While not up there with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the lack of an $ Override question on the April 9 town election ballot is only a borderline miracle, especially in light of the recent outcry over school budget cuts.
Town officials are 1-2 over the past six years with one $1.68 Override passing in 2010; but a larger more hard fought $2.5 million Override campaign failing in 2007 (mainly because of campaign director, Rick Hood).
Any marketing guru will confirm trying to get people to voluntarily raise their own taxes -- especially in a trying economy -- is a tough sell. Even more so, the prospect of trying to raise money to buy media to sell consumers on the idea of paying more for something most people take for granted: public services.
Especially when the town has $6 million stashed away in reserves and the Regional Schools another $1 million. The old "why should I take money out of my savings account so that you can keep money stashed in yours" routine.
Of course the major downside now is the April 9 local election, with no town-wide contests and half the town meeting precincts with not enough candidates to fill the open seats, will get an abysmal turnout ... under 10%.
And no, 14 UMass students running for Amherst Town Meeting will not stimulate the vote in the least (other than the 14 who come out to vote for themselves -- if indeed they bother to vote that day).
Last November, however, the Amherst turnout for a non competitive (in this state anyway) Presidential election was 69%.
But for matters that more directly impact them -- The People -- it's the local election that really counts. And yet there, we always come up lacking.
Amherst: where even the H is silent.
Yes, an override vote would make those salaries in our school administration a newly salient issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd the chickens would come home to roost on the efforts of school administrators to play defense politically by running dissenters off of the field over the past few years. The Sanderson Underground is still around: count on it.
Sooner or later, one of these override votes is going to be seen by voters as primarily about spending on the comfort of school administrators, at the expense of teachers and older taxpayers, no matter how hard the Select Board tries to make it about a broader range of governmental priorities.
In other words, the schools will be at the top of the menu, even if there is no menu override. And all of town government will have to absorb the wrath of voters who see a school administration year after year insulated from accountability.
Is it true that school employees can take any and all religious holidays as (extra) paid days off?
ReplyDeleteWith the highest tax rate and highest per student spending there is no frickin way I would go for another override.
ReplyDeleteNo that bit about religious holidays is false. The teacher contract is a public document. You can easily reda the entire thing and find out.
ReplyDeleteOh, and remember that is a negotiated contract. Teachers don't dictate terms.
Only Larry Kelley is talking override. Apparently when he can't find ay real news, Kelley just starts finding things to pour gas on and light.
ReplyDeleteWHat else "might happen" oh grand Kreskin. Oh wait, I know, now he'll make some tough guy comment about anon posters.
And then he'll reference his mother's townee roots and Irish ancestry.
And, go. . .
maybe the sign should read:
ReplyDeleteNo More School Administrators.
Actually,There is a lot Larry can look into.How about why the town is paying for the Quinn bill for police entirely out of pocket with absolutely no reimbursement from the state. This is 10% -25% of an an officers salary annually!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't need to look very hard. It's in their contract .
ReplyDelete6:56 pm and 6:45 am:
ReplyDeleteActually, I heard it from the horse's mouth on Friday that school employees do indeed get religious holidays off with pay. And this came from a clerical employee, not a teacher. I have a feeling that contract or no contract, Amherst school employees get away with a lot of these kinds of freebies.
Anon source citing an Anon source. Not the greatest of attribution.
ReplyDeleteMy source may be anonymous to you Larry, but not to me. Perhaps she was thumbing her nose at us, gloating that she and her coworkers get paid time off for religious holidays and we, who work for a different school system, don't. Would it make you feel better about how the Amherst School system operates if she was lying?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...How about why the town is paying for the Quinn bill for police entirely out of pocket with absolutely no reimbursement from the state. This is 10% -25% of an an officers salary annually!!!
ReplyDeleteLarry Kelley said...Don't need to look very hard. It's in their contract .
Which means it can be renegotiated, right?
That Bill was instituted in the early 1970s to encourage cops to get an education theoretically to encourage professionalism. I was in classes with many of them-yikes! But even more received degrees from schools that did not even require attendance to classes (1st hand information) and later found to be fudging on education for the cop business. "Earning" a degree was often a (enabled by the system) ruse to qualify for the payments and remember, there is no statute of limitations on the payments. One could have a degree from 1975 and still be getting an extra 25% in 2005. How 'bout if, like with many other occupations, one is required to have the degree before getting the job and is paid accordingly.
Just a thought...
And then we would/should increase starting salaries by 25%. Sounds like it would work out about even.
ReplyDeleteAny other gripes about APD?
