I could have sworn that the BOE employs a Facilities Maintenance Manager. Isn't his name John Calhoun? Why did the BOE need to hire Savin Engineeers in New York to do a "building condition survey (facilities assessment)" to tell it that roofs, windows, parking lots, floor tile, fluorescent fixtures and ceiling tile have to be replaced? Doesn't Mr. Calhoun have the ability to do this himself? What about the Town Engineers, the Buildings Department Officials, Al Russo's Town Facilities Maintenance Department and the Fire Marshals...don't they have the necessary expertise? How much did this study cost? Where did the money for it come from and was it authorized by the BOE?
Here's the breakdown of these "conceptual costs" for the four buildings that were studied: 10.8M at Hill and Plain, 10.5M at Northville Elementary, 15.3 Pettibone and a whopping 24.6M At Schaghticoke. Amazing. Why wasn't there a study of the High School, East Street or Sarah Noble Schools?
Another amazing part of the study is that 26% of the 61.3M ($15,938,000) is for "conceptual" or soft costs: "architectural and construction management fees, legal and insurance fees, design and construction contingencies, testing etc." and "escalation." What are these BOE people thinking...or do they?
How many people are employed by the BOE to maintain the schools? Is its Department understaffed? Is John Calhoun's money taken away from him to be used for other purposes?
How much money has been allocated to capital in the BOE Budgets over the past 10 years and how much of it has actually been used for that purpose? A majority of the items listed in the study are maintenance items. Why weren't these items properly maintained over the course of time?
For the past few years, the BOE 5-year Capital Plan has been in the $500,000 to $600,000 range. Why all of a sudden did it jump to $61,000,000?
A Capital Reserve Fund was established in the mid-90's so that the BOE could do some of the work described in the study. Why weren't they done and what happened to the money? And the numbers in the Plan...how were they calculated? $1,488,905.00 to pave SMS? Any of the local companies could probably do the job for about $250,000 which would even include some drainage work. Wild.
The value of this project is that it is proof positive that the BOE cannot manage or maintain its facilities.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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When was this study done? Is it a product of the new board or old?
I thought you were an attorney? Since when is your expertise providing paving estimates?
1) The study is dated November, 2007. Using your terms, it would be a "product" of the "old" Board;
2) You thought right...and I do very good research. I consulted someone in the business whose judgment I trust without reservation.
So, I interpret your your final statement - "that the BOE cannot manage or maintain its facilities" - to be a condemnation of our BOE in general. New board or old (my terms again), relying on a group of well-intentioned citizens may not be the best way to manage these large facilities.
By extension, a constantly changing board is probably not the best way to manage a 60 million dollar budget. They mean well, and they have volunteered to do what they can, but do they really have the expertise and/or experience required to analyze the educational budget?
Let's hope they are doing their homework.
Scott, I agree with you on several points. However, I do believe that the BOE is capable of making some determinations that are consonant with the statutory scheme, meaning, for example, that while I am not in favor of the way that expulsions are handled, I do believe that they are being handled the way that the Legislature intended.
I agree with you entirely about the Budget. And I would extend your statement to include a majority of the Members of the Town Council.
How do we solve the problem?
This shouldn't surprise anyone who’s been paying attention to the BoE’s nonfeasance over the years.
To recap, the BoE has proven time and again that they’re unable to manage a budget (there’re probably incapable of even running a lemonade stand efficiently).
I bet the mayor and town council will show their disapproval by proposing a 2008/2009 budget that gives the BoE even MORE money to waste next year!
It's high time that state laws are changed to better oversee what BOEs do with our money.
A handful of volunteers, many of whom have backgrounds in "high-pork" industries and organizations, simply doesn't cut the mustard.
And the cost of this "free" education needs to shift more toward those who use these services.
Too many examples of squandered resources by the BOE: the dilapidated tennis courts at the old high school; the condemned old high school (but good enough to renovate for a middle school; the expensive, unneeded new soccer fields at Northville; the mismanagement and intentionally misleading cost of the new high school; the raises for the administrators.
Too much being done that goes unchecked.
This year will be a wakeup call to these bufoons.
