Amherst's Special Ed legal bill first quarter FY2012Even though Gini Tate's $225/hour contract was terminated by a 5-4 Regional School Committee vote (9/22/10) for Special Education legal services commencing 12/1/2010, with the contract turned over to Dupere & Dupere for a $36,000 total annual cost, taxpayers recently paid the law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane (Ms. Tate's firm)$13,646 for special education legal services for only the first quarter of FY2012.
According to Regional School Committee Chair Rick Hood:
"There were three cases carried over from the transition between Dupere and MHLT (Attorney Tate). Two of the cases have reached conclusion and/or are awaiting the BSEA to issue their decision. The third case was a re-filing of a case where MHLT (Attorney Tate) had already worked extensively on it during the FY11 school year prior to Dupere being appointed the new SE attorney. Probably this is the case you are referring to.
Where MHLT was already deeply involved in a case it was thought best (and less expensive) to keep MHLT on it."
Of course that case he claims attorney Tate being "deeply involved in" had only been filed 11/13/10, less than a month after the Regional School Committee vote to terminate Ms. Tate and only two weeks before the 12/1/10 date of implementation. In fact, the case was withdrawn and refiled April 4, 2011 well after Dupere & Dupere took over.
But no, rather than let the new law firm handle it at no extra cost we have town officials opening a spigot--as though taxpayer money springs from an endless well.
Expensive "internal" copy costs
21 comments:
I think the die was cast with what they did to Catherine and the only thing is to pull the fiscal plug and let the whole mess go down the toilet.
What part of "insubordination" do these people not understand?
Who did what to poor Catherine? And who is being insubordinate? I remember the SC meeting where it was discussed and voted on that Gini Tate's firm would handle to completion all litigation began before Dupere and Dupere took over.
No one is being insubordinate.
I think someone should explain to the school committee paying tate costs more money. This fact seems to elude them. The new firm can handle this case for no additional charge.
How much would it cost to simply settle the SPED cases? To just give the families what they want?
Methinks that doing this would (a) educate the kids (so they then don't become a burden on the town, in a variety of ways including crime, (b) save the money to the town, and (c) be the decent thing to do.
All the ARSD accomplishes by litigating SPED cases is ensure that only the rich with disabilities get accommodations and that sorta flies in the face of pretending to be a "socially just" community.
"Sorry Malcolm, only rich black men can drink from this water fountain..."
And if what the family is demanding is a $300,000 a year special school for their child? Amherst is just supposed to say - ok, sure, we'll foot the bill for that.
Larry...Get it straight. The money does not come from a well, it grows on magic trees. The job of the townies is to keep watering those trees. Forever. 'Cause otherwise the spigot can't be opened as far as they would like and that'd be just too tragic.
$800 in copying-
Was it billed at the hourly attorney rate?
This state of affairs is totally consistent with the philosophy of Rick Hood - crony of Maria Geryk.
Geryk always supports her friends financially - as long as it is with taxpayer dollars.
Just examine her decisions over the past several months for staffing, outside expenses, legal favors to Ms. Tate etc...
What is astounding yet accepted in our little corner of the world is that the SC does nothing about it.
Talk about cozy relationships....
This is why Ms. Sanderson was vilified, bullied etc... because she took on the status quo in a place which accepts bullying to fight truth telling that does not feel comfortable.
The elephant in the room is a question - why do Hood, Rhodes et al accept what happens here?
Answer: Flaccid, lazy, ignorance.
To Anon: 2:57
I did precisely that at an SC Meeting earlier this fall.
Appy, Hood, Rhodes and friends shut down the discussion.
Michael Aronson
The infidels have been driven out, and all hope of oversight is gone...........until the next override, of course, when then someone might listen to those isolated voices of dissent from the wilderness.
The only thing that scares them these days is a NO vote on an override.
We can bitch about this, but.....
The reality is that Maria can stay as long as she wants. She's not going anywhere else because she's not qualified to. She has friends who will never admit that they made a mistake. So there is no scenario in which her contract is not renewed over and over and over. She'll be here at least as long as Barry D was our Town Manager. Accept it.
I've heard extensions is back alive and well in at least one 7th grade math class. Let's face it- Hayes thinks he has the RIGHT to do whatever the heck he wants to (and let his teachers). Parents and the community have NO right to have any input into the structure or curriculum of the school. But it is fun for some of the kids, so that just great.
My understanding is that EVERYONE does extensions now. Parents have always had the right to express their opinion about the curriculum but they have NEVER had the right to dictate the curriculum.
If you hate the schools so much then move.
well anon@10:24, your understanding is wrong. Your attitude is what will continue to drive the mediocre middle school to maintain the status quo. There will never be support from the community to move 6th grade to the MS. The opinions of parents and the community are irrelevant to the running of the middle school. Zero impact. You are wrong, the community through the sc, has the right to drive the direction of the curriculum. Evidence- in some communities it is the SC (or school board) that requires the inclusion of 'intelligent design' or prohibits teaching of evolution. But heck, in Amherst, we don't even require that our middle school teachers actually teach math, but instead ask that students 'discover' it on their own.
When Catherine's away, the mice will play.
Anon 10:24 captures the spirit of our town when it comes to education: "If you are for reform, you must hate the schools. Since you hate the schools, you should leave." In short, "we are patriots....you are not."
Love it or leave it. Many of us remember when that phrase was used by others nationwide earlier in the last century. I don't care how liberal you say or think you are; if you can't tolerate dissent, you deserve to be lumped in with others who haven't in the past.
I am not old enough to remember the "love it or leave it" but the difference between what I understand of those schmucks and the schmucks of today is that the folk of today have enough education to know better.
Bull Connor had what -- maybe an 8th Grade education and four years of high school cheerleaders doing his homework so he could play football? Maybe some really hard working grandmother who had taught him (with much effort) him the Lord's Prayer in Sunday School? Maybe he could actually read his paycheck well enough to know if he was getting all the overtime due him? (Don't laugh, there are guys today who can't do that.)
Say what you want, the man (and the rest like him) did not have UMass educations....
The people saying this stuff now have freaking doctorates. Some have them in Social Justice!
I am not going to excuse Bull Connor and the rest of those a**holes for what they did back then, but I can say that they were ignorant, that they didn't have the education to know better.
They didn't know any better....
That is not true here and now. These people have freaking doctorates. They have access to the greatest library ever conceived, the internet. Even the dumbest amongst them have the ability to know far more than the smartest of a century ago.
These folk do not have the excuse of ignorance...
QED, they are worse than the schmucks of yore...
Ed - the biggest schmuck of all.
Who's Bull Connor and what does he have to do with our schools legal bills?
Well, this time next year, I won't be here -- I will be finishing my book that makes this town look -- well, like it should....
Dreams do come true!!! Ed is leaving!
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