An article published in the Worcester T&G today indicated that the Worcester School Committee is closing down four of its public schools in light of an $8 million budget gap for the coming fiscal year. You can view the article here:
http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060216/NEWS/602160503/1116
This move does not seem to have many people in the Worcester area happy with the boy mayor, since it is going to displace over 700 students, and cut something around 120 jobs. Additionally, it never looks good when you attack education in light of a budgeting problem. Now I’m no expert on Worcester’s budget, but this just does not give me great comfort for possible things to come. Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Please share widely!
Well…I read today in the Worcester Magazine about these cuts…they are a result of cuts in state aid. Worcester has an 8 million dollar budget defecit, probabaly expalining why the schools have to close. This is why we need a strong leader like Tim to get into the corner office and get some of that federal aid for the state back. He would be an advocate for this these types of problems! We need him to get in the corner office and use his municipal experience to get Mass. what it deserves! Also, of note, these teachers are laid off because of the budget cuts, not because of the school closures. School closure teachers will be re-assigned in Worcester.
So you’re saying that we need Murray in the corner office BECAUSE in light of the budget deficit in Worcester the first thing the city government goes after are four public schools? I understand the city of Worcester needs more funding, as do many cities and towns in the Commonwealth. But, in my humble opinion, education should be THE number one priority of every elected official in this state.
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Maybe I’m off here, but please explain your reasoning why these closures say that we need him as LG. You definitely have me scratching my head.
to the budget process in the city of Worcester. I am just wondering how you know “first thing the city government goes after are four public schools” secondly maybe you should re read the article
…so please educate me. And I have read the article about four times, thank you very much. Give me some good facts to explain the process. On the surface, however, it doesn’t look good, does it? Unfortunately, for Murray, he has a state race and local needs tugging at him in opposite directions when the school committee needs to make this decision.
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Let’s see how he reacts… Like David said, this is what happens when an elected official runs for a statewide office at the same time. He suddenly has conflicting interests affecting a decision he’ll have to be a part of.
educate you but I don’t live in Worcester. What I can definitively say is I would never make your assumption of “the first thing the city government goes after are four public schools”. I wouldn;t even pretend to know what the first thing they did. I do know that the school administration is the final authority and they are by no means the “city government”
When the economy is not what it’s supposed to be. Murray doesn’t bring job creation skills, he brings political skills.
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We don’t need politicals skills, we need economic development.
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Use a napkin – you’re spilling that Murray kool-aid all over the place.
that you use the kool aid reference. What flavor is yours? AS helped create 14000 jobs flavored?
Actually the article states the worcester school administration is seeking to close the four schools, it hasn’t been prersented to the school committee yet. The schools that have been proposed to clase are some that have been talked about for years. I believe one may have ben slated to close for an acces road. the superintendent of school said this
The proposal would save $1 million in utilities and salaries, and displace 776 students, approximately 3.2 percent of the districtâs students. Falling elementary enrollments leave room in other schools for the students, administrators said.
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âWe really donât believe weâre hurting the education of any children,â said Superintendent James A. Caradonio.
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The bottom line is without state aid, municipalities face these tough decisions everyyear. Maybe this tyoe of catrastrophe is exactly why the boy mayor is running for LG
“The committee consists of the Mayor, who serves as chair ex-officio, and six other citizens of Worcester, elected at large in non-partisan elections held every two years.”
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Clearly, we need more information that the original poster gave us. Does the Mayor support this? Is Worcester losing school population? Are charters a factor (loss of students)?
sorry, didn’t see the link to the article, apparently he supports it as a necessary decision, one of those tough decisions that a lot of local officials have had to make in recent years. Be nice to have someone with that local experience in an executive position at the State House.
I haven’t seen anything indicating whether Murray supports the closures yet. He’s playing it safe by not doing or saying anything too decisive…probably a smart decision. I saw this article and thought it would be interesting to get a discussion out of it, since there is potential political fallout. It’s also the first example of how a decision by Murray as an elected official may impact his campaign for LG. This is something Tim Murray will have to deal with, where the other candidates won’t.
according to the Worcester T & G article the mayor said ” Mayor Timothy P. Murray, School Committee chairman and lieutenant governor candidate, said the process will not be easy. âClearly, financial constraints as well as population trends are forcing us to do this,â he said. âAs difficult as it is, the last thing we want to do is layoffs.” If you read the article the schools being considered are not considered necessary. It is unclear in the article if the mayor supports closing the schools.
