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School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

Special School Committee Budget Forum
https://vimeo.com/262133768

Parent: Is there a formula for how much each special needs student brings into the district [from state/federal funding]?

Superintendent Taymore: "There is a formula, but I don't know it off the top of my head."

That is patently ludicrous. This formula, and all the funding data, paradigms, etc., should be readily accessible. If the superintendent is too ignorant or senile to remember the information, it should be in a notebook at her fingertips, or at a minimum accessible via the business manager, who should be answering such things on the spot (with laptop and data available on-screen to the public, also on the spot). There is absolutely no excuse for not being fluent in all of these key data points!

How many years has this impossibly ignorant (and arrogant) administration (superintendent/administrators + school committee) been soaking the taxpayers to pay for such flagrant ignorance and incompetence? (Taymore earns more than $180,000 and has two assistant superintendents, a business manager ($134,000+) who has been using a consultant--Zammuto--the business manager under Joe Casey who's still earning our dollars now as the SEEM Collaborative business manager, and a fleet of overpaid and underqualified principals.)

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

Corduck and Conway are leaving. K classes are already over enrolled. Real leadership is needed in Melrose but we are stuck with Taymore and GI or better known as the Illegitimate Mayor! Just what we need a placeholder Mayor who is a voting member of the School Committee. Mortgage your overpriced houses to pay for private and parochial schools.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

A few minutes later in the same tape, the superintendent says, "If you've not been in the Franklin, it looks exactly like the Hoover." She said this directly after talking about the $2500 SmartBoards at the Franklin Early Childhood Center (translation, a preschool program that the district is not obligated to provide, and certainly is not obligated to be outfitting with SmartBoards!).

So our tax dollars are paying for SmartBoards for 3-year-olds while these people gripe constantly about insufficient funds! What happened to wooden blocks and fingerpaint? And then they gripe about the new huge problem of behavioral issues with what the superintendent calls "the babies...." and says this is why separate "socialemotional" rooms (Cyndy's version of padded cells) have to be designated at schools like Lincoln (run by totally incompetent principals year after year, including the current one, the one who was dismissed and denied tenure just before her, and on and on).

No wonder ECC fees have skyrocketed and are entirely disproportional to those operating in other communities by public schools. No wonder ECC parents are smoking mad. They should be! Now apparently they want 3 more staff positions for the ECC, also, which is outrageous, especially in view of all the critical staffing cuts that the high school continues to have to endure, starting with the removal of separate department chair positions for subjects like Math, Science, Social Studies.... Oh, but Melrose has an "inclusion" preschool, so that makes the enormous staff and facilities requirements somehow acceptable. (Nope! Having a publicly funded preschool is all fine and dandy for communities that can afford such a luxury, but the district is only required to have special services available for about a single classroom's number of students, and that could be housed anywhere, not in its dedicated space, and not at the expense of the rest of the district!) Too bad the young parents are so gullible that they "adore" the ECC and somehow think they are getting their money's worth, when in fact this administration (and Casey's before) have stripped critical resources from the rest of the system in order to pay for (and BUY VOTES & support) the luxury preschool. Hear them now, wringing their hands, griping about budget woes as per usual. Cry me a river!

Athletic Fees have no family cap now (thanks to Taymore and this school committee). Fees for everything have jumped and include some that other comparable districts don't require public school students to pay for.

Taymore and her ridiculous "Delta"!

A few months from now there will be a slight mention at the aldermen's meeting of the "Free Cash" that magically appears, like the $3.5 million that came out of snow removal (preposterous) the same year they had the unmitigated gall to attempt their Override Heist.

Now they're at it again....

They are colossally ignorant about the things they are hired or elected to know, while at the same time have figured out to a T how to cheat and lie to the public. Gee, sounds awfully like the kinds of crooks in the White House and Congress....

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

So I am trying to understand how we just saw several more million spent for "modular" classrooms to be built (this was very recent!) that would supposedly address the space needs. How is it that now there need to be two classrooms added and being proposed to move into the ECC? The city owns two other school buildings that have been kept online as school buildings, the Ripley and the Beebe, and yet the decision was made to build portables instead of using the buildings Melrose already owns.

Are we supposed to trust that these officials are competent and trustworthy?

