A recent letter to the editor asked where the money is from all the excess teachers due to enrollment decreasing by 500 students. First inaccurate statement; 10/1/2009 foundation enrollment: 2,649, 10/1/2015 foundation enrollment: 2,295; 354 less over six years, not 500. The writer forgets the district reduced their teaching staff by 20% in FY11 and FY12 due to lack of funds. Class size improved only because enrollment decreased. If you were happy with class sizes close to 30 then you would want the district to continue to reduce staff. If not, then you would retain what was left while enrollment decreases to reduce class size.
The writer asks when the school district will run a “tighter ship”. In the last five years costs for electricity, oil, and trash & snow removal were reduced. Every expenditure is analyzed for efficiencies. I would propose this writer go through every line item in the budget and take out every expenditure he feels is unnecessary. It won’t add up to $2.5 million.
There is so much misinformation circulating about this issue. If you are opposed to this override at least have your facts straight. This is about the town not having enough revenue to cover the mandated increases required by the state to fund education. This is about MURSD continuing to improve the quality of education for our youngest constituents. This is about maintaining public safety, culture, recreation, and senior services. It’s about moving forward as a community.
The schools are part of town services, not separate. The real issue facing Mendon is whether residents are going to invest in their community and save town services, or repeat history. The quality of the school district is a barometer of the community. If town services are bad, everyone loses. We’ve been down this road before.
Residents need to make a decision. What do you want your town to be? I encourage you to vote YES. Invest in Mendon!
Jay Byer
Mendon
UPTON DAILY 
All any of us are asking for is if we are being asked to tighten our belts, then we all should. No fat at all, no nice-to-have items. If the offer is real, I will go over the budget line item by line item and remove the “offending” ones. And of course Jay and others can be there to help guide the discussion because I believe in fairness, compromise and living within your budget as we all have to. But of course, I will not be given this opportunity because the School Committee members have decided that ramming it down our throats is the best course of action for all of us. Vote and revote until the desired outcome is achieved. Really sad.
Dick,
Your attitude is what’s really sad. The budgets are available for your review, and the meetings are open for you to attend. You seem to want to do neither.
If you were to review the budget you might find that there were things that you didn’t think were necessary but that others others did. That’s called a difference of opinion.
But it’s easier for you to make generalizations and hide behind them as your reason for not supporting the school budget.
Are you prepared to tighten your belt on all of the other services in town and strip them down too? Back to part time fire department…that was sufficient. And a lot of the activities that happen at the senior center seem to be “nice-to-haves” as far as I am concerned, so we can tighten that belt too. Same goes for the library. Need I go on?
Your assessment of what is important is different from mine.
You are right of course. The old shoulda, woulda, coulda issue. I should have spent more time looking at the budget but I did not realize how much money was being spent over the actual budget until the over-ride was requested. Too late then. Without getting personal about sadness, belt tightening and so on, what puzzles me is no one is talking about measuring school performance. That is, how our students are actually doing. Is money really making a difference? Not relative to other schools – this is admittedly very difficult, but how they are doing now vs previous student bodies over say the last 10 years. Perhaps we can get to this after pitting one town against the other, pitting one department against another, etc., stuff is over.
Shall we get a team together after this frackus is over and look at student performance measures and actual performance?
Dick,
I wouldn’t call your attitude sad but I’d encourage everyone not to assume that any increased spending or increased taxes are bad ideas and vote based on that vague notion. It’s important to look at the reasons for the spending. And, yes, do get involved in the budget process early. Maybe you’d help save us some money or maybe you’d become convinced that our spending is a good investment. Maybe both. Personally, my standard is not to allow just the must-haves when it comes to funding education but I understand that you would use a different standard. I’d like exceptional education for our children not average or even above average. But, even by your own standards toward spending, I’d suggest almost all of the spending is necessary.
Your question about what the spending is getting us is right on (although something of a distraction here). Even if the quality is not yet where it should be, that’s not a good reason to vote against the override. I agree that throwing money at a problem is not always a good solution but there is a minimum that’s necessary. Beyond that, in many cases it’s the “nice-to-haves” that are going to improve our schools. If we have a community that’s known for being stingy in its education spending, it’s going to be hard to recruit and retain good teachers (and I’d suggest good students and families who care deeply about education). A community that really wants good education for its children and is willing to step up for that, a community with excellent teachers and students who are well motivated are some of the ingredients for good schools
A cogent reply. I agree that the children are our future and we should do the best we can for them. Maybe having exceptionally prepared children will stop the posturing in Washington, DC and get some real results that benefit the whole country. Having said that there are items that WILL get us closer to the goal of better prepared children and items that MAY get us closer to that goal. Measuring success is not easy, but not measuring success will cause us to spend money without knowing whether or not we are getting closer to the goal. This is why I believe measurement is relevant and not a distraction. For example, is about $700,000.00 in raises going to get us closer to the goal? is another about $700.000.00 in benefits and insurance going to get us closer to the goal? Is about $900,000.00 in new investments needed right now or can they wait another year or 2 or 3?
