We had a request to post the documents turned in by the School for their 2011-2012 budget. It will show you salary and benefit costs, how bloated the administration and paras are and that 5 janitors cost us $166,000 and 35 hours is considered full time among other eye opening information. Our school system is so bloated with excessive costs and spending that it would be very easy for the Budget Committee to trim millions from their proposed budget and ease the burden on taxpayers.
The question is: WILL THEY, or will they cave and make a mockery of the process altogether?
There are 17 pages of figures to this proposal so instead of uploading them here and taking up valuable server space, we have uploaded them to a "free" on-line file service for easy downloading for all to look over.
Simply cut & paste the urls below into your browser's navigation window to get your copy of the proposed school budget and then be sure to email your thoughts to the members of the board as they make their decision on what the final figures will be.
http://www.fileserve.com/file/SYPHy3Z/Winchester School District Budget.pdf
http://www.fileserve.com/file/QbQ8sYW/Winchester School District Budget pages 6-10.pdf
http://www.fileserve.com/file/eeKqfus/Winchester School District Budget pages 11-17.pdf
Anyone having an issue with downloading the files can email us at winchesterinformer@gmail.com with a request and we'll send them to you.
Budget Committee Members
otis50@myfairpoint.net .. Brian Moser
timbuctu@live.com .. Bob Davis
kwhip10wsb@hughes.net .. Kevin Whippie .. School Board Rep.
rhorton73@yahoo.com .. Rick Horton
khebert@cheshire-med.com .. Kathleen Hebert
tedryll@gmail.com .. Ted Ryll
Elisha.Jackson@tdbanknorth.com
rbolewski@comcast.net .. Rikki Bolewski
jtegmarsh@yahoo.com .. Jack Marsh
randrgramp@yahoo.com .. Hubert Crowell
snowman64@hughes.net .. Harvey Sieran
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29 comments:
The average worker commuting to Keene making $25 to $35,000 a year, have the Gaul to question employees that have the summer off, work 3 to 4 days a week, or have the time to steal on Co. time with Co. equipment, and can't get an answer as to why the Chief of police is suspended, Gosh whats this world coming to?
Are you kidding me ? Weren't we told that expenses would go down when this new unit was formed and spending would be cut? Has anyone else looked at these figure, my God they have to be kidding, there's too much bloat in their budget and the salaries and benifits are going to kill this town.
Are you as mad as Hell? Well you should be! The tax payers have been taken like a bunch of fools as all of us voters that allowed the school board, supervisory union, teachers union to talk us into the false premise the tax payers would be saving thousand of dollars if we left the supervisory union 38 and joined a new one. There was a secret agenda at work here to leave Monadnock Regional #38 because they voted the contract down and Winchester teachers schemed this plan with the help of the school board especially naming Kevan Whippie and Colleen Duquette with the promise of settling the contract. Now the tax payers are left to pay the fiddler.
Winchester school was alone in SAU 38 anyway. Hinsdale and the other schools had already voted to leave and go on their own leaving Winchester as the only school left. They had to form a new SAU. Winchester school just changed the SAU # from 38 to 94.
Once again the "village idiot" comes forth with more asinine comments! Don't know who is filling your head full of crap; but you haven't done your homework gain. Come back when you have the correct information and stop making such a fool of yourself.
Are you saying to me that Kevan Whippie didn’t grandstand at deliberative session and tell us we will go it alone... we will save money in the process. Are you saying the school board didn’t sell a bill of $hit in the process with their lies.
I can not wait till the state’s attorney starts looking into where are tax dollars have disappeared to. It was all a plan to screw the tax payers and help yourselves to higher wages, benfits more teachers and para’s. I got the fact right! You do not like the truth.
I love the truth Bob. This town hall just keeps digging themselves deeper and deeper in their idiotic bahaviors, be it the school, the asphalt plant, the police department, Margaret's dollar store fiasco, ruining the lives of good people with their foolishness and going their merry way making criminal, stupid choices and writing their own rules as they go , that make it almost beyond belief that the state has not stepped in and tarred and feathered all of them. Talk about special ed....... they all need 1 on 1's to lead them around more than the glut of aides in the school. May it all blow up in their faces. But by the time it does, there will be no tax payers left to fund the idiocy. We will have all left, bankrupt and homeless and then they will be left with nothing but law suits and their conscience to hsunt them all for what they have done to this town.
