Editor, Townsman:
The leadership of our School Department, in their constant propagandizing for a school department budget the town cannot afford ("Principals lay out effects of proposed cuts," April 10), continue to ignore the elephantine root cause of this so-called budget crisis — the School Committee's recent approval of a new, gold-plated teachers contract.
The School Committee has for all practical purposes created a self-inflicted budget crisis. They are now foisting their crisis on everyone else in town by asking us to bail them, ignoring that they approved a contract with major pay raises that they knew were unaffordable. It was plain to all present at the February School Committee meeting where a budget presentation was made by the school superintendent that the level of pay raises ultimately agreed to by the School Committee would cause a budget crisis and a need for an override.
Yet the School Committee approved a budget-busting contract within two weeks of this budget presentation to the public. As pointed out weeks ago by the selectmen chairman, well before the School Committee signed this contract, had the School Committee acted responsibly on the contract, the school department would be able to operate within budget guidelines set for them by the selectmen and the Finance Committee without needing to contemplate any cuts.
Adding to the unseemliness of a budget designed to protect a new set of pay raises — which are in addition to the existing set of longevity-based pay raises — was watching the teachers' union make sure it was at the head of the line in pocketing the $628,000 of unspent special education money disclosed by Superintendent Claudia Bach. This should have immediately been set aside for the high school athletic program that Bach and the School Committee have been claiming for months cannot be funded without an override.
It became crystal clear when this new contract was announced that giving out new pay raises was the top priority of everyone in school leadership positions, even at the expense of our kids. Shame on the superintendent, the School Committee, and the teachers union for their hypocrisy.
The solution is not another bailout by the citizens to cover the irresponsible behavior. This time around, we should demand the School Committee sit down with the teachers' union prior to Town Meeting and deal with the budget problem they both created.
Bob Pokress
3 Cherrywood Circle
