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HOLDEN, Mass. — Fourteen elementary school teaching positions were restored in the Wachusett Regional School District Thursday night when the School Committee voted overwhelmingly to support a new plan to address the district's $1.5 million deficit.
Hundreds of residents and teachers filled the media center at Wachusett Regional High School to speak out against the sweeping cuts announced Monday night, which would have reduced 15 teachers from elementary schools district-wide, including eight from Holden. The cuts would have increased class size to as many as 27 pupils.
After the large outcry from the community, Pandiscio brought forward a new proposal that cuts only one teacher, from Glenwood Elementary.
"It's still clearly not a budget that I'm happy with, but it's a stronger budget than the one I proposed on Monday evening," said District Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio, who said reductions in allotted funds for a forensic audit from potentially $300,000 dollars to $50,000 dollars, voted on Monday night, along with a decrease in salary for a business manager position, "reduced the need for the teacher cuts substantially."
Other alternative areas identified for reduction included a sixth-grade art position at Mountview Middle School, a music teacher at Central Tree Middle School and a district-wide strings teacher.
The School Committee supported the new proposal 14-1 with two abstentions, and tasked the administration with applying a surplus of $62,383 in the proposal to further restore teaching personnel.
Holden Selectman Bob Lavigne said he was excited to see the 200-plus residents turn out for the meeting.
"This was democracy in action," he said, "They came out. The School Committee, bless them, listened. They made some tough choices, and we got our teachers restored, which was the ultimate goal."
Holden Selectman Anthony Renzoni said the residents "sent their message out loud and clear to the representation on the School Committee that cutting elementary teachers is not acceptable in this budget. The teacher is where the rubber meets the road; they're the most essential cog in this entire operation."
However, Renzoni said, "The fact of the matter is, in three days since Monday's meeting, the administration has replaced all but a few of the low-impact positions that they initially removed. That's troubling. It's only further proof that they have no idea where the $80 million dollars are going each year."
Renzoni said he was glad to see they were moving forward with an audit, but that the next step is "a full, independent investigation to find out if any laws have been broken. That's absolutely necessary."
Comments (29)
Why is the School Committee giving out raises in the middle of their budget crisis?
The School Committee recently fired Business Manager Peter Brennan. Mr. Brennan’s FY12 salary was $106,600. The SC voted to advertise this position with an annual salary of $115,000 – an 8% - $8,400 per year increase.
Mr. Pandiscio’s current annual FY13 salary is $198,603 - $3,819 per week (one of the highest salaries in all of New England).
The Worcester School System is roughly four times the size of the WRSD and their Superintendent, Dr. Melinda Boone, is far more experienced than Mr. Pandiscio but her current annual FY13 salary is only $183,600.
Given the WRSD’s dire financial situation we trust the SC will reconsider the $115,000 posted salary for Mr. Brennan’s position and that common sense will prevail and they will post Mr. Pandiscio’s position at a far more reasonable $175,000 per year salary. The estimated $30,000 we save in salaries will buy a lot of classroom supplies for the kids every year.
Note: Given the failure of the Director of Human Resources to catch any of the more than $3 Million in financial mistakes including the $1.5 Million mistake in her own budget, she should not be considered as a replacement for Mr. Brennan.
All goes back to Brennan, how did this guy even get the job in the 1st place.
When all else fails, hire an incompetent banker to run the finances of a school district
Tom Pandiscio did the right thing by resigning. After admitting to more than $3 Million in mistakes just over the past nine months (that we know about) it was clear he had lost all credibility but Tom Pandiscio was not alone in these mistakes.
Senior members of the school committee bear full responsibility for their lack of action in this succession of million dollar mistakes. Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet have all been on the SC dating back to the dark days of Al Tutela.
We should reasonably have expected at least one of them to catch at least one of these million dollar mistakes. They did not! For years they told us they were spending our tax dollars (some $90 Million per year) wisely. Clearly they did not!
To restore credibility Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet must immediately and permanently resign from the school committee. The SC has some very capable new members who are willing to step up and do the job.
Members who are willing to ask the tough questions that Duncan, Margaret and Cindy failed to ask year after year. It is time for Mr. Leith, Ms. Watson and Cindy Bazinet to step down and let these new members do their job.