This is another fine display of the typical back and forth between a monopolized industry (public education) and the ill informed if well meaning consumer (taxpayer). Simple economics will dictate that when only one supplier is available the end consumer can complain as loudly as they would like but changes will almost never occur. If they do (new board versus old) it quickly becomes more of the same (see simple economics). The catalyst for the status quo of course is the power of the government to coerce the taxpayer (consumer) to not only accept the product as offered but to pay more and more along the way. Our problem is not the well meaning if ill informed members of the BOE. Our problem is government theft of our hard earned income. The BOE would cease to exist and a number of for profit competitive enterprises would supply the market with choices if it were not for the government acting as a protection racket for the public school system.
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
Thomas Jefferson
Unneeded fields??? Fat kids are better than ones who have been outside.
Have you look at the what the football and lacrosse teams do to field at the new(est) high school?
I am against turf BECAUSE those teams should be watering and maintaining those fields vs turning them to dust each season.
We do have more fields than most towns but if you don't water them they are big open fields with no shade or water they turn to brown and die.
Missing Sarah Noble, the newest high school and East Street is an insult to taxpayers.
It says we don't maintain new buildings. And we just abandon them when they get too bad.
Shame on them.
Their consultant should have indicated that they were asked to IGNORE those buildings in their scope of work.
Someone MADE the decision not to include those buildings.
Jay can you please offer fact or Dr. Paddyfote about the actual capitol budget vs spending for your tenure?
Past performance may not be an indicator or future performance but I bet that way.
Let's do the math $60 million dollars over 5 years = $12 million per year.
The entire town budget is $26 million????
The town has 200 miles of road.
What is the town's capital plan? And not the budget number the actual cost to replace bridges and pave.
I'd rather see the road to the school paved than the school parking lot paved.
I'd rather see Pumpkin Hill widened or the curve on Erickson fixed.
I'd rather have Sunny Valley Road and Fort Hill connect together vs a stop sign.
Tell I'm a commuter with kids in activities.
Why did they vote no on Dunham Farm?
500 houses and no kids into the schools.
Sounds like a positive cash flow for the town to me.
500 x $5000 in taxes = $2.5 million per year.
Also, an expert is anyone who lives more than 20 miles away.
Town Council or the Board of Ed wouldn't want to listen to their employees.
It has more credibility when it's a consultant. I don't know to who.
I guarantee John and his predessor all said the same things in the report and were ignored or told to leave it out of the budget request.
Pay me now or pay me later.
"The value of this project is that it is proof positive that the BOE cannot manage or maintain its facilities."
This last sentence in the post is key to the entire dialogue.
It is well known that the mayor and the schools superintendent do not get along . . . they won't even speak to one another.
It is also known, in some circles, that the mayor would like to get the school buildings and their maintenance under the control of the town (BOE control of their buildings is statutory).
Guess it begs the question . . . did the mayor, who likes to keep her hands away from all things nasty, have anything to do with any part of this post?
The STATE has given a virtual autonomy to the BOEs via legislation.
When it was invented, the idea was to keep Towns from pillaging the BOE budget... It is an essentially a "hands off" policy/law(s).
Unfortunately, and typically,the bananaheads in Hartford couldn't see the opposite end of the spectrum when they gave all this autonomy to the BOEs.
They operate virtually unchecked by the public.
Maybe the elite Charter Revision imbeciles should have seen this coming...maybe there could have been something we could have done locally to put a check on this incompetence.
To the Anonymous poster at 5:29 p.m.:
Why do I get the impression that you used to be in that "circle?"
There are many in that "circle" who believe that all maintenance should be under one roof. It's not a new idea.
Jay, is this poster right about the maintenence of the schools being its responsibility?
Jay:
You have failed to note that this "Capital Plan" is not a plan at all. In fact, it was a study designed to show how much it would cost to "upgrade and update" these schools to "ideal" structures. If you spent time talking to Tom McSherry and other board members, you would know that there is no intention to spend over $60 million.
You - and likely fellow Republican political hacks - are simply trying to treat the BOE as the usual Republican "whipping boy." In an attempt to build negative public sentiment at budget season, you have decided to publish half truths.
Please try to present the facts, or at least let readers know that you are deeply entrenched with the town's Republican, anti-school crowd.
Not a republican lemming - So, the schools falling apart is an acceptable maintenance strategy?
Why issue a report to bring the schools to as new condition when as you say we needed a maintenance plan?
