Whether it's sports victories or acceptable PARCC/AP test scores, the YES crowd in Melrose seems unidimensional in its comprehension of reality or tolerance of anything that doesn't conform to "Love us or Move because you're a Hater" mentality. The chest-beating superiority complex of such deeply insecure people should be obvious.

However the district students "performed" (we're all just an "audience" if you believe our School Committee!) on standardized testing or win in athletic matches, the district (administration, parents, teachers, students, all of it generally, though there are certainly standout exceptions in all categories) fails in the Being Human category. The values being taught from the top down are definitely in the Needs Improvement and Warning Status category, or worse. The mean-spirited, self-absorbed (or worse, hateful) conduct being displayed by too many politicians, children, parents, teachers, coaches, administrators, can't be fobbed off solely on the children (though they surely are responsible for their own bad behavior and need to be held accountable). Accountability should matter, but it doesn't in Melrose, not really.

If there's anything this last election showed, it was the discrepancy between what administration wants and propagandizes and what is real in the community at large. This school community has a huge problem, and it isn't just one of perception.

All the foolishness that becomes the Focus du Jour of the parent community (and the administrators who will do or say absolutely anything as long as it keeps the gullible and self-serving parent-activist population happy) just reinforces the divide between what's real and what the administration wants us to believe. Luckily there were many voters last month who could see what's real (but unfortunately they have left it at that and not demanded real accountability or put forward enough decent school candidates). Sadly the gullible parent population just keeps drinking the koolaid and latching onto the next Issues du Jour (later school start times seems to be the newest red herring and focus for propaganda campaigns). No one in this gullible group seems to notice or care (beyond a few lame Facebook posts) that there are monsters freely having their way, administrators violating civil rights and wracking up enormous bills and lawsuits, parents teaching their children (either directly or by neglect and default messages) to savage other children, politicians getting away with all manner of financial and oversight (lack of) free-for-all.

No one seems to have connected what happened around the Y rapist with the conduct displaying itself now, either, but it is sadly another version of the same scenario. When will Melrose as a community grow up and take some responsibility for itself? When will it say Enough and throw out the charlatans, the Pretenders, those who are taking advantage of Melrose apathy and immaturity and making hay with finances, policies (if they could even be dignified as such), etc. There are monsters masquerading here. Melrose needs to redeem its soul and banish those who think hurting others (for power and profit) is okay.

And to the obviously well-meaning person who keeps reposting, that "it is what it is...," that is a terrible message, just FYI. It is probably meant generously, but it is precisely what's wrong in Melrose. Just because something exists doesn't mean it is good or healthy or the reasonable reality we want for our community.

thanks for an excellent and thought-provoking post

Looking at the makeup of the two boards in our city, it is hard to fathom how the community has allowed our governing bodies to come to such a poor state. The vote on the override was one thing, and it was certainly significant that a nearly 2 to 1 ratio spoke clearly that residents did not want or trust what the administration had put forward. With that lack of trust and that obvious lack of credibility by both boards (since so many of the current and new candidates were in support of that failed ballot measure), it should have been the corollary that new people with strong views in synch with the population would have been put forward and elected. That didn't happen, for the most part, except for the huge vote again for Monica Medeiros, who clearly has worked for and won the trust of most in a totally bipartisan way. Then contrarily J.D. LaRock lost by a small margin to two candidates, one an insider newcomer who totally supports the administration and the other a long-term incumbent who never does anything that isn't in total synch with the mayor and his cronies. It just doesn't add up. The community knew that the override was a dog that didn't merit support. How could it have voted in so many candidates of highly questionable merit? Are voters really that lazy that they only check off the names they know? That can't really be the case since 30% of the voters submitted blanks for mayor (even though they never put any alternative forward) and there were over 10,000 blanks for school committee (an astounding number) and many for aldermen as well. So the voters were strong in the negative and didn't do much of anything in the affirmative, except in a couple of cases where the support was obvious and even made sense. But MD as #1 vote-getter for SC is just ridiculous and mind-boggling, except when considering the opposition, as it were, or lack thereof. The SC is a mess for which there may be no hope. Apparently as long as the football team is succeeding (and at least one team in the spring), few seem to care. No one but Mr. M ever goes to the meetings (even the new candidates are starkly absent and have been all along, which doesn't say much about their commitment or willingness to climb the steep learning curve, let alone their strength of character or integrity).