Without these resignations there will be NO return to credibility for the school committee.
We need to educate children and that costs money. We also need to be sure that our tax dollars (some $90 Million per year) are being spent wisely. We need to ask the tough questions before we end up in yet another crisis situation. We tried giving ex-Superintendent Al Tutela a blank check and we all remember how that ended.
My only response to the last line of Mr. Meyer’s post is that, Whatever my position is it will be based on what I believe is in the best interests of the students and the taxpayers. My opinion will be based on all of the facts at hand and on my experience with public construction projects and the MSBA. My opinion will be based on many hours of working on this project for the past 9 months.
Whatever people may think of me my public construction experience is very extensive and my contribution in Holden on these projects is significant. A short list is all elementary schools in Holden I was chair of that committee, the Holden Pool I was a very active committee member, Public Safety Building I was a very active committee member. All of these projects combined are worth approximately 50 million dollars. All of these projects were completed on budget with the exception of the Public Safety Building which was 2.3 million dollars under budget. These projects were also completed within the time frame expected.
As far as protecting the valuable hard earned tax dollars I would say I have contributed to doing just that. I would think taxpayers that are interested in their tax dollars being spent wisely would be happy that Holden has experienced citizens with proven track records to protect their interests.
Step in the right direction. Superintendent Pandiscio has resigned as reported in the Landmark.
This is a great first step and well-timed before the towns started a no confidence vote. Now we need to work on the SM members that are not looking out for our kids and towns interests.
You gunna out me, Sheriff?
dwilliams: And I will continue to question your budgets until you, Tom Pandiscio and the other members of your school committee pay attention. Something you should have done 'before' you got us into this more than $3 Million budget disaster.
Many thought you had learned your lesson after the MA Inspector General's 13 month investigation of your budget. Obviously you did not learn your lesson then. Hopefully you will pay better attntion this time.
ALL of these problems go back to the more than $3 Million in mistakes made by Tom Pandiscio and the school committee. Although Tom Pandiscio and the school committee made Peter Brennan their scape goat others bear full responsibility.
As one speaker said last night: "it is not credible that the Superintendent could be unaware of excess expenditures of $1.2 million for FY12 and inaccurate projections for FY2013 that were off the mark by $1.5 million. How could it be that no one on the Executive Staff would raise concerns prompting corrective action by the Superintendent? Failing to know is as bad as knowing and failing to act."
How did so many people (Tom Pandiscio, Sue Sullivan, Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson, Cindy Bazinet et al miss so many huge mistakes for so long? Weren’t any of them paying attention?
Aren’t these the people who were supposed to be responsible for spending roughly $93 Million (our tax dollars) per year wisely? How did every one of them miss every single one of these multi-million dollar mistake? HOW?!!???
We pay Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio more than $200,000 per year ($3,846 per week) in salary and benefits plus we give him up to three months of paid time off per year. We should expect him to catch at least one of these more than $3 Million in budget mistakes. He didn’t. WHY?!!???
Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet have been on the committee since the Al Tutela days. They were supposed to know what they were doing. At least one of them should have caught at least one of these more than $3 Million in budget mistakes. They didn’t. WHY?!!???
It is time for some accountability. It is time for the school committee to take a ‘Vote of NO Confidence’ in Mr. Pandiscio and to begin a search for a new superintendent. It is time for Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet to end their extended ‘Reign of ERROR’ and to immediately and permanently resign from the school committee. No more Multi-Million dollar mistakes with our tax dollars.
PS. It sounds like Dave White is already angling for a NEW $40+ million Mt. View School.
And in other news, Ed Meyer continues to perseverate (with no end in sight).
Mr.Meyer,
Your post script comment is way off base and you know it.
There is a committee conducting a feasibility study on how to address the issues before Mountview school. A committee formed under the guidelines set forth by the Massachusett School Building Authority (MSBA). Mr. White is a member of the committee.
Whatever the conclusion of the feasibility study brings forward, the MSBA has final determination as to what if anything happens.
Yet you feel it's necessary to place the result on the shoulders of an individual.
"Yet you feel it's necessary to place the result on the shoulders of an individual."
