Southborough Extended Day Program and the administration of NSBORO schools appear to have reached some kind of compromise on a partnership. A joint announcement will be issued to families soon.
The agreement was discussed at last night’s meeting of the Southborough School Committee. Unfortunately, I had to zoom into the meeting too late to get all of the details. But a message on Facebook from Kathryn Rose, one of the parents leading the petition campaign to support SEDP, described:
SEDP and the district worked out a collaboration deal that SEDP will remain independent but the district will work with them and have oversight on financials and staffing.
I was able to directly catch the School Committee’s approval of the 2022-23 fee structure provided by Superintendent Gregory Martineau for the next fiscal year. They were the same as the rates currently listed on SEDP’s website for this year.
Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Kieth Lavoie presented the following tentative timeline for implementing the new plan. He noted his hope that the schools and SEDP can successfully finalize a joint announcement in time to get it out this Friday:
NSBORO administrators confirmed that each of the three elementary schools will continue to have its own Site Coordinator working 30-45 hours per week.
Last month, Rose read a letter to School Committee members before they considered voting to replace SEDP with program with one run by the school administration. She listed several questions she believed the community needed answered before action was taken that would cause SEDP “to no longer exist”.
On Facebook last night, she painted the decision made as good news:
School Committee Meeting Update: Congratulations to the SEDP board, staff and the leadership of the District for their hard work in collaborating and reaching a true partnership for the Extended Day program. Thank you to all of you who were passionate on this issue. I have faith in all the parties that they will work well together for our kids and the community members who rely on this service. Your voices have been heard and have made a difference. More details to come.
For more background on the situation, click here.
All this proposal does is add the money that the schools want to drain from us. Hiring the staff to run under the umbrella of the school system adds to the cost of benefits, retirement, staff salaries. Right now, those costs are not ours, they belong to SEDP. How long are we going to allow Martineau to keep draining our pockets for his own gain. He looks like he comes up with a great solution but the catch is you and I are funding this fiasco. Every single year the school wants more and more and more. Yet, our student count supposedly is going down. Now after renovating all our schools except for Neary, they want to make Woodward town offices. Then they want to rebuild Neary at our expense. When is enough enough?
This blog is so important because Beth is a narrator to the ongoings in the town and schools. Martineau doesn’t care about you the people of this town. He does not care about the students. He is the most dangerous employee the towns of Northborough and Southborough have ever hired. He is moving at a fast pace to implement changes and taking advantage of all of us during the pandemic. He is a brilliant politician, and is smoothly calculating his every move. You can get a sense of it how he skillfully controls the dialogue in every meeting. Wake up, and challenge the SC to do their job. More importantly we need people to step up and run for office, participate and comment at meetings, and take action. I’m woken up finally, and I am working with others to get them elected to positions coming up for election. Where are we at now $/student in the state. It’s gotta be in the top 10 for towns. The fact is all the new programs, software changes, consultants to study x,y,z mascot changes etc, the dollars are adding up. Problem is the next few years are going to need a whole different focus than all of this stuff which may or may not be the right thing for the town. What I do know is that every ounce of energy needs to be focused on handling the psychological and emotional health of the students which will increase exponentially. Martineaus whole agenda disregards any of this, and the SC is so busy keeping up with it they are forgetting what’s more important.
Interesting comments M O’Neill. I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the context of the handling of the Covid Pandemic. This Medical Advisory team is a way for them to point at the credentials and take the heat off of making the decisions themselves. I think Martineau is very smooth and skillful at pushing a very progressive agenda. Most on the left (meaning moderates like me) are blinded to it, and the pandemic provides perfect cover. The fact is, it’s the elected school committee that is the problem though. They have just sat back and congratulated everyone. Why are they not asking how the children are doing. Why are they not demanding to know what the collateral damage is from all of the protocols employed. A generation of our children are being severely harmed. They will live to regret all the mistakes they have made by remaining silent and letting Martineau do his thing. That will be their legacy. We need to vote them out one by one and put people in there that have kids in our school system and people who actually care about the kids, not their politics.
Beth,
“allow Martineau to keep draining our pockets for his own gain.” sounds too much like an accusation of a criminal act to stand unchallenged.
I’m a bit surprised it’s still posted.
If the more than 20 years of history is any guide, new SC members will not get the job done in the taxpayers favor. How many SC candidates promised to improve the transparency? They get into office and are overwhelmed by the superintendent’s office and more than likely teacher’s union reps.
There is only one way to get all of their attention focused: through the school budget. No other action can do the job.
Found this in the executive summary of a Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education district review report dated July 2019 – Northborough/Southborough School District.
“The districts are not without challenges, however. While the district survived a $383,602.05 embezzlement scandal in 2016 and subsequent audits have not identified additional material findings in business office procedures, a business office structure that includes stable full-time leadership was not in place at the time of the onsite. In addition, the organization of the districts presents a challenge in trying to provide as consistent an educational experience as possible for all students as students from both communities join upon entering the regional high school. For example, Southborough has full-day kindergarten; Northborough does not. The towns also have different grade configurations and class sizes, and both have declining enrollment at the elementary levels. Balancing these variables with resources will be a key to providing equitable services to all students in the two communities.”
Even a generous reading of that paragraph would lead you to wonder if the embezzlement was ever taken seriously.