Thursday, January 26, 2012

Mark Your Calenders, Support Your Neighbors !

Winchester has a fight on it's hands and you're all part of it. What you do or don't do will affect you and your neighbors for the next 12 months or more.  Your rights to have a say in how much taxes you will pay in the coming years and what services you may or may not get is your decision to make come next month.

The School Board has put a tremendous burden on many of us, especially our elderly and fixed income citizens and has acted unfairly in their attempt to bully our Budget Committee members with the threat of  a lawsuit to get what they want. Don't be fooled by this smoke and mirrors show, it isn't about our children, it's all about this new SAU and it's administration running amok.

If it's that not bad enough, our Board of Dimwits has added to the burden by submitting another dozen or so unnecessary spending warrants to take more money out of our pockets and put more homeowners in jeopardy of losing their homes and being out on the streets.

Enough is enough, it's time to rise up and rid ourselves of this plague of irresponsibility and indifference to the wants and needs of the citizens of Winchester and send these people a loud and clear message that we are not going to stand idly by and get steamrolled without a fight!

Join us and make your feelings known and help put an end to this madness.

Deliberative Sessions
 
For the Town will be
February 4th, 2012 at 9:00 A.M.
in the Town Hall,
For the School  will be
February 9, 2012 at 7:00 P.M.
in the Winchester School Gym


20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh please. If the budget committee was really concerned about the Sau dollars then why are they trying to cut teachers and special ed services required by law.

Anonymous said...

You are a jacka$$, these cuts are NOT illegal and you can stop waving your Ken Dassau flag now and go climb back under the rock you came out from under. The BC cut salaries and positions, they did not cut sped or sped programs. Get a grip and try, though it is probably hard for someone like you, to actually read what the committee PROPOSED they cut. Then when you are done struggling, please put into print for all of us to see exactly what statute any of these cuts violates to make them illegal. Provide the RSA #'s and a link for all of us to see.

I agree, you are a jacka$$ said...

To anonymous at 4:36. Your statement makes no sense at all. Their job is to make sure that the final budget is as lean as possible and that it places the least amount of hardship on the citizens that voted them into office and at the same time provides the board with a fair amount of tax dollars to accomplish their tasks. They have spent many hours going over the school budget line item by line item and by obtaining a qualified expert in the field, who helped them, have come up with cuts that still provide services as required by law and an adequate education as defined by the state. That you know nothing about what you speak and are just commenting to raise a ruckess is so evident. Your other comment in the other section was just as ill conceived.

Anonymous said...

They are proposing to cut special ed services it says it clearly in the special ed related services line they also want to cut speech ot pysch services and the transportation. This also includes special ed teachers and there paraprofessionals if needed for that student.

Anonymous said...

Look who is the bully now this is a blog site and everyone is entitled to their opinion don't get angry because everyone doesn't agree with your opinion.

Anonymous said...

The rsa numbers are all written out in Dr. DASSAU's response there is no need to repeat them again.

Anonymous said...

What the plan for the school supports is not to increase the budget committee's proposal at deliberative session by 10% but to vote for the default budget which will be larger that the budget committee's budget. Question! Do you think the Winchester voters are alert enough to tell which is larger? I think so! The school supports (these are the ones leaching off the system) are betting the voters will not know the difference.

tired of your rants said...

To the person who keeps complaining that the budget committee is cutting sped programs and service, you are so wrong it's almost funny. First and foremost the BC proposed cuts to the school budget, they have no authority to make them, they can only suggest and in their report they suggested where the board could make them. It is up to the school board to make the cuts to fit within the operating final budget, something that hasn't even been determined yet. Get a grip, go to the deliberative session and support your cronies and vote to put people in the poor house if that is your desire. But please stop spouting your nonsense and finding fault with everything other people are commenting on, it's getting really redundant and so obvious that it is all coming from one person.

Anonymous said...