Well, Melrose has gotten itself into quite a mess overall. It will be difficult to undo it and turn around the really awful things--like the schools, which seem nearly hopeless in their poor management or the water/sewer rates, which are entirely fixable if only there is enough political will.

Or maybe, just maybe the vast majority of the citizens of Melrose are very happy with the way the city of Melrose and it's school system are operating. Maybe we like the fact that the values of the homes we own are skyrocketing.

How about "time for Melrose to grow up" and "grateful to previous poster" along with the handful of other cry babies on this message board rise up from your keyboards and take action. Because you cannot and will not.

Think about it folks, Mayor Dolan has no opposition because the vast majority of Melrose citizens want it the way. You guys cannot even come up with a candidate. Your voice only exists on a message board.

Ok now give me your string of excuses and make sure you use the common Melrose Messages buzzword "TOXIC".

Dolan has no opposition because no one wants to give up their career to be Mayor as so conveniently inserted into the charter by.................guess who?

Rise up and take action? Can you spell override?

precisely

The Dolanites are so juvenile they simply have to jump in to proclaim victory even when there is no basis or in the case of the last election, the evidence was hugely in the negative for them. 30% of the voting public cast Blanks or Write-ins for mayor, which is simply unprecedented here. 62% to 38% landslide defeat of Dolan's override. A bit of simple humility might help this jacka$$ earn back a bit of credibility, but instead he goes out swinging and threatening, ever more obnoxious and giving credence to all those even among his supporters who are doubting and questioning him. Plenty of us know the outright truth that this is one increasingly bad guy who has long outlived his welcome here, and now is willing to sink to just about anything if he feels the need to do so politically. Pathetic.

Getting the charter changed should be the first order of business for all of us who want to see our community get better.

The election results were pretty easy to analyze. The campaign was doomed from the start. The City said they didn't really need the money and the items on the list of school administration purposes for the money seemed meaningless to the overall improvement of the school system. Basically, there was nothing there to vote yes for...and the message was delivered loud and clear. Even the people who voted yes did so because the $220 didn't mean anything to them and they figured more money in the system was better than less money.
Interestingly, the same voters re-elected all incumbents and no one ran against Dolan, whose defeat is the raison d'etre for the loudmouths on this board. The MM wackos are fully entitled to gloat about the defeat of the override, but don't confuse it with voter sentiment towards Dolan and the reason why no one runs against him. They don't run because they know its a waste of time and money...

wrong

No one ran against Dolan because he had the city charter crafted to make it nearly impossible for any qualified and experienced professional to do so. Only an unqualified powermonger like himself would run for this position because of the charter requirements now.

It's delusional or dishonest to say that even the override opponents approved of Dolan. 30% Blanks said it loud and clear in the mayoral "race." 10,000 Blanks for School Committee and a large amount for aldermen spoke loudly, also. That was unprecedented and the message was not a mandate in support of this administration, regardless of the end result. A lot of pols have won elections and ultimately been failures and had to resign or be thrown out. With all that's going on in this city right now, it would be very foolish to think that everything is rosy with this administration just because incumbents are returning to their seats.

Funny that the minions are rushing to comment here about the "MM wackos"; "Override Reality" doth protest too much, methinks." There is a reality in Melrose that this poster is trying to wash away with impotent insults.

