Thanks for the correction on my calculation, Ed. 30 cents a page, not 3.3 cents. I should have known better when I saw it because it just wasn't logical for the school district to charge so little. I believe there was a time when they tried to charge you something close to $3 a page, and the state wrote them a letter and told them it was excessive and to provide more reasonable charges, no? View Comment

Thanks for the correction on my calculation, Ed. 30 cents a page, not 3.3 cents. I should have known better when I saw it because it just wasn't logical for the school district to charge so little. I believe there was a time when they tried to charge you something close to $3 a page, and the state wrote them a letter and told them it was excessive and to provided more reasonable charges, no? View Comment

3.333 cents a page is not bad, Mark, considering what they tried to charge Ed Meyer and myself back in 2006. I seem to recall Ed was quoted something like $10 for 60 pages. I have it in writing somewhere. But your points are sound about the school district's budget being available to the public. Why don't you ask the school district to give a copy to the library where everyone can read it? Having been asked to speak on a radio show in Georgia regarding retaliation by school districts a few years ago when the US GAO (Government Accountability Office) was looking into the use of taxpayer dollars by school districts to commit unethical acts against "challenging" parents, one can conclude that school district slush funds can get whittled away on "nonessentials" without leaving a trace. I for one do not want my taxpayer dollars spent on unethical acts against fellow citizens under the direction of school district administrators that in some cases border on human rights violations. So more power to you for demanding greater transparency, which will go a long way toward prohibiting such violations. Such transparency also would save us from having to pay for a copy of the budget because it would be protocol to have it available to the citizenry from the start. View Comment

I think the question to ask at this juncture is why did the district even reach this point? Why is confidence and trust so low, and how can it be restored? The verbal sparring and logjams do nothing toward resolving the issues so that we can move on and do the best job for our communities and children. I have felt for a long time that the Wachusett District needs a skilled outside mediator to deal with fallout and get it back on track after the damage done years and years ago. Perhaps a shift in administration will bring balance, resolution, and closure. But if there is one thing we all should come away with, it's the lesson that greater transparency and accountability will save us from just this kind of quagmire. View Comment

Come on, Ed. Just put it on the town's credit card. A little $2,300 charge won't make much of a difference when spread around to all of those Holdenite's wallets. It's only 15 cents a person. (For anyone who needs the obvious pointed out, this is a facetious statement.) View Comment

Thanks for your enlightening post. Looks like you are doing some homework as well. Please keep us posted on anything else you find out about the Quaboag situation. View Comment

Sound like a good choice. Kudos to the School Committee for doing their homework! View Comment

I hope the committee being formed will research how many other school districts in the US have policies that bar members from communicating with state agencies. My guess is zero, zip, zilch. However, a search outside the US might provide the committee with some guidelines from communist countries. I suspect passing such a rule would be illegal because it restricts Constitutional rights - freedom of speech based on sound and reliable sources. View Comment

They don't publish that at the DOE, but the Boston Globe eventually does a summary. It takes a little time to compile it. Worth noting, as well, is that Dr. Pandiscio received an award from the Federation for Children with Special Needs for his work raising the standards in the District. He was nominated by SEPAC, I believe. He deserves several feathers in his cap before retiring. View Comment

Give them a gold star! Worth noting is that the federal standards changed and impacted the MCAS system, which improved scores throughout the state overall, according to a recent Boston Globe article. But many districts are still struggling to make the Proficient level, and Wachusett clearly raised the bar and then met their goal. View Comment

Great idea. And it gets the inmates in touch with nature and the outdoors. Also great for helping people develop a sense of self-sufficiency. View Comment

Ok, time's up. The answer is: John Rokicki (Chair) and Duncan Leith (Co-chair). Some of you may recall that when I published a series of articles in The Princeton Outlook on special education in 2006, John Rokicki addressed the School Committee with multiple complaints about the first in the three-part series. I wonder if Mr. Rokicki knew that I had raised questions about that $1.4 million error with the DOE, Brennan, and the State Auditor the year before? Since he and Leith were involved in signing off on those $1.4 million special ed expenditures in 2003, which were excessively high due to an "error," it's a bit strange that he would be the one to raise criticisms about the SPED series. Add to that that Rokicki was Chair in 2001 and 2002, and Leith was Co-chair in 2002 - and it makes you wonder how vigilant they were in oversight and accountability. Remember, the Inspector General also found $139,000 in questionable expenditures from 2000 to 2004 as well. Leith has announced that he will not run again in the spring. But under the circumstances, he should step down because three strikes and you're out. View Comment

