Voted No on the Override and will vote No on any future attempt despite all the ravings of the MEF narcissistic parents. Get the message. You are not getting any additional $ until the SC and admin clean up the budget shenanigans and fire the incompetent staff. No wonder the teachers call in sick. The stress is killing them...literally.... Who would sub for the pay allotted for substitute teachers? The 50 bucks per day hasn't been raised in 20-25 years...at least....? But we can pay for the health insurance of the BOA members....current and retired ....and find CT "exemplary" and give her raises....get a grip, Melrose! No, No, No...Thank God, I do not have children in the school system anymore...they got out before the meltdown.

It is sad enough to have members of the community act that way but when civil servants and elected officials jump on board with the bashing and retaliation(sadly, very common here in Melrose), they violate their oath of office and ethics regulations. But that appears to be tolerated in this City for some strange reason.

Much like the Mayor sitting on the school committee. Does he run from one side of the room to the other during budget meetings? Representing both sides of any discussion.

It's like when you're a kid performing a skit with your friends and you don't have enough actors for all the roles so you run around the stage playing different parts. The audience is your mom though so it's funny to her. Here, the stakes are a little higher.

One of the reasons I voted no was because of the health insurance for BOA. I do not believe there will be layoffs. Every year they say it but the money does seem to appear. I Also I noticed in the budget memo that CT is getting a 3% raise this year? The money must be available!

And be sure there will be a "pot of money" for mid summer raises for Taymore's crack team of administrators who have thrown the district into turmoil. But you won't know about it because the school committe waits to vote on this when everyone is vacationing in July. Maybe we should be voting on this now, while they are discussing the budget?

It looks like the extra Kindergarten classes will be at Lincoln and Roosevelt. So will they hire Asst Principals? We have so many condos and apt buildings going up there will be additional enrollments. Not everyone moving to Melrose buys a home. There are lots of residents who rent or buy condos with small children. I am glad Melrose is booming but we are busting at the seams.

Not only will they not hire assistant principals, but they won't hire more custodial staff, or specialists. Let's hope they hire 1st grade teachers for the two extra classes that are currently moving up! Current kindergartners in those schools attend art, music, gym, library - with more than 35 kids in each class. This is inexcusable that Melrose had "no idea" this was coming and shut the Beebe school. Thank our lucky stars for MVCS or we would have 300 more kids in the district - and close to 200 in the elementary schools. And yes, by all means, keep building more condos.

Since it looks like the schools are going to be overwhelmed for the next few years, planning is in order. For more than next year. Long term including consideration of a population decease if there is one on the horizon.

The charter school gets maligned but if it closed tomorrow, as said above 300 students would need space in MPS. Students who have parents that didn't want to send their kids to MPS so presumably not on board with the doings of MPS.

One point of confusion is that Melrose is participating in school choice where students from other communities can apply to come in for certain grades. Melrose receives 5k each for these students which in under the Melrose per pupil expenditure so how is this a good thing? Doesn't the city lose money by having the out of town students here?

Even if there is not the same level of overcrowding in the grades that accept the school choice students, could any 'extra' resources be moved down to the lower grades where they are needed? [:-?]

Darn fortunate that the school system is so wretched and has a reputation that is anything but enviable now. The taxpaying parents of those 550+ students who now attend private or parochial schools are keeping things afloat for Paymore to accrue large increases in the administrative budget and for all those consultants and attorneys without taking up spaces in the district. Paymore and Doughland had better make sure the system continues to worsen. Maybe more students will be pulled from the system while the tax dollars continue to funnel in. Don't know why ClownA$$ is so upset with those who are going to private or parochial schools because this scheme is actually working for the disastrous administration.

Cost of Out of city pupils came up on the community page back during the override. I don't remember fully, but I do not believe we get only $5000 for those pupils. Are you going from proof you saw personally on the spreadsheets? I looked back then but have now forgotten the amount exactly. Having said that, I still don't believe it was anywhere near $5000.
Also, they only sold less than 5 open seats across high school grades only I believe. Selling an open seat is not something they see as a problem. Though I would say to some parents, like me, it does indeed bother them that a handful of classes couldn't enjoy less students sometimes.

And speaking of money, I have recently wondered, why do St. Mary's students get to use Melrose public school specialists for their students? Does St. Mary's pay the city of Melrose for the use of their specialists? They, I assume, also get their students tested by MPS?

Does anyone have the facts on any of this?

I readily admit I do not have the facts about any of those inner workings, only generalities I have heard from chatter around town and what may be completely wrong chatter I know.

Here's an idea, instead of continuing to lose money on the ecc, why not get rid of it and put all the K overages there? Think of all those MEF mommies needing to find a new pre-school for their little types just so that our kindergarten students have a place to take class.