Or on the shoulders of three school committee members in the case of our budget crisis.
This does seem to be Mr. Ed's MO.
Question: Are pensions accounted for in the WRSD budgets?
There is now a federal accounting atsndard for public budgeting which requires that all public budgets must include the pension costs associated with each agency.
I simply do not know one way or the other and am simply trying to ascertain this for my own education on all of this.
I have worked with people in the Statehouse and do know that typically, state agencies do not include this number.
The budget process on the state level is very different bacause it is largely a shell game with things like this. Things like public employee pensions are rarely delineated in the respective agency budgets but instead are in line items in totally separate parts of the budget, thereby making it almost impossible to ascertain what the actual cost-allocation-per-employee is.
It is obviously far more than just salary alone. That is inescapable, too, so I am not in the least trying to cast blame, etc.
Just trying to find these things out.
Thanks !
Wasn't anyone listening on Monday when the superintendent said that if the audit were phased in, many of the teacher positions could be restored? Then a vote was taken. Then staff went back and did the work. Then they reported back to the committee as they said they would and recommended positions be restored. Exactly as the superintendent indicated on Monday. How is this surprising or suspicious?
The audit savings plus the decrease in salary for a business manager position saved that many jobs because three teachers have to be laid off in order to realize the salaries of two. Roughly a third must be reserved for unemployment.
The superintendent made it clear at the business/ finance meeting two weeks ago that he would report back to the committee as he and staff tackled the budget section by section to determine the ramifications of the business manager's errors. He said then that the numbers would change. If he had waited until all numbers were firm, members of the committee and the public would be accusing him of secrecy and coverup. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
School starts in a scant couple of weeks. No kind of audit can be accomplished in that period of time. On top of all this, we voted Rutland's number, folks. If the budget error crisis hadn't occurred, we would still be at bare bones with no wiggle room. Even with most of the teacher cuts restored we are making cuts we shouldn't be making. Does anyone truly believe people who for the most part have worked in education their entire careers, or those who voluntarily serve on the school committee, want to make these cuts?
We have to educate kids. We have to open school in an orderly fashion. Rational decisions must be made and some of them will be unpopular. We dodged a bullet on the teacher cuts because, in essence, the committee made a wise decision on a phased audit.
For all of these reasons I think it is entirely possible to disagree with Ms. Jackson's position. We simply will not have the certitude she requires in the numbers, nor will a thorough investigation be concluded before we must close out the fiscal year and start school. Decisions must still be made. Votes must still be taken.
They keep circling the wagons and the circle gets smaller. The overpaid deadwood at headquarters remains safe. So, who will be the "business manager"? They sorely need a competent one. Where are all those "schoolies" who care so much about "the kids"? If this left-leaning lopsided committee cared as much about "kids" as they do about protecting Pandiscio, his overpaid staff ,"consultants" and I Pads, would we be in this mess? And by the way, where DID Pandiscio suddenly "find" the funds to retain these teachers whose pink slips were in the mail? Ed: Keep digging!
Thank you Anthony Renzoni for your clear insights and assistance in unraveling this tangled ball of twine. It's a mess, but to avoid future tangles, I think it has become clear to all that budget transparency and accountability need to become the norm. The SC needs to be more alert to possible oversights and not assume that those at the top are playing with a full deck - whether intentionally or not. When one card in the deck is missing, it can mess up the entire game when it's discovered. When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch. Sometimes the SC needs to be leader dog, and that means voters need to get to the booths and choose wisely for alert SC members with good, clear vision and not just vote for personality, popularity, or protocol.
This is great news for the "kids" and the teachers. It shows that the public has grown tired of teachers and children being used as pawns. Kudos to the folks who have made it crystal clear that "they're not gonna take it anymore". However the clarity of the budget has not been addressed and restoring these teachers should not lessen the public outcry to get to the bottom of the budget fiasco. Truely frightening numbers have been put forward and brushing them off as errors will guarantee that "budget battles" will most certainly escalate. I hope that this is not being done to appease the public in the hopes that they "go away".
I agree with you. But that's precisely the problem: "Reatoring" these teachers (query: can it even be called "restoring" since they were never actually lost to begin with?) will do precisely that: lessen substantially any public outcry about the budget scandal going forward.