Are You Serious--The" village idiot" as you put it, has a beautiful home, new vehicles, big camper, classic truck and boat, takes nice vacations and pays his taxes, all without 1 cent of taxpayer money. You do this by hard work 7 days a week, but you probably wouldn't under stand.
How was leaving the SAU 38 less money? It has cost us more money. We had a committee that got sucked into the ploy that if we didn't leave the unit, we would get stuck with any potential lawsuits. Really?
We really got had with this one! The reality, we could have had all that the SAU owned - right? Technically....but instead again, we got had.
The person being described above sounds a LOT like the chairman of the committee to dissolve the SAU.
Guess everyone is okay with getting screwed and lied to by these so-called well educated hypocrites as only 10 people have bothered to offer up a comment. What the hell is wrong with the rest of this town are you all braindead?
May be the reason is that the majority don't care
Or believe what they read.
Well believe this;
If the bottom line is overspent, or expenditures are not properly entered and classified in municipal records, the budget committee has specific authority to petition the superior court for removal of the responsible official(s). RSA 32:23.
From:http://www.nhlgc.org/publications/item_detail.asp?TCArticleID=262
Q. Can an official budget committee tell a governing body how to spend appropriated funds?
A. No. The budget committee’s purpose is “to assist the voters in the prudent appropriation of public funds." RSA 32:1. While the budget committee has the duty to review current expenditures, it is primarily for the purpose of preparing future budgets, rather than to challenge or dispute what the governing body is doing. No one has legal authority to challenge the discretion of the governing body in making transfers among purposes of appropriation. RSA 32:10, I. However, if the bottom line is overspent, or expenditures are not properly entered and classified in municipal records, the budget committee has specific authority to petition the superior court for removal of the responsible official(s). RSA 32:23.
As the sau has more or less insinuated that they might sue if they don't get what they want, what if the taxpayers decide to sue them? They have deliberately side stepped the NH laws governing spending. Would make for interesting reading if the school board and sau were found to be spending beyond their legal authority. It is obvious that they use sped as a shield.
As a person that has been out and about this past weekend going door to door talking to citizens, the general consensus is....the town's tax payers are ready for change they have had enough.
If you're going to quote the law then be specific;
32:11 Emergency Expenditures and Overexpenditures. – When an unusual circumstance arises during the year which makes it necessary to expend money in excess of an appropriation which may result in an overexpenditure of the total amount appropriated for all purposes at the meeting or when no appropriation has been made, the selectmen or village district commissioners, upon application to the commissioner of revenue administration or the school board upon application to the commissioner of education, may be given authority to make such expenditure, provided that:
I. Such application shall be made prior to the making of such expenditure. No such authority shall be granted until a majority of the budget committee, if any, has approved the application in writing. If there is no budget committee, the governing body shall hold a public hearing on the request, with notice as provided in RSA 91-A:2.
II. The commissioner of revenue administration or the commissioner of education may accept and approve an application after expenditure if caused by a sudden or unexpected emergency, in which case paragraph I shall not apply.
III. Neither the commissioner of revenue administration nor the commissioner of education shall approve such expenditure unless the governing body designates the source of revenue to be used. Neither commissioner shall have the authority to increase the town or district's tax rate in order to fund such expenditure.
What the School Board has done is criminal .. claiming they didn't know their coffers were bare and to keep on spending is a sign of arrogance, incompetence and downright illegal. I hope Brian and the rest of the board sues their collective a$$es and put liens on their homes to recover what they have cost us.
At over $100,000 annual salary - the man threatening to sue should have known better. I would say he was a "highway robber" in sheeps clothing. Shame on the School Board for not minding the coffers better!
