
One last comment, more teachers and adequate materials benefit all of our students, not just some.
Bill,
I feel as though we will agree to disagree regarding the extra- curricular activities in the DPS. How programs that benefit over half of the students can fail to be a priority puzzles me as do your repeated calls for more teachers. Does your call for more teachers also call for re-opening one of the schools because what good can teachers provide with no place to teach? There are no open classrooms available at the present time. If you are calling to re-open the Gidley School to ease the crowding at Quinn as I do, I applaud you in that difficult and unpopular decision however the final decision will be up to the taxpayers on April 1st. The police resource officer is not funded thru the school dept; it is funded thru the Police Dept budget. Every time the police budget isn’t funded the school resource officer edges farther away from reality. The school committee does not set the priorities for the school system. It is in fact the individual schools that set their own priorities. These facts are the type of misinformation that my campaign is trying to address.
The state mandates is a slight misnomer its actually federal and state mandates especially the no child left behind program. A worthy cause however without proper funding, the program strains the local towns to supply adequate funding for the programs involved.
My priorities are simple. The best education for the children of Dartmouth while exercising fiscal control. As what I’d like to think of as open-mindedness, my priorities are subject to change if the change will provide a better education. To be locked into one mindset regarding what’s important doesn’t allow for change or education of oneself. Times change and what’s important now may not be tomorrow and without a flexibility of thought, history will repeat itself
Throughout this discussion repeated backhanded or outright statements imply I do not know what I am talking about regarding the schools.
Now comes this statement from Mr Lenz,
The school committee does not set the priorities for the school system. It is in fact the individual schools that set their own priorities. These facts are the type of misinformation that my campaign is trying to address.
From Mass General Law Chapter 71 section 37 (bold emphasis mine)
Section 37. The school committee in each city and town and each regional school district shall have the power to select and to terminate the superintendent, shall review and approve budgets for public education in the district, and shall establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district consistent with the requirements of law and statewide goals and standards established by the board of education.
Nuff said, Business as usual!
Bill,
If I have given you the impression that I believe you don’t know what you’re talking about regarding the schools I apologize. That wasn’t my intent but to give examples of how easily misinformation and partial information can cloud judgment and prejudice thinking. My statement you call into question is in fact correct. This morning I received number of emails from school committee members and principals and even the superintendent of schools that verified my answer as correct “We as a committee allow the Administrators to set their own goals and budgets. They know what we are looking for and then we approve them”. I am sure the law is exactly how you stated it and I appreciate the fact that you actually took the time to investigate the law. However in this case the Administrators do set their goals and budgets regardless of the statute. I also sense our communications coming to an end based on Nuff said, Business as usual. I will just add the thought that somehow misinformation has become Business as usual in Dartmouth and as usual hostility enters the discussion as one side is losing. This hostility removes the possibility of co-operation and the bi-partisanship that Dartmouth desperately needs.
Phil, I don't doubt that the current School Committee and superintendent agree with your position and thus, my comment that your candidacy is an endorsement of business as usual seems valid. In any bureaucracy, there is a natural tendency to seek more funding and expand their duties and responsibility. (See Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and think General Peckem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Peckem
This bureaucratic tendency must be held in check or the costs of the bureaucracy get completely out of proportion to the service that it was originally created to provide. The elected School Committee is given the duty and power to set goals and policies as a check on the school bureaucracy. This is what is lacking in our town as you have now confirmed.
Phil, I sincerely commend you for your willingness to serve the community and in your efforts to bring transparency and information to the processes. Please don't mistake my disappointment that we do not have someone willing to be a guardian of the taxpayers interests running for School Committee as hostility. Ultimately, I think we share a core belief, That we should provide our children with the best possible education and not waste a dime because every dime wasted costs the kids. Where we diverge is that you trust those with vested interest in continuing and expanding their bureaucracy to achieve that goal and I do not.
I hope that you continue to be open to discussion and realize that my criticism is not personal or mean-spirited. I am sincerely interested in having a dialog with you and others about what priorities of the school department should be and trying to reach a consensus. Then if funding is tightened, everyone knows what has priority over other things. Additionally, if these priorities are set by the bureaucracy, I don't think you will succeed in getting an override. If the priorities are set by consensus of the community including those who don't have kids in school, you can pass an override.
One last comment, the plan to have separate questions for school priorities, textbooks, fee elimination, opening Cushman and opening Gidley is doomed to failure on all items in my opinion. First nearly half will vote against all of them anyway, then the remaining votes will be divided up voting for this one or that but not all, and some like yourself will vote for all but perhaps one. But the end result is none will prevail.
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