Conference 7.286::maynard

    One of my neighbors knows her, and she is indeed doing this.
    There was also an article in the MetroWest stating this, and
    also that Sentance (sp??) was also doing this.  It also said
    that all the committee members were going to resign.  The reasons
    are that they feel the town is not committed to the school system.
                                     
    Are we?  Is anyone willing to pay more property taxes inorder
    to fund education?  They are going to have to cut the budget even
    more to make up for the money we have lost from the state.  Where
    should the cuts be made?  Are there any other cuts that can be
    made in other town departments to defer making them in the schools?
    How does everyone else out there feel about this - especially those
    of you who DO NOT have children.  I of course feel very strongly
    that the school budget has been cut too much.  I have two children
    at the Green Meadow school.  It is a great school as far as I am
    concerned, and I hate to think the quality could go down.
    
    There is a group of concerned parents forming a petition drive to
    look at this problem.  I don't know all the details yet, they don't
    expect to have it all together for another two week.
    
    Julia Walker

Yes, Brigid is enrolling her students in Concord.  Not the brightest of
actions for a school committee member.

Mike Sentence is also enrolling his kids there, but that is somewhat irrelevant
since he resigned from the School Committee a couple of weeks ago (he actually
wanted to resign right after the last town meeting, but was asked to stay on
through the summer).  I have other information that probably isn't public
enough on his reasons for moving his kids, but I summarize it as his move
is justified and proper.

Is Maynard willing to fund a good school system?

I think it's a tough call right now.   If you just look at the numbers (based
on the last town meeting) then I'd say "no" -- they asked for a bunch of $ and
were voted down - much to the absolute shock of the school committee.

In some respects I think they were asking for it.  The justification for the
monies at the meeting was pretty weak.  These are DIFFICULT times and like it
or not the school committee is going to have to SELL a good education budget
to the town.  If they think that a town's commitment to a good education system
is a blank check, they're in for a surprise.

My reading on the funding turndown was there is a bunch of people in Maynard
who really don't care about the education system, they are only interested in
keeping their tax bills as low as possible.  A prop-2� override to them is like
taking blood from a stone.  But they don't form a majority of the voters.
The school budget had a number of questionable items and a bunch of holes:
teacher wage negotations were not complete, we didn't know how much money the
state was going to give us, etc.   I'm a bit more inclined to dig into my
pockets when I know what the whole bill is going to be.

The school committee and administration have done a rather decent job over the
past few years putting the education system in Maynard on a good track.  They
did this in what I'll call "good years".  Well, now they have to learn how to
make it work in the "lean years".   Our economy works in cycles, it's a
natural part of the system.  Institution and individuals have to recognize it
and adapt.

Am I willing to pay more in taxes for education?  Yes.  I'll be a bit happier
to hand over the money if I see that the money is being spent intelligently
considering the times.

It will also fall on the parents to work together and help the schools
(especially the teachers) through these times.  The threat of losing jobs
hangs over our teachers heads like the sword of Damocles - not the greatest
way to build morale.  Far too many parents treat the schools as an extended
day care system (1 is too many in my opinion).

There are parents' groups at the schools.  The Green Meadow Parents Group
has their kickoff meeting tonight (so by the time you read this it'll be
too late), but they will have bi-monthly newsletters and monthly meetings.
Working through those organizations seems to be a far more effective way of
than these one-shot petition groups that seem to pop up from time to time.

- dave

> Yes, Brigid is enrolling her students in Concord.  Not the brightest of
> actions for a school committee member.

Not the brightest of actions if her goal would be to get re-elected,
but that ought not be a high goal for someone threatening to resign anyway.

And talk about putting your money where your mouth is - the Globe
article indicated that this woman will be spending $10,000 for tuition
to Concord for sending her kids there.

Re: .3

My mind was on half-power last night.

You're correct - it depends on her intentions.  My feeling is that if she
wants to make a point, resign and then enroll your kids elsewhere.

I don't feel that she is representing the town in good faith when her opinion
of the system is reflected in where her children are educated.   I will assume
that some people voted for her because they knew her children were in the
same school as theirs.

Frankly, I think we're about to see some major changes in the School Committee
and School administration.


In other news...

About 45 parents showed up for the first Green Meadow Parents Group meeting,
20 or so less than anticipated.


