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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "New Enfield Column Draws Heat":
The Board is there to provide the best they can for the students. The town council ... take[s] care of raising or lowering taxes. So enough. Greco and Hozempa are Turner's foot soldiers. They are there to get her work done as well as thier own. Greco wants to see where he can save money but it was Ok that a room was torn down and remodeled ... at H.B. Stowe. Greco is all for "special need" kids" that's why he has his advocate group website.http://www.grecoandassociates.com/ check it out, and he even recieves a fee. Did you notice that at the meeting with all the comments about news articles one woman shows up to talk about problems with her child. She was told by Greco that this was not the place to discuss this that she should talk to the Superintendant and he would be checking up on it himself. Hmmmmmmmm a set up, maybe. If you have an audit committee why are you sending out surveys in the firstplace? You hire this Fusco character with all his dark cloud and then ask people to fill out surveys. Well what the hell do we need the board for in the first place? The problem is evry parent thats ticked off only knows about their own childs problem. People need to get in the schools and see what goes on, That goes for the board as well because they are not in the schools as much as they claim to be. People deserved to get paid for what they do, if you want an audit committee hire one that doesn't live in town. I suggest people keep a close eye on these matters.
Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 2:14 PM
15 comments:
No- the board is there to make sure that the students are getting the best from the teachers and the administration.
They are supposed to be the watchdogs of the school system, not carry water to the Town Council for them.
Maybe you're stupid, but isn't it a counterproductive waste of time to draw up a budget that you know the Town Council will shoot down? Other then creating an unnecessary political food fight, who does this benefit?
I think it should be obvious that we're out of money. Maybe you were taking a nap, but residential property is now bearing 60% of the tax burden in town. Before the reval, residential bore 40% of the burden and business bore 60%.
The democrats were so smart… they did the reval at the height of the housing bubble. People are paying taxes on fictitious home valuations that wouldn't stand up in the current market.
Taxes have gone as high as they can. Tax increases will lead to more foreclosures.
You are also misrepresenting the woman who came to speak last night about her child's IEP. Chairman Greco said that the board could not discuss the matter in public session… but that they would gladly take up the matter in executive session. This is because state and federal privacy laws including FERPA and HIPPA prevent the board form publicly discussing the matter.
The accusation that Andre stopped the woman to solicit her as a business prospect is slanderous and unsubstantiated.
Maybe you don't get it… but the BOE is close to finishing this year's budget and the audit committee has only recently begun it's work. Why wait a year to look for cost savings? Why pay extra for the sake of standing on formality?
For someone at last night's BOE meeting, you're being awfully selective about which details you choose to include and exclude.
If people deserve to get paid for what they do, doesn't Andre Greco deserve to get paid for helping parents of children with special needs receive the services and education that they're legally supposed to?
I hope that the contradictions here are obvious.
The real reason why the democrat$ and the union are so up$et is that republicans have upset their stranglehold on the lucrative favor$ busine$$.
Enfield democratic pols may be guppies in a puddle but for guppies they sure were raking in the big bucks.
Residential property now pays 60% of tax burden because busineses get the tax breaks and leave. Why not give households without children a 5 year tax break like the busineses? That would only be fair. At least the breaks go to people who actually live here.
There are twelve schools and 540 teachers plus who knows how many other employees. These numbers are not going to fade away,I fear that this will be an ongoing problem for many years to come regardless which party is in charge.
The board chair seems to me and and quite a few friends that he's trying to play Knight in shining armour. My teacher friends told me of a few proposed cuts and they were ridiculous.Taxes are going to be tricky,but the board seems to be trying to solve the reval issues with its budget. If things can be cut,great but don't grasp for the sake of cutting. Teachers will always be the target but in the same breath people want quality teachers for thier children.
I looked at the website, for a person who is the board chair the website seems to not have much faith in the school system.Also it doesn't look right that people have to pay to get help with what they are entitled to anyway. I don't know what ever happened to kids just went to school to learn? are those days gone or has this turned into a business?
Per a Hartford Courant article yesterday, CT will lose 7,000 jobs by late next year. & according to the CT Dept of Labor, the Enfield region (Enfield, Somers, Suffield, and East Windsor) LOST 1,700 jobs last year. That's more than any other area in CT (the "next most" area was New Haven, with 200 jobs lost).
