Hebron Dollars & Sense

I don't know if others have read the new "Issue #10", but actually I had been wondering about some of that same stuff. Someone else posted, "I read this amount here, that amount there, what is the real amount?" or something like that. I was pretty shocked to read the following data from Issue 10. Made some calls, and found out that these really are the numbers (I'm cutting and copying from Issue 10):

The cost of offering ONLY half-day Kindergarten costs taxpayers $403,605.

The cost of offering ONLY all-day Kindergarten would cost taxpayers $600,553.

The cost of the current offering of 2 all-day Kindergarten classes and 5 half-day Kindergarten classes is $463,132.

The difference between ONLY half-day and ONLY all-day Kindergarten is $196,948, which matches the numbers we’ve been giving you for several weeks.

The difference between ONLY all-day Kindergarten currently proposed by the Administration and the current mixed program of all-day and half-day Kindergarten is $137,421.

Here's the problem I have with all this mess. It reeks of the "old days" (2004) when once you catch someone you trust to give you facts, instead gives you "their interpretation" (i.e., PC way of saying "Lie"), and then you start questioning, line by line, every budget request for an increase. So I just started... and immediately found a "transportation cost" for the Superintendent....it's pretty significant... and I was told it was for the Super to travel to Amherst College in Massachusetts to pursue a Ph.D. Now, I thought when the Super was hired all those years ago, she was working on the Ph.D. So of course, after all these years, I thought she had it by now. So my next question was: "Is this IRS-based mileage reimbursement or just reimbursement for gasoline to travel out of state to get a Ph.D." since of course we have lots of good universities right here in Connecticut that offer a Ph.D. program. I don't have a response yet to that question, but looking at the dollar amount, I'm guessing it's IRS-based mileage reimbursement, which is 50 cents per mile. I have no problem with the Superintendent pursuing higher education, but why can't it be in Connecticut to support our state's economy, and why can't it just be reimbursement for actual gasoline costs?

It may sound petty, but as we learned in 2004, once you've gotten wrong data, you just start asking more questions. Don't forget that a pickup truck brought down the RHAM budget at least 2 times... the former Super just HAD to have a dual cab brandy new pickup. But it was ultimately revealed that the pickup truck they had was relatively new and only had 33,000 miles on it (or something like that)... I don't know about you folks, but I run my vehicles to the ground. My last car was 11 years old, and I traded it in with 265,000 miles on it.

This is such a sad situation. But the reality is, if the Administration can't find the dollars to come in with the 0% increase our Selectmen and Finance Board members have asked for, the public will.... we saw it happen before, and it appears it's about to happen again. Those with a 6-figure salary paid by local tax dollars just don't seem to care about the local residents making $12 an hour and trying to hang on to their houses AND raise their children to boot on $12 an hour.

THANK YOU!! Thank you ... how can we help?

Thanks "Mombert". If you are really incensed by this whole mess (and I think you are), start sending letters to every member of the Hebron Board of Selectmen, the Hebron Board of Finance, and the Hebron Board of Education. Somewhere, on that new mess of a town website (how bad can THAT get???), there are email addresses for those members. Write letters to them. Send them to 15 Gilead Street, Hebron, CT 06248.

If you're at where I'm at, tell them point blank: No 0% increase? Then NO Vote. At this point in time, I honestly believe our Selectmen and Finance members are committed to a 0% budget increase from all elements. Of course, I could be disappointed again, as I was with the Hebron school Administration, but for right now, I'm putting my faith in our BOS/BOF members to fix this mess, stand their ground, send a clear message to the BOE and to RHAM, and do what they pledged to do during elections. Write letters to the editor; get your neighbors to write letters to editor, the BOS, the BOF, the BOE and RHAM.

In other words, get involved, get vocal. It takes only a few to stand up to give others the courage to stand up too. Trust me, it's hard, especially knowing that the other side takes "liberties" with State Elections Enforcement Commission laws and rulings.

It's almost like last Monday's meeting... that ridiculous mantra about "we didn't know..." to justify the email put out with municipal resources -- clearly illegal. And it wasn't the first, although the BOF (it seemed) was trying to forgive the first couple of offenses out of courtesy. The Monday email was an indication that it was going to continue until they were publicly called on it. Of course they knew about the meeting. About everyone in town knew about the meeting, especially since we posted notice of the meeting a week in advance. How can one of our elected officials claim to have no knowledge of the meeting prior to 1:30 on the day of the meeting when everyone at a local restaurant -- on that very day -- was discussing the meeting?

Watching that whole debacle of excuses for putting out the email proved to me that we're -- one more time -- dealing with people who put a tiny piece of the ham of truth inside a huge bun of misrepresentations. And they really really expect people to eat it and be happy campers.