Which then, proves Jay's point which was, drum roll please, don't we pay someone to do that?
Sarah Noble is in as new condition?
What about the tennis courts?
What about the old football practice field? The baseball field?
The broken windows with glass on the ground by the maintenance shed to the north.
East Street is not in as new condition either?
You can just smell the lead and asbestos. Tangy
Most of the reasons why the schools are in poor condition is due to budget cutting fools who lack foresight. Maintenance is the key, but that also takes $$.
The tennis courts are a shambles, and the fields at nearly every school are in poor condition and NEVER watered, seeded, or fertilized. However, do you think Republican BOE members, the Board of Finance, or the Mayor or Town Council would ever vote for those costs? Not likely.
Then again, the baseball fields (town owned and the private organization) are in terrible shape, too. It appears that no one in New Milford gives a rip about ANY fields. If you doubt me, just go to 90% of other towns and you'll be amazed.
Would it be more cost effective to build one centrally located elementary school for the entire town and possible save 10-15 million dollars, maybe even get some state aid and save a few million more. Perhaps, the Dems would go for it if, with the savings, they could have all day kindergarten for all.
"Most of the reasons why the schools are in poor condition is due to budget cutting fools who lack foresight..."
This "budget cut" myth is one the biggest lies told by spendthrift politicians and public sector unions.
For the record; THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BUDGET CUT IN NEW MILFORD. Taxes and spending have increased every year since I can remember. Also increasing every year are the creative ways the town's tax revenues are allocated (wasted) by our public officials.
Politicians simply don't like maintaining infrastructure. They'd rather have a brass plaque with their name on it placed on a new building, bridge, etc., rather than maintaining critical public infrastructure with someone else's name on the brass plaque. In other words, there are no photo opportunities or ribbon cutting ceremonies when tax money is spent repairing roads or replacing the roof of a 30-year-old school... So it's simply not important enough for politicians to care about (until a bridge collapses for lack of maintenance - then they're outraged!).
Don't kid yourself, the town coffers are currently overflowing with a record amount of tax dollars and 2008 will be another record year. The problem is that wasteful spending (by our ineffectual public officials) is increasing at an even faster rate.
Isn't it the 4th branch of government the press's job to expose misuse and abuse of government? Not Jay's job. Thank you Jay by the way.
I think the newstimes/spectrum and new milford times don't care about real news, but care about fluffy pictures about fairs and fireworks.
Tom - a budget is cut each time a manager says we need to do this and his boss says leave it off the list of items. A budget is cut each time the BOE or town council don't ask why aren't we fixing the roof when it has NEVER been budgetted for(BOE/town council members should be long time town residents or active new members)
It is BOE and Town Council's job to actually drive around, look around and say this needs to be fixed, not sit in meetings and look puzzled. They should wonder why the only time they see a department head is at budget time.
They need to ask more questions; the answers would be frightening.
A manager might be able to evade a single question on their script, but by the 8th or 9th probing question they might tell the truth not the spin.
What you just described are misguided budget priorities not budget cuts.
The reason building maintenance is routinely neglected and our roads are deteriorating is because the town council consistently approves extremely generous pay, benefits and work rules for public employees - at the expense of everything else.
Here's the way the budget process works at all levels of government (including government-run public schools): A "manager's" current bloated department budget is "X" dollars. This bureaucrat expends little or no effort figuring out ways to be more efficient with the tax dollars his or her department already receives, they don't get rewarded for saving money or penalized for wasting money, so why bother? Instead, it takes much less time and effort to ask for a 12% increase, knowing it may be "cut" in half to a 6% increase (when the department is overfunded to begin with). The bureaucrat then spends every last cent and uses this new figure as his or her baseline for next year's request. Afterwards, the bureaucrats can explain away their department's failings due to "budget cuts" and the politicians can pretend how fiscally responsible they are... Everybody's happy, except for the taxpayers writing the checks!
TO: NM BOE, NM Sup't, NM taxpayers, students, parents, teachers, Bd. of Finance, NM Mayor
FROM: Mark, an ex-pat
RE: A way forward out of your morass.
Baldrige Core Values & Categories
The Criteria, comprised of eleven Core Values/Best Practices and seven Categories, provide a dynamic framework for continuous improvement. The categories and Core Values/Best Practices help organizations assess how well they are doing and are practical and useful for school improvement planning.
