To the Editor:
In response to Richard Corrente’s letter to the Beacon on 2/23/16, I will set the record straight and speak to the facts for him again.
In his letter, Mr. Corrente states …
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To the Editor:
In response to Richard Corrente’s letter to the Beacon on 2/23/16, I will set the record straight and speak to the facts for him again.
In his letter, Mr. Corrente states that he “ had several meetings with those in control” in the school department over the last year. Yet, when I was SC Chair in 2015, I only engaged in one four-minute conversation with him.
He goes on to say that I, Jennifer Ahearn, “swore” that the “Ragosta Report” was verbal. I will cite for Mr. Corrente what Mr. Ragosta himself wrote in his 10/8/15 Letter to the Editor in which Mr. Ragosta corrected several of Mr. Corrente’s inaccurate statements. Mr. Ragosta wrote “the reporting was conveyed verbally in two meetings with the WSC, one on May 11 and the other on May 21, both of which were recorded by Allied Court Reporters, which in turn produced written transcripts.” For the record, I made investigation into this matter an immediate and top priority and take pride in the fervor with which the SC responded to this situation. In fact, I continue to research better ways to support and protect our student, and at the last SC meeting I presented a training program called “Day One” to benefit students, parents, and staff. This program is designed to strengthen predatory awareness inside and outside of our facilities to help prevent future incidents.
I find it deplorable that Mr. Corrente continues to sensationalize this unfortunate incident to draw attention to his own political aspirations and suggest he find better ways to spend his time.
I, as a taxpayer, would expect that a candidate would be presenting tax reduction strategies for homeowners or business owners, or even promoting areas to repeal taxes, however he chooses to use the Beacon space to disparage a department that is outside of mayoral control. Easy targets are always fun to knock down, no matter what your age. Disparaging a division of government in which he has little experience is nothing but a cheap shot made from the sidelines to draw attention to his own agenda. Mr. Corrente points out that he feels that the schools are receiving too much funding. This would lead me to believe that a top priority of his, were to be elected mayor, would be to reduce appropriations to the schools even more, since that would be the only authority he would have as mayor within the schools - funding appropriations. Mayor Avedisian has level funded our schools for years, and while I don’t agree, at least I know what to expect. Mr. Corrente’s stance on this issue should give any education-focused voter pause.
Finally, his letter infers that my decision not to accept a Chair nomination was based on the handling of the Ragosta investigation, that inference could not be further from the truth. My decision not to pursue the chair position in 2016 had absolutely nothing to do with this matter. I served my year in this role as I planned to, led many successful initiatives as chair and look forward to continuing to vigorously serve the students in our schools as a member of the Warwick School Committee.
Jennifer Ahearn,
Warwick School
Committee
Member
7 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
davebarry109
Jennifer,
The schools do receive too much money. The student population has been declining to the point where we are closing schools and consolidating (finally) but the school budget goes up each and every year. How many teachers could we lay off if we sensibly sized the teachers to student population? We could all live better lives if the school budget did not eat up 60% or more of our tax dollars. I don't know Corrente but I do know the schools and the teachers union must be brought under control or we will continue to be taxed too much.
Friday, March 4, 2016 Report this
davebarry109
Jennifer,
The schools do receive too much money. The student population has been declining to the point where we are closing schools and consolidating (finally) but the school budget goes up each and every year. How many teachers could we lay off if we sensibly sized the teachers to student population? We could all live better lives if the school budget did not eat up 60% or more of our tax dollars. I don't know Corrente but I do know the schools and the teachers union must be brought under control or we will continue to be taxed too much.
Friday, March 4, 2016 Report this
Bob_Cushman
@davebarry: While I do respect your comments and I do not disagree regarding school consolidation, I have to take you to task for spreading misinformation regarding the school budget.
Number 1: You state that the school budget goes up each year is false. The fiscal 2016 overall school budget including funding from federal, state and local tax dollars is equal to the 2009 school budget at $159.5 million. Looking at local tax dollars that fund the school budget shows that schools have been level funded for practically 5 years at $119.5 million.
Number 2: You state that 60% of more of our tax dollars is allocated to the school budget. That statement would be true if you were referring to funding a decade ago. Take a look at your fourth quarter property tax bill and you will see that schools receive about 52% of total local tax dollars while the city receives 48%.
To put this dramatic shift into prospective you need to look at how much new tax dollars has gone to the city and school budgets over the last decade. The city budget has received approximately $38.5 million of new tax dollars while schools have received $6.4 million. That represents a 60% increase in funding to the city budget and a 5.6% to schools.
Looking at it another way for every new tax dollar collected, 85 cents went to the city budget and 15 cents went to the schools.
The bottom line is that record city spending is the reason why property taxes increase each year. If you want tax relief its time you start pointing figures at the Mayor and the City Council, not the School Department.
Friday, March 4, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
Jennifer,
You told me to my face the Ragosta Report was "all verbal".
You lied.
What else is there to talk about?
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Friday, March 4, 2016 Report this
Reality
Thank you Jennifer for setting the record straight. Everyone who has dealt with you know you are a lady of honor and truthfulness.
Don't let people with political aspirations get you down.
Friday, March 4, 2016 Report this
Justanidiot
The schools did not/do not get too much money. It was how the money was/is spent. Building a kitchen for the buildings supervisor certainly isn't going to help Johnny read better. Neither is paying someone to be his boss. Spend what it takes to get the best education for the students but justify the expense.
Saturday, March 5, 2016 Report this
richardcorrente
Dear Justanidiot,
You stated "Spend what it takes to get the best education for the students, but justify the expense."
That, sir, is the best idea I've heard yet!
We should turn our focus ENTIRELY in that direction. The rest will take care of itself.
Richard Corrente
Democrat for Mayor
Sunday, March 6, 2016 Report this