There's been much talk about changing the ways in which Winchester is perceived by other towns and other schools, about improving the quality of education of our children and the quality of life for each and every citizen living in Winchester. Our children are failing simple aptitude tests and falling behind other students from surrounding towns. Our property tax rate is the forth highest in all the state, our school budget has climbed to over $10,000,000.00, people are losing their homes, struggling to keep up and yet our town officials turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the situation and continue to add spending to our town budget year after year. Just where is the fiscal responsibility we have entrusted them with? Managing public money is a matter of public trust and a charge that should not be taken lightly and yet, during these hard economic times, when the whole country is being affected, while other towns in New Hampshire are laying off, cutting back on spending and looking at ways to save money, we have Winchester; spending our tax dollars like there is no tomorrow. There is something drastically wrong with a body of elected officials who continue to ignore the plight of it's constituents and the situations affecting us all and continue to spend like drunken sailors on a Friday night leave. There is something drastically wrong with our educators when 60% of our high school juniors fail a common assessment test and are falling behind students from surrounding towns.
This web site has attempted to bring these problems to light, to educate our fellow citizens, to get others involved and most importantly to get people to go to the polls and vote for change. If we are to succeed in turning Winchester around, we need your help. We need your ideas and suggestions and commitment to make a difference and make Winchester a town we can all be proud of again. So what say you, what can and should we do to improve our town?
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One of the problems that seems to permeate the informational gap, when it comes to decisions in the school system and town government, is a lack of important information available to the average citizen. Usually, controversial decisions can be swept under the rug and out of sight before there is too much public interest, and perhaps, objections can be made known. Realizing that we are of modest means in Winchester, this suggestion might seem far fetched. Pardon me briefly. Public access television. Communities around us are using it as an informative watchdog for the taxpayer. Should the selectmen, and school board members have to be under the camera , I'm sure there would be many sweaty palms to go around. The cable services have to make space available to the towns which they service and there is training , etc. that can be had to accomplish this goal. Volunteers are an intrigal part of this function. Contact the local cable provider for information.
Our elected officials certainly would be more responsive, if several hunded televisions were tuned in on the designated channel when they met. There would also be the benefit of a permanent record. This should be researched.
This is an excellent idea; however I for one seriously doubt it would fly in this town. Secrecy, misinformation and keeping us all in the dark has been the creed for so long in this town, you'd never be able to get our elected officials to go along with this.
I seriously doubt that the boards would have the nerve to cross the press on that one. State law, and access would rule. I'm sure that the Keene Sentinel would have a field day with any public official that would deny it. Building a "Berlin Wall" around the town hall would certainly be an indication of foul motives. The public would be outraged.
Check out the Brattleboro public access television. www.bctv8.org
I see this over and over. Everyone gets riled up at budget time and Town Meeting and then everyone sits back and relaxes until they get their final tax bill in December. That's when all the frustration comes out. People need to be focused, come up with a plan, show up at the meetings and ask questions, look at the audit report and ask questions. There have been some good comments on other topics. Follow through with them and your eyes may be opened or nothing may be wrong.
Good points, its very evident that the march 10Th voters enjoy the 4Th highest taxed in the state status. Its also evident than they think they are getting there moneys worth out of the same employees that can't get to work on time and tend to extend lunch and breaks, and leave work early when ever they see fit. But the DEC. tax bill is still coming and as workers lose time and jobs and retirees lose there savings there will be a time of reckoning. The good news is the fact that with this web site they know they are in the spot light and they have started to change the way they do business.
Did anyone see that two of those employees received "performance bonuses" this past week?
If employees are not getting to work on time and doing the work they are paid for then where is the Town Administrator. Isn't he supposed to be their boss? Is he writing people up or is he ignoring it? Peoplemust lead from the top down and that includes the Selectmen
Letting business into town would help the tax rate some. But, there seems to be some magical force-field at the town line. I keep hearing about all these prospects for new business, but then SOMEHOW they disappear. Why?
And what about subcontracting some of the work to area locals, who are scraping, instead of having a full road crew, (whom it seems some don't want to work a full week).
Is there something to be done about ALL the low-income housing in this town. I mean this from a taxes stand-point. I understand that SOME of them need it, but, QUITE A FEW DON'T. Unless I have been mislead, those properties get a reduced rate.
Sincerely,
A struggling, overworked taxpayer!
If the performance bonus thing is true i hope they went to Rick and Henry,in the past everybody but Henry got one. The idea of the performance bonus is to reward for going above and beyond what is the norm. I don't think this is the time for handing out extra money,but it could be true i suppose.
