Today’s Eagle Tribune has a story talking about my belief that Mayor’s ought to have a greater role in the awarding of school side collective bargaining contracts. It was an accurate reflection of my position and one that I believe needs to be addressed by the Commonwealth as we enter the worst fiscal crisis of our lifetime.
My thoughts on this are flexible enough to allow the existing negotiating authority to remain as is, with some degree of mandatory authority given to the CEO of the community. That authority could take several forms, including the ability to set a financial ceiling, the ability to veto any contract that did not comport with the overall financial goals of the city, or the ability to directly negotiate the contracts. Additionally it is important that city side and school side contracts cover the same time periods, so unions do not continually use the last contracts given out by the “other” side of government as benchmarks.
Naturally any such suggestion will cause consternation on the school side. But the plain fact is that the responsibility for local property taxes does not lie with Superintendents and school committees. Their actions, under current law, must be funded by Mayors and City Councils at tax setting time. The proper roles of Superintendents and school committees is educational, and until the Commonwealth allows the school departments to send their own property tax bills to fund operations the CEO’s need to have a more direct say on matters that have a major impact on the financial life of their cities and towns. To ask for that authority is no reflection on school committees or superintendents, but is a recognition of the new dose of fiscal cold water being thrown in our face by the economy. With major cuts coming from the state in local aid that reality is now upon us. Read the Tribune story here.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
I agree with all this. Will your friends in the state legislature EVER give you relief and authority you need?
What logic gave birth to these restrictions in the first
thing? placeJules
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Sory, the last sentence should end “in the first place?”
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Jules,
School autonomy is the precursor of our system today. Autonomy gave the School Departments total budgetary control including overall spending. The Education Reform Act (there is that reform word again)gives us the system we have today. Without going into the details of that Act it essentially gives the City side a MANDATE that funding must be at a certain threshhold (“foundation budget”). Within that foundation budget the City has no authority. More to come.
Bill
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How about using some of the stimulus money that the city may get from the New Congress and apply it to Methuen High, thus savings taxpayers money in the long run.
Gerard
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Your Honor,
As I sit here and pen my answers to this blog entry, I’m thinking it would be nice to win a free coffee.
Any takers? No way will the teachers union will allow the Massachusetts legislature to trade off their power.
Pony up everyone.
Jules
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Gerard,
It is a good thought. We still do not know what the federal stimulus package will look like, or whether a high school project such as ours will be eligible. We will keep close tabs on it, and if it is possible we will apply for such funding.
Bill
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