That is great can you please list the great schools the Melrose boys are going to based on their academic backround. Just curious, how do you know the college plans for all the Melrose kids at the 3 schools? Are you stalking them on Facebook or are you taking 2-3 examples and extrapolating?

Given that we had a new Middle School built with the latest technogy not that many years ago, built new science & math labs, gave our teachers recently a 25% pay raise, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on text books, one would think that in the past 3 plus years that Ms. Taymore and her admin staff have been around, that we should be further ahead in substantially improving student outcomes. But looking at recent SAT results which put us bearly meeting state averages, it's no wonder that people are frustrated with this current school committee and school admin.[/quote]

I do believe you said "Gave our teachers a 25% pay raise." here I don't see you mentioning anything about steps in this post, or any other other post where you blanket say they are getting a 25% increase across the board. If you want, I can forward a dozen posts in which you reference a 25% pay raise for the teachers, as well as a bunch of posts where this was supposed to ensure parity with other communities.

Smarten up - during these discussions - me as well as countless people talked about the step increases as being where the raises were distributed - just because you want to act stupid - don't expect the rest of us to follow suit! There were endless posting telling everyone about where the money was. I ascribe your confusion about this to laziness or outfight fraud to convince others that no such raise was given to teachers.

Is there a reason you need to resort to personal insults?

No - but it is very frustrating to have to repeat this information time and time again as if you people have never heard of it. It's as if people are suffering from extreme case of amnesia in Melrose.

It has gotten very interesting here in Melrose. our superintendent, our Mayor, and of course the school committee always looking for new fees to charge us parents. If the budget is that tight, why would you give the superintendent a raise, when the summer begins and everybody is away? I can tell you why, none of you have the you know whats to say no to a raise. It's almost like you warship the ground she walks on. Here's the big question for all of us in the community. How much is the superintendent costing us in legal fees, because of her misjudgement? But better yet, she doesn't even know, because she has hired the best of the best, but the sad part about all of this, us tax payers are on the line for this. Because she doesn't even know what she's being billed for. Because the way she negotiated her contract with these people. Then of course we have the public relations firm that she hired. That's $10,000 or more. And especially if they have to work overtime. So what does this tell us about our superintendent? I find it almost impossible with her education and being a superintendent and licensed, that she needs to use a public relations firm. To speak for herself, the city of Melrose, and the school system. It's pretty sad that Margaret Driscoll thought it was a great idea (for some of you she's the chair of the Melrose School Committee.)Just shows you that the superintendent is in charge and she's not accountable to the school committee like she should be. Lets add to that a little bit. She was asked a question not too long ago, about the rules and regulations in regards to students and parents, about giving proper notice about suspensions, or anything else to go along with that and you know how she answered it? She didn't answer it. She felt the school committee members didn't deserve an answer. She had been put on notice for the past two years now, that she is not in compliance with the law. With the students rights, and the parents right, we all have to understand, these children are under 18 years old and even under 21 years old and they are protected under the law. So when in the hell, is the Melrose School Committee and our mayor, are going to do the right thing and address this issue? Yes, you Mr. Mayor Dolan. We are going to wait until it effects your own children, then you will do something about this. Some of you might think that I am stepping over the line, I am sure not doing that. Mr. Mayor; have you forgotten about the folks in this community, the children in this community? Maybe our city solicitor and the school attorney need to be educated on the law. Oh yes, I'm calling them both out. Why not? Nobody else has. The interesting question here, Mr. Mayor, maybe our city solicitor is doing what you want him too do because you hired him, and he is an elected official in Everett. Maybe you think that this is not going anywhere, think twice. You never know. Once again, this goes back to money being tight. The message that was delivered to the city of Melrose back in December 2015, the citizens voted no on the override because they don't trust any of you. You think that we're a bunch of fools out here, yeah you can say that you don't read the board, we all read the board. The big question becomes, our superintendent has been found guilty, or the city whatever way you want to put it of civil rights violations. I always thought a student would come first, but apparently that's not the case here. The big question for all of us in the community is; 'how do we make Melrose a better public schools system, going up against the Charter schools?' First thing that I can think of is offering something better that the Charter school doesn't offer, but maybe you folks forgot that you are in competition. You do a lot of crying about how much money goes to the Charter schools and vocational schools because the product that they have is no good. Why do I say that? It's very simple. Just look at the board, look at all that's been said. People are talking about real things, but the Melrose Schooll committee and our Mayor and our superintendent don't realize that we do have the pulse of what's going on here. Protect the administration, and tell the parents, you're not going to do anything. People speak at public participation, at the school committee meetings and if you don't like what they're saying, you cut them off after five minutes. But if you have somebody who works for the city, or a person that you really like, they can talk well beyond the five minutes. I think we call that discrimination. That's just an opinion. But the board seems to echo that. So my message to the Melrose School Committee, our superintendent, our Mayor (because the mayor sits on the school committee), why don't you just be honest with all of us in the community. And you may be able to fix some of the problems. Let me add to this a little, Margaret Driscolls blog, is somewhat out of line. She's talking about school committee business if you read it for what it is. It's been on this blog, it's a joke. It's too bad, when you look at the minutes of the school committee and you look at her blog, what a coincidence. In my closing words, to all new elected officials of the Melrose School Committee; if you don't challenge the superintendent and question her morals on what she's doing, nothing is going to change. It has been mentioned on the blog, that she should be fired. Because what is has cost this community, it seems that the school committee and our mayor worships the ground that she walks on and she can't do anything wrong. Oh yes, this is definitely going to hit a nerve of some folks but grow up. The facts always speak for themselves, you can't make this **** up. For all of you, and I mean all of you in this community, just watch how the melrose school committee conducts itself on tv, very little questions about anything. It's almost like its been rehearsed because it seems to me, they don't want us to know anything. Let's go back to one more thing; they want parents to pay for fees or clubs that their children might not even belong to, that's not a tax, that's basically picking peoples pockets. Folks in this community should not give any money to the PTO's forget it. Why bother giving any money? People bend over backwards to help out the Melrose School System. My last words: Mr. Mayor this is getting even more funny, you keep on talking about the override, and how it didnt go through, and how there wont be another override, has it occurred to you that, the people no longer trust you? that's the way that I look at it, I could be wrong. The city has a surplus and all of a sudden it vanishes? Some of you may not like what I said, and some of you will agree with me, but here's the real kicker; the truth speaks for itsself what's going on in Melrose.