2011 Deliberative the proposed budget by the BC was 10.5 million dollars. Tom Oconnor had stated that every year there is a formula on the contractual agreements that would increase the budget by 3% each year. A responsible budget is a 10.8 million dollar budget. Unfortunately nobody ever thought Keene would raise our tuition by almost $500,000 for 2012-2013. Still with this increase the school can operate(with some cuts to the Administrative Budget) with a 10.8m budget or somewhere in that area. This cut would bring us back under control and when we begin budgeting for 2013-2014 we can review what our future is the the $3.5 Million that we hand over to Keene every year. FYI Keene gets our tuition for our students and the revenue from the state in the form of Aide. Sounds like double dipping!

Anonymous said...

FYI to "tired of your rants"

The recommended cuts by the BC are outlined on the MS27 and presented the LGC(Local Government Center) and the DOR(Department of Revenue). Although they are recommendations they are proposed cuts to line items that are mandated by Federal Government. When the money is spent its spent on mandated and contractual agreements first and then on the regular ed and elementary kids 2nd. Who loses?

mad as hell parent said...

So who came up with all of the bloated salaries and extra personal? If those of you crying the loudest were so concerned about educating our kids, why did you make your salaries so high knowing that Winchester can not afford them? And why are part timers getting health benefits? If all of these people involved in our schools have so much compassion for our kids, then why did they go and not only vote themselves step raises but did so for all of the support people too, including the cleaning staff. I think all this bellyaching bs by those of you who will be affected by the cuts is nothing more than sour grapes. And stop using our children as pawns in all of this, you all could care less about the kids, your actions show us who you're concerned about.

thank you budget committee said...

How many of you face losing your homes because you can not afford your taxes? Sure you come back with the crap that you pay the same taxes too as your defense; but none of us got to vote ourselves raises like you all did to cover the extra money needed to pay for your raises and health benefits. I say kudos to the budget committee for telling you all to go stuff it.

I'll Be There said...

I give the budget committee a big pat on the back for doing what has to be done, knowing full well that the greedy in this town are going to be badmouthing them for years to come.Its not a matter of less education or less services, its a matter of changing the way we run all the departments including the school. No One that's living the good life is going to change without a little push, so go to deliberate and support the budget committee members that have stuck there neck out for you.

Anonymous said...

If 10.8 is a responsible budget why doesnt the BC just recommend that?

Way to go Budget Com. said...

Kudos to the Budget Committee and shame on the School Board!

What everyone keeps neglecting to point out - it's a BOTTOM LINE budget. It doesn't matter where the Budget Committee or School Board recommends that they cut back, the administration will make that final decision (what do you bet he pays himself the full $100+?). The school & the town has done it for years - the budget committee can zero out something, but it still gets paid.

Also people forget that - if there is no money, NO ONE gets paid!

I am tired of hearing that Keene is so expensive. We should be negotiating a contract with Hinsdale - if Keene is so outrageous. It would also be less time in the school bus for our kids.

What's expensive is how our school system codes way too many children! The Special Education school budgets should be renegotiated - to reflect the poor economic times. They are FAT as cows right now.

Ken Dassau - Start with cutting out the weekly ski trips!

Anonymous said...

Negotiate with hinsdale? Did u forget who the super is over there? Let me remind you, Dr. C.

Anonymous said...

So who's the big school supporter who keeps posting all this nonsense about a 10.8 million dollar budget being reasonable? Looks to me there is a not too subtle attempt to pit “tax users” (parents) in Winchester against “taxpayers.” The Budget Committee has done a good job in their attempt to keep the school budget at a reasonable, if somewhat bloated level. Now if the School Board would go back and make some serious cuts itself with these payroll number, some of us will be able to keep our homes while paying for the education of other people's children. Let's be fair to all.

Anonymous said...

Pitting the tax users against the tax payers is a great description of what Winchester has become. Putting the most of our resources into an area that will return the least over time is why we are failing as a top rate nation. We are competing against foreign nations that are educating their children comensurate with students abilities to achieve. We waste, our taxes on sped field trips,perks, one on one teachers, and spend less on the ones that will create our future. It's an abuse of our property taxes.

Anonymous said...

Isn't everyone a tax user one way or another?

Anonymous said...

What sped field trips? What perks. Please be more specific.