- dave

  RE: Funding

  This brings up the subject of regionalization again.  In this school year
  there is a total of only 210 students attending grades 9 through 12.  If the
  high school students from Maynard are to enjoy the same variety of elective
  classes and extracurricular activities that the students from the larger
  neighboring regionalized school districts do, the price per student will
  be astronomical.

  I think it's time that Maynard woke up to the fact that the best way to
  control the high cost of education is via the economy of scale.  Having a
  separate school system for a small number of students is a wasteful and
  costly duplication of services.  Maynard needs to join a regionalized
  school system.

  -- Bill B.

    How do you measure education?

>   How do you measure education?
    
    Good point, Art.  Here's how Boston Magazine measures it, with figures they
    obtained from the Mass. Dept. of Education, (except for SATs, which are
    from the schools.)
    
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Item             | Maynard | Acton   | Bolton  |Chelmsf'd| Concord |Framinghm| Harvard | Hudson  |Marlboro | Stow    | Sudbury |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Expenditure per  |  $4,182 |  $3,807 |  $3,598 |  $3,587 |  $4,859 |  $4,140 |  $4,162 |  $3,833 |  $3,468 |  $3,886 |  $4,708 |
|Pupil, 86/87     |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|% of Seniors to 4|    54   |    77   |    64   |    70   |    81   |    71   |    81   |    49   |    51   |    64   |    82   |
|4yr college 86/87|         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         | 
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| 4 year drop out |    13   |     4   |     6   |     8   |     6   |    14   |     3   |    12   |    22   |     6   |    N/A  |
| 87/88           |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|% of Students    |   N/A   |    96   |    81   |    88   |    90   |    80   |    95   |    59   |    51   |    81   |    99   |
|taking SATs, 1988|         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Avg. Combined    |   908   | 1,004   |   982   |   965   |  1,017  |   920   |  1,029  |   947   |   902   |   982   |   997   |
|Score 1988       |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Avg. Combined    |   866   |   970   |   950   |   932   |    995  |   925   |  1,000  |   886   |   871   |   950   |   980   |
|Score 1985       |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
|Avg. Teacher     | $32,243 | $34,446 | $28,471 | $34,401 | $38,931 | $33,721 | $32,129 | $30,453 | $29,024 | $29,681 | $39,302 |
|Salary 87/88     |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |         |
+-----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

    Re: .5
    
    Not to challenge your point, but there are 293 students in the high
    school this year - and the number of kids in the lower grades is
    increasing, so the high school attendence numbers will be rising in the
    coming years.  There are currently 1300 students in Maynard.  [Source:
    School Committee Meeting 9/11 - School Opening Report]
    
    For those interested in regionalization, there will be a short
    presentation and discussion at the Maynard High auditorium at 7PM on
    October 3rd sponsored by the regionalization committee.  If you can't
    attend this meeting, and wish to express your opinions to the
    committee, write to Linda Bretz (the chairperson of the committee),
    Coolidge School on Bancroft Street.
    
    - dave

    However the AV H.S will be change the number of students that can
    go there from Maynard so even though the grammar school student
    numbers are high (but still low as compared to early years) the
    number of students going to the H.S. still can be low.
    

Re: .9

I'm not sure if you were responding to my note - but I wasn't expressing
an opinion, just trying to make sure the right numbers were being used.


Re: .1

You asked if "we" were willing to pay for a good school system.  I recently
learned an interesting statistic (which I'm trying to confirm, but it sounds
dangerous enough to be true): Parents make up only 25% of the voting public
in Maynard.

If this is true, then we are a significant minority in the town and we must
realize that it will probably be necessary to fight for tax increases (or other
ways of getting the budgeting levels to where they are needed).   It also
amplifies my point about how it will fall on the school committee and 
administration to SELL their budgets - because the majority of the voters
have other special interests in mind.

- dave

>amplifies my point about how it will fall on the school committee and 
>administration to SELL their budgets - because the majority of the voters
>have other special interests in mind.

Herein lies much of the problem in many cities and towns.  Adult taxpaying
citizens who have no children oftentimes live under the false assumption that
because they don't have children in the school systems they shouldn't be
expected - or asked - to support some activities with their tax monies.  I
hear this hollow argument too often, and I think it's wrong.

