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Here is a fact for you. 22 days after being elected, SC member Karen Bachus, without looking at the budget got together with 2 other members of the school committee and voted to give the WISE union a raise of 1 1/2%. The committee had not even had a regular meeting yet. 2 members of the school committee did not even know they were in negotiations with the WISE union as the contract was 9 months away from ending and 2 new members were just elected to the board. The WISE union supported Ms Bachus financially and this can be viewed on the Secretary of State website on her financial disclosure forms. They gave her money to run for the committee, they stood out at all the polls for her and the first things she did was give them a raise. Is this surprising to me, NO. In return for the raise the WISE union agreed to no concessions. The Raise was a total of $300K annually. I must point out that this program served 300 students, 7.5% of the elementary population. The cost of the program was stated by administration to cost $325K, (I served on the SC for 4 years and I would estimate the cost at 200K). So, the raise this SC gave to the union without deliberations, without concessions, without thought, for union "peace", I would just call it what it is, a payback for getting Bachus elected, is equal to the cost of this great program that was cut.

I will agree that ALAP serves approximately 300 students and there is a well defined cut off for getting into the program so it doesn't serve every student. When the funding is cut to the program, the money will not be used to serve any students either. It is being given to the WISE union in return for union peace. So... how does that serve the students? I am not saying the staff members of the WISE union do not deserve a raise but the committee should have found cuts or received a concession in another area to pay for the raise. Instead, they made a quick decision and the students are paying for it.

If every student wanted to play an instrument, would the schools be able to provide it for them or provide instruction for every child? The answer is no. There are not enough teachers to have every student play an instrument. Should we get rid of band all together and just have chorus because we can not provide the service to every student? ALAP has a motto, it is raising the bar. We have just lowered the bar and are now striving for the status quo, as usual.

I will tell you now, kids who didn't make it into ALAP in 3rd grade, tried harder and got into the program in 4th grade. Kids that were in, got bored and left. It was not the same kids every year and many were offered the opportunity and chose not to do it. It was not an exclusive program. 4 years ago they cut a position from 3 teachers to 2.5 teachers. If people wanted more kids in the program, they should have fought for the program to be expanded to more teachers.

I can guarantee 2 things. One, The money cut will not go into the schools for ALL the kids to have more enrichment, it is already gone for salaries. Two, at a time when we should be putting in more programs like this to attract more families to Warwick, we will have more leave because they are sick of paying more money for less services. It is a lose- lose situation for taxpayers, parents and our students.

Bachus abstained from this vote because she didn't want to vote to actually cut the program because it would mean cutting union jobs. She is gutless and a coward. She is also the vice president of the SEIU. This is the same group that got the Governor to sign the Day Care Workers UNION bill.

From: Added school surplus reduces need for cuts

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