Doesn't take a genius to see what's going on in Enfield is bad for everyone. Folks are losing their jobs, so more homes are going up for foreclosure, and the seniors are moving to cheaper (and warmer) climates. Walk through the Enfield Square and count the number of closed store fronts.
How many more corporations will close up or pull out of Enfield in coming years?.
The tax burden is now squarely on the shoulders of those who own homes in Enfield, and they've had enough.
The teachers union can dig their heels in and refuse to budge on concessions for a variety of reasons, but sooner or later, they too will feel it in their wallets cuz Enfield won't need as many teachers (or maybe schools - cuz schools do/have closed in Enfield before!)
This isn't about being a teacher, or a board member, a Democrat or a Republican. Its time for everyone to play nice and work as a "team" (now isn't that a radical thought) to make the most out of Enfield's available educational funds & resources.
"The democrats were so smart… they did the reval at the height of the housing bubble. People are paying taxes on fictitious home valuations that wouldn't stand up in the current market."
I don't see it advertised on Town of Enfield web site, but Enfield homeowners can file an appeal on their property taxes.
Yes, the last revaluation was done @ probably the worst time possible, and yes, the Town's initial revaluation meeting was held AFTER last year's appeal deadline, but homeowners can file an appeal each year.
So I'd highly suggest that every homeowners get their appeals in, and try to lessen their taxes a bit. The Town can't stop homeowners from appealling. And doing so, would leave the Town with even less money to work with. So maybe they'll in turn try harder to make better use of what funds remain.
The democrats performed the reval at the height of the housing bubble because they were compelled to by state law. They had already delayed the reval once to try to wait out the housing boom. It was unfortunate timing, but it's a stretch to cast the Democrats as craven morons for moving forward with it. Besides, the four Republicans on the council at the time didn't object. Of course, they probably foresaw the tumult that would follow the increased property valuations and decided it would benefit their political fortunes. They were right.
I suppose performing an audit of the school system isn't a terrible idea. But don't expect it to produce great results. The vast majority of school expenses is in teachers' salaries and benefits. The only way to sharply reduce expenditures is to cut staff. I'm not sure even the mighty Republicans have the political will to make those types of cuts. Parents will freak out when they discover that their children's class sizes have gone from 25 sdtudents to 35 students. They'll be enraged to learn that art, health, music, advanced placement and remedial programs have been cut.
Educating our children is expensive, but it's worth it. I hope the audit committee discovers some huge waste of money in the school system. Otherwise, it will be a fruitless exercise.
"The democrats performed the reval at the height of the housing bubble because they were compelled to by state law. They had already delayed the reval once to try to wait out the housing boom. It was unfortunate timing, but it's a stretch to cast the Democrats as craven morons for moving forward with it."
While officials may have been "compelled" by state law to perform the recent revaluation, what was the reason they chose to wait until AFTER the appeal deadline to hold a public forum on the revaluation? Didn't they bother to check the calendar? Didn't they think that people would be interested in filing a appeal after seeing what the increases were?
That didn't show much in the way of planning & organization.
"Per a Hartford Courant article yesterday, CT will lose 7,000 jobs by late next year. & according to the CT Dept of Labor, the Enfield region (Enfield, Somers, Suffield, and East Windsor) LOST 1,700 jobs last year."
According to Courant's Business section yesterday, Enfield had a total of 48 foreclosures this quarter. That's "up" 65.6% from 2006. The only area town to have more is East Hartford with 53. Scary to think that Enfield has numbers similar to East Hartford.
How many Enfield teachers and administrators live in Enfield (cuz if they're not living in Enfield, they're not even paying taxes that go towards Enfield's education budget)?
How many Enfield teachers and administrators currently face foreclosure?
Enfield closes schools. Many of us babyboomers remember attending elementary school @ Mark Twain and Higgins. Or attending middle school at what's now
Asnuntuck Community College. It would happen again.
"Educating our children is expensive, but it's worth it. I hope the audit committee discovers some huge waste of money in the school system. Otherwise, it will be a fruitless exercise."