The future of every city and town in every state, not to mention this country
of ours, relies heavily on the education of our young.  A good, well-rounded
education involves much more than academics, and that "much more" means money,
one way or the other.  (Of course, the academic aspect needs improving quite
a bit as well, as recent tests scores [world-wide] on various subjects have
indicated.)

I don't see it getting any better in the near future, though.

Kip

This points out the need for a coalition between parents and business.  If
the schools don't educate their students then business has to - and that is
costing business BILLIONS of dollars (for basic skills like reading, etc.).

I hear townspeople complaining that they feel their children won't be able
to live in Maynard because they will be priced out of their own neighborhood.
If we only give them an education to flip burgers, then that prophecy will
be self-fulfilling.

When you have the business leaders, parents, and community leaders all pushing
for good education, then those without a direct interest can see the benefits
and vote accordingly.

- dave

    Some of this discussion sounds like a good guest column for the Beacon.
    Anyone want to do some writing? I don't have any kids, but I do believe
    that education is vitally important. Others might be convinced, but it
    will take a constant presentation of the facts.

    					-- hs 

I've been out of the notes file, too busy at home and at work to read anything.
I think Dave is right, we have to convince people that we really need the
money, and we have to put off spending for any "extras" until there is more
money to be spent.  

I am concerned about the lack of interest in the schools though.  I to was
at the Green Meadow Parents Group meeting, and was suprised at the small
showing.  Usually at least the first meeting is crowded.  It's so easy,
being a working parent, to make lots of excuses for not being involved, i
know I have little time for anything these days.

Julia

    I have a 2.5 year old who will be going to Greenmeadow School in
    a couple of years, if it's still there.
    
    Yes, even though my salary is frozen and Mass. costs are eating
    me alive, I will gladly pay higher property taxes for better schools.
    What could be more important than my son's education? I'll cut back
    on other things to fund it. And, actually, if budget cuts really
    shred the Maynard schools, I'll be digging deep to pay for school
    anyway, because he'll go to private school. So I'd rather pay the
    town and let the better education benefit more kids.
    
    As for the school committee woman. On the face of it, this is a
    terrible thing for her to do. But I read the Beacon, the Middlesex
    News, and the Globe stories, and there seems to be more to it than
    just cold-heartedness or calculation on her part. I infer from some
    of the lines in these stories that her child might have some special
    needs, or some special condition that will not be met in Maynard
    with all these cuts. If that's the case, I think a lot of people
    who are attacking her are going to feel pretty stupid if they find
    out her child has a learning disability, say, and there won't be
    any programs for that in Maynard anymore.
    
    My son comes first. I know if he needed something special that wasn't
    offered in Maynard, I'd do the same thing. Still, for whatever reason
    she's doing it, I think she should step down from the committee.
    
    Finally, this is not a wealthy town. The housing prices have gone
    up, but most of the residents are still longtime or second-generation
    Maynardites. Their houses are paid off in full, or their mortgages
    are perhaps 10% of what I pay. They may be retired. They probably
    didn't make much money when they worked. School taxes are irrelevant
    to them because their kids are grown. Arguments about housing values,
    town reputation, etc. are pointless too. They own their house, and
    they don't want any new expenses. This is exactly the situation
    of our neighbors. They've been there 38 years, and they won't vote
    for a Prop 2 1/2 override for anything, ever.

re .15

I do not know the situation of Brigid or her children, but if she did have
a special needs child, the school is required by law to provide for them.
If you remember back during the town meeting, the amount of increase for
special education was very large - so with level funding for the schools,
this actually meant a cut for the rest of the school system, except for AVHS.

The AV HS got an increase.  I don't know how they go about asking for
one, or if it's mandatory for the town to meet whatever expences they ask
for;  whatever the case, it seems to me that if Maynard does regionalize
the High School, the town will lose a lot of control over expenses and
what the monies are spent on.

Julia

>The AV HS got an increase.  I don't know how they go about asking for
>one, or if it's mandatory for the town to meet whatever expences they ask
>for;  whatever the case, it seems to me that if Maynard does regionalize
>the High School, the town will lose a lot of control over expenses and
>what the monies are spent on.

    We would lose *complete* control, because we'd have to share
    decision-making with the other town[s] in the region, but we wouldn't
    be giving up control completely, because we would be part of a regional
    committee. On the other hand, there would be more students, which
    seems to mean that we can save money by eliminating overhead and
    combining expenses.
    