And that's why this is all rather suspicious, isn't it?
Perhaps this was not done as cynical political mauevering. That is entirely possible, in fairness.
But it most certainly looks consistent with such a scenario.
After all, we have a $16 trillion national debt and fast headed for fiscal collapse in this country, and yet the public discourse centers on the olympics, Kim Kardashian and the latest silly names the candidates are calling each other.
So anyone with a shred of political savy knows full well, we Americans are not exactly known for our collective attention spans.
You are absolutely right. If it walks like a duck.....
I do find myself wondering at times how we diagnose children with ADD because it seems to have become the norm.......hmmmmm
Mr. Renzoni's comments are reckless and ill-informed. Saying things like, "It's only further proof that they have no idea where the $80 million dollars are going each year" makes a great political soundbite but to anyone who understands how a school budget works, it's just plain silly. Did he not attend the budget hearing? (Actually, no he didn't.) Does he (like his wife, given her email to "moms") not understand the nature of this accounting error? Apparently not. Well, at least ignorant comments like this are likely to get Mr. Meyer off his back.
@Viola,
I don’t claim to know their budget. When we do get presented with their budget they somehow compress $80M in spending on an 8.5”x11” spreadsheet. In addition, I don’t think the SC members have a firm grip on this budget. Here is a quote from a member of the Committee:
"I honestly can't tell you what needs to be cut because I have absolutely no idea what our finances are. The amount we are in debt seems to increase with each meeting. We are not being given MUNIS generated documents, have no idea how or where $1.2 million was spent in FY12 - no clue. Do these cuts need to be made? I just can't tell you at this point.”
This person is charged with the oversight of our tax dollars and she apparently has attended the budget hearing and still has no clue what is happening with these errors.
I support the schools and the school budget. I was out front during the budget debates this year to give the schools the money they claimed to need to provide an education to our children. What I don’t support is million dollar blunders from the paid professionals that will force the children of Holden into overcrowded classrooms.
Moving forward I will insist that the elected leaders accomplish the following:
1. An independent audit to pinpoint exactly where the taxpayer’s money was spent.
2. A full independent investigation to determine if any laws have been broken.
3. Publish a closed out budget report detailing every expense in FY 12 down to the paperclip.
Feel free to contact me and I can meet with you to clear up any other issues you may have.
Anthony M. Renzoni
617-909-9790
anthonyrenzoni@hotmail.com
One more thing, leave my wife out of this. She was only sticking up for her first born and the rest of the children in Holden. She is a “mom” and the “moms” in this community are the bosses of the School Committee members. Her opinion better be important to every member sitting at that horseshoe table in the HS library.
Renzoni: This person is charged with the oversight of our tax dollars and she apparently has attended the budget hearing and still has no clue what is happening with these errors.
Then you need to stop listening to "a school committee member" who clearly can't seem to comprehend what she hears at budget meetings. The rest of us know what happened here. Perhaps that "committee member" should spend less time playing a forensic accountant on TV and spend more time paying attention at meetings.
Your enumerated list only reveals more of your ignorance of school finance. I strongly suggest if you are truly interested in knowing how school finance works that you spend less time with your friend on the school committee and more time with a school finance professional. I'm sure your professional organization can connect you with someone who can help you sort it out. The fact is:
1. Multiple audits will be done, some routine, and one non-routine in light of the erroneous use of an unreconciled planning document.
2. There is no suggestion whatsoever--except in the fevered imaginations of a few school committee members--that any criminality has occurred. There is no "missing money"; the checkbook, if you will, was overdrawn, to put it in layman's terms, to pay bills before other expenses were booked.
3. All accounting documents in the district are public, and the close-out must be certified--and has always been certified. Perhaps you should volunteer to be on the audit subcommittee so that you can educate yourself re school finance processes?
As for your wife, she made herself "public" by circulating an email filled with errors, innuendo, and mischaracterizations that was passed around far and wide. She is entitled to her opinion, but when her opinion is ill-informed, it's perfectly reasonable that the email be publicly challenged. Or does she enjoy some sort of privileged position because she's your wife?
