Interesting development..........

http://valleybreeze.com/2012/06/12/nsbw/woonsocket-legislative-delegation-demands-removal-of-city-officials-from-budget-comm

The city complains about lack of local jobs yet always contracts stuff from vendors outside the city. Why don't they offer a reasonable fee for services to local vendors and help our local businesses. Well the ones we have left anyway.

As far as I know, the law does not require that busing to school. There MIGHT be a clause that busing has to be provided for students that MUST be driven out of town in order to receive appropriate educational services that are not available in their own communities. If elementary students in some areas of the city have to walk nearly a mile to school, ALL students should have to walk unless they are disabled enough to require busing! Other than that, it is their PARENTS' responsibility to give or get them a ride; that includes parochial students! Let the parochial schools provide busing out of the student's area since it is the parent's choice to have their kids go to schools out of walking distance. No busing + no monitors= more money saved. The same goes for food services; we are NOT required by law to provide breakfasts and lunches, that's the PARENTS' responsibility. No meals+ no kitchen workers= more money saved. BTW, it is said that parochial school teachers are paid less and receive less benefits than public school teachers, yet somehow they seem to provide better educational services. The City of Woonsocket must file for bankruptcy and start anew. Most importantly, there's no way that nearly half of the school dept. budget should go to teachers salaries and their perks, while the kids go without proper educations. Obviously, most board members and city officials are NOT concerned about the actual education of the students.

I agree that all school busing - except for special education students should be eliminated. This is a way that ALL parents -renters and homeowners - can step up to the plate and help support the school district that their children attend. If necessary, carpooling can be set up. It's not easy but it can be done. I know because I used to do it for my children and yes, both my husband and I were working.
Free breakfast should be only for children on welfare and for special needs students. Parents are perfectly capable to get up in the morning and fix breakfast for their child, even if it's only a glass of juice and a bowl of cereal. It's called responsible parenting, for Pete's sake! Again, this may require a lifestyle adjustment but it can be done and would certainly help our schools. It's nice to have everything done for you by somebody else but it is time that parents start providing for THEIR own children! The city of Woonsocket and our school district are in VERY severe financial difficulty right now, I do not believe that asking parents to give their children breakfast and to provide for their children's transportation to and from school is too much to ask.

Look, very few of you, in your own city, care very much about the QUALITY of YOUR public education. Most of our officials send their kids to private schools. You have, however, made it clear you care about your taxes. If you spent as much time fighting for better education the result would eventually mean better schools and more people moving into the city to take advantage of the lower property values and good school system. I can't f---ing believe you are talking about taking away meals and busing. How about cutting the city side more? How about our state delegation giving a rats ass about the schools and kids!!! AND PLEASE STOP COMPARING CATHOLIC/PRIVATE SCHOOLS to an URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICT!!! Are you insane? Have you not been paying attention? Ask Larry Poitras, the principal of such a school, the percentage of ESL and special ed students he takes in. Hell, any that he has are entitled to have special teachers go into that school paid for by who, the Woonsocket Ed Dept, just like we pay for their busing. The teachers there don't have the level of behavior problems and poverty we have in our public schools. It's an expensive proposition to educate kids with high needs. And our teachers aren't any better off than teachers from around the state. If catholic school teachers want better pay, if thats is an issue, they can join a union. Catholic schools also get monies from the catholic church, one of the most powerful institutions on earth.

Pay attention, John. I said "MOST board members and city officials" thus I did not unfairly lump them all together, nor did I single anyone out. I am still unsure of every person's motivation in this case. It's much easier to ascertain a few of the city council and mayor's machinations and motives than those of the school board members.

@ LISA ; WELL SAID YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT ABOUT EVERYTHING. ILL BACK YOU UP 100 ON YOUR POST. ANYBODY TRYING TO MANIPULATE YOUR POST IS JUST PLAIN FULL OF ST. IF ANY UNION THUG TYPE TRIES TO THUG ME, BRING IT ON. I STAND ALONE AND I DONT LOOSE. UNIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY HAVE LOST THEIR POWER AND THE ONLY POWER LEFT IS THIS PUBLIC SECTOR TYPE. TO ALL UNION MEMBERS YOUR TIME IS COMING. PEOPLE ARE GETTING CLOSER TO TAKE YOU DOWN. GET READY YOUR GOING DOWN. YOU WILL LEARN TO BE CIVIL LIKE IT OR NOT.

WOW the citizens of woonsocket should all be ashmed of themselves this is what it's come to name calling, insulting,even looking up personnel info on people, not the city i grew up in.

Thanks, Russell.

@david t ; i havent heard any catholic school teacher ever complain about their salaries. im sure they would like to make more money. everybody does in one way or another. catholic or other religious groups get money from their religions. what does that have anything to do with anything. if you or me are not paying for it who cares. by the way the jews take care of themselves quite well also their not panhandling to you or me either. if public school teachers cant handle the kids maybe they should get a job with the private system. sorry no unions and lower pay. you cant have it both ways. yes you can start your own school system.

I am not a "union thug" or a thug of any sort for that matter. However, talk of taking more away from the schools does push me over the top. I did use language not typical for me, that was offensive and for that I do apologize to all.

What you are hearing is anger.

I think there are many areas to be cut in the city before cutting bussing. I think the breakfast is a federal/state program. I could easily go back to driving to school in the morning but we rely on the return trip to the babysitter so we can work full time. If the rest of the districts have bussing, so should Woonsocket.