    I understand that people want control over their local schools, but it
    shouldn't come at the expense of education. The chart that was posted
    last week shows that we spend an amount comparable to other towns (on
    students and per teacher), but our return is lower (if you accept SAT
    scores and numbers of kids going on to 4-year colleges).

    I was surprised to find any regional schools here. I haven't seen that
    in other states that I've lived in (various parts of NY and CT), but it
    makes good sense to me. 

    					-- hs 

    After seeing the numbers in .7, I think it's easy to understand one of
    the  reasons why townspeople are not willing to fork over more money
    for education.   As .17 notes, Maynard is spending more money per pupil
    than most surrounding towns, and  getting less in return for it (i.e.
    lower SAT scores, lower percentage of  college-bound students, higher
    dropout rate.) 

    Granted, these measures don't define "quality." They just tell me that
    other  towns are better at using their resources. But inefficiency
    makes me mad. When I see my tax dollars spent unwisely, I tend to vote
    against requests for more  money -- as I did at the last town meeting. 
    I was given no reason to believe  that more money would improve the
    situation in our schools. Throwing money at the problem is not going to
    solve it.   

    So there has to be waste and inefficiency somewhere in our school
    system.   Where is it? Is our 300-pupil high school staffed for 700? Is
    our  administrative overhead bloated?  

    What do we do to ensure the resources we have are being used in the
    right  places?  From what I've heard, we certainly have resource needs
    in Greenmeadow  -- there are some unacceptably large class sizes. I
    think the school  department needs to be flexible in times like these,
    and redeploy resources as  pupil populations change. Unfortunately,
    it's not as simple as taking excess HS teachers and using them in the
    elementary school.  

    Re: .18
    
    Internal transfers do often times occur to place teachers in grades
    where there is a shortage.  I can't give any examples, but I've been 
    told it does happen.

    FLAME ON
    
    We have a superintendant in town who stresses to the teachers that 
    due to budget limitations, everyone will have to "tighten their
    belts".  She then goes out and hires a $25K/yr. assistant.  When
    the taxpayers see this going on, they tend to think she's crying
    wolf when the call goes out for more money, not to mention what
    it does to the moral of the teachers.
    
    FLAME OFF
    					Steve

  RE: .18

  I would not blame management totally for Maynard High School's weaknesses.

  Consider the fact that the current ninth grade class has only 46 students
  (about 1� classrooms full).  Now if MHS were to offer honors classes in
  English, social studies, math, chemistry, physics, and so forth to these
  students when they are seniors (assuming none of them drop out), the sizes
  of these classes would be on the order of 1-2 students each!

  It's bad enough that Maynard has to provide its own physical building,
  administration, faculty, maintenance staff and school busses for so few
  students.  That alone accounts for the higher than average cost per student.
  But can we seriously expect MHS students to compete for college openings
  with students in the large regionalized systems that can inexpensively
  provide a full offering of honors classes?

  -- Bill B.

Here's some more information to try to put school spending in perspective:

From the reports of the Mass Dept of Education:

1986-1987
o Maynard spent an average of $4,454 per student.
o Of 351 towns and cities, the median is $3,602.
o Of those 351 towns and cities, only 52 towns spend more than $4,500.
o Maynard spends in the top 16% of all Mass. cities and towns, per child.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to drag you through some tables of school budget data: last year's
budgeted amounts, last year's actuals, and then this year's budgeted.

The idea is to look at all this and figure out what the spending priorities are.

One thing to keep in mind is that the budgeted amounts do not necessarily
have much relation to what was spent.  For example, Green Meadow budgeted
$7.41 for textbooks per kid in 1989, but spent only $3.31. (This year,
the budget says $7.66 per kid.)  In contrast, spending for conferences &
training was above what was budgeted. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following table details costs which apply across whole school system:

Ordered by 1989 Actual Expenditures High to Low

ITEM                FY89 BUDGET FY89 ACTUAL  FY89 $/KID FY90 BUDGET   FY90 $/KID
All Prin & Asst Salary 273,093     273,093     $220.24     243,652      $192.76
Super't & Asst. Salary 118,846     118,846     $ 95.84      81,637      $ 64.37
Administrative Bonus    14,000      14,000     $ 11.29      14,000      $ 11.08