It would appear that this school committee member has reached the end of her rope trying to be heard by the other members of the SC and is reaching out to others that she/he trusts to help clean up this boondoggle. You continually find fault in everyone that has an opinion not in lockstep with your own rather than seeking the best and quickest resolution to this mess.
Those actions beg the questions: What are you afraid of? What are you trying to hide?
Close out audits only match reports to budget numbers basically, they don't reach the level where bills and receipts are matched to account and then matched to budget for account then reconciled against expense for account. The devil is always in the details.
Mr. Renzoni only verbalized the sentiments of his constituency. The budget has been shrouded in mystery and smoke. They (the taxpayers) really have no idea where the money goes. An error is an error, classify it any way you like but it will always remain an ERROR. Until one admits that a problem exists that one will never solve the problem. People time and again have demonstrated the willingness to forgive and forget as long as it is acknowledged that there is an error and every effort is expended to correct the error and put systems in place to prevent repetition.
None of this can happen without FULL and COMPLETE DISCLOSURE of the error(s) and a plan to prevent future occurrences presented to the public.
If Mr. Renzoni's constituency had claimed that the earth was flat, would he "only verbalize the sentiments" without any critical thinking? I'm thinking the answer to that is yes, if what you say is true.
The first phase of the audit will result in "FULL and COMPLETE DISCLOSURE"--thanks for the big letters--and a plan to correct the processes that lead to these egregious errors. An audit takes time.
The glee with which the Holden select-board members have greeted this debacle is telling, indeed. The giggling on the sidelines of Monday's meeting was cool to watch, certainly. All the political rhetoric about listening to all sides, considering the needs of the larger community over ideology, serving ALL the citizens of Holden, bla, bla, bla, is just that--self-serving political rhetoric. But it'll get them votes, so that's all that matters.
The first phase is likely to produce nothing. That is what Dr. Pandiscio and some of the SC hope so they can brush this "under the rug". Call the first phase "audit lite" it will not even go to the level of the general close the books audit. Don't think that that smoke screen won't or hasn't been seen through rather quickly. It is only a delaying tactic designed to buy enough time to allow folks to forget as has been eloquently stated by Name Withheld. This also is not just a Holden issue it is a district issue. Too bad that a couple of insignificant towns had the fortitude to stand up for themselves and in so doing dispelled enough "smoke" so that others could also see the wreckless abandon that hard earned tax dollars are treated with. You can call it self serving political rhetoric, I look at it as doing thier jobs and it should reward them with votes, thats how it is designed to work in this country that exists on this planet. Now can you please tell us what color the sky is on your planet.....
The best solution to this game would have been not to play it in the first place.
I always like it when inapposite movie quotes are dropped into argument as though they are as profound as they were in the original script. #wargames.
I'm not sure what "inapposite" means. But the quote sure sounded like sage advice to me.
To have called the segment before the meeting convened "open tithe public" was farcical. It should have been called "open to the public as long as you're on the Holden Board of Selectmen.".
And even then, although one of those gentlemen made a fairly effective presentation, the other did little more other than highlight that, according to him, he had warned that these problems were coming. And one of them repeated a very cogent analysis of e situation given to him privately by one of the school Committe members explaining the utmost imperative of getting to the bottom of what happened to these missing/misaollocated millions.
Which was great, but I was left wondering: Then why didn't the school committee member simply state as much at the meeting ?
It was refreshing to see, however, the few members of the school committee who were courageous enought to confront this head-on. Committee member, Stacey Jackson, noted how just a scant few weeks ago all was well, then on Monday there were going to have to be 15 elementary school teachers lost, and then just last night those are all of a sudden restored.
She went on to say that because of this roller coaster, and because the District does not even have an acocounting of how much money it has due to the "discrepancies" caused by the business managers actions or misfeasance, she simply could not in good conscience vote for anything at this juncture one way or the other.
Rather hard to disagree with that.
"...a decrease in salary for a business manager position,..."
I thought one of the original cuts was the elimination of this position. I'd like to see a comprehensive list of the cuts that have displaced the elementary teacher layoffs. The savings listed in the article don't seem like they would sum to the salary of fourteen elementary school teachers.