The city is going crazy!!!
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
The Roosevelt is still violating IEP's. Paras are being taken away from their students. Teachers, I hope you are filing for these students who can not fight for themselves.
A small but significant example of the contemptuous conduct of the local Dems, especially when it comes to state and federal laws:
"Melrosee Dems Rack Up Campaign Finance Violations"
Letters from the Office of Campaign Finance reveal illegal fundraising of Melrose Democratic City Committee on eve of local election.
By Alice Shattuck (Patch Poster) - Updated Nov 6, 2017 12:20 pm ET
The following information was provided to both of the local Melrose newspapers in time for the election-related deadline for the weekly paper two weeks ago. Both papers chose not to print or further report on this information before the local election on November 7th.
(Melrose) – The Melrose Democrats have been keeping busy under their new leadership team, made up of Samantha Hammar, Manisha Gadia Bewtra, Peter Navarra and Peter Mortimer. Unfortunately, in addition to ordinary local activism, they have also been busy racking up campaign finance law violations. Letters from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance addressed to Treasurer Peter Mortimer over the last 12 months reveal at least three infractions, one of which was serious enough to incur a $300 penalty for illegal fundraising activity.
This troubling pattern of disregard for legal campaign finance requirements raises serious questions about the officers of the committee, three of whom are running for local office in the November 7th municipal election. Treasurer Mortimer is running for re-election to the Ward 6 seat on the Melrose Board of Aldermen, where he serves as Chairman of the city's Appropriations Committee. Co-Vice Chairmen Manisha Gadia Bewtra and Peter Navarra are running for Alderman-at-Large and School Committee respectively.
"The fact that these infractions are occurring so frequently is definitely a concern," stated Alice Shattuck, Vice Chairman of the Melrose Republican City Committee. "These laws are written to ensure transparency and fairness in our elections process, and for a group that is so active in local politics to be repeatedly violating them shows a lack of respect for the public trust."
The first letter, dated December 8, 2016, states that Mortimer failed to file an accurate 2015 year-end report for the committee, reporting over $1,500 in reimbursements directly to members of the committee without disclosing the purpose for the political spending. In addition, the letter states, Mortimer omitted an in-kind donation to the committee from his reporting. Further review indicates this was a donation made by Congresswoman Katherine Clark that remained unknown to the public until the OCPF required Mortimer to re-file a corrected report last year.
The second letter, dated June 21, 2017, details how the Melrose Democratic City Committee posted fundraising solicitations for their political activities inside of Melrose public buildings, a violation of Massachusetts law, which prohibits public resources from being used in political fundraising. This activity, which the letter states "clearly did not comply with the campaign finance law," resulted in the committee paying a penalty of $300 to the Commonwealth.
With the Committee currently using their funds to plaster the city with fliers for their chosen candidates in the local election tomorrow, voters deserve to know the fundraising habits of the Democratic City Committee. The candidates aided by these activities include those mentioned above as well as Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Michael Zwirko, Frank Wright, Robert Boisselle, Jennifer McAndrew, John Obremski and Jennifer Razi-Thomas."
https://patch.com/massachusetts/melrose/melrose-dems-rack-campaign-finance-violations
Still shot staff in here and they assume we are going to over exert ourselves over this low paying unappreciated job.
Melrose residents this principal is wasting your tax dollars. I ask for you and other parents to speak out. I am trying to request a change.
More are leaving the district again. The principal at the Hoover, coaches, paraprofessional, and teachers. The hiring in Melrose needs diligent in laboring and puts effort into doing and completing tasks. CT, does not have to let you know when paraprofessionals come and go. She will not list the paras on zero of the websites to ensure the parents have no contact regarding the paraprofessionals.
From Wicked local:
Mayor Rob Dolan has been named a finalist for the position of Lynnfield Town Administrator.
Dolan was announced as one of two finalists for the Lynnfield position at the town’s Dec. 11 Board of Selectmen meeting.
A screening committee set up to review applicants reported nearly 40 candidates came forward for the position. Of those, a consultant recommended nine candidates, which the committee narrowed down to four.
Dolan and current Lynnfield Assistant to the Administration Robert Curtin are the two finalists that remain in the running for the job.
The following is a statement by Dolan regarding being named a finalist for the position:
“Due to the recently announced departure of the Lynnfield Town Administrator, an unanticipated and unique opportunity arose for me and my family. I chose to explore the position due to the professional opportunity it presents, and I am honored to have been named a finalist for the position of Lynnfield Town Administrator. After much reflection, I have decided to continue on with the process. I have had the privilege of serving the citizens of Melrose for 24 years as an elected official and 16 as mayor. As the selection process continues to unfold, I will keep the citizens of Melrose up to date every step of the way.”