By law, the district has to evaluate any taxpayer student for whom there is a concern of special education needs. Once identified as SPED, the district must provide services for said student. The families still pay taxes here, so even if they send their child to private school, they can still utilize the services in the city. Same for homeschooled kids.

Thank you. Makes sense. So it's not that any student ( other city student) at St. Mary's is getting services at MPS. Good to know.

Exactly what SPED law said. It's Melrose students using the services. Saugus kids would have to get their services through Saugus for example. Do the specialists come to St. Mary's? My friend who works for the Reading Public Schools told me the same as SPED above except that the family has to come to the public school for the services if they don't already attend.

Referencing the out of district student issue, someone who worked on the task force to determine whether was it feasible for Melrose to accept the out of district students, said on the facebook community page that the city received 5K for the students. That's what I remember anyway. I can't see what the other poster was asking exactly because of how the message box only shows the previous post but I think that was the question.

Thank you for the confirmation and extra info. And yes, I was told the St Mary's kids take a bus to MPS for services. The specialists don't go to there.
@ out of district students-Wow. That would be something if it was only $5000. Am thinking my brain wouldn't accept that number back then and dismissed it as false when it was on the community page. It just seems so wrong. Thanks again.

Well a decision needs to be made soon on Kindergsrten. Little over 5 months to get it straightened out!

Where are they on deciding if they are going to add a K to the HM? I think there was talk about putting it in the current library. Perfect.

And then the library would go where?

The HM principal has her hands full just trying to maintain the HM school and the district at Level three status. It was just a couple of months ago that some lobbying efforts and a little massaging of the stats with DESE mysteriously brought the school back to level two. Besides, she's usually busy retaliating against families who complain about teacher misconduct or student's IEPs not being implemented. Her behavior is ripe for an Office of Civil Rights complaint or two.

Anonymous is the differentiator? That is the most ludicrous comment I've read in a long time.

Substitute pay will increase from 55.00 to 60.00. Yes that will attract more substitutes in Melrose ! 5.00 raise will do nothing at all to help alleviate the shortage.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/schoolchoice/choice15.html

FY15 school choice tuition rates are set at 75 percent of the FY14 operating cost per full-time equivalent pupil for the receiving school district, with a cap of $5,000.

Melrose receives 5K for each school choice student. Per pupil expenditure is higher than that. So how is it that Melrose isn't losing $$$ taking these kids in? If you're going to complain about not having $$$ SC, then maybe don't sign up for money losing propositions.

Many districts don't do it. Belmont, Weston, Winchester, Wayland, Newton, etc. You can draw your own conclusions.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/schoolchoice/choice-status.pdf

These students from school choice are occupying available extra space - it is not costing the city anything extra. No additional teachers are hired, not additional resources are needed, just using existing resources. That is why it makes economical sense - don't understand why that is so difficult to understand! If you had watched the discussion at school committee meetings, you would have known this fact.

Personally speaking, I don't believe the School Committe. I wonder how the teachers feel about taking on extra students from out of district? More paperwork from these kids, homework, tests, conferences with parents and the responsibility of actually teaching these kids. Interesting that books, other school supplies, and whatever other costs there are in educating a child in Melrose is, comes in under 5K for these chilren. Economies of scale only go so far. Gym, the cafeteria, art supplies, extracurriculars that are city subsidized even if there's a fee, and much more, are MPS resources being stretched further if there are more students. There is a breaking point. Period. Hopefully enough cushion was left for families moving to the city and children re-enrolling from private, Catholic and the charter school. Ironic that the school system would agree to this at a time when there is consideration of moving elementary students to the middle school and middle schoolers starting high school in 8th grade because of looming over crowding issues.

A stupid decision made by a stupid school committee. The choice was backed by a stupid city government officials and incompetent, stupid school administrators. I am so glad I voted NO on the override !

Please don't forget that this budget "crisis" is totally made up by the mayor, SC and Paymore. He made it clear that the override was for future cushioning and not for actually meeting the expenses of the schools.

This manufactured crisis is basically punishment for those who voted against the override. It is a temper tantrum and the kids suffer. Again.

Of course, Paymore is using this made up crisis to say this is all she can work on instead of actually dealing with real issues.

This is so true. I keep seeing where this is the excuse of the month. From the SC too. How can I possibly deal with anything else when I have the "budget crisis" to manage? Maybe manage relocating the 3 million+ dollars that you had a short time ago? What is the explanation for its disappearance?

There needs to be a series of public town hall meetings where city and school officials answer all questions. The status of the MPS situation, including the budget, student numbers, IEP violations and the OCR findings must be addressed openly. The schools are in crisis and rumors, PR spin doctors and the avoidance approach is not working to solve Melrose's problems or heal this divided community.