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Georgetown
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Georgetown Selectman Lonnie Brennan
(05/07/07)
April vacation found sunshine
and warm and friendly storybook and film favorites
including Belle, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, Jasmine,
Mickey, Minney, and host of magic spender for Georgetown
musicians.
The Georgetown High School Marching Band marched down
Main Street. Main Street in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney
World in Florida, that is! Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom,
MGM Studios, and EPCOT! An incredible trip attended by
approximately 111 marchers and many, many Georgetown
families.
A photo of the Magic Kingdom parade is shown on this
page. What a time! The students stayed at Disneys
All Star Music Resort. Highlights of the trip include
watching the show Fantasmic, days of rides and shops and
pool parties and arcade games, boat rides, water and
monorail shuttles, Space Mountain roller-coaster in the
stars, a haunted house, presidents hall, thunder
mountain, pirate ride, nighttime Spectromagic parades,
and, of course, receiving a banner for display at the
school from Walt Disney World!
Friendships, and memories for a lifetime as the band
makes it trip to Disney just once every four years.
May Preview: Budgets/Overrides/Surplus. Oh My?
Town Meeting has yet to occur as this column goes to
press. However, if the past is any indication of the
future, hours of guilt trips and arguments, and
passionate, emotional pleas will be followed by a series
of votes approving nearly every warrant article that
separates more money from your family to feed the
insatiable government structure.
The beautiful people in the beautiful homes with the
beautiful salaries and finances will again try to tell
those less able to pay that everyone should work together
as one, as a team, and chip in more money. After all,
its for a good cause.
As many who read this column have noted, I ask a lot of
questions and often it appears as though even after
asking a question and getting an answer, much confusion
appears to remain.
So, here are some statistic charts to consider, of some
information that apparently was not well known: for
example, the school teachers contract signed 1.5 years
ago has come home to roost. In a tough financial climate,
School Committee chair George Moker led the negotiations
which gave a reported 3.5% pay raise to the teachers for
next year, but, as the daily papers have now reported
extensively, that 3.5% increase was applied BEFORE step
and column increases and bonuses. The result, of 140
teachers we checked out on the official listings (not
including those changing hours or positions), less than
1/3 will receive that 3.5% increase. Yup, approximately 60% of the
teachers will get raises between 6-11%. Meanwhile,
non-teacher salaries, including those for aides,
janitors, and elsewhere in town, our highway department
workers, tax collector, treasurer, assessors clerk,
and many others will get one-half to one-third the
increase the teachers will receive.
Georgetown Public Schools Teacher Salaries, $ percent
increase and percent of teachers receiving that increase
And, as also picked up by the daily press, after
nearly a month of my prodding and asking questions and
trying to get straight answers, it has been acknowledged
that the contract was signed without any checks and
balances as required by Mass. General Law, Ch. 150E; the
contract was negotiated and signed illegally.
Does it matter? Perhaps not. Once the deed is done, there
might be no turning back, but the important thing to
understand is why it happened and what we can do to
prevent it in the future.
When alerted to this error, Town Administrator Steve
Delaney said no, he didnt know about
the law, and then that it probably wouldnt have
mattered anyway. School Committee Chair George Moker said
there was an oversight, and sent a letter of apology to
the selectman, but also let us know that teachers are underpaid
anyway. He considers an 11% pay raise a good start. OK, I
agree that teachers in the ideal world would be paid as
much as Red Sox baseball players, but thats not the
real world, and neither was the approval of such raises
in the manner in which it was done. (By way of full
disclosure, my sister is a teacher in the school system.)
As the schools/town go forward with an override request
for approximately $1,061,000, weve printed a chart
below that shows how the pie is going to be divided: a
lot of money for the schools, a little money for everyone
else. The proponents say its all critical. Vote
however you care to vote.
Override: Who gets what % of the pie:
Lonnie Brennan is a selectman in Georgetown. You can
email him at lonnie@thechocolatecellar.com.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The MAY 2007 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
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All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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