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Again according to the article “Falling elementary enrollments leave room in other schools for the students, administrators said. ”
I dont know if it is a result in the city loosing population as a whole or not.
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Worcester has at least two Charter schools which compete heavily for Worcester students. I am interested in how much they are draining from their budget.
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If you read this article carefully instead of sensationalizing it and using it as a political prod it makes fiscal sense. I mean close schools you don’t need to save money and use that money to avoid layoffs………hmmmmm
I don’t think any mayor would be happy about closing public schools, but it seems that this is what needs to be done according to the article. You are all right, unlike the other LG candidates, Mayor Murray has to solve problems like this on a daily basis. He has to make hard decisions that in the long run will probably be beneficial to the Worcester community. Based on hearing him speak it seems that it is state budget cuts like this, that got Mayor Murray in this race in the first place. He has seen first hand the lack of support received by municipalities like Worcester from the LG and Governors office. It seems to me he has the experience necessary to curb these kind of problems in the future.
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p> As for quote, “Falling elementary enrollments leave room in other schools for the students, administrators said.”
My guess is that while there can be a population boom in a certain year, there can also be a decrease. I know that my graduating HS class was much bigger than the class that graduated recently – But then again I don’t know all the facts.
Can’t you just see the zingers flying now?
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“If he can’t even take care of the finances in his own city, how can we trust him with the state’s money?”
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“Tim Murray fired teachers while [insert bloated municipal official] took in more than [120? 150K] in salary per year.”
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“Tim Murray: can Massachusetts really afford to take the risk?”
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“Tim Murray hates kids. (Cut to image of crying student walking down the steps of a school.)”
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Each of those could easily transition into the positive part of a Silbert or even a Goldberg ad. (“Andrea Silbert has created more than 10,00 jobs and has a proven record of innovation, job creation and economic development.” “Deb Goldberg wasn’t forced to layoff cops when she was a selectman…”)
Worcester as a city has improved 3-fold in the past 4 years, and one of the magnet schools was rated in the top 100 nationally. If either of the other Democratic LG candidates decides to resort to slander for absolutely no reason, but to be nasty and turn the race negative, I would hope that Mayor Murray would be smart enough to stay positive and let the other candidates look horrible attacking a fellow democrat. Nice way to help the Republicans in Novemember . . .
I don’t doubt that Tim has done good things during his tenure. I’ve been to Worcester numerous times in recent years and was increasingly impressed each time. That doesn’t mean an ad can’t run that, as the other candidates running would put it, “merely points out certain facts in his record.”
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All I’m saying is that this gives the others ammo. He’s blessed and he’s cursed for being a mayor. He has a record to run on and a record to be held accountable for. There’s a very simple reason for going negative (or “running comparative ads”): it works, and none of these candidates wants to risk losing that they won’t do it if they can afford to and if they are convinced it will work. But they all also know that the counterpunch is often more effective than the punch.
when you are right you are right. It’s not pleasant but we have to see how this one plays out. In my community they alwasy cry close schools, lay off teachers, no books….. some how it usueally works out.
The only winner is often the candidate not involved. So if LG candidate X goes negative on Murray, voters maybe turned off by Candidate X and Murray and vote for LG Candidate Y. ANd if Murray retaliates against Candidate X…well the Champagne bottles will be popping at Candidate Y’s headquarters, because it’s all over.
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No, in a mutli-candidate race, it’s real tricky going negative. (Unless you’re attacking a clear front runner and you HAVE to attack. Currently we have three evenly matched candidates–sorry Sam–and negative attacks won’t work.)
This is a bad hit for Murray. He’s been promoting the Worcester Miracle, but it’s not really there.
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As for negative ads, I can see Deb Goldberg doing that, because she’s got no story to tell.
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But, from what I’ve seen, Andrea Silbert doesn’t need to whack any other candidates, her public service experience speaks for itself.
…in the two times I’ve heard her speak, she has specifically mentioned that there were no layoffs (and maybe budget custs…I don’t remember that part for sure). I assumed it was a dig at Murray, because I assumed Worcester…like almoost every community in MA over the last two years (when Deb WAS NOT on the Brookline Select Board) has had to lay people off. A fact of life under the Romney / Healey fiasco.