Please, Ed, do not overlook the $1.4 million error with the 2003 budget that was found on the DOE website in 2004. The DOE said that they had caught Brennan's error, but somehow it didn't get changed on the website. So they must have caught it at the DOE after it was posted on the website? Anyway, add that in, and over an 8 year period, we are talking about nearly $4.5 million. Those are the ones that were caught. Can we assume that are more, and that some may not have been caught, and that it's closer to $10 million since we are only talking about 2004, 2012, and 2013? And did any of that money go out of the District never to returned? These are questions worth considering as well. Pandiscio was not at the helm in 2003, so he wasn't responsible for overpayment to the FLLAC Collaborative. But Brennan was as Comptroller at the time. And one wonders if the sloppy budget practices just carried over into the next administration. I would like to see what we paid into FLLAC in subsequent years because I caught that blaring error because SPED expenditures were a whooping 22% of the 2003 budget. Who was watching those expenditures? Which School Committee members were overseeing those expenditures at that time? Who was signing off on those expenditures before those numbers reached the DOE and got inputted into their system? Who were the chair and co-chair of the SC in 2003? Anyone know? View Comment

You can find out what his pension will be by calling the Massachusetts Teachers' Retirement System. It's public information. They have to give it to you. You can also find out if someone is pulling a pension at the same time they are doing a stint as an interim - which was being done on Long Island with superintendents and principals, and they were pulling half-million salaries. It was going on in Mass., too. The Boston Globe had an article about it by Ms. Tan. back around 2008. Since then, Mass. has tightened up the ship on pensions. View Comment

Regarding my statement below, just because someone raised questions about him doesn't mean that Soojian has problems. He may be a perfectly fine choice, but he was associated with the District for years. Brian McDermott has been an assistant superintendent and business manager of Ayer Public Schools and superintendent of the Berlin-Boylston Schools. He pulled the Berlin-Boylston District up academically and otherwise to make Newsweek's Top 500 public schools in the US. He led during a time of disagreement over the building of a new middle/high school. He was well-liked and did a good job. My understanding is that he is not in a superintendent's role right now, and might consider it. Another was a very good interim Berlin-Boylston had after McDermott left - Michael DuBrule. He did a fine job and has over 30 years of experience in administration, special ed, etc. There are lots and lots of possibilities. Too late for former Westboro superintendent Dr. Stephen Dlott. He got snatched up as an interim by the Marlboro Schools for the year. But it might be worth talking a look at who else was in the running for those jobs and didn't get picked. There are so many interims out there to pick from that Wachusett shouldn't have a problem finding a good one. View Comment

Hmmmmm. He's the one the law enforcement official I spoke to raised questions about .... Hmmmmm. Interesting timing. Hmmmm. View Comment

There is a proposal being floated to remove K-8 from the District. Each town would be responsible for their elementary and middle schools. Perhaps now is the time to think this through carefully before we lock into a contract with another superintendent. I guess you would still need a superintendent for the high school in that scenario, and maybe for Holden because of the number of schools, but an interim should be able to handle it just fine. Berlin has had two excellent interims - a principal and superintendent. They were so seasoned that it seemed like they had been in the Berlin District for awhile. It's a great way to transition until you settle on the person who everyone agrees is a good fit long-term for the job. I remember when Tutela stepped down and Pandiscio stepped up to the plate and addressed the school committee and proposed that he take over the District because he was needed for a difficult transition and knew the District well.... I also remember in a conversation with him that he told me the District was too big for one superintendent to handle. So what have we learned from this? View Comment