ITEM                FY89 BUDGET   FY89 ACTUAL   FY90 BUDGET   FY90 $/KID

Electricity            107,900       108,047       109,600      $ 86.71
Instructional Supplies  72,825        68,581        83,716      $ 66.23
Non-Ed Contract Service 62,805        65,689        67,274      $ 53.22
Heat                   100,835        60,721        84,700      $ 67.01
Custodial Supplies      21,900        21,773        22,405      $ 17.73
Telephones              23,140        20,740        21,000      $ 16.61
Textbooks               25,619        20,485        25,106      $ 19.86
Office Supplies         14,650        17,002        14,748      $ 11.67
Conferences,Training    14,075        15,670      $ 15,600      $ 12.34
Postage                 11,100        10,227        10,000      $  7.91
Dues, Subscription    $  6,710      $  8,716      $  6,720      $  5.32
Travel for Staff         5,625         5,225         5,600      $  4.43
Advertising              1,550         3,181         2,000      $  1.58
Schl Comm Discret Fund       0             0           100      $  0.08

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This table is for Green Meadow alone:

Green Meadow School  Dollars Budgeted or Spent per child

ITEM                FY89 BUDGET   FY89 ACTUAL   FY90 BUDGET   
Telephone             $15.33        $13.83        $12.14
Conferences, Training  10.55         12.18         11.58
Custodial Supplies      9.26         12.72          9.65
Postage                 8.06          7.65          7.91
Office Supplies         6.11          6.15          5.96
Dues, Subscription      2.64          3.88          3.80
Textbooks               7.41          3.31          7.66
Travel                  2.50          2.42          2.26
Library Books           0.00          0.00          6.60

OK, so what has a high priority in Maynard's educational system, and what
takes a back seat?  

- At Green Meadow, the important items are telephones, conferences & training,
custodial supplies, and postage.  Among the least important items are textbooks
and library books.  ('Travel' is travel expenses for administration and
custodians.)

I find it useful to consider the $3.31 per kid textbook cost, and compare
that to other items.

- Postage is $7.65 per kid.  I guess postage is twice as important as
textbooks.  This is strange, considering that all they have to do is send
papers home with the child.  Or if things have to be mailed, why not get a
postage meter? 

- Who are they calling on the telephones?  At a rate of $13.83 per kid at Green
Meadow? $16.61 per kid in all schools?  How does this contribute to my kid's
education? 

Some of the costs are harder to get a handle on, but still seem high.

It cost about $120,000 to operate all the street lights in town in a year. But
the cost of electricity for the schools was $108,047 last year, primarily
for flourescent lights.  Does it have to be that high? 

Compare the custodial supply cost for Green Meadow of $12.72 to the system-wide
cost of about $17 per kid.  Now, I would think that a bunch of grade school
kids would make more of a mess than the junior and senior high kids. Why
are there more costs for the older kids?  And isn't that kind of a lot of
money anyway?

Consider the coming budget cuts, vs the fact that some costs will decrease:

We have lost a number of people in administrative positions this year: 
Assistant Superintendent, Asst. Principals at both the High School and Junior 
High and the Communications Director.  We have lost a number of teachers in 
each of the schools.  At Green Meadow, the teachers lost will be replaced with 
lower salaried new teachers.  We should realize quite a large difference in 
budgeted dollars if we do not replace these positions.  If the positions 
are replaced, we will need to decide where to make the cuts.

The $37,500 cut recommended by the Finance Committee could be made up by 
reducing the budget for dues, conferences, training, custodial supplies, 
telephones, and contracted office services by less than 30%.  This cut would 
not affect the children.  If education is a priority, cuts should be made that 
represents that priority.

-Steve

    I find it interesting to see how many people out there would just
    like to "throw another bucket of money at the school problem or
    in fact any other problem". That is not the fix, find out what your
    priorities are first. Are you managing things correctly? In our
    school system it appears we are not, we are out of control as is
    shown in one of the notes where we spend more on phones and postage
    than on books and classes.
    By the way! I am one of the seniors in town, however, I too would
    be willing to pay for something including education if I thought
    it was needed. Personally, I think the school committee is doing
    a very poor job, they are not minding the store, it appears they
    just "Rubber Stamp" what the administrator wants, I feel this is
    wrong, and I think what is happening right now is proof of that
    statement.
    Stu Covey
    

re: .21 (Steve Ruzich) and the letter I got in the mail last week from
Cindy Svec Ruzich with much the same information.