Core Values/Best Practices Categories
The Criteria are built upon the following set of eleven interrelated Core Values that describe Best Practices required of schools focused on performance excellence:
Visionary leadership
Learning-centered education
Organizational and personal learning
Valuing faculty, staff, and partners
Agility
Focus on the future
Managing for innovation
Management by fact
Social responsibility
Focus on results and creating value
Systems perspective
Core Values/Best Practices
The Core Values/Best Practices are embodied in seven Categories, as follows:
Leadership
Strategic Planning
Student and Stakeholder Focus
Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management
Faculty and Staff Focus
Process Management
Performance Results
Categories
What is the purpose of the Baldrige Education Criteria?
The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence is a framework for continuous improvement aimed at getting the results that are important to an organization. The framework is designed to help organizations use an aligned approach to organizational performance management. The Baldrige framework:
Is not prescriptive
Supports a systems approach to organization-wide goal alignment
Supports a goal-based means to diagnose the effectiveness of an organization and to devise an improvement plan from that diagnosis
The Malcolm Baldrige Education Criteria provide the basis for assessment and feedback to organizations and create the foundation for an organization's continuous improvement journey. The criteria have three important purposes:
To help improve performance practices, capabilities, and results,
To facilitate communication and sharing of best practices information and organizations of all types, and
To serve as a working tool for understanding and improving performance and for guiding planning and opportunities for learning.
I don't think many people in this town are anti-education. I thimk the bigger problem is too many people are anti-growth. Having lived here since 1959 I can't remember a year when the taxes collected was actually less then the prior year or the bottom line of a budget was less then the prior year. Every year we hear that the taxes will only be 40 dollars a month more then the current year. Great, but try this exercise for a minute. Make believe your paycheck doesn't increase and there is little or no chance that it will. Assume you bought your house for $50,000 and the Town now has it valued at $475,000. Let's say that you love New Milford and over the years you raised your family here, volunteered in variuos civic organizations and even held an elected or appointed position in the Town government. Now lets factor in the increases of utilities and the cost of living. What do you suppose one of if not the largest monthly expense this person has? Could it be the local property tax at something like $433? Look at how quickly that increases each year with just a small budget increase.
Maybe the Town should post signs saying'Welcome to New Milford. Too bad you won't beable to stay here if you retire or lose your job. Maybe we should give the same consideration to our seniors as we do to our childern. How about capping their taxes or giving them large tax abatements? The baby boomers are aging but they are still the largest segment of the population. They are the generation of the 'american dream' maybe we should try to perserve it for them.
Tom D, Extremely generous pay I don't think so why do all the good ones leave? The town would have lots of people stay for 20 yrs and retire from their jobs if it actually was worth it. Pension is a joke. Hopefully they save other ways outside of pension because there no way anyone can live on that. So instead they work to put the experience on their work history and move on. I would probably think after they get to know the "municipality" way they would be happy to go back to the private sector. You have to fight to get what you need for the departments sometimes without getting it. Taxpayers wonder why items dont get done ask Town Council and Board of Finance when they decide to cut department budgets. Roads and buildings dont get what they need because you go with a amount you need and they decide nope this what we want to approve. More taxpayers should go to the town council meetings and have their voices heard if they want more to be done. That doesnt always happen since they dont want to be that bad people. BOE ALWAYS gets what they need plus much more. Having your children come home upset over the teachers telling them if you dont vote yes for the BOE budget they wont get new books and etc is unacceptable.
Management is underpaid, ASFCME and Teamsters, Police Union have the backing of their unions but still have to fight for anything they get. Theres no department overfunded in the town but look at the BOE.. Funny how they seem to find excess money every year. A while back they have 53 secretaries in the BOE some office had part time and fulll time ones. Some management had 2 secretaries what for? More paper pushing?? How many are in the town? Far from 53. The town seems to have different rules than the BOE they apparently can do no wrong.. What a joke. BOE is all screwed up and no on seems to want to call them on it. If they do they get pushed out of the board since they dont go along with the others.. No wonder people dont want to volunteer for the board. Last yr the bus strike was going on and BOE decided yes lets give Paddyfote a raise.. Please she did nothing to be prepared for the strike that was threatened the yr before. That showed me what was really important her money over the kids.
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