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More Controversy In Newton, MA

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The City of Newton, MA is back at it again with more controversy. Recently the residents voted to raise their property taxes to pay for school improvements and town services. After the vote, the money has been flying out of the city treasury and into the pockets of the mayor and superintendent of schools.

The Mayor of Newton got an annual raise of $27,125!! His old salary of $97,876 is now $125,001. He was given a 28% raise. Did you or anyone you know get a 28% raise last year? Most are just lucky to keep their jobs. You’d be very lucky to earn a 5% raise. Now one could argue that the mayor is the most important City of Newton public servant and deserves to be highly paid. If this is true, how can one begin to explain what the superintendent of schools is pulling?

Come back tomorrow to find out where the taxpayer money for the public schools is really going.

School Systems Wasting Your Children’s Tax Money: In-House Consultants

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Another public relations consultant model that some school systems are using are similar to the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District method. As opposed to hiring an independent consultant at inflated hourly charges, they pay an in-house consultant an inflated yearly salary. This is instead of the time-honored tradition of the Superintendent of Schools telling the truth directly to parents. In Concord-Carlisle Regional School District’s case, they pay a PART-TIME communications manager $40,000 per year. Other local hires include Newton Public Schools that hire a Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator for $60,000, Marlborough Public Schools that employs a Communications Liaison for $65,000 and Brockton Public Schools with their Communications Officer making $70,000.

School Systems Wasting Your Children’s Tax Money: Independent Public Relations Consultants

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When a crisis flares up, many school districts turn to overpriced public relations consultants to spin the school system’s point of view to the public. Some school systems follow the Lexington Public Schools model by hiring an independent consultant that works for lots of different schools every time there is an embarrassing situation. In Lexington, they pay their public relations consultant an initial retainer charge of $5,000 for 20 hours of work. Then starting with the 21st hour of work, Lexington pays the consultant $300 per hour.

Lexington Public Schools in the past hired a public relations consultant at the above pay rate several years ago when some parents complained about the school system using and promoting a book on same sex families. Last fall she was hired to speak to the public about a calming time-out room that was written about in a newspaper. Now they are back at it again hiring the same consultant to defend the school system’s handling of a controversial athletic director who was placed on unpaid leave. Again the $177,000+ salaried Superintendent and the $150,000 Assistant Superintendents are “too busy” to include communicating with the public as a part of their job description. Tune in tomorrow for entirely different way these money-wasting public relations leeches are bleeding the school systems dry of your children’s tax dollars.

School Systems Wasting Your Children’s Tax Money: Public Relations Aides

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Many school systems are struggling to find money to fund its basic programs. In fact in Newton, MA they will be voting on a Proposition 2 ½ override for more funds while in Needham, MA they are looking at having to cut approximately 2% -3% from next year’s budget. At the same time however, school systems are wasting lots of money on “public relations aides” to speak to the media and parents on their behalf. The purpose of these public relations aides are to give a positive spin on whatever the school system wants you to believe and at taxpayer expense. Gone are the days of the $213,000+ salaried Superintendent defending the system’s position to parents and media. Apparently the Superintendent and all of the other $129,000+ Assistant Superintendents are “too busy” to speak effectively to the parents.

Newton MA Override Vote

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In Newton MA, they will be voting on three property tax overrides to increase taxes by $11,400,000 to mostly pay for school projects. While Newton Public Schools cries how they need new buildings and program funding, they never tell the public about some of their spending. Every time there is a local override vote, cities and towns always whine about how if you don’t vote to raise your taxes, they will cut teachers, police, and firefighters and everyone will suffer. They never seem to threaten to cut or reduce the salaries of the unessential hacks that serve little function in the day-to-day education of our children. In the city of Newton for example, Newton Public Schools hired in 2012 a Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator at a salary of $60,000. Here are some other non-essential Newton Public School officials with outrageous taxpayer funded salaries for fiscal year 2011 that are hidden from the public:

Superintendent of Schools – $254,573.53

Deputy Superintendent: Chief Administrative Officer – $150,540.83

Deputy Superintendent For Teaching and Learning – $72,259.32

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education & Special Programs – $141,484.24

Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education -
 $140,908.50

Assistant Superintendent for Student Services – $132,750.08

Director of Human Resources – $117,750.08

Chief of Operations – $128,346.19

Director of METCO – $103,190.00

Assistant Budget Director – $89,683.10

Assistant Human Resources Director – $85,149.84

Assistant to Superintendent – $81,259.76

Co-Director of Elementary Student Services – $104,212.40

Director of Language Acquisition – $118,436.54

Budget Analyst/Administrative Assistant – $75,345.08

Data Management Specialist – $88,276.44

Coordinator of Grants – $106,361.52

Can you think of a better use of over $2,000,000 used to fund your child’s education?

Natick Public Schools

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In the town of Natick, MA 42% (almost half) or $ .42 of every tax dollar the town receives goes to the school department. This leaves 58% or $ .58 of every tax dollar to be divided up among all remaining town departments. For example public safety only gets 11% or $ .11 of every tax dollar and most other departments receive significantly less (elderly, public works, park & rec, town hall, etc). Most other cities and towns have comparable figures. Some believe that more money should go to schools while others maintain that schools receive too much of a percent of the total tax dollars. What are your thoughts?

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