Lisa and Russell, it was Lisa who suggested that catholic schools do a better job than public. That's not a truthful statement. Are you talking about Woonsocket Public schools vs catholic elementary schools? What populations of students are you talking about? You also completely ignore the fact Good Shepard can't be compared to a public school, its not apples to apples. There are fewer kids and little to no extra energy or money needed for special ed or behavior problems. I've heard enough parents say they are not impressed by the quality of education at catholic elementary schools. They are known for being overall calmer than public schools. In fact, there are many students in all our schools doing well. Did you happen to see how many WHS students were wearing honor society sash? It was impressive.
Your argument is: Catholic/non-union do a better job for less, ergo get rid of the unions. Well, academically that isn't necessarily the case. Tell you what, lets put all the public special ed kids at good shepard and see how well the teachers there do. Larry Poitras stated on his talk show that his school could never afford that so they don't take them in any number that could overwhelm the school.

Public schools don't have the choice of denying anyone.

That said, I am in favor of bringing into reality the costs of insurance, pensions, yearly step raises for current workers and COLAs for the retired. This goes for all the unions in the city, police, fire, municipal and education.

I am also equally disappointed in the mayor, city council, school committee (new and returning members), the entire state delegation and the union leadership.

My point was and is, the children are getting a less than barebones education and it's been going on for years. The city has done little to increase their share of the cost, hovering around the 12 million mark. The state and the feds pay the rest.

As far as meals, our children eat breakfast with us at home and are sent to school with a lunch. The quality of food is substandard at school. When we tried the school lunch, we paid for it. If you think cutting breakfast is the thing to do, go for it. I think it's free for every child in the state. And yes, when I was a kid there was no such thing as breakfast at school. When we moved here we were surprised to see this.
I think the lunch staff have to be in the school in the morning whether they serve breakfast or not. So where is the savings.
The governor tried to get rid of bus monitors but the GA shot it down.

@ david; i think we are all in the same boat and can agree on many items in general. yes we are all angry and its hard on patch to really voice your total view, it get a little fussy sometimes. at least for me. on the bus monitors in rhode island. i watched the hearings on the topic. i was against it, but when all the real and total facts came out i changed my mind. one item was the insurance is cheaper the exchanges equals out. and no little brats in this state got killed i think we are the only state with that record. i wish on any given subject that total true facts in a numbered column would be listed then people like you and me and others could understand whats really is going on

@David T: I did NOT mention Catholic schools at all, though they are among the parochial schools. I did fail to mention private schools which includes non-Christian and non-religious schools. I should have used the term private schools. I hope you inadvertently came to your conclusions about what I said and what I meant, was also just because you were so angry about my suggestion to end busing. Please note, my comments contain phrases, such as, "it is said", "they seem" and "still teach well". Our school department claims to have cut everything that they can, but I don't believe that to be true. I feel the same way about the whole city budget. It's unconscionable that many home owners will go bankrupt mostly due to the mismanagement of funds and the outrageous pandering to special interest groups.

Lisa, in this city, the parochial schools are almost always catholic schools. Parochial=religious. By using that term you most certainly included and thereby brought up the subject of all religious schools, which in this city is overwhelmingly catholic. You do use a lot of phrases in your comments like "seem". All catholic schools are private, but you said parochial which is religious. Religion based schools are not always better.
The "better", non-religious private schools are very expensive.
You said, "BTW, it is said that parochial school teachers are paid less and receive less benefits than public school teachers, yet somehow they seem to provide better educational services." After explaining yourself, I really don't know what you believe. You either believe that parochial teachers do a better job than public teachers or you don't. As you pointed out the broader term, "private" would include many more types of schools with a broad range of quality. So again, unless you are talking about the exclusive private schools, which are expensive and have no special needs children, I disagree with your statement.
My anger didn't cloud my conclusions.
And Russell, you are quite the peace maker. Thank you. To all, blogging like this can get very fussy, and tedious, us all trying to explain our positions and taking issue with others' issues. Face to face discussion are always better.

And Lisa, despite the disagreements and regretful use of bad language on my part, I do appreciate this discourse with you.
I think my anger stems from the fact that this city only spends about 12 cents on the tax dollar on education. Or if the total revenue was about 100 million, we spend 12 million on the school. The state puts in the 48 million to bring the total cost of the schools to 60 million. (all these numbers are rough but close based on past budgets)

Any talk of more cuts to WED, in a year where they threatened to close schools end bussing and all the news of the 10 million in deficits, any talk of cuts, even when I agreed with them in principal, puts me over the top. I never had breakfast in school. I don't mind driving to school (but would be in a bind for the return trip due to our work schedules). And then I hear we give out cell phones and clothing allowances to city workers, fire and police! Why? Let them claim those expenses on their taxes. I have attended the school committee meetings and have looked at the costs and have spent time in the schools. They are providing a no frills education. There is such a focus on following the state's mandates. So, what I have learned is, even if the total WED budget was 70 million, we still couldn't maintain the schools' grounds or get beyond the basic requirements. This is a condition that has no end in sight. That is why I'm angry.

@ David T. Likewise it was fun sharing this lengthy exchange. I actually agree with you about many of the points that we discussed, I'll leave it at that.

@ DAVID T; dont ever accuse me of being a peace maker again, I have a reputation to uphold and dont want it to be cleanly, tarnished (???). I SAY fight fight fight, even when one has no clue what their talking about. thanks russ