Petty on the school budget

9e & f:
Petty:
"one of the biggest budget issues we're facing is the school department"...feels he doesn't have a good handle on it
maybe November 10 (post election) they can have a joint meeting
It's come to his attention that some classes are 30 or more (7% in elementary school, according to last week's School Committee meeting)
Did we spent all the stimulus money?
Laid off over 50 firefighter and police officers
Nobody has a handle on this side of the house (of next year's stimulus or the budget)
November 10 is a Council meeting, Mayor points out, before the meeting.

Rushton rises for a friendly amendment (he hopes):
easiest way to improve children's performance is to improve parental involvement
calls MCAS a "damn good indicator" of how we're doing by our children
cites Sam Adams teaching school here (uh, think it was John?) to today
Epstein's study on parental involvement...no coherent plan on how we're going to get parents involved (AND DANG THESE GUYS DON'T WATCH THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETINGS! THIS HAS BEEN ON THE AGENDA! THEY'RE DOING IT NOW!)
no more money until they have a plan that they plan to adopt
demanding when they're going to adopt a citywide plan and we can hold the schools accountable to that plan

Mayor points out (thank you!) that it is currently underway in the School Department. Also, this needs to be a separate item

Why is there this kind of malaise around it? Rushton asks. "If holding back the dollar bills will light a fire under it, then so be it!"
Clancy rises to say that we have to separate money from policy; policy is School Committee's realm, money is the Council's
The only issue we have with the School Committee is money
Petty asks if there are any dates on FY11 budget; Mayor answers that they are planning on hearings around the city for FY11. They are dealing with it. Petty asks if they'll have something ready for Nov. 11; she says they have to start sometime.

Items pass