Contrary to some views of my comments, well educated children are high on my list. So are excellent, highly motivated teachers. But ignoring a budget is a sure way to get the reaction that is happening. Adding threats is sure to cement the negative vote. Instead, let’s treat the dissenters as real people with concerns. Maybe even compromise (this is really not a four letter word).
Dick, I would be happy to sit with you and go through the budget. The budget workbook has every account itemized with what is in each, along with a justification for every expenditure. Email me at jbyer@mursd.org and we can coordinate a time to do this. We would need around 3 hours. Jay
OK, I’ll be in touch. Many thanks for letting me get current.
Oops, I was using statistics from the responders boss. My mistake, but then again, perhaps the responder should review the numbers by DESE: 2,888 in 2009 and 2350 in 2015. Also, note that the responder agrees that the excess teachers were removed but again, where did the money go?
I agree the presentations are slick, but need vs want is what we have. Need is not as great as described.
FY09 Budget Actual Expenditures: $27,476,218
FY11 Budget Actual Expenditures: $26,320,286
No surprise, we all have our own vision of a successful outcome. Long ago I learned that throwing money at a problem seldom solves it. Some have suggested a joint town meeting as a way to resolve our differences. Could not agree less. With a high percentage of people with their minds already made up, we will only be talking AT each other rather than listening and evaluating for a new outcome. Sad, but true.
Try this as an analogy. We (you and I) do not like the outcome of the election for President of the United States. So let’s vote again, and again until the outcome is to our liking. Sounds stupid in this light doesn’t it. But isn’t this what it being forced on the citizens of Mendon?
We have a majority vote in Upton (not unanimous) but a unanimous vote by the School Committee members and a majority vote in Mendon (again, not unanimous) but a unanimous vote by the School Committee members. What is wrong with this picture. Why are we bothering to vote if no one is following our vote outcome?
The issue here, to me, is not the good education we should all have access to (my children and grand children went to school here and are doing well, thank you) but living within your budget. You and I have to. Yet the school gets a raise in revenue every year and still cannot live within its budget? Do not be fooled by the smoke and mirrors being used to say they need more money. They find money for nice-to-have items as well as the essential items. I say live within your budget – like the rest of us have to. Needs over wants!
Dick,
Your definition of need is different than my own. My kids need a good education, so I need a good school system.
But there are plenty of other things that I don’t need that i would be willing to get rid of if saving money is your only goal.
Dick,
On wants vs. needs — as I understand most of the increased costs are necessary simply to keep the same services. Why? The state is giving the district less money and some costs necessarily go up for the same service (inflation). As Jay says, “I would propose this writer go through every line item in the budget and take out every expenditure he feels is unnecessary. It won’t add up to $2.5 million.” I’m sure there are some things in the budget that some people would classify as wants but removing them isn’t going to prevent the need for an override. At the same time, I’m sure there are some things people would classify as needs that aren’t funded at all. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater because we disagree with certain elements of the budget.
According to DESE, there was a $1,000,000 increase in payments labelled as “Payments To Out of District Schools” from FY10 to FY11 (from approx $2.6 Million to $3.6 Million). Over the same time period, there was an $800,000 decrease in “Classroom and Specialist Teachers” spending. There was also a $450K drop in “Other Teaching Servies” spending. Again all taken from the Mendon / Upton section of the DESE website.
OK, what am I missing? Isn’t this FY15?
Mr. Skinner, weren’t you the individual asking what happened to so called “excess teacher” (your term not mine) money over a period when enrollment was declining? Those figures I provided give a partial explanation as I see it. Less WAS spent on teachers within the district according to those numbers. The payments to out of district schools had a huge increase in one year. The question is….why? Special education placements that couldn’t be accommodated within the district? How about an increase in students choicing out of our district due to the previous override situation? I’d love to know the exact answer.
I honestly thought many of the same things…. Why is our budget so high? Why could they possibly need more when we already give so much?
THEN I WENT TO A MEETING AND HEARD ABOUT OUR BUDGET AND THE STATE DECREASES THAT ARE HAPPENING!! I do not attend town meetings, I do not keep up with politics as well as maybe I should. But after SEEING THE BUDGET AND LISTENING TO THE SUPERINTENDENT I NOW UNDERSTAND WHY WE ARE NOT SUPPORTING OUR TOWN THE RIGHT WAY WITHOUT MORE FUNDING,!!
Please do not vote without asking questions and knowing facts!
Great letter, Jay. Picking up on one of your points,
To voters who think that spending is too high, I’d encourage them to 1) not vote against the override simply because they disagree with a few particular line items or think spending is too high “in general”. 2) get involved in the budget process early and make suggestions as budgets are being developed.
If someone’s goal is to keep spending and taxes down, getting involved early is much more constructive than waiting and then trying to defeat an override because of a belief that spending is “out of control.”
Thanks Jay. The reduction in student enrollment is a natural question that many voters have, but it can easily be explained, as you have done here.