Write, write, write until your fingers are blue! Go to BOF meetings and speak out!!

Doing that will be the greatest help in giving a strong PUBLIC message that the 0% increase mandate from BOS/BOF is widely supported in our community.

I did email the BOF and the BOS on Tuesday - following the meeting. As a courtesy I cc'd the BOE. When the first BOE vote was taken - I emailed the two board members who were brave enough to cast a NO vote (Ms. Shea and Mr. Moorcroft). I thanked both for their "thoughtful 'No' vote". The other members were incapable of wading through the data used to support the All-Day-Kindergarten.

My extra efforts were to contact the Journal Inquirer and the Courant. I sent them them links to the Budget Issue Articles on the HD&S website and also a link to the community forum. I simply stated that I thought this was a story that deserved some attention in the town's section of the paper. I also said that I felt the voters in town needed to be informed about the budget. (Not sure they will follow up with a story). I also sent off a letter to the editor for the Rivereast. (They actually phoned here a couple of days ago to make sure the contact name/number was legitimate). Interesting!!

I went through the last year of the forum postings. So many folks complained about small areas of spending that should have been investigated. Apparently, no one followed up.

One area I believe needs checking is textbooks. It does not seem appropriate to purchase new books year after year. What do they do with the old ones? I wrote to them once and stated that standard text books should last awhile. I am sure the technique for "teaching" certain subjects changes -- but a textbook is used for basic information. I am not sure if the students are allowed to write in them. The only changing subject (especially for elementary school, in my opinion, ) may be the history and science books. But what do I know? I never received an answer for textbook expenses. I did recommend the use of emails to save on postage. That response was interesting -- I was informed that not everyone had a computer and they would miss some households. I replied to that email and stated ... collect email addresses to use and send paper notices out to those "WITHOUT" a computer. I believe they are using more electronic messaging but (please note): the office supply list remains the same year afgter year (for stamps/paper etc).

On the school sites, did you notice the statement about paper waste found at the shared network printers. Apparently they can "remote print" through the network ... but at times, folks forget to pick up their print jobs from the printer. Cannot locate that link now.

I do know you can check the support staff numbers at this site: LOCATION is in the top box .. select school from the drop down menu. Leave the department selection to all departments and type in Secretary. Gilead has 3 listed and Hebron has 4. Seriously, they have more staffers than kids in this district. Employees need to be cross-trained so fewer employees are needed. They would be assigned to a task that was a priority. It is difficult to believe that 7 staffers are needed for a full day at the school. I know our children's high school had ONLY ONE Secretary and that was all the main office needed to function. Our system is bloated. Once these folks are hired, who will have the courage to eliminate their position(s). It is the same with administrators. I worry about new programs that do not add to the children's enrichment yet are continued because it was initially "thought" to be a good idea.

Remember the year "white boards" were in the budget? A nice tool to have but would it be defined as a need or want. I grew up with chalk blackboards. The administrator did remove them from the budget -- but that was the same year that the "extra" funds at years end were "discovered" and the purchase of white boards went through.

These folks are clever, persistent and certainly "talk the talk". I think most folks are too intimidated to challenge requests in the budget because these 'administrators' are suppose to be the experts. Well, this year they demonstrated they are simply people who have a title and continue to build their "empire" with our tax dollars.

WHOOPS

Posted In Other Forum Without Checking this One, MY BAD!

Seriously, Well Documented Concerns Here & That They Still Try To Obscure & Fudge The Figure$ Is A Serious Concern For Many In Town

As I Said Before,I feel That They Think That The Electorate Is a Bunch Of Dumb $heep in A Flock that Can Be Led By Their Noses & They Have found Out That We The Electorate Is Not!!

Institutional/Educational Arrogance Is Very INBRED Within Our Town & Needs To Be Dealt with In A Fair, Honest & Open Manner That would Benifit EVERYONE .

In Closing.

I Know For Fact That They Ain't Happy With The "TRUTHS" That Are Po$ted Here & Are Scrambling To "FUZZ Over" Their Proven Obstruction Of The Facts.

Wait until They Read Budget Issue #10 Here, They are Gonna Go Ballistic Over It & Go Every Bit Deeper Into their "Bunker Mentality"

KEEP THE PRE$$URE ON!!

Stay Tuned, Same Bat time, Same Bat Channel

"WHYNOT" -- are you referring to items 5905 and 6906 on the budget? Initially I had assumed this was gasoline for the school buses. This expense is really SIGNIFICANT and probably should be CUT!!

Hopefully someone has asked the BOE, BOF, and/or the BOS about this figure. Obviously, it was in the budget last year ... wonder about the prior year. WHEN will they realize that they are using OUR TAX DOLLAR??

I think IF the question is submitted to the Superintendents blog more folks in the community will read it. I actually placed the budget link on there today.