There isn't much of an incentive for a decent business to locate itself in Winchester, to become the tax cow with the municipal tax rate so high. Winchester will not be attracting the good wage, clean business profile, that will help the town develop something to support the cash needs of a dying town. Some town leaders, would like to see a giant tax exempt park here, rather than economic development. Before we bought into being a welfare town, hook, line, and sinker, open space would have worked. Unfortunately, as taxable property becomes smaller and smaller, the welfare properties seem to proliferate with all the detrimental attributes with it. This community will only get up by it's own initiative, when we embrace clean and decent economic development. Paychecks derived from some source other than the taxpayers pockets, is what will turn things around.
Performance Bonuses -
Highway Dept, Fred Beniot $164.01
Highway Dept, Wally Clough $320.74
Police Dept, Dan Reppucci 2%
All were voted on 3-2
Well Wally does get the coffee going in the morning. A bonus on top of frozen sick time, its a good year for these guys. Where did the money come from, i don't think there was a line item for any bonuses.At least the vote was not 5-0, a couple of people are starting to hold a hard line, congratulations to them.
Free green mt coffee at hwy, you pay for it why not stop and have a cup?
Read "past blogs" posted October 23, 2008 where budget committee member Ken Gardener made a motion to zero out the performance bonus. That just what it means, "0" line item for performance bonus. Now here our selectmen find a way to pay out of a none existing line item. This is on the fraud side of the balance sheet.
How can our newly elected Selectmen Ken Gardner set there representing the voters and allows the other selectmen to find payment for this line item. Everyone that voted for Gardner must have new he was a Sherman Tedford pick to ouster Ted Whippie.
If the performance line was zeroed out and you are concerned of its legality, contact the Town's rep at DRA. If you are concerned show up to the next meeting and ask questions and demand answers.
Reply for Anonymous; The performance bonus was zero out for the 2009-2010 budget which will take effect June 30. This just an example of what we can expect more of from our selectmen. We are heading for hard economic times and the selectmen taking care of their circle of friends for keeping them in control of the town. "Quid Pro Quo!"
Give them performance bonus after June 30 and see where I take this.
By the way what is contact town rep at DRA?
It has always been my understanding, that the selectmen are responsible for a "bottom line" while spending overall, and can transfer money around in the accounts, except for warrant articles, sewer, and water funds. Unethical, but not against the law. Overspending the voted budget is though, without permission of the DRA and the budget committee .
Whats DRA?
DRA, I believe, is State of NH, Dept. of Revenue Administration. In Concord, 603-271-2191
THANKS
You must have an assigned line item number in your town budget to pay anything or anyone out of the budget. That is why the selectmen like leaving one dollar in some accounts. You can not move money around the budget and place it in a zero account or pay wages out of say, the office supplies line item or like Stetser paving the highway dept driveway out of the A. C. Lawrence Legal Fund. The selectmen do it, but is it legal?
There is not statue of limitation for misappropriating town funds. No one has taken them to task. Yet!
Yes DRA is the Department of Revenue. Each Town has a rep at DRA that is responsible for answering questions and setting the tax rate. Call 271-3397 to find out whose yours is if you can't get the info from Town Hall. Legally if you are a Municipal Budget Town, the Selectmen cannot overspend the bottom line without getting DRA's approval. However, the other poster is correct, the Selectmen have the authority to manage the budget to the bottom line. Therefor, they can overspend to give bonuses even if the Budget cuts it out, all they have to do is not spend money elsewhere. Politically correct no but they can do it. Most bonuses would come out of the respective budgets I would assume. I am sure that there may be a line in a separate budget that was zeroed out, but it is part of a larger budget. Lets say the Highway had a line saying performance bonuses and the Budget zeroed out that line, technically the Highway department could still get bonuses out of another line in their budget. I don't spend all my salt budget and that could cover the raises. The only way around this is to have it as a separate warrant article. If that gets voted down, no one could get bonuses.
Lots of comments but I'm surprised that no one mentioned the school problems. I'll offer my insight, though my children are grown and were educated elsewhere.
I read that nearly 23% of Winchester's schoolchildren are "special ed", that's an awful high number for such a small town as ours, why so high? Do you have any idea how much this is costing all of us and that maybe the problem isn't the student; but the system after all?
Do we need to create an early-childhood education system that makes sense and benefits all of the children of Winchester?
Numerous evaluation studies show that early education works, that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. Children who attend "quality" early-childhood programs score higher on achievement tests and quality is all about teaching. Young children thrive when they have sensitive and responsive teachers who offer a curriculum that is cognitively stimulating, developmentally appropriate and engaging.There is mounting evidence that the effect of early education matters more for children with less. It's a proven fact, that poor children who attend quality early-education programs outperform other children on achievement tests. It's also proven that these affects last through the school years, that these students perform better than those who did not attend any programs. Given scarce resources, programs that target low-income children make the most sense. The so-called achievement gap is really a schooling gap ( ie: the report in the Keene Sentinel on our 11th grade students attending Keene High School ) Everyone knows that children from poorer families and poorer communities do not receive the same education as other children. Anyone who says otherwise is either wearing blinders or works in the school system here. This is one reason property values are so highly correlated with school performance and why Winchester's property taxes are so darn high. With serious investments in early education, wouldn't you agree we could level the playing fields for our( your ) children? We're spending over $10 million dollars on education in Winchester, shouldn't we demand we get the highest return on our tax dollars , that your children receive the kind of education they deserve and need to succeed in tomorrow's world?