Re: the schools and school costs, I want to see more of an explanation about why it is Amherst's best interest to support creating an elementary school region with Pelham and Leverett. Nothing I have seen says such a regional system would save money for Amherst, and I can think of another of reasons why it could cost more than the current system, including the need to increase salaries at the other schools to match the Amherst ones. The issue of whether to regionalize the elementary schools or not is expected to come before Amherst voters in the fall.
ReplyDeleteanon 1:57 pm: Not sure about Amherst saving money, but it sure won't save money for Leverett in the long run. If parity prevails, and how can it not, Leverett's teacher salaries will go up and its "specials" will be cut. Any problems Amherst has will be passed along to the other towns. Although Shutesbury bowed out, it's really "in name only" because they're keeping their reps on the regionalization committee just in case they can convince their town folk who are adamantly opposed to regionalizing, to switch sides. I just think Amherst's eyes are bigger than its stomach, eager to expand for not very solid reasons. Come November, the towns/town meetings will vote, so there's plenty of time for the regionalization committees to flood the towns with false promises and pseudo advantages of hooking up with Amherst.
ReplyDeleteLarry
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely no gripes with A.P.D.
It's when the Town Manager tells you that your cola or lack of it is in line with what other departments received. Well, that doesn't seem entirely accurate. That being said I realize the Quinn bill is not a cola.
Larry Kelly said:
ReplyDelete"And then we would/should increase starting salaries by 25%. Sounds like it would work out about even."
Actually,no-1 reason,per an independant study done in 2003,among several:
The benefits of the Quinn Bill police educational incentive program are extraordinarily generous and are not aligned with the services received by the public and the taxpayers.
Paying police officers a fixed percentage above the pay scale of their position over an entire career means that the
education bonus grows with every contractual pay raise and with each additional degree. Officers of higher rank receive larger Quinn Bill payments for the same degree, on the assumption that degrees earned by higher-ranking officials will have a greater impact on police services. So a police captain with a base salary of $88,498 in 2003 could receive an annual Quinn Bill bonus of $22,125 after earning a Master’s degree with no increase in authority or responsibility.
Larry Kelly said"
"Any other gripes about APD?"
Here it might be APD, but across the state its 250 communities grappling with this expense especially when you consider that "After the Quinn Bill was adopted a shift occurred in which many police officers began to enroll in educational institutions, sometimes called “cop shops” as the Quinn Bill did not set for standards for curriculum, attendance, est..."
Just saying...
I find it fascinating that a guy who has so much time on his hands to do all that research can't even spell my name correctly, even when it accompanies every Comment I make.
ReplyDelete(like this one for instance.)
Sounds to me like you have a gripe against cops.
Just saying ...
Larry Kelley said: "I find it fascinating that a guy who has so much time on his hands to do all that research can't even spell my name correctly, even when it accompanies every Comment I make."
ReplyDeleteLarry, what makes you think I had to research this?
I did make several spelling errors and for that I apologize. But, really Larry, my spelling? Is that the best you can do in response to an argument based on fact/documented evidence?
Larry Kelley said: "Sounds to me like you have a gripe against cops."
Actually, my gripe is with unnecessary or wasteful government programs. I also have a grip against those who claim to be fiscal conservatives but don't themselves walk that walk.
Seems that anyone in central office wanting time off for "religious reasons" can take it (and it doesn't count against alloted time off)
ReplyDeleteNice Perk!
Since when is taking time off for religious purposes a negative thing?
ReplyDeleteGood thing the month of Ramadan is in the summer...
ReplyDeletejust mentioned your name to a friend and got this response: "yeah, he's the token dickwad in amherst." glad you've built yourself a reputation, sir.
ReplyDelete"Since when is taking time off for religious purposes a negative thing?"
ReplyDeleteStaff should use personal days or floating holidays for religious recognition- Why should some staff get time off for recognizing multiple religions while their coworkers work every contracted day.
School employees negotiate their contracts with the town. Any and all parts of that are agreed to by both the school employees and the town.
ReplyDeleteSo, school employees can "take any and all religious holidays as (extra) paid days off."
First, those are not paid days off.
Second the school employee can't simply take those days off. Those days were agreed to by both sides.
In fact, it was the town that insisted the schools be closed on Good Friday, not the school employees.
Although town employees did work on Good Friday (at least the entire DPW did).
ReplyDeleteMaybe closing schools or allowing paid time off for religious holidays is one reason why Amherst schools don't fulfill the classtime quota required by the state. Priorities, priorities...
ReplyDeleteor maybe it's because teachers have had wednesday afternoons off for years. but that's changing. and change is good.
ReplyDeleteCAN 3-31 6:24pm said... The Sanderson Underground is still around: count on it.
ReplyDeleteThat's good, because all of her previous, above ground cohorts have either left town, turned to mg (extending her contract,) or exist in an ostracized state in their own town.