Update: Things You Need To Know About The School Committee

Recently I posted an article on this blog titled: THERE'S A NEW GROUP IN HAMILTON & WENHAM (Enough Is NEVER Enough)

At the end of that posting, I added:

Question: If 8 out of 9 School Committee members were present at this meeting, shouldn't it have been posted as something other that a Finance Working Group meeting?  Smells a little like a violation of the Open Meeting Laws.  Anyone care to comment?

Fortunately, at least one resident did care and he looked into the issue and properly filed a complaint.  The attorney for the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee researched the claim and had this to say:

"The School District recognizes that it violated the Open Meeting Law because a quorum of the full School Committee attended and deliberated at the Finance Working Group subcommittee meetings and a meeting of the School Committee was not posted in accordance with M.G.L Chapter 30A, Section 20."

As it turns out, the School Committee received training on the Open Meeting Law in July, 2010.  Their willingness to simply ignore the law and hold unposted School Committee meetings in which the new (contested) budget was discussed and deliberated and straw votes were taken is unexcusable as well as unlawful and shows that the lack of transparency within the School Committee is alive and well.  If not for this single citizen's complaint, the unlawful behavior would surely have continued.  If you wondered why the recent SC meeting, in which the new school budget was voted, appeared so well rehearsed and pre-determined... well, now you know.  The vote was rehearsed and pre-determined...unlawfully!

Read more about School Committee issues at The Hamilton-Wenham Patch.
Read more about School Committee issues at The Boston Globe, North Section.
Read more about the School Committee issues at The Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle.

Most of you will recall that the topic of TRUST was mentioned by several speakers at last year's Town Meetings in Hamilton and Wenham and it was reported in the Salem News by the late Steve Landwehr.  We were assured by the School Committee that trust would be restored and transparency created.

Obviously, that is simply not the case.  The only way to begin to break the arrogant behavior of this committee and restore trust is to vote out all incumbents running for re-election to the School Committee.  That will be a good start.  A beginning.

Here are a few other things to consider before you cast your vote:

• $300,000 was "found" in the HWRSD kindergarten account.
• $70,000 was "found" in the school choice account.
• $121,000 was "found" in the Medicaid account.
• $110,000 was "given back" to the teachers after they had agreed to one day without pay as part of their salary negotiations.
• $350,000 budgeted for unemployment was never needed or used.
• An extra $120,000 is available through Chapter 70 that was not included in the new school budget.
• There is a salary for a Latin teacher included in the new budget...but there is NO Latin teacher.

The Selectmen and Fincoms of both Hamilton and Wenham have voted to approve the School budget LESS $500,000.  Even with that, the new budget is $1 million MORE than what was spent last year.  That's not what I call "level funded", as the SC claims.

TRUST is earned... not demanded.  Vote wisely.


Update 5/6/2011: At this week's scheduled public meeting, the Chairman of the School Committee read a letter written by their attorney admitting that they had violated the Open Meeting Law on numerous occasions.  Shamefully, NO APOLOGY was proferred.  The chairman stated that "in the context of the new Open Meeting Law" what they did was a violation.  Actually, in the context of the old Open Meeting Law what they did was a violation as well, so let's not blame it on changes to the Open Meeting Law.