The current Lynnfield Town Administrator, James M. Boudreau, has held the position since 2014, having previously held the same position in Norwell.
Dolan has been Mayor of Melrose since 2002. He graduated from Melrose High School in 1989 and was a member of the Melrose School Committee from 1994 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002 he served on the Board of Aldermen as Alderman-At-Large, and was President of the Board in 2001.
Further updates to this story will be reported when they become available.
I am a parent at the Roosevelt. I wish the principal kept the name Red Raiders for the school.:football:
GO RED RAIDERS YOU CAN WIN...
Many violations at the Roosevelt school. The principal and secretary are at each others throats just what she did to the other secretary.
In case you missed the oped in this week's Free Press:
In the coming weeks, interim Mayor Gail Infurna and the Board of Aldermen will complete a required cycle toward a fiscal year 2019 operating budget for the city and schools to begin on July 1. The total budget will come in at about 80 million; about 30 million will go to the public schools.
If the many cycles of such are any indication, the powers that now are will complain again about lack of funding and then pass yet another budget with no significant changes or restructurings. All while rumblings of yet another override attempt percolate behind the scenes. The last two would have added millions more; both were resoundingly defeated by a 2-1 margin. A third override attempt will follow the same defeat. Eighty million is plenty to run the city ands schools, especially with the annual budget increases coming from unregulated water and sewer increases and no major management or restructuring initiatives for long-range planning.
During Rob Dolan’s reign, I offered gratis to assist him in major undertakings that any well-run municipality implements. He balked at all. Today, there are about 350 city-side retirees (public teachers and administrators are under a totally separate and independent retirement system). They fall into two groups: Group IV is all police and fire employees; Group I is all other city workers without delineated categories of service. Group IV is about 25 percent of the 350 total; Group I the other 75 percent. All city employees are eligible for a life pension and life health insurance after just 10 years service. These include all mayors and aldermen. The 350 current retiree’s names and their pension amount is public information. Most are former part-time employees collecting a life pension and health benefits.
After 16 years of the Dolan administration, the number of projected retirees is now about 450 according to the city’s Retirement Board. Their names, current salaries and Group membership toward life benefits are not public information.
For the city to financially survive, it is mandatory that Infurna and the aldermen, especially wannabe mayor and attorney John Tramontozzi (who takes the18K health package) begin the process of reducing city employees who are currently paid part-time wages for current and future full-time benefits.
In the school department, the last two Melrose FY budgets had some 35 percent dedicated to special education—about 10 million. The national average is about 12 percent; the state average about 18 percent. Such an expenditure screams for a coordinated and accountable curriculum in Grades K-3. The majority of SPED services in all school systems begin in Grades K-3; the majority of such referrals are for reading and language related reasons. Add that Melrose skirts state and federal mandates for regular-education intervention strategies before SPED kicks in with parent awareness and it all add up to major and wasted education dollars.
The third and final major initiative needed is an “Early Retirement Incentive” in the school system. Simply put, the ERI pays teachers that are retirement eligible a bonus to retire with one year’s irrevocable notice. The payout is usually for three years after retirement, and a win-win for the teacher and the taxpayer by hiring a first-year teacher to replace the top-scale retiree as well as saving current “longevity” stipends received annually by teachers with 10 or more years in the system. Those bonus amounts are, for example: 10K in Year 1 of retirement; 7,500 in Year 2 and 5K in Year 3. The majority of all Melrose teaching staff, numbering about 275 of 350 school-side staff according to the school website, is currently eligible for ERI. While most Melrose teachers are dedicated professionals, too many are biding time and need an earlier path to retirement.
An organized curriculum in PK-3, 4-5, 6-8 and 9-12, all approved by the school committee as policy and managed by each principal, makes teachers accountable to measurable outcomes aligned with special education protocol and state and federal assessments, not to mention their annual performance evaluation. This organization and accountability would push many retirement considerations. Look no further than the lack of such organization and accountability as the major reason why so many Melrose parents opt for charter or private or parochial settings.
Here we are in early April. If we restructure just 5 percent of the FY19 budget –- a very very respectable amount – that’s 4 million dollars to lower water and sewer bills or to increase teacher salaries or to bond a new police station -- or all three.
Restructuring city-side employees to full-time, adopting coherent and measurable “Areas of Essential Learning” in reading, writing and math in Grades K-3 aligned with special education, and adopting an Early Retirement Incentive in the schools are all doable by September 1. Yes, in just four months.
Once again, I’m available gratis to assist. A one-hour public meeting for each of these three initiatives with Mayor Infurna, the president of the Board of Aldermen, Superintendent Taymore and the school committee chairperson is an easy start to explain eventual major financial and educational gains for our kids, parents and taxpayers.
