Letter: Time for change in town budget, to maintain schools
Alter town spending to maintain schools
Editor, Townsman:
Well, it’s déjà vous, all over again (with attribution to Yogi Berra, of course)! It appears that once again, we enter a budget process with the Town Manager’s initial proposal demanding yet more cuts from what the Superintendent of Schools has deemed necessary to educate our children. Not much, just a measly $2.6 million worth! And, by the way, the Superintendent’s initial proposal for the 2011 School Budget is just a scant $38K above what it was two years ago (less than one tenth of one percent growth)! And, once again, I must ask, “Is not educating our children the most important thing we do in this town?” Apparently, town management does not think so!
One year ago, in a letter to The Townsman, I inquired as why our snow plowing expenses were at 160% of the state average in terms of cost per mile. In May of last year the town department head in charge of snow plowing, in a follow-up letter to The Townsman, indicated that they were “looking at it and the study would take months(?) to complete.” May I ask, what is the result of the study? Nothing has been made public defending or supporting our snow plowing expenses. And, ongoing town studies looking at the consolidation of both town and school technology and business and financial service efforts continue to yield no results as they continue to be “ongoing” while we continue to avoid making decisions and cutting expenditures.
In September, 2009, almost 30 educators in Andover Public Schools lost their jobs, salaries, and health benefits. How many town employees not involved in educating our children lost their jobs, salaries, or health benefits last year? I believe the answer is zero, possibly one! Further, we apparently have a pattern of eliminating FTE positions from town departments that were never filled in the first place. Why do they even exist? Do we save by eliminating something we were never paying for? A recent BOS meeting revealed that we have a town employee (?) who has earned almost $100K per year for the last three to four years but there is now a question as to whether or not this person is an actual living and breathing town employee or consultant. Incidentally, this “employee” is paid more than all but one classroom educator!
Almost two years ago the BOS conducted a study of town-owned vehicles and their use by town employees. A year later it was determined that retirement and attrition was the best way to reduce the fleet of cars being used by town employees, and that “agreements” prevented it from happening earlier. Do all of these employees have written contracts of employment that provide for a vehicle? If not, then why have these vehicles not been taken away? There is justification for the Police and Fire Chiefs, and the Town Manager, having “company cars,” but no one else. Are we worried that if we change policy and take the vehicles away that we will lose the employee? My guess is we will have a deluge of resumes of qualified applicants who would love a job, vehicle provided or not, to review within one week of the vacant position(s) being posted.
We cannot allow the continued diminishment of educational services to our children and the status quo (save for nightly street illumination being returned to World War I levels) elsewhere. We cannot continue to allow mandated (Federal and State) expense increases for needed and worthy special education programs and services to be absorbed by an education budget that town management apparently, and erroneously, believes to be excessive. Why are these special education expenses (again, mandated by law) not fixed expenses in the town’s operating budget? Is town management unaware of the fact that every additional dollar mandated to be spent on special education, under our town’s current budgeting/accounting system, results in one less dollar being spent on children not in need of special education programs and services?
Frustration does not begin to describe how too many Andover residents feel about the expenditure of money in our town. I sincerely hope that as Town Meeting draws near, town management can find new and creative ways to reduce our town-wide expenditures without the simplistic, distressing, and short sighted plan of further reducing what we spend to educate all of our children. If not, plans need to be made now for a follow-up Special Town Meeting.
William L. Gibson
125 Argilla Road
A shorter version of this letter appeared in the March 11, 2010 print edition.
