The following is the text of the presentation made by Enough Is Enough at the Hamilton Town Meeting on Saturday, May 8th. After minor debate the motion was passed by a margin of more than 5 to 1.
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Presented by Jay Burnham
Thank you Mr. Moderator… and greetings fellow residents of Hamilton. Last week I had the privilege of speaking to this same motion at the Wenham Annual Town Meeting. Because we are a Regional School District, the motion needs to pass in both towns. It passed by an overwhelming majority in Wenham and it had the unanimous support of both the Wenham Board of Selectmen and the Wenham Finance and Advisory Committee. In fact, it was reported in the Salem News the following day:
“Any lingering doubts that a proposal for an operational audit of the Hamilton-Wenham Regional District enjoys broad-based community support were buried under a blizzard of white voter cards at Wenham’s Annual Town Meeting on Saturday afternoon.”
I understand that the Hamilton Board of Selectmen and the Hamilton Finance and Advisory Committee also support this motion and you will hear from them shortly. It should also be noted that all the current candidates for election to the BoS and the School Committee that spoke recently at the League of Women Voters Candidate’s night stated support for this motion as well.
A little more than a year ago Enough Is Enough was sufficiently concerned with the costs associated with our schools that we suggested that an operational, or efficiency audit, of the school district would be advisable. Shortly after that the Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) was formed and began investigating school costs. When they reported their findings last June, we discovered that our school operating costs were much higher than comparable school districts. Unfortunately, nothing was ever done about it.
Then in February of this year, Dave Reid and other members of the BRC received new, current and updated information, working directly with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). That updated information showed that our costs were now even HIGHER than they were in last year’s study. It was reported that we spend between $2 to $4 million more a year than comparable or cohort school districts…or nearly $2,000 more per student…without the benefit of a better education as measured by scholastic test scoring.
Once again, nothing was done about it. The School District set about denying the results, defending the spending and delaying a solution. It was clear that something had to be done and the district was not going to be the one to initiate the process.
As a result Enough Is Enough prepared and began circulating a Citizen’s Petition requesting an amendment to the Regional School Agreement calling for an Operational Audit. An amendment of the Regional School Agreement is the ONLY recourse that citizens have when it comes to the school district, which is otherwise autonomous.
The motion before you is different than what was originally proposed. Despite claims of support for an operational audit, the School District placed numerous roadblocks in the path of the Citizens Petition. In an effort to find common ground and compromise, EiE voluntarily modified the original motion as follows:
- We have removed the obligation of the Superintendent or School Committee to adopt the recommendations of the Operational Audit.
- We have removed the obligations of the Superintendent or School Committee to present a plan for such adoption.
- We now only require the Superintendent or School Committee to report to the Selectmen, at an advertised Public Hearing, their response to the recommendations made in the Operational Audit.
- We have removed, as a result of agreement by the towns to fund the costs and expenses of the audit, the requirement that the School District pay for the Operational Audit.
- We have added the requirement that the costs and expenses of the Operational audit shall not exceed $90k and that the Towns of Hamilton and Wenham will fund the costs according to the current fiscal year rolling average assessment percentage…which is roughly 1/3 Wenham, 2/3 Hamilton.
- We removed the requirement that an Operational Audit be conducted every five (5) years.
What we have NOT changed and WILL NOT modify is the SCOPE of the Operational Audit or the MECHANISIM for assuring that the audit is performed.
The mechanism for that assurance is the Regional School District Agreement and the motion before you calls for amending that agreement so as to require the Operational Audit. The Regional Agreement is the CONTRACT between the District and our two communities. Bound only by the terms of that CONTRACT, the District is, as I mentioned before, otherwise autonomous. The School committee has suggested that the article should not be in the Regional Agreement because it is now a one time event and that we therefore somehow risk approval of the amendment by the Commissioner of DESE. We say that if the Commissioner considers denying this amendment, an amendment designed to improve the schools…at no cost to the schools…an amendment supported by the BoS and Finance Committees of both towns, an amendment that resulted from a citizens petition signed by 879 registered voters…and approved (at least so far…in Wenham) by more than 80% of the voters at Town Meeting…well then, ladies and gentlemen, our problems and far worse than we think. We’re willing and insist upon taking that alleged risk.
And lastly, we come to the SCOPE of the audit. The District wants to limit the focus to only a study of Instructional Services and SPED. That would be like asking the voters in this room to approve the Town Budget with only 2 line items presented. To the contrary, what is needed is a full and complete operational audit by an unbiased, professional auditing firm with expertise in exactly this kind of school operational study and review.
I have a copy of a full operational audit report. It is 331 pages in length…It’s a report of a school district with 3900 students, or a little less than twice our size. It is a study and complete review of an entire school system including:
- District Administration
- Financial Management
- Purchasing
- Education Service Delivery Costs
- Special Education
- Human Resources
- Facility Use & Management
- Transportation
- Technology Management
- Nutrition Services
The report is full of commendations, (yes…recognition of what the district is doing well and right) as well as “best practice” recommendations and fiscal recommendations for savings…in the case of that school district, $16 million over 5 years.
Being half the size, just imagine if we could save half that amount. Perhaps we could eliminate some User Fees…or make repairs to this auditorium…or fix up the high school lockers…or maybe all of those things.
The primary goal of the operational audit is to insure that non-instructional functions are running efficiently so that as much of school district funding as possible goes directly to the classroom and to identify savings that can be gained through best practices.
Making a positive difference…making our schools better…lies today with you and your vote.
I urge you to vote YES to the motion before you for an operational audit. We need it, it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do, and it’s the right time to do it.
And in closing, I’d like to offer one other quote from the Salem News, this one by Steve Landwehr the day before Wenham’s supportive Town Meeting vote.
He wrote:
“On its face, it’s a straightforward proposal for an independent examination of the finances and operations of the Hamilton/Wenham Regional School District. What’s at stake, however, is trust.”
You know, there just may be more truth in that statement than any one of us in this room would like to admit.
Let’s begin building trust back up within our community. It can begin if we all agree to a full and complete operational audit that will surely provide the transparency we all desire and deserve.
And along with that transparency… I believe we can find that missing trust.
Please vote YES… and make a positive difference.
Thank you for your consideration.
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