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I attended last night's meeting. Several good points were brought up by the public, however, there were just as many ill-informed accusations. Whether you approve of the consolidation or not, the display put on last night by some of the so-called "political leaders" from the City Council was disgraceful. In particular, Donna Travis, who is an embarrassment as the President of a City Council for a city of 80,000 people, (I guess we get what we deserve) took the opportunity to publicly comment and harangue the LTFPC & the School Committee knowing that no one on could respond because the rules of "public comment" prohibit such interaction.

So Travis was allowed (as was Camille Vella-Wilkinson) to deflect any budgetary criticism that could be legitimately leveled at the City Council. They played the classic "the administration is spending too much money on new positions" card while at the same time saying "the administration should have spent the money on an independent study". (This is the problem with "public comment" - accusations are left unanswered and the impression given as that they are "facts" because they can't be countered immediately).

Here are some facts: the recent new admin positions aren't "make work" but are for overseeing the development and implementation of new Math/Science curriculum (sort of a good idea, wouldn't you think?) and for the Teacher Evaluation system that is a state mandate. We can argue whether those are legit or not, but they are hardly examples of massive and wild spending. Also, I really got a kick out of everyone saying that the school admin should have payed for an "independent" study instead of keeping it in-house. We all know that, had they gone that route, the exact opposite would have been made by opponents: "Why did you waste money on a so-called consultant who really doesn't know the district? We should have made up a committee of local people who are part of this community!" Another talking point - 6th graders today will be in four schools in four years! Well, that's only one more than they would be in with the status quo, and the fact is that the building change is the only new change. The kids already change teams between 7th and 8th grade (so the same kids don't stay together thru Jr. High already). Final point - a lot of people questioned where the savings from previous school closures went, implying shenanigans or obfuscation on the part of the admin (who, again, couldn't respond). Well, some of those savings went to paying maintenance costs, new educational tools (science kits, math kits, etc.) and--gasp--teacher and staff raises.

In the end, none of it matters. The School Committee will vote 3-2 against closing Vets.

From: Vote on schools may be Dec. 10

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