‘IMPOSSIBLE’: TYER HAS DONE WELL WITH THE QUIZZES, BUT IS SHE ABOUT TO FAIL HER FIRST MAJOR EXAM? … plus … GET THEM SNEAKERS OFF THEM WIRES
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016) — Mayor Linda Tyer has done well in her first three months in office, passing with good grades nearly all of the “quizzes” thrown her way by the challenges of office. She has been proactive on issues, responsive to questions, and inclusive in debate. Moreover, she has balanced well the ceremonial aspects of the office (photo ops, reading of certificates, and the like) with the substantive issues (policy making, interface with governmental departments, etc.). However, it pains THE PLANET that the mayor seems poised to fail on her first big exam.
That test, of course, is the FY17 municipal budget, Pittsfield School Department division. It eats up more than $100 million. The final figure will be between near $110 million. It will not be, nor is it close, to the $60 million the Mainstream Media insists on reporting. Technically, that figure is correct, but to use the $60 million as the entire PSD budget is inaccurate and disingenuous. If The Boring Broadsheet and others want to report the budget as $60 million, fine, but in doing so, they have an obligation to report on the other $50 million or so consumed by the schools but billed to the city. These costs include health insurance for 1,200 employees, running a bus company, and maintenance.
Tombs from the Petrified Forest
After Supt. Jason “Jake” JIV McCandless’ budget presentation April 13 to the Pittsfield School Committee, the school committee sat there like calcified zombies plucked out of tombs carved from a petrified forest. Still, get it? JIV must have thought he was at the Rockwell Museum, looking at one of the “Four Freedoms” when looking at the corpses of Lady Boots Yon, Grandpa Munster Jr. Cutler, and the rest of the Ship of Fools.
Asked by The BB to comment, Tyer spoke of the need to save money (good, that) then made the mortal mistake of uttering the wrong word. Sara Hathaway had “aberration.” Does Linda Tyer have “impossible?”
Tyer said it was “impossible” to provide quality education with anything less than a 2-3% raise for the overfed PSD. Ah, but what’s nine figures among friends? The statement would be tough enough to swallow if the department were producing a quality product, but by any number of metrics, Pittsfield schools are grossly underperforming. More money will not solve the problem that is public education in the city. All it will do is reward failure.
Mayor Tyer, you have just made a grievous mistake with your “impossible” statement. You are the mayor. You are not the city clerk. Your words matter. Say it will be “difficult.” OK. Say it will be “challenging.” Fine. But don’t say it is “impossible,” because it is not. There are many ways to improve the quality of public education in Pittsfield while cutting cost. THE PLANET has listed them in the past, and we shall only be too glad to share them with you in public … or in private, if you wish. But know this if nothing else: It is not “impossible” to provide quality education by freezing or reducing the city’s current expense for public education.
Sneakers Snuck on the High Wire Again
Mayor Tyer, while we have your attention, please note that the “suspicious signal sneakers” are back. After THE PLANET mentioned the sneakers strung over utility wires on West Street the near Riverview West apartment complex and we explained their meaning, the city removed them the next day.
Mayor, please dispatch a crew to Lincoln Street, just west into the mouth after one enters there either way from Fourth Street. Another pair of sneaks hangs like so many melting Daliean clocks. They are gang makers of some sort, perhaps related to turf, drugs, weapons, or some other wholesome, decent things, like an impending hit.
Please get them the hell outta there.
Many thanks.
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“I recommend to you holy simplicity. Look stright in front of you and not at those dangers you see in the distance.” — St. Francis de Sales.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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It’s impossible to tell a baby not to cry, it’s just impossible
It’s impossible, to keep the ocean from rushing to the shore, it’s just impossible
It’s impossible to keep the sun from the sky, it’s just impossible
And tomorrow should you ask me for the world somehow I’d get it
I would sell my very soul without you in it, it’s just impossible
Johnny Mathis made “impossible” into a hit. It won’t work that way for the city.
Yes The Riverview pair were indeed removed in short order after The Planet post. But why did they sit on the high wire for over 4 months? And Bianchi drove past them dozens of times while mayor and yet they stayed on the wire. A symbol of a city that does not care. So yes I give the new mayor credit for having them removed. Thank you Mayor.
So the mayor is talking a 3 percent propery tax increase to fund the Almighty School Department. And when is the hundreds more per year per homeowner starting for the high school we don’t need and can’t afford and when is the million dollar crime prevention program she campaigned on starting and how are we going to pay for that too? What about adding the extra cops she campaigned on? How much for them and who will pay and when? Not to be confused with WHEN – Women Helping Empower Nobody (but themselves).
Here are 3 ways to save bookoo bucks baby – close and sell PHS and combine high schools grades 10-12. Or, if you want to save PHS close Reid and Herberg and have one junior high there and one high school. Sell the junior high buildings.
Stop recording bookings – no machine to magically break or repair and no more booking cd’s to make.
Eliminate
Eliminate the vice principals, deputies, assistants to the assistants, etceterra.
Not on McCandless’s watch, he won’t even drop the “community coordinator” fluff
Three positions, a quarter mill. Can’t get much fluffier! Oh wait. Yes you can.
