whats the under/over on the chance that the subject of the override fail comes up at tonights meeting!
The over is that the reason it failed will go over the heads of most of them!
The over ride did not pass for one main reason. The cover-up of the civil rights violations/OCR by the Melrose School Committee-namely Taymore, Thorpe and newly reappointed Driscoll. I am not a fan of the mayor I'll admit and voted no as did so any of my friends and neighbors, but one thing we ALL had in common was the reason why, Mayor Dolan's praise and support of the superintendent. He needs to distance himself from her and if possible use all of his influence and power to terminate her contract. If he does so and either lessens the amount of the over ride or limits it to one year everyone I know will not only vote yes, but work to see it happens. We want to support our city and schools but it will never happen under the present MPS administration. He needs to pull in the reigns on Margaret Driscoll as well and support the rights for every school committee member to voice their opinions and support them equally. I hope you take this under advisement Mr. Mayor. End the racism, cover-ups, be impartial, and clean up our up our schools. Start fresh with an administrator who has no ties to Taymore. Put the pay scale for a superintendent comparable to yours. You are the mayor. No one working for the city schools should be making more than you. Show the citizens of Melrose you have what it takes to do the right thing for the betterment of it's people. There is ample documentation to cancel her contract for violation of her duties under the ethics, morals and civil rights laws. And lastly, insure she doesn't undermine your authority and make matters worse by exacting vengeance on MPS employees. She's vindictive and might attempt to wrongfully terminate staff or promote friends or even give favorites additional ridiculous raises. Do this and you will be supported. You will have your city back and earn the respect a mayor deserves.
He also has to open the books so we can see what and how efficiently we are spending the school's budget. When I see Alderman Bob Boiselle shouted down by the mayoral attack dog Pete Mortimer for simply asking questions of the superintendent about past purchases of school books during the budget process, and then school committee member Carrie Kourkoumelis shouted down and tag-teamed by Mayor Dolan, Kristin Thorp and Margaret Driscoll for asking totally appropriate questions about existing spending on legal fees before voting on a warrant for yet another $34,000 for legal fees with absolutely no discussion, I am deeply concerned for this City being controlled by a small cadre of strongmen who seem to think they can shut down democracy, public comment, open meeting laws, and public record laws by intimidating our neighbors and friends. This practice is well entrenched in the school administration as well. Honestly, I never thought I would have seen this kind of deep seated corruption 15 years ago. What is happening in Melrose City government is shameful and it may take outside entities such as the DOE's Office of Civil Rights and other state and Federal agencies to intervene to stop the corruption.
I agree with you 'Not so fast". It's a start in showing good faith.
I would say at this point someone should drop a dime with the Mass Inspector General's Office. City Hall and the Superintendent's office with help from SC Chair Kristin Thorp and Finance chair Margaret Driscoll spend an inordinate amount of energy retaliating against those who ask simple questions about city and school finances. When they go as far as not releasing basic information to school committee members so they can make informed votes on warrants, and will go as far as violating public records laws, and defying the Secretary of State's Office to ensure that certain public documents concerning school finances and spending is not released, one can come to only one conclusion..something stinks.
RD is part and parcel to the whole equation. It's his city solicitor (his buddy, naturally) who is providing the bully counsel and has contributed greatly to the OCR mess, and all of the prior state government violations (OML, public records, etc.) because he's an ignorant and arrogant shill for his boss. RD has been handing over $10,000 of city tax dollars each year to the MEFoundation, which has operated exclusively as the political lobbying group for RD and CT (which is not what an ed foundation is supposed to be). The BOA has been totally complicit in rubber-stamping the bad acts of RD and the SC. In short, it's a first-class mess that is getting worse by the minute. It's also a situation where they are already starting to go after each other because there is an active campaign of vengeance already taking place in reaction to the landslide failure of RD's override. While CT must go for reasons directly related to her miserable failures, the buck stops with RD, who must now start facing some serious consequences of his own abuse of power.
Dolan gave $10,000 in city funds to the group that ran the override campaign. That has to be illegal. The state police should be the ones to investigate this. The local police probably wouldn't go against the mayor - they'd rather use it against him in contract negotiations.
This was so apt (from another string) that it deserves reposting here:
Jen/MEF/YES for Melrose still don't get it.
Nov 13, 2015 - 10:55PM
Re: What kind of school system Does Melrose want.
I was astonished to open the Melrose Weekly to read Jen McAndrews' letter entitled "Override Sparked a community Conversation" In it she proclaims " many were disappointed with the result" Wah?? By are margin of 2 to 1, the citizens of Melrose voted AGAINST this terribly unfocused override proposal, riddled with dubious "needs" such as" stabilization funds" and so on, with only 14% dedicated to more teachers in the classroom and in the trenches.
Listen Jen: The real community conversation taking place (while the MEFers and the YES clique were burying their heads in the sand) is that the Melrose taxpayers and parents of school age children have been trying for several years to pry open the "public" books to see where and how the school budget is being spent, appealing to City Hall and the SC Chair for two-way public discussion transparency and accountability. But time and again, those who ask the right questions or offer alternative opinions(before throwing more good money after bad) like Bob Boiselle, Gerry Mroz and SC Member Carrie Kourkoumelis, are publicly and privately attacked, harassed and intimidated (even illegally using public resources) by the Mayor, SC Chair Kristen Thorp, Finance Chair Margaret Driscoll, city solicitor Robert Van Campen and even some of your own MEFers such as city hall employee Martha Grover. You need go no further than MMTV to see this embarrassment to our City unfold before your eyes. This insidious and childish behavior by our so called leaders has not gone unnoticed by the Melrose community, who have decided they will not tolerate it sitting down. The Melrose community will simply not open their pocketbooks again without proper disclosure of existing public records and spending. Perhaps some day when the Mayor, Alderman, Superintendent, School Committee chair and Finance chair want to be open and transparent about the books and allow reasonable public discussion about school finances, we will see approval of a focused and necessary override for the school. Until then..
Regarding Jen's snarky comment "talk is cheap and easy (and cheaper still when it is online and anonymous): The administration's and Yes for Melrose Facebook page's repeated attacks on open discussion and on those who have differing opinions actually drove people to Melrose Messages where they could actually speak freely without fear of retribution.
Historically, it was the mayor himself, (with some help from his taxpayer funded hit squad) that actually fostered the need for and creation of Melrose Messages as an outlet were city residents could discuss and offer differing opinions contrary to the Mayor without fear of retaliation. While the Mayor, YES crowd, and MEFers were busy banning people with any differing opinions from their Facebook page, and other alleged public forums and meetings, Melrose Messages was actually having a healthy, open and civil discussion (yes, heated at some times) about the override. No wonder it was getting 600-800 views a day just on the override topics. Although the Mayor's attempt to shut down the site several years ago by retaliating against the former editor using our public resources (your tax dollars), local law enforcement and the local judiciary to file a frivolous charge against him, which ultimately failed, the Melrose Messages site became even stronger than ever.