>>Valley Patriot>>
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North Andover
School Committee
Insists on Laying off
Teachers
Perry and Company Engage in
Personal Attacks, Makes Lawrence Look Like Geniuses
08/09/06
So
you thought the Lawrence School Committee was a joke?
Well,
last night the North Andover School Committee made the
Lawrence School Committee look like educational geniuses
as their meeting degenerated into name calling in a
circus like atmosphere. It was worse than any Lawrence
School Committee meeting of recent history.
For four hours residents of the town of
North Andover waited for the School Committee to do
something… anything to address the proposed teacher
shortage and the intentionally out of balance school
budget.
Instead, the school committee, still sour
after town voters rejected a trash tax, used the meeting
as forum to complain about teacher layoffs, blaming Dr.
Ormsby for the teacher shortage. All the while the
committee refused to lift a finger to restore those
teaching positions.
Self proclaimed school advocates (who
admittedly support teacher layoffs) sat in the audience
deriding Ormsby for even suggesting that teachers could
be saved.
One parent who favors the teacher layoffs
said that Ormsby should either resign from the committee
or the North Andover Taxpayers Association because; on
her planet it is a conflict of interest to advocate for
lower taxes and education at the same time.
Committee
chairman Al Perry viscously attacked Dr. Ormsby calling
him a liar charging that “when Tommy Duggan got up
at Town meeting he asked if Dr. Ormsby’s budget
proposal would prevent teacher layoffs… he (Ormsby)
said yes.” Perry then went into a tirade against
Ormsby, charging that a school committee members' role is
to advocate for the students and “Dr. Ormsby fails
to do that.”
Perry’s newest puppet on the
committee, Barbara Whidden (who was supported by the
teachers union in the last election and supported
the trash tax) reiterated Perry’s myths accusing
Ormsby of “lying” to the parents and citizens
of North Andover” with his proposal to save all
teachers because “many of his recommendations were
not legal, including using grant money for other
purposes.”
Ormsby
had previously admitted that the committee may not be
able to use the grant money. But, Dr. Ormsby did make a
motion to appropriate $500,000, instead of $192,000, to
save more teachers, eliminating Assistant Superintendent
Bergeron (who is actively sending out resumes to other
communities), and one of the two assistant principals at
the middle school.
The committee, however, chose to side with
the Harutunian hired administration and protect their
jobs instead of teaching positions, in direct conflict
with what they told the taxpayers at town meeting. Not
surprisingly, Perry and the teacher layoff advocates
refused to second Ormsby’s motion and it failed.
Miraculously,
at 9:30pm the interim superintendent informed the
committee that there was an additional $336,282 available
to appropriate in the '07 budget. The administration had
already restored a high school math teacher, a preschool
nurse, and a Kindergarten teacher for $143,780 thus
leaving $192,502 for the committee to decide what to do
with.
Despite the fact that Tim Pybus and
Al Perry declared no teacher cuts could be avoided if the
trash tax was defeated, Perry and company voted to save
six more teachers (2 high school teachers. 2 Thomson
teachers and 2 Sargaent teachers) slated for layoff with
the additional $192,502, for a total of 9 saved
positions.
Let’s not forget that at Town Meeting, the school
committee was obligated to make cuts totalling $1,283K vs
the $1,412K that the Administrative cut list presented at
the meeting, thus the school department already restored
$128K in positions – Atkinson Grade 2, NAHS teacher,
and two NAMS 6th
Grade teachers -- EVEN before there was the extra $336K.
In total 13 positions have been restored.
So,
what’s going on here?
How
can the people who whined about losing teachers at town
meeting now advocate saving Harutunian’s
administrators instead of saving the very teachers they
claimed to be fighting for?
Al Perry and his puppets on the committee
(Kelly, Pybus and Whidden) continue to advocate for
teacher layoffs because every time they cry wolf in yet
another scam to raise taxes, no teachers are ever laid
off. Well aware that the taxpayers are no longer falling
for the committees’ empty threats, Perry and company
are now determined to pad the budget with unneeded
administrators in order to lay off as many teachers as
they can so that next year they can use the layoffs in
their next
tax raising scheme.
As a side note: Today’s Eagle Tribune
reported from the meeting that because of teacher cuts
250 students at the high school will not be receiving the
990 mandatory hours of instruction required by state
statute.
Had the Trib reporter bothered to stay
until the end of the meeting, however, she would have
learned that the school committee voted to reinstate two
High School teachers, thereby insuring all high school
students will receive the required 990 hours in
compliance with state law.
Tom Duggan is the president of Valley
Patriot, Inc., is a former member of the Lawrence School
Committee, and hosts the Paying Attention! Radio Program
on WCAP, 980AM, every Saturday afternoon from noon-2pm.
You can email your comments to Tdugjr@aol.com
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The July, 2006 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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