Our poor results in the education related portion of our local government, can pretty much be attached to local economics. When people live in a town with businesses that have good paying jobs, benefits, and pay decent property taxes, the rest takes care of itself. This town bought into a community development program many years ago that brought low income housing and no economic development. All that "free" government money, cost us dearly. Good jobs equal good schools.
AMEN
What happened to all that "free" government money, what was it spent on? Shouldn't our school district be looking into why so many children can't pass simple aptitude tests and why so many children from Winchester are being labeled "special educational students" ? Do you really think it's all as simple as having a lot of low income students living in town or is it something much bigger, like the system itself? Those of you who continue to point fingers at low income families as the problem really have your heads in the sand and should be ashamed of yourself for putting the blame on a certain group of people for all of the problems with education here in town. Put the blame where it really belongs, on those people you elected and have failed the children of Winchester. On the system that makes no sense; spending millions on children labeled special needs; yet not funding any early education programs like Head Start or even universal pre-kindergarten. It's easy to blame the less fortunate for everyone's problems when you don't look at the big picture.
I don't think the subsidized housing on the right side of rte78 did us any good. Lots of kids, and i understand most from out of state.Not knocking those people, but i don't think we can stand much more of this kind of housing in Winchester, just to make a few people a lot of money.
The problems with schools and test scores is that they group all the kids together regardless of their learning capabilities. What I mean by this is you have smart advanced kids with kids who need more time. What happens then is you frustrate the slower learners to think they are dumb and the advanced learners are held back. When I was young our school had kids in class based on IQ's and I'll bet our test scores were much better than they are now. This in my opinion has accounted for the low test scores and high dropout rates. How many kids rely on a calculator or adding machine to give the proper change. I witness this every week!
I have read the comments about our education. We need to understand that parents petition the schools to test their children. Those that "cry" the loudest may have their child classified as special education or 504. We as taxpayers get the opportunity to give them the extra time and care that the parents hould be giving them. Oh yes, we also have the opportunity of educating these students until they are 21. Perhaps we should go back to the old ways and educate ALL children until they are 18. A novel thought that your children would learn to read, write and cipher. Pay strict attention to our school dollars. We need to make certain that our children are being educated not babysat.
Anonymous at 5:21. yes you are tru that some parents push to get their kids the help that they deserve. Kids are at a hughe disadvantage the way they are grouped today in school. When I went to school kids were placed in classes with other students based on their learning capabilities. back in the old days as my kids say, the only kids classified as Special Education were truly the children who were unfortunately handicapped, downs syndrome etc. Back then the smart kids challenged one another and the slower, not dumber kids felt more comfortable learning at a relaxed pace and were not holding the advanced kids back. I have had this discussion many times with the powers to be and they say that is stereotyping a child. I ask you is it better to place them in an environment where they fail and feel that they are failures, or place them in a group with kids that are on their same level! My kids came home from school the first day with an order form to purchase a calculator for $7. They didn't even know how to add and now are dependent on that piece of equipment!
Would not want to go back in time as a rule, but in the fifties when i was in high school we had a,b,and c in all grades. It seemed to work and i don't r ember any stigma attached to the kids in say C. If you improved you could move up to a or b. You were not in a,b,or c in all subjects.
I have read these comments and clearly there is validation to what you all are saying- but the real question is "what can we do as a community to start making changes?" I understand your frustrations but we are only making comments and complaints on this blog and that will never resolve any of our issues. This post is asking"HOW DO WE MAKE WINCHESTER A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE"??????? Lets try to work together and put some of our ideas on here to try to make some changes. Our community has many wonderful and intelligent people and its time to show who we truly are and what we want for our community. Selectboard meetings are held every Wed Eve 7pm and Schoolboard meetings are the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month. Take your questions and concerns to them or just attend a meeting to listen and gain some knowledge. Its going to take more than one or two people to change our community its going to take "YOU" to become involved to make a difference!
Your on the money, its always been hard to get people out until there pockets are empty. The good news, i think if you talk to the selectmen today you would find a little change of attitude, some of them appear to be looking for change.If we can get people to the meeting it would be great, in the mean time continue to support this web site, it is making a difference.
Does anyone know anything about leftover money from the school budget? If its true do we get it back or will they find a way to spend what could be a little bonus for the Winchester tax payers?
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