    I'm not in favor of giving the schools carte blanche, but I don't see
    any real analysis in your figures. Don't just present the information,
    but draw some conclusions and provide some alternatives. Here are a
    couple of points that disturb me most:

      ================================================================
    
    One comment in the letter compared the amounts spent for supplies like
    soap & toilet paper with the amount spent on textbooks. Only the
    numbers were presented, so we have to draw our own conclusions:
    
     = One possible conclusion is that the School Committee thinks that toilet
       paper is more important than grammar books. That's actually a hard
       question to answer, but it's probably not relevant.

       = Another conclusion is that text books get used more than once,
       while supplies are used and thrown away. Toilet paper is cheap
       (compared to books), but I bet they go through a lot of it. 
    
    Is the problem that supplies have to be replaced constantly while books
    last for years? How much should be spent on books? Are the books in the
    schools sufficient in quality and quantity? Those are the important
    questions.

      ================================================================
From .21 -- 

>- At Green Meadow, the important items are telephones, conferences & training,
>custodial supplies, and postage.  Among the least important items are textbooks
>and library books.  ('Travel' is travel expenses for administration and
>custodians.)

>- Who are they calling on the telephones?  At a rate of $13.83 per kid at Green
>Meadow? $16.61 per kid in all schools?  How does this contribute to my kid's
>education? 

    Similarly, don't make comparisons and give statistics like the above
    without describing what we get for our investment in phones and
    training. I like providing teachers with training. Phones are pretty
    good, too. I don't know who they are calling, either, but be
    reasonable. Find out whether they're doing school business or calling
    friends in Des Moines before complaining. How much should they be
    spending? You really can't compare postage and textbook expenses any
    more than apples and oranges. And provide alternatives instead of just
    complaining.

      ================================================================

    I'm not saying that your claims have no value, it's just that you need
    to present them better.

    					-- hs 

    Re: .23
    
    Thanks Hal - I had the same reaction to the numbers.  You just saved
    me a few minutes typing time.
    
    - dave

RE: .23:

>    I'm not in favor of giving the schools carte blanche, but I don't see
>    any real analysis in your figures. Don't just present the information,
>    but draw some conclusions and provide some alternatives. 

First, let's start out at a high level, and then get to specifics.

The problem I wanted to address is that there is a lot of talk in the
community about the schools, and few facts.  There is a camp saying "The
schools get too much money and waste it" and there is another saying "The
schools get far too little money, only a prop 2 1/2 override will save
education", plus all sorts of variations on both points of view.  How do we
get to the truth?  How do we do the best thing for the kids and the taxpayers?

The first step is to get facts of the school budget out in the open, and shine
a light on them in different ways.  That's why some information is listed in
this notesfile, and that's why my wife Cindy wrote a lengthy analysis of last
year's budget, mailed it to a bunch of people last weekend (Hal included), and
submitted it to the school committee last night.  The paper looks at things
like spending per-pupil in many categories, and compares budgeted to actual
spending for fiscal 1989. 

I think the next step is to use that kind of detailed analysis as a tool to
help determine priorities in this year's budget.  The School Committee wants
to make this happen as well, likely when their budget is firm after Town
Meeting. 

Now, on to some specifics.

What is the best thing to do with this information at first? Should I do as Hal
suggests and "draw some conclusions and provide some alternatives"? 

Well, I have some conclusions, like that postage and phone costs are high.
The conclusion about postage I base on the fact that my kid can bring home
papers easily enough, and that we don't get enough in the mail from the school
to account for anywhere near the $7.65 per child expenditure.  The conclusion
about phone cost is based on the fact that a few years ago one school had a
drop in phone expenditure of $8,000 between one year and the next.  That
suggests that phones in other schools are a ripe area for savings. 

>    Similarly, don't make comparisons and give statistics like the above
>    without describing what we get for our investment in phones and
>    training. 

Well, I disagree.  I think this should be a multi-step process.  
Only the school committee and the administration have the knowledge
necessary to describe the relative importance of all the apples and oranges
which make up the $5.5 million dollar budget.  The first step is to present
the information, with some analysis.  The next step is to work with the school
committee and administration to use the data and spreadsheets to fine-tune
the current budget, for fiscal 1990.

