Posts Tagged ‘budget’
Fire engine green
In her second to last Town Council meeting before she rides her bike into the sunset, Julie Smith-Galvin has cemented her legacy. She may have also sealed the town’s fiscal fate for decades to come. And not in a good way. By pushing the Wakefield Town Council to literally buy into the latest radical climate […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: budget, Climate Change, climate denier, Climate Leader Communities, decarbonization, diesel, Edward Dombroski, electric vehicles, environment, existential issue, finances, fire engine, fossil fuels, green, Humor, Julie Smith-Galvin, Mark Sardella, Michael McLane, net-zero, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Town Council
The cost of learning
If there is one group of individuals about whom a discouraging word must never be uttered, it’s public school teachers. Wakefield teachers have been without a contract since last summer, which you’ve probably heard as their supporters have been using social media and other means to spread the word.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: budget, class size, contract, DPW, education, Galvin Middle School, Greenwood School, Humor, Mark Sardella, negotiations, Norma Rae, Opinion, police, Politics, Public Safety Building, salary, School Committee, School Department, schools, students, taxpayers, teachers, Town Meeting, union, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Education Association, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Walton School, WEA
Teachable moment
“Demands on classroom teachers are now laughable,” Wakefield Education Association president Will Karvouniaris told the meeting of the “Tri-Board” last week. If any members of the Town Council, the School Committee or Finance Committee were amused, they didn’t show it. The town’s three top boards were meeting in joint session at the Galvin Auditorium last […]
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Tags: budget, children, class size, Finance Committee, finances, fiscal, History, Humor, Mark Sardella, mythology, newspaper, Opinion, Politics, quid pro quo, School Committee, schools, teachers, Town Council, Tri-Board, union, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Education Association, Wakefield MA, WEA, William Karvouniaris
After the Big Bump
When the Wakefield School Department came out this week and requested a 4.84 percent increase in its FY 2018 budget, they turned a few people into prophets. In 2015, Annual Town Meeting approved a “one-time” 11.4 percent increase in the School Department budget. The Big Bump was supposed to “right size” the School Department by […]
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Tags: budget, drama, education, funding, Galvin Middle School, marching band, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, music, Opinion, Politics, School Committee, schools, students sports, theater, Town Meeting, user fees, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools
The Big Ask
Wakefield School Department officials have acknowledged that their requested 11.4 percent budget increase for FY 2016 is “a big ask.” The largest piece of that increase is $1,176,875 (3.8 percent) for “contractual salary obligations.” Another $658,174 (2.1 percent) is for SPED tuitions and $628,218 (2 percent) goes to fund salaries related to the newly instituted […]
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Tags: Big Ask, budget, Christopher Callanan, Daniel Sherman, Dr. Stephen Zrike, Edward Dombroski, Finance Committee, Gerard Leeman, Mark Sardella, school, School Committee, schools, Wakefield Daily Item, William Boodry
Total Recall
Massachusetts town solves voter apathy problem Outraged that only 145 voters showed up at Wakefield‘s Annual Town Meeting session to vote on the town’s $67 million FY’11 operating budget, a group of local citizens has filed a petition to recall Wakefield’s remaining 16,301 registered voters.
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Tags: apathy, budget, budgets, Daily Item, election, elections, government, Mark Sardella, municipal budget, municipal government, municipalities, municipality, Open Town Meeting, recall, recall effort, recall efforts, recall election, recall petition, recall petitions, tax, taxes, town, Town Meeting, Town Meetings, towns, vote, voter, voter apathy, voters, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
For those who had clamored since before April’s Annual Town Meeting for a three-way meeting of the Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee to look at the town’s finances, the first public meeting of the Tri-Board on June 11 must have been something of a disappointment. The residents of the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts who […]
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Tags: Alfred Palmerino, balanced budget, Betsy Sheeran, budget, Carmen Urbonas, Finance Committee, School Committee, selectmen, Town Meeting, Tri-Board, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield Resident Information Group, Wakefield School Committee, WRIG
Just Say ‘No’ on May 27
Vote NO on Wakefield, MA school budget In next Tuesday’s referendum election on the $27.4 million School Department budget, the only vote that make sense is a “No” vote. This conclusion has nothing to do with the value of education, the needs of the Wakefield School Department or the sincerity of the School Committee. It […]
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Tags: budget, Daily Item, education, election, municipal budget, override, overrides, Prop 2 1/2, Proposition 2 1/2, referendum, school budget, school budgets, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield Massachusetts. Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield School Department, Wakefield Schools
Mark Sardella 