Yes, education is expensive. No one is disputing that fact. What's fruitless is to be afraid to take a closer look @ how business is conducted, and whether there's a more effective system.
Education is about learning, and growing, and change. So how is it so many involved in education are so terrified of this audit process?
How its the parochial schools in Enfield have been able to offer a quality education on their shoestring budgets? How is it their dedicated staff can get the job done for less than $60K and still inspire generation after generation?
Ever wondering where Enfield's officials send their children to school? How many opt to send their kids to one of the town's many parochial schools or to the private Grammar School in Somers, or East Catholic, or Suffield High's Vo-Ag?
Not everyone who's looking out for Enfield children, send their own kids through Enfield's public schools.
"it's a stretch to cast the Democrats as craven morons for moving forward with it."
"morons"? don't believe anyone has called anyone a "name" until your posting.
at the very least the Council should push hard to make homeowners aware that they could file appeals THIS YEAR because the initial deadline expired prior to Council's initial public revaluation info meeting. but we haven't heard a peep from any official, reminding Enfield taxpayers that they can and should appeal these ridiculously "high" assessments.
Can you imagine how much less money there would be in the Enfield budget if every homeowner filed/granted an appeal based on these high $$$ assessments?
Hummm, maybe that's why the Council hasn't said anything about appeal process?
Try all the money being spent on keeping paper records. It's all well and good to keep them around for some lawyer's horse and pony show… but paper records should not be a welfare program for the clerical staff.
Being backwards minded, the democrats didn't see the value in computers. Last year they redirected $800k from a technology account to redoing the athletic fields.
How much money is being spent on personal long-distance calls?
Enfield wastes so much money on stupid stuff… the Nightmare on Elm Street aka the "Taj Mahal" senior center complete with computers and fitness center used by out-of-towners… "Friday Night Lights" athletic fields… $5 million dollars of social services to buy democratic votes in Thompsonville.
And the democrats want to spend more. The moment we get money from the state, they act like they're @$%&@# rich. They wanted to blow it on garbage barrels.
Nobody has to use the town's trash removal service. If you're that unhappy, you can call up Somers Sanitation and have them do the job. Or you can take your garbage to the dump and pay the tipping fees.
The complaint about having to buy tipper barrels is no different than saying "the town built me the road but it didn't buy me a car." Boo-hoo-hoo.
"Friday Night Lights" athletic fields"
That Fermi football field is the biggest white elephant ever. All that $$$ money and time spent on a field that's been used once thus far, for TDay game vs Enfield. All that $$$ for a cross town rivalry. C'mon, we're talking millions of dollars here that could and should have been spent on other educational endeavors.
And now $$ millions more will be spent on the Enfield High fields.
This town doesn't need two artifical, lighted football fields. That's overkill
(unlike TV version of "Friday Night Lights", Enfield's football teams don't win their conferences. Heck one team barely wins any games).
& now its been reported that the Fermi football field can't even be used to hold the high schools graduation ceremony. Give me a break. Someone wasn't paying attention when these design plans were drawn up.
At the very least the Town should allow paid advertisements on & around these fields so that taxpayers can at least reap some $$$ back on these costly projects.
Wait until the final bill comes in for the Enfield High water damage. Can't wait to see where all that money comes out of (cuz ya know the insurance isn't going to cover 100% of that damage.)
"Nobody has to use the town's trash removal service. If you're that unhappy, you can call up Somers Sanitation and have them do the job. Or you can take your garbage to the dump and pay the tipping fees."
Or Enfield could institute a "pay as you go" system like Stafford did. Tnen you're only paying for your trash - as opposed to those w/neighbors who put everything out but the kitchen sink. Or those folks who run a private business elsewhere, but bring the biz trash home, to toss in Enfield.
If folks had to "pay" by their trash, there would likely be far less thrown out in town.
Why call a private trash service and pay for it, when the service you currently recieve, is already paid for? TAXES?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can bring your trash to the dump... Pay as you go sounds great, but if people are complaining about $ 50.00 for a trash can, then I don't really think they'll embrace pay as you go. We have a pay as you go program now, the tip fees at the dump in town. People were very upset about that change. let's give the Council a chance to go to work. Change can be a good thing.
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