(Bob Snow is co-host of MMTV’s “Matters of Interest.” He is also the former assistant superintendent of Somerville schools and a former three-term member of the Melrose School Committee.)
Due to the incompetent principal hires from CT the schools need asst. principals. A couple of years ago a few elementary principals were offered the choice of having assistance principal or teacher job coach. The principals chose the job coaches. Now, due to outrages incompetence, MPS is forced to hire against those principals wishes A.P.s for those school. See job openings. Why not just fire the incompetent inbreds and hire someone educators and experienced.
The principal hired at the Roosevelt school should be removed instead of hiring a VP. She can not get along with the new secretary just like the last secretary. She is BIPOLAR!
The PR Machine is still managing to keep hold of these well-meaning but naive parents, feeding them just enough to let them think they are having an effect and that they can feel proud being part of a "positive" process. They don't realize how they have been co-opted and are being used. They don't realize that they are only being given just enough information to make them Believe.
The post above is correct. The children at the Roosevelt are out of control. The children do whatever they want. The teachers and paras have no authority to discipline them. Not sure why. You are not doing the kids any favors by letting their behavior get out of control. The same kids cause all the problems. Some are so rude. I question what is going on in the homes.
SIMPLE nothing else, just DISCIPLINE. Follow through from first grade on up to twelfth grade.
Some elementary PTO moms have only constant praise for the school. Doesn't matter how bad something is. They're the first to jump to the defence of the district. Especially when another parent critcizes the school at a PTO meeting, they immediately praise it. Their kid gets to middle school, more of the same thing.
Principals routinely exploit those PTO moms. They take the easy way out. They act like one parent's praise simply cancels out another's criticism. Since there are people on both sides, it's just opinions, nothing more. They don't respond to the criticism. They don't fix the problem. The school doesn't improve.
There are two types of these PTO moms. One drinks the kool-aid all the way through. Because they're kid isn't dying, the school must be great. If nothing else, they're consistent in their selfishness.
The other type is the complete hypocrite. They kiss the principal's butt all the way through elementary and middle school. They say the superintendent is the best. The curriculum director is the best. The teachers are the best. Suddenly, after middle school they send their kid to some other place.
Tom Brow is still working in Belmont, and they absolutely love the guy. Forced out at Melrose by a bunch of @sshole school committee pukes...Belmont, one of the top districts in the state jumps on him right away. Its a sinking f@cking ship with Taymore at the helm and a bunch of fools on the SC.
When I moved to Melrose the city needed four principals then. I understand the city needs four more again? This is an internal problem and who do we address this issue too. If correct the MVMMS, Hoover, Lincoln, and Winthrop have recently vacated these position.
The Hoover principal was to be going to another city, now we don't know. The Roosevelt the same thing but now they decided to put an assistance principal too share both Roosevelt and Winthrop school.
Conflict of interest
It has nothing to do with liberal or far right politics. People of all political affiliations roundly defeated the McAndrew/Taymore/Dolan override scam not too long ago. McAndrew flat-out lied to the voters of Melrose about what the money was for. Meanwhile, a lone SC member was trying to obtain key information about the out of control spending on legal fees from various unrelated accounts to aid the illegal coverup of various civil rights violations. Unbelievably, the superintendent CT, SC chair and city solicitor schemed to evade public records laws to prevent the school committee member from obtaining the documents. How? By claiming it would cost $10,000 to the requestor to obtain these public records. Yup, that's right The city solicitor and the school committee chair in collusion with the superintendent colluded to prevent the tax payers of Melrose basic information on how hundreds and thousands of tax payer dollars were being spent to coverup the multitude of civil rights violations and various settlement agreement and response to the Office of Civil Rights. TO THIS DAY THIS INFORMATION IS STILL BEING WITHHELD IMPROPERLY FROM THE TAX PAYERS ALONG WITH THE MOST RECENT THREE YEARS WORTH OF SPENDING ON LEGAL FEES. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT WELL OVER A MILLION SPENT WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY. ONLY THE SUPERINTENDENT, CITY SOLICITOR, DOLAN AND THE FORMER SC CHAIR ARE IN THE KNOW. SO THERE SHOULD BE NO OVERRIDE UNTIL THIS INFORMATION IS DISCLOSED.
WAKE UP VOTERS!
Thinking before you speak or do something. It's about knowing that every day, the choices we make can and will affect our lives. It's about being accountable for our choices in life. We have the right to make our decisions every day, and every day is a new day. But will the school committee make good decisions and the superintendent Cyndy Taymore?
Superintendent Taymore Needs to go!