I attended part of the town’s school committee meeting last night. Prior to the meeting, I got to chat with the elementary school principal and two members of the Finance Committee, including the chairman.
I knew that the elementary school has the lowest rate of absenteeism in the district, even though class sizes are probably double what they should be for early childhood education.
I learned that they also have the highest rates of volunteerism in the district.
Those are indications of a good administrator. Besides, she’s a fan of my youngest grandchild who, by the way, loves his school.
Compare this to the Special Education department, which dropped a bombshell via the water-carrying Superintendent in the form of a request for an additional $300,000 in funding for the current fiscal year, which ends in June.
Much to her credit, the school committee chair was furious, as was at least one other member. At one point, the chair threw her papers on the table in frustration, stating that neither the school department nor the town had that kind of money, especially this late in the game, and maybe the Special Ed Director should find an administrative salary in her own department to pay for it.
Good for her, and for the FinCom members who stated their concerns as well. And a big thumbs down to the Superintendent, who seems incapable of making tough executive decisions to rein in expenses.
On an unrelated financial matter, I was reading about a study published last December that shows the “richest” 1% of adults in the world own 40% of global household wealth. That translates to households with a net worth of more than $500,000, some 37 million people.
North Americans are not the only ones in this privileged group: it also includes Europeans and the “richest” Asia/Pacific nations, i.e., Japan, Russia and India.
In fact, the United States has some of the highest “wealth inequality” of all countries. Most nations have an inequality index of 35-45%. In the United States, it’s around 80%.
Here’s another old statistic to blow minds: in 1998, the 3 wealthiest _individuals_ in the world exceeded the GDP of the 48 least developed countries _combined_. Bill Gates alone had more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of American households combined.
With several neighborhoods commanding real estate values well over $1 million, I suspect Mashpee may have one or two of the wealthiest households in the world. Maybe the superintendent who “cain’t say ‘No'” is banking on the beneficence of this handful of people with her never-ending demands for more money with little accountability.
Town Meeting bailed her out last year, and maybe they will again. Meanwhile, kids are reading 16 year-old textbooks while the Superintendent’s office pads the payroll with more and more 6-figure executives who can’t balance a budget.