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therents · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 142

Apparently the ski team coaches were let go due to philsophical differences. It is not clear what the philisophical differences were.

Can we use that same tactic with people we have philisophical differences with?

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Le Canard · Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 106 Location: Danville

I am so frustrated with the School Board. They sat there tonight and allowed Mr. LaSalle dicate the meeting. He is an employee who reports to the School Board. The board acted like they have no say or control over the SAU. Who is running this ship. There are too many items to comment on so soon, as the meeting is not over.

Many reports tonight were rubber stamped with no comment or input of our elected officials. During the Technology Curriculum presentation they mentioned costs for listing links to web sites, what costs it is free? During the Technology Curriculum they discussed costs for staff development? Different topic, stick to curriculum not free trips to New Zealand where the software they want to purchase is developed.

During the Reading Curriculum Mr. LaSalle discussed an extra $90,000 he found to pay for next year? Why did they not give that $90,000 back to the taxpayers? Too much waste, too much rubber stamping and too many times the SB deferred to Mr. LaSalle. This was a school board meeting not a Mr. LaSalle Meeting. More Later.
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Le Canard

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

Le Canard · Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 106 Location: Danville

After sleeping on this a couple additional points are worth mentioning:

1. Taxpayers and parents of students are considered by Mr. LaSalle as "Spectators", versus the customer and people who pay his salary.

2. The students were passionate and claim the athletic director, on the job less than a year, never once attended a ski meet or ski team practice and was able to judge their performance.

3. It was reported that it was announced yesterday that Mr. and Mrs. T were chosen for a third time as ski coaches of the year in NH.

4. Per Mr. LaSalle after in the meeting, the unbudgeted $90,000 for technology came out of the book budget fund, similar to the $35,000 that was used from the book budget last year for the construction cost overruns. What books were budgeted for and why were they not purchased? $120,000 swings in spending appear to be chump change to the SAU.
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Le Canard

TRHSparent · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 147

Not a word for word quote but definately the attitude of the school administrators....."coaches coach, adminstrators administer, and parents are spectators". Funny but the spectators pay adminstrators' salaries and that's a very arrogant attitude from the superintendant.

Did you miss the approval of $8k for sending quarterly newsletter via US mail? Didn't we just approval saving money by not mailing the annual report? Am I missing the point here?

Also, if you're a senior and you still have a positive balance with nutrikids (lunch fund), you should contact to school to either transfer balance to a sibling or get refund. I'm not sure if you lose your money if under $20 balance and/or if the school will contact you via alertnow. That part of the meeting was confusing.

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

Once the budget is approved, Mr. La Salle can spend the money as he sees fit. A genuine budget committee would report these misappropriations and any citizen can ask for an accounting, but that does not happen.

The school board could remove Mr. La Salle if they did not concurr with his management of the budget, but, Mr. La Salle would have to script that into the school board agenda.

Elect new school board and budget committee members if you want accountability at TRSD.
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"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

TRHSparent · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 147

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

No. I have one more year on our mock budget committee.
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"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

Le Canard · Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 106 Location: Danville

Does the School board have bylaws that state Mr. LaSalle runs the meeting?

Thank you to Mr. Baldwin for standing up for the correct thing and prevented the SAU from taking students unused lunch funds under a value of $20 versus returning the funds. There was too much discussion on why and how the SAU was going to confiscate tax payer money.
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Le Canard

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

I'm going to humbly point you to the trsd tab on danvilledelivery.com. On the left margin you will find links to school board stuff and on the right you will find links to budget committee stuff.

Among the school board links, you will find one to their policies and procedures.

The answer to your question is no. Just as there is no budget committee rule that says we will sell the La Salle budget to the electorate.

The nature of these bodies is a reflection of the electorate. YOU elected people who choose to serve the administration instead of the taxpayers. Mr. La Salle has the taxpayers in check mate. The budget committee refuses to create the budget and default budget -- which is their constitutional obligation -- and the school board refuses to manage their ONLY employee. Until a taxpayer friendly school board and budget committee are elected, Mr. La Salle runs TRSD.

The SAU has a very smart business agent. He has worked hard to serve their goals. One of those goals was to nullify SB2 by creating a default budget equal to the proposed budget.

Get me two more friendlies on the budget committee and we'll approve bylaws that reassert the constitutional authority of the committee. That committee will draft a budget that advances the priorities of the community and an honest default budget.

Said bylaws will begin with a preamble that will state our constitutional authority and responsibilities.

The next part of the bylaws will describe our operating system...

* composition of the committee
* eligibility
* how members are elected
* requirement to read and understand RSA 32
* how vacancies are filled
* election of officers
* etc.

A section will describe our interface with the municipality -- how we will inform the community and how they will communicate with the committee.

The next part of the bylaws will describe our model of the budget. It's not possible for a budget committee to deal with the complexities of the day to day operation of a $60,000,000 enterprise. Our model would have big buckets -- staffing, operations, facilities, utilities, transportation, adult ed, special ed, athletics, projects, professional development, travel and living. We'll have the sau organize their data into our buckets and tag their expenses as legal requirements, contractual obligations, or discretionary spending so that we can set priorities.

The next part of the bylaws will be a description of the mechanics of our meetings/hearings. I'd replace the generic meeting agenda with a more detailed script: inputs, a process map, and outputs. Each bucket in our model will be addressed by a meeting/hearing where we will consult with experts (teachers, administrators, etc.) after having reviewed data supplied by the district. The output of the meeting will be a decision or an agenda for a followup meeting. For example, we would receive staffing change proposals and cost data in advance of our staffing meeting. We would have the opportunity to pose questions to the experts and then could approve or alter the budget request or ask for more data and schedule another meeting.

There would also 'informational' meetings where we would ask experts to educate us on their domain of expertise. We wouldn't want to do this annually, but we would want to capture the information for future review and training. Perhaps Mr. La Salle would describe the role of key administrative personnel. Maybe the facilities manager would explain the role of his team. We might ask the technology director to explain the entire technology program.

There would be 'special' meetings. Annual 'special' meetings would include those required by statute (Public Meeting, Deliberative Session) and a Review of Expenditures (RSA 32:22).

The final part of the bylaws would be a calendar. Since the budget is cyclical, I'd expect the meetings to become annual events. We'd work with the district to schedule the hearings after the data for a bucket is available but in advance or events dependent upon a decision (meet on staffing before the deadline for notification of affected personnel).

The problem is that when discussion turns in this direction, some members close their eyes, cover their ears, and chant, "roberts rules of order, roberts rules of order, roberts rules of order..." until the meeting is over. You can't see this because the meetings are not televised. If anyone wants to come to the meetings and video tape, I'll edit and post to danvilledelivery.com.
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"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 309

Len,

Is there any RSA or internal rule that expicitly states that a Bud Com member can't also be a SB member??

Just curious. In the municipality planning arena RSA's clearly state that no more than one Planning Board member may also be a member of the ZBA.

Peter Bealo

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

There is a rule that says a budcom member cannot be a member of the school board...

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