Posts Tagged ‘School Committee’
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 […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
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
‘Tis the season of giving…
It’s Christmastime and, if I may so boldly observe, it’s cold outside. Meanwhile, Rudolph has contacted the Reindeer Rights Commission to report bullying and harassment. Climate change has claimed the life of Frosty the Snowman and gender fluid Santa Claus is coming to town. Into this season of gloom, I bring a ray of light […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: ATM, Bob McLaughlin, cat, Christmas, Climate Change, Daniel Lieber, electric car, famine, Fred Rich, Frosty the Snowman, gender fluid, holidays, homeless, Humor, Julie Smith-Galvin, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, MSBA, Opinion, Paul DiNocco, pestilence, Peter May, plague, Politics, Public Safety Building, recycling, Robert Mitchell, Rudolph, Santa Claus, School Committee, Seth Moulton, Shaw's, solar panels, Town Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Fire Department, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Walton School, Wayne Tarr, Wendy Dennis, William Carroll, windmill
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 […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
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
Now’s Your Chance!
We’ve arrived at the Put Up or Shut Up Season. Monday, Jan. 4 was the first day that you could pull nomination papers to run in the April 26 Town Election. For those who for the past year have been have been telling anyone who would listen that you could do a better job running […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, campaign, City Hall, Conservation Commission, election, Facebook, government, Mark Sardella, nomination papers, Planning Board, Politics, public hearing, public office, School Committee, social media, town, town hall, Town Meeting, Town Planner, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
The Right Stuff
Wakefield’s long human rights nightmare is over. No more need to tell your stockbroker to divest from companies doing business in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Last week, the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee voted to endorse the establishment of a “Wakefield Human Rights Commission.” You didn’t know that human rights abuses were rampant in Wakefield? […]
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Tags: anthropocentric, Bill of Rights, blue-green algae, Board of Selectmen, Canada geese, Human Rights Commission, Lake Quannapowitt, Massachusetts, patriarchy, privilege, rights, School Committee, United States Constitution, Wakefield MA, Zoning Board of Appeals
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
Information Pleas?
In the wake of the May 27 Referendum Election that reversed the higher-than-recommended School Department budget passed by Annual Town Meeting, we’ve been hearing that there is a lack of information available to the residents of Wakefield, Massachusetts. The most recent of those assertions came at a June 17 public input forum of the Town […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: cable TV. Cable television, Carmen Urbonas, Daily Item, election, elections, information, Item, Laurie Hunt, local cable, Mark Sardella, municipal budget, municipal budgets, Override Mom, Override Moms, Prop 2 1/2, Proposition 2 1/2, public access television, referendum, school, school budget, School Committee, schools, Town Meeting, vote, voters, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield Resident Information Group, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Town Meeting, WCAT, WRIG
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
Mark Sardella 