What about that new “cultural proficiency coordinator ” or whatever it is where we teach whitey compassion
How about just not be racist and save the money? Or do all the PCB’s make people act stupid? (rhetorical question)
As far as the schools go it is obvious that no one is ever going to help or even try. And that means taxes in Pittsfield, Ma. will continue to escalate. Home owners and anyone considering moving to Pittsfield need to factor this into their ability to survive here financially. Pittsfield is akin to an under performing stock. And who buys under performing stocks that have been on a downward trend for 10 years? It is just plain bad investment and obviously there is no new CEO on the horizon who will be fixing things any time soon. Forward thinking people need to factor this into their portfolio and decide if living in Pittsfield is too heavy a saddle for their financial horse.
Throwing more money at an underperforming school system doesn’t work. Schools are not economic engines. These are basic facts.
How about some real forward thinking? School uniforms ain’t the answer. And if anybody thinks high taxes are Pittsfield’s root problem, you’re wrong, and you’re just looking out for yourselves. Real reforms in spending across each department are needed, but they must be tied to metrics that the public can see on a reliable dashboard. Clearly there is little confidence in the system now. Clearly some of the current dissenters are not willing to engage in real world, adult, non-militants discussion, but I think if some were asked to contribute in a meaningful way towards developing performance standards and tying it to a fiscally constrained master plan for municipal government, then progress from this slow reversal is possible.
The problem Shakes, if you’re talking about the school department, is that “performance based standards” are anathema to the unions. I was on that soap box for years and trying to negotiate them into union contracts is a virtual non starter; very very difficult (although in deference to todays article I won’t say impossible). It’s about equal to getting congress to vote for term limits…just not gonna happen! And I will say words I do not often say here: I agree with Pat, above. I don’t know if Pat saw my post from a few days ago lauding her (him) as a poster despite normally disagreeing, but I did that too.
Shakes your solution works on the drawing board but not in real life for reasons Mr G 1188 mentioned. An aside uniforms “aint the answer” but they are part of the answer. All the data or “metrics” as you call them confirm this.
Then what is the answer? Bemoaning your fate with these PCB riddled children as the parents and children that can escape do? The rest of the state is already iversubsisizibg the Berkshires. You don’t pay your fair share of taxes. You can’t spend your way out. You can’t cut your way out. If there isn’t a way to govern out then I guess it is time to close up shop. There isn’t enough operational cost to cut in water and sewer to reduce burden, and those are enterprise user fees besides, they don’t impact the budget numbers that everyone here complains about. At least north adams has a college and state supported museums.
The answer is to use all the many idea for costs cut and reform. There is no one Answer but many solutions that together form an answer. It can be done but not without political will
Okay, I think my dashboard suggestion was misunderstood, this is where the Council picks out what it wants to see as metrics for each department. Is there a metric for snow removal? is there a metric for crime? education? and have then updated consistently so that the citizens can see what is going on in each case. It crystalizes perception.
Now you’ve said a mouthful Shakes. Using actual success metrics for everything, and possibly even incentivizing people to hit them. I have been in sales for, well, a VERY long time and incentives can be very powerful. The other thing needed is real leadership. We were actually able to make some headway with the union on performance based evaluations…once the superintendent led by modeling it first, having actual performance goals attached to her evaluation. Once she agreed to do it, it became easier to negotiate the concept into others’ contracts.
Take the ongoing discussion on poverty levels and the lack of good data. have a candid discussion on the poverty rate and have meaning targeted expenditures to reduce that. Or you can pour a ton of money into the united way to have 35 fewer teens get knocked up annually.
The mayor no longer has authority over the school budget, she won’t admit that McCandless outranks her, and that the votes and the million bucks she got were for nothing
The School Committee needs a complete 100 percent dust up. Putting the same players in time after time, gets the same results over and over. This is crushing.
It is quite obvious that the school committee does not and is probably not allowed to, think for itself. They are a facade. They come across simply as a tool. Who’s tool? Who is really calling the shots behind the scenes?
Probably not the mayor because someone seems to be calling the shots for her as well.
I think we should just let the status quo continue for another year. As painful as it may be to watch – like a plane hurtling towards earth or a car crash in the making, this ship is heading into port too fast.
But, by next year, the levy limit and the current tax levy will probably intersect as we begin the borrowing for the new THS in earnest.
As that happens, we do get a vote. it’s called an over ride vote. it becomes our opportunity to starve the beast.
You see the 50%+ of folks who don’t vote, they mirror the 50% of folks who don’t pay taxes, who take more in services than they contribute, or don’t vote for whatever reason (disengagement in civic business in general; perhaps). that leaves the override to those of us who do care and have skin in the game.
this problem solves itself quite nicely.
Yes. Let the plane crash then let us get a vote on the override.
You can tell who the political people care about just by who they surround themselves with not the working class people. There will be no cuts in taxes that amount to anything but a good show if that.
It’s Impossible also was Perry Como. Como also had the hit, For The Good times. How relevant for the Mayor’s comment, as these aren’t the good times.
Take your head upon my pillow, hold your warm and tender body close to mine.
Don ‘t get confused with the tax increase and what the Schools want to operate? If the mayor choses not to cut and add between 2.5 and 3.7 tax will go up substantially.
Planet has hit a home run again, We can only hope the Mayor doesn’t! Use the compromise angle and think she will be doing us a favor.
I think 3% *is* her compromise. She started at 2.5% and McCandless basically said…impossible.
So if 3 is the number, what is the taxper end?
Same old B.S. Jive goes in saying he needs 3.something million. “Settles” for 2.something then the school admin, school committee, mayor council talk about how the PSD was “cut”…
It’s imperative it’s for the kids.
Any increase is a slap in the face, that’s the problem!
impossible,impossible.
Peaceful without the tinfoil hats…..