Who set these salaries? Were they based on regional impact and merit or just picked out of thin air? Our district is a poor district and salaries had been set by the old SAU District according to what the area could support. These proposed salaries and and all the extra spending isn't realistic and will bankrupt many. Ken Dassau and his staff need to know they aren't being very realistic or fair to any of us.
We need to stay on tip of this. When the cuts come we have to make sure it comes from the bloated top end. We cannot let them make a point by cutting the things our students need. None of this no arts or music or no gym crap. we can cut enough from the top end to make a difference without hurting our children's education.
I totally agree with the 8:27 comment. We need to be sure that the cuts come from the top... not where our children will suffer...those people actually work with children and affect their education not the SAU people? Why can't we vote on the SAU budget separately anymore?
To the last two posters even if staff is reduced your students will still have music and art. Any elementary teacher is competent to teach those subjects. This may be the year that we have to have them do it. The teachers got a salary increase, our super makes more than enough and we have several students in our district with special needs. The special needs students come before anyone else.
The board has left all of us with a bitter taste in our mouths.They overspent the budget and now we do not believe that we can trust them. Why should we give them 11M to spend when we know that they will spend 15M and there is not a damn thing we can do about it? This is the root of the problem lack of trust! So school board what do you have to say to that!Where is the petition to remove all of them from office for breaking the law?
How is the budget committee supposed to sort out whats needed from whats inflated, when in my opinion you can't trust the school board or the SAU?
can someone explain why we need a superintendent a business manager, and secretary's for them. Do we really need a vice principle? our school is so small but we have all this executive overhead.
I hope the budget committee keeps the budget at 8 m and the voters back it up, Then we tell who ever is left at the school if you want to keep your job do the extra work and make this work. Its time for the school to rise to the challenge instead of saying "we cant do it" With so many people needing jobs this is the time to get tough on the ones who have them.
OK I can't let the 8:07 comment go without comment...The adminstrative costs are out of control... but they are going to cut teachers...How can we ask our teachers to do more when they are only contracted for 188 days and from 8:20-3:20 but yet I know that many teachers are there during the summer working for free, on the weekends and working at home. The majority of teachers meet with parents at whatever reasonable time they request beyond these hours. Not only that most of the teachers work longer at school than these hours. Teachers are not allowed to strike in NH, however they can make a statement by working exactly to their contract which will only hurt the children. MAKE THE SCHOOL BORARD CUT THE ADMINSTRATIVE COSTS!!!
How can they cut a teacher if she or he has a classroom full of Kids?
As I said earlier the cuts need to come from the top. If there are teachers with no students then I can understand them being let go.
As I understand it teachers can also teach art and Gym and maybe a little music so it sounds like job security to me.
All of the administration costs should be cut in half .. period. If they don't like they can go apply for a job somewhere else. Next all the paraprofessionals should be let go, we don't need them and if there are teachers who just feel their classrooms are too big and that they need help, they too should be let go. Cut the janitorial staff in half too, why do we need 6 at a cost of just under $200,000? That's ridiculous and too much over spending. Anyone who does not work a 40 hour week, just like the rest of us gets no benefits!!. Times are tough for everyone, buckle down or take a hike, why should others be forced to bear the burden?
I see Keene has the same problems as Winchester; but at least they are trying to do something right. Today's paper;
Trying to lessen the blow to taxpayers, Keene School Board members chopped $550,000 from the district administrators’ recommended budget at a special meeting this morning,
The board’s recommended budget, to be presented at a public hearing Tuesday evening at Keene High School, is $61,571,139.
The administration’s budget, which is down 0.4 percent from the current year’s, would have raised property taxes 4.3 percent or $66.71 per $100,000 of assessed value because of a drop in revenue.
“We’re going to destroy the city at this rate,” said board member Carl A. Panza, who made the motion to cut the $550,000.
The board’s budget would raise property taxes 2.4 percent or $37.59 per $100,000.
For more on this story, see Sunday’s Sentinel.
Keene is making moves to keep taxes down while the proposed rate would increase only 2.4%. Winchester's rate went up 15% last year, and the government is still not willing to cut voluntarily. What is wrong here?
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