Those weaknesses go way back, Joe. When Dr. Tutela was being considered for the position of superintendent, there were three candidates. One candidate's child received a phone call that said "Tell your Dad not to take this job," according to the Worcester T&G. A similar anonymous package arrived at the house later. That candidate dropped out of the running, leaving only two, and Dr. Tutela got the job. He was leaving behind a mess in Cleveland, where he apparently received a $300,000 payment from the school district to release him from his duties after he threatened a million dollar lawsuit against them. The Cleveland Plain Dealer called him a "Junkyard Dog" in an editorial. The Cleveland job had devolved upon him after the former superintendent committed suicide. So there should have been considerable concerns about his administrative capabilities when he arrived in Holden. At the very least, one wonders if Pandiscio inherited a "mess" while making a "mess" of his own, as he himself called the present situation. Which brings me to the next point. Can the present school committee choose wisely with the next superintendent and not just allow the interim to fill the shoes? I know there isn't a lot of money in the till, but this district deserves a bona fide search for the best candidate, and those school committee members who have been involved in past searches should not be involved. View Comment

Here's my press release that I sent out to all members of the school committee and other members of the Wachusett District. Note the date. The discovery of a $1.4 million error in the Wachusett District books in 2004, and it being corrected by the DOE, may well have prompted two state auditors and the Inspector General's office to look into transparency issues in the 30 state collaboratives. Sometimes the discovery and investigation of seemingly small errors can lead to bigger discoveries and even changing the system. I wonder how many children suffered by not receiving special education services while the special ed dollars were used for alcohol, parties, and trips to the Kentucky Derby, as was the case in the Merrimack Collaborative. It will be interesting to see how the FLLAC Collaborative did during the same time, if they undergo a similar investigation. June 23, 2012 Contact: Galloping Hills Publishing PRESS RELEASE In January 2012, the Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously passed new legislation to increase oversight and transparency in the network of 30 special education collaboratives that serve over 8,000 special needs children in the state. The bill was approved after an extensive investigation by the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General and State Auditor that found fraudulent practices in the system that resulted in the loss of millions in taxpayer dollars. http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-25/metro/30659501_1_accounting-practices-board-members-abuses Inspector General Gregory Sullivan called it “one of the most outrageous abuses this office has ever seen,’’ according to the Boston Globe. “Both of these entities were created to help educate children with special needs. Instead, top officials have been helping themselves to high salaries, inflated pensions, lavish parties, and personal expenses, all on the taxpayer’s dime.’’ The Special Education Collaboratives investigation was opened by former state auditor Joe DeNucci’s office and then transferred to the Offices of State Auditor Suzanne Bump, who worked with the Inspector General’s Office in a lengthy multi-year investigation into accountability and transparency problems in the system, according to the Globe. The agencies uncovered serious systemic problems in the collaboratives network, which was created in 1974. In the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative alone, over $10 million was siphoned out of the system for trips to the Kentucky Derby, alcohol, excessive salaries, and personal gifts, according to the Globe. Eight years ago, in 2004, a small Central Massachusetts newspaper became aware of the lack of transparency in the collaboratives system after discovering a $1.4 million error on the Department of Education (DOE) website in payments from a school district to its collaborative. The Editor of the Princeton Outlook newspaper brought the error to the attention of the DOE and school district, where it was promptly corrected. The following spring, The Princeton Outlook raised questions with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office regarding its concerns about school budget transparency issues. The Princeton Outlook was referred to DeNucci’s office, where it raised questions about the lack of accountability and transparency in relation to school district accounting practices, including special education and the collaboratives system. The newspaper then wrote an investigative series of articles on special education in 2006. The newspaper shut down after receiving a threat letter in response to that series. The former Editor of The Princeton Outlook would like to thank state and federal agencies, legislators, and law enforcement officials for the investigation into the special education collaboratives that resulted in the new legislation, which can be viewed here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CGMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffinance1.doe.mass.edu%2Fcollab%2Fnew_%2520law.doc&ei=7YToT7qQCvKA6QGHhpngDg&usg=AFQjCNHPtSMA3Q3tJmdbGq88arS06NQeUA View Comment

Joe is correct. Dwilliams is just trying to deflect away from the really important issues by personalizing the posts. The issues have to do with transparency, accountability, individual rights, taxpayer rights, and what can happen if we put blinders on. When a society is not alert to how leaders are leading, both can fall into the ditch. View Comment