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

Mr. M says it like it is:
https://vimeo.com/262133780
roughly 7 minutes in

talks about the waste of money and incompetence of decision-making

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

The middle school principal did not get the job in Reading. It seems Melrose is stuck with many mistakes. Conway will keep trying for higher positions, Taymore needs to take the high road, wishing for some decent hires. The principals are a revolving door or should be. It's only going to get worse with no end in sight. Mayor Dolan did not listen to me when I told him not to hire the duo from Malden, Taymore and Adams.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

senior
A few minutes later in the same tape, the superintendent says, "If you've not been in the Franklin, it looks exactly like the Hoover." She said this directly after talking about the $2500 SmartBoards at the Franklin Early Childhood Center (translation, a preschool program that the district is not obligated to provide, and certainly is not obligated to be outfitting with SmartBoards!).

So our tax dollars are paying for SmartBoards for 3-year-olds while these people gripe constantly about insufficient funds! What happened to wooden blocks and fingerpaint? And then they gripe about the new huge problem of behavioral issues with what the superintendent calls "the babies...." and says this is why separate "socialemotional" rooms (Cyndy's version of padded cells) have to be designated at schools like Lincoln (run by totally incompetent principals year after year, including the current one, the one who was dismissed and denied tenure just before her, and on and on).

No wonder ECC fees have skyrocketed and are entirely disproportional to those operating in other communities by public schools. No wonder ECC parents are smoking mad. They should be! Now apparently they want 3 more staff positions for the ECC, also, which is outrageous, especially in view of all the critical staffing cuts that the high school continues to have to endure, starting with the removal of separate department chair positions for subjects like Math, Science, Social Studies.... Oh, but Melrose has an "inclusion" preschool, so that makes the enormous staff and facilities requirements somehow acceptable. (Nope! Having a publicly funded preschool is all fine and dandy for communities that can afford such a luxury, but the district is only required to have special services available for about a single classroom's number of students, and that could be housed anywhere, not in its dedicated space, and not at the expense of the rest of the district!) Too bad the young parents are so gullible that they "adore" the ECC and somehow think they are getting their money's worth, when in fact this administration (and Casey's before) have stripped critical resources from the rest of the system in order to pay for (and BUY VOTES & support) the luxury preschool. Hear them now, wringing their hands, griping about budget woes as per usual. Cry me a river!

Athletic Fees have no family cap now (thanks to Taymore and this school committee). Fees for everything have jumped and include some that other comparable districts don't require public school students to pay for.

Taymore and her ridiculous "Delta"!

A few months from now there will be a slight mention at the aldermen's meeting of the "Free Cash" that magically appears, like the $3.5 million that came out of snow removal (preposterous) the same year they had the unmitigated gall to attempt their Override Heist.

Now they're at it again....

They are colossally ignorant about the things they are hired or elected to know, while at the same time have figured out to a T how to cheat and lie to the public. Gee, sounds awfully like the kinds of crooks in the White House and Congress....

I just wanted to address the Smartboards at the Franklin. Go look for yourself. There aren't any. The Franklin has chalkboards and chalk. Our Superintendent does not know what she was talking about as there are no Smartboards at the ECC

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

The Financial Cost of Bad Hire.

What Constitutes a Bad Hire?

Hurts employee morale and the city and schools.

Employers who experienced negative effects of bad hires.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

Four Common Mistakes That Lead to Bad Hires(And How to Avoid Them)

1. You fall victim to "The Halo Effect.

2. You don't know what the position really requires.

3.You focus too heavily on technical skills.

4. You treat every open position like an emergency hire.


THE PAST FIVE YEARS CT YOU HAVE HIRED SELF-REGARDING WORKERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE TOXIC.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

AS LONG AS OUR CITY OFFICIALS, SCHOOL COMMITTEE, AND SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ARE SO APPAULING AND SO CORRUPT, I'LL BE SPEAKING OUT ON EVERY VENUE.

TO BE SILENT IN THE FACE OF SUCH VILLAINY IS TO BE COMPLICT.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

This superintendent needs to go.It is time fire her.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

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.

Re: School Committee/Superintendent Ignorance

SPOT ON IN YOUR ASSESSMENT!!