(Transparency is not its forte.)
Routinely we hear that the Charter School siphons an enormous sum of money from your public school system. We have reported the DESE facts that the GLCPS Class of ’12 was a hefty nineteen individuals. NINETEEN..! Nineteen New Bedford students who began their GLCPS journey in a class of nearly one hundred. I don’t need the Data Managers of the NBPS to do that bit of math trickery for me, I’m a musician. I count for a living. My head is filled with numbers. Nineteen amounts to roughly 80% of the Class of 2012 who didn’t walk down the aisle to pick up a GLCPS diploma. You probably won’t catch that piece of newsworthiness in the local newspaper or on the radio. But the real smoke and mirrors game is still one stone’s throw away.
The GLCPS is NOT a house made of glass. But yours is.
Pssst…. I can see your unmentionables… Right there in the salaries of public workers, splashed across the pages of the local newspaper.
(I know how much you make.)
But, hey, in all fairness, you can see me in my skivvies, too… I’m there. Been there before. I’m a public worker. Just like the mayor. Just like the heads of DPW and those nice folk who work the polling places on Election Day. Animal Control? There. City Clerk? There, too… Wastewater, Paras, Cafeteria, Custodial, Law Enforcement, Fire. There, there, there, there, there, there…
It’s a big orgy of cash…
Well, except for…
Yeah.
That’s right.
Our Public School friends over at the Charter? Those folk who can counsel out their students when the money becomes more lucrative than the MCAS score? The Charter School, who, if they walk like a duck and quack like a duck…
Are really just a cash cow.
About four months ago, I spoke with Lou about something that had me both mystified…
…and troubled.
I had spent hours sifting through the money trail that is the City of New Bedford public payroll and I had a problem.
I couldn’t find a single salary linked to anyone over there at the Charter school.
Not. dime. one.
All the rest of us are in that soup. All the rest of us are living in the glass house.
It seems there’s no record of how much they take in and how much they earn and spend.
You see, there’s this little clause in the myriad of paperwork our friends up in Boston snuck into the Charter school’s ledger…
Any money they have left over at the end of the year? They keep…
We come up heavy, it goes back…
So I had this conversation with Lou. “It should be pretty easy to get their numbers.”, I said. “After all, they’re a PUBLIC SCHOOL…”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaheeh
(oooops, sorry, I think I pee’d myself, just a bit, there…)
Four months later, we are now in the process of demanding their money trail. On November 28, 2012, David Danning, Research Director for the MTA, sent a cordial letter to the nice folks over at Charter. He politely requested the payroll for each employee, staff and administration, since this whole P.O.S. began its downward spiral to becoming a Level Three school.
(cue the Jeopardy theme. Cue it again. Again. Again…)
After six documented attempts to peek at their unmentionables, we’re getting juuuuuust a bit upset with those nice folks.
Public transparency, it seems, can be ignored.
“But Bill, what are you saying..?”
Here it is… The big payoff… (and don’t you pretend you don’t know where I’m going with this…)
I WANT MY MONEY.
I WANT MY DAMN MONEY.
Because six million dollars would go a long way to closing that three million dollar shortfall someone “oooops’ed”. Six million dollars would buy quite a few books, pencils, internet connections, repairs, common planning time, 91st day raises…
Tell me you need me to draw you a picture…
I can’t.
I’m a musician and numbers are my bag, man…
When are you going to get upset enough to make numbers your bag, too..?
Oh, and I can see your skivvies…
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