The other thing is to keep in mind that people are really passionate about all
this.  If you reach conclusions too quickly without knowing all that is
involved, people will find fault and stop listening to you at all.

-Steve

>* Re: Note 170.25 (School Committee member defecting?)
>*     By PAXVAX::RUZICH, in notefile spider::maynard

>The first step is to get facts of the school budget out in the open, and shine
>a light on them in different ways.  

    That's right. My complaint was that you weren't just presenting facts,
    and you hadn't done a complete analysis, either. What was presented was
    somewhere in the middle. It was analysis and opinion masquerading as
    fact. Don't get me wrong -- I like the work that I've seen you folks
    (you, Cindy and MNPA) have done, but this was a little incomplete.

>Well, I have some conclusions, like that postage and phone costs are high.
>The conclusion about postage I base on the fact that my kid can bring home
>papers easily enough, and that we don't get enough in the mail from the school
>to account for anywhere near the $7.65 per child expenditure.  

    Here's where you're missing some facts, though. The schools don't mail
    things only to parents. At 25 cents per item (less for postcards and
    bulk mailings, more for packages), that comes out to thirty items per
    student, based on your figures. Maybe it's a lot, maybe it's not; I
    wouldn't say one way or the other without knowing what they send and to
    whom. If you can find out, then we'll know if they're wasting money. If
    you can't, then we can only guess.

>								The conclusion
>about phone cost is based on the fact that a few years ago one school had a
>drop in phone expenditure of $8,000 between one year and the next.  That
>suggests that phones in other schools are a ripe area for savings. 

    Why did that school have a drop in phone costs? Did they get a better
    phone system with lower basic charges? Did they get a WATS line? Did
    they buy phones instead of renting them? Were there fewer people, so
    fewer calls were made? Did they prohibit certain kinds of calls? Do the
    other schools have the same problems that that one school had, or is
    this a one-time, one-school solution?

>Well, I disagree.  I think this should be a multi-step process.  
>Only the school committee and the administration have the knowledge
>necessary to describe the relative importance of all the apples and oranges
>which make up the $5.5 million dollar budget.  The first step is to present
>the information, with some analysis.  The next step is to work with the school
>committee and administration to use the data and spreadsheets to fine-tune
>the current budget, for fiscal 1990.

    That's right. First, you and Cindy did present some analysis, and I
    disagree with some of the conclusions that you drew. Second, I'm glad
    to see that you intend to work with the schools to get the information
    to draw appropriate conclusions. It wasn't clear before now what you
    were going to do with your data and preliminary analysis.

>The other thing is to keep in mind that people are really passionate about all
>this.  If you reach conclusions too quickly without knowing all that is
>involved, people will find fault and stop listening to you at all.

    That's right. That's what I was doing (finding fault and maybe getting
    to the point of not listening). You need to make sure that other people
    don't reach that point, because an independent analysis of this
    information is important.

    					-- hs 

    Regarding Steve's analysis....
    
    I think it's very misleading to compare the amount of money spent on
    one line item to the amount of money spent on another line item unless
    those line items are directly related.  If you do this you will end up
    arguing the wrong issues.  The fact that they're spending more on
    phones than textbooks says absolutely *nothing* to me about the
    priority of the school.
    
    I think you do have to analyze the budget but I think your initial
    analysis is flawed.  I don't think the question is "Why do we spend
    more on this than that?", I think it's "Why are we spending this amount
    on this item?" and "How can we spend less overall?".  For example (and
    purely hypothetical), "If we increase postage, can we save on the phone
    item?".
    
    On a separate note...
    
    Both of my kids go to Assabet Voc but I know we pay for that.  In spite
    of the fact that they don't go to a Maynard school I feel that it is in
    *everyone's* interest that all the kids get a good education.  These
    are our future leaders.  In a few short years *they* will be shaping
    things.  If we educate them poorly we will get poor leadership.  It
    goes beyond my family and my interest in my kids education.

    One anlysis, that I think would be interesting, would be to compare
    the Maynard expenses (per pupil, or however normalized) with those from
    as many surrounding towns as time/effort permits.  
    
    thanks
    dave pierson