“Tim Murray hates kids. (Cut to image of crying student walking down the steps of a school.)”
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Hilarious.
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But, seriously, folks, I agree this is not good news for Murray.
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My question, which the article does not discuss and no one seems to have an answer for (although I bet some readers of this blog can enlighten the rest of us) is why Worcester has an $8 million budget shortfall when, even in “stagnant” Massachusetts the economy is not that bad and the real estate market, source of so much local revenue, is still going through the roof.
Has the RE “boom” hit Worcester yet? Will the ripples from Boston’s bursting bubble hit CMass cities? I don’t know, but is anyone a realtor on this board who can tell us if prices have skyrocketed there? For whatever reason, I doubt they have, which is perhaps why there’s the shortfall.
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If people aren’t moving there and RE values aren’t going up to increase tax revenues, then it is likely the lack of an increase in job production that is keeping the City/Region from growing. I know I sound like a Silbert commercial here and I don’t mean to be, but businesses need to be fostered in a City like Worcester. Perhaps the revitalization of the City in recent years will help, I don’t know.
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Another thought: If the MBTA increased service on the Worcester line and created more express trains, I totally see people moving there – sort of like White Plains or So. Conn. is to NYC. But until that happens, I think Worcester will continue to be a “it’s about to come back” city for quite a while, and projects like the redevelopment of the old mall will be things that appear promising, but won’t deliver the cure pill the city’s hoping for. That said, the improvements around the train station, the Centrum and the Common (is that what it’s called) are nice and are promising. Whether Murray can take credit for that, I don’t know. And 6000 democratic yahoos descending on the city in June? Will that hurt or help? I don’t know 🙂
Tim and Deb’s message of needing a local leader as LG because they’ll fight for more local aid is flawed. Equally flawed are the arguments being made in postings to this diary that Worcester’s budget problems are a good argument to elect Murray LG, because he understands the problems cities and towns face and he’ll fight for more local aid.
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The problem with this argument is that it is advocating stealing from Peter to pay Paul. The pie (the state budget) is still the same size, but we should elect Tim (or Deb) because they’ll fight to cut the cities and towns a bigger piece of the existing pie.
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So we change the formulaâs and get enough money to save the jobs of local teachers, but in order to do this, we have to cut the Dept of Social Services budget and now they can not investigate cases of child abuse or they do not have enough money to pay for foster care and children at risk must still live in dangerous situations.
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We fight for more money to keep police and fire levels at the current rate, but the courts and DA offices loss resources to prosecute crime. Drug treatment programs are cut and this creates a new wave of crimes. State fire inspectors are cut and more buildings are unsafe.
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You get the drift. No, it not about accepting the existing pie and pretend you’ll fight for a bigger piece. It’s about making that pie bigger, so that we all can get bigger pieces…because we all need bigger pieces. And yes, that is why I’m supporting Andrea Silbert.
is reasonably efficiently run relative to many other Massachusetts cities. Enrollments are falling, and Worcester schools have a remarkable number of buildings and a limited maintenance budget. Putting unneeded municipal property back on the tax rolls is good for the city and good for the people of Worcester. Where Worcester is inefficient is megadollar projects of great promise and limited consequence.
Also, just so that people understand the low enrollments in elementary schools; it is simple population science. The last of the children of babyboomers (Generation Y & early 1990s kids) are in HS (and some in MS) now. The parents of the students now attending elementry school are from Generation X, many of whom are holding off from having children until a much later age. This is why enrollments in the Worcester HS’s are at a norm and those at the elementary school level are lacking, and as Generation Yers continue to graduate local schools must change to adapt to the changing population.
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I don’t agree with your inefficiency comment though. Any one knows that you sometimes need to put money in to a project in order to watch it take shape and pay off a little later, resulting in long term benefits. Mayor Murray is obviously looking at the big picture and not trying to simply put a bandaid on the problem, with a short term answer for wound that will easily open up again despite the bandaid. He is implementing long term responses to heal the deep wounds that Worcester has endured over the years.
Worcester can boast of building 8 new schools over the past ten years. It only makes sense that some have to close. There is economy of scale to consider. Worcester public schools says they have 62 buildings, I guess we coule subtract one for the admin and one for maint that would leave 60 and they are considering closing 4hmmmm bout 7% hardly “major” school closings in my book, but then again I went to public schools.