That tired argument is completely false. Dolan makes $125,000 per year. The average income per person in Melrose is $45,000 and the average household income is $86,000. Individually only about 20% of the population makes over $100,000 and its less in Melrose. Plenty of "wackos" on this site would give themselves a major raise if they were elected Mayor...as would the latest MM darling Monica M. No one ran against Dolan because no on in this town can beat him. They know it and you know it. Lets see what happens 4 years from now. Prediction: You will still be crying and Dolan will still be Mayor.

Also time for Melrose to start telling us citizens the truth. Anyone else hear anything on a home invasion / kidnapping on Hurd Street? Of course it wasn't in the papers. Apparently property values are more important than keeping the people informed. I have a family that I love and care for, I'd appreciate it if these jerks could report this stuff to us!

So, it seems that a decision was made. Seems to me where the mayor stands on this whole issue, so if they move these children, the 8th grade to the highschool and the fifth graders to the middle school, where does that really put us? The question becomes, what is the cost of all this? The question becomes, what is the impact of moving the fifth graders to the middle school? Seems to me the form that they are using right now, is they're afraid of the public asking serious questions and getting answers. So basically in very simple language, they don't want any parent to have a say in this whole thing. This is not only about moving children around, how about the impact on families when this happens. As we all know, there are different issues at the middle school, and the same at the highschool. I think that if the school committee, our superintendent and our mayor should not vote on this, until they have a few more meetings and the public can weigh in on this and have questions answered. Why does this have to be done so quickly? All of a sudden, we need to move students around? Here's the irony of this whole thing; we don't have a hell of a lot of money. Look at how the budget process has gone. Let me break this down so all of you can understand. How in the hell can we do all of these changes that they are thinking about doing when money is so tight? I think that we have trouble coming our way. The one thing that I will say, thank god my children have all graduated from the melrose high school system. I'm surprised our superintendent hasn't looked at what they do in Bedford. Where she was employed at. I have some serious doubts about what she would like to do. As we all know, I believe she lives in Salem. I don't think she's well connected to Melrose. I think the Mayor is hiding on this one, from basically what I read on the board on regards to how he is going to vote. There was is if the vote goes the other way it's not his fault. But it will be his fault. Because he seems that he does not want to give up his numbers, theyre big numbers. No matter what model they use. So heres the butt of my message to you. All of you should be on the phone calling the mayor, the superintendent and the school committee and send them all emails on how you feel about this. If we are going to do this right, there should be atleast 3 or 4 public hearings where people can speak. and get there questions answered. But maybe we have a bunch of cowards here, that don't want us to hear the truth. The truth of the whole matter, this didn't happen over night, this has happened over time due to all the buildings going up. I'm talking about condominiums, and all those zoning changes that have happened so this can happen. Im getting a little off track so lets get back. Our city is growing, and we don't seem to have enough space for the students, the bigger question becomes, how much room do we actually have in the highschool? Not alot. But how about the middle school? How much room do we have there? I think what's going on here, they're not going to tell us. But anybody whos been in the highschool, middle school, and all the grammar schools we know the answer. Our politicians are trying to pull a quick one on us. So folks, if you care, about what's going on here, for your children, this is a time for you to use your position, to force these folks to have a few more meetings before the vote is done. That's how it's done here, when the pressure is put on the elected officials, to do what has to be done right, just look at whats going to happen, this coming week. The board of alderman has to vote on a water thing. They have to vote one way or the other to hopefully get the water rates controlled and manageable for the citizens. Make sure your voices are all heard. This is not about you, this is about your children, attending grammar school, middle school and highschool. The impact will be on you too, not just your children. That's all.

yup

Why are you bringing up this old thread that your wrote last year? To agree with yourself again?

Hey, if the foo $hits....

These "old" strings are entirely relevant. If you don't like them, don't read them. What they show is that the same issues keep recurring because the same awful officials remain in power, and the same people (like you) are defending the status quo. Grow up. These problems need to be fixed, and it's disgraceful that they are not being dealt with, and that the public continues to get screwed as a result.