More Coffee, Please

Watching people fight is more fun on TV than it is in real life.

I’m writing this in a budget committee meeting, watching the discussion about insurance for teachers—the question at the center of the unfair labor practice filed against the district and the countersuit.

I’m partly amused, since the only reason it was brought up at all was the budget chair’s desire to say $850,000 could have been saved if the Cigna health insurance plan had been adopted. Of course, I’m pleased that Mr. Thomas Parker pointed out the business manager, Ms. Katie Chambers, managed to secure another bid from the current carrier, which shaved $400,000 from what the district has been paying.¹

I’m also pleased Mr. Parker pointed out that he never saw the details of the Cigna proposal and the differences between that and the current carrier. It’s nice to know he wishes to go over it carefully—I’m fairly certain if he does so, he’ll agree there are some big differences—I certainly thought so in looking the two over. In any case, it’s the appearance of a fair mind.

Likewise, I’m impressed with Mr. James Ells.

When the chair wished to discuss the Town of Sullivan’s contact with an attorney who supported them leaving the district, Mr. Ells had the clarity to suggest that since there’s an equally valid opinion stating there’s no case, the discussion should be tabled. This resulted in a great demonstration of minutia and the joy of Robert’s Rules of Order—it’s great fun when the audience and the teenager next to me take over the duty of running a meeting from the chair.²

What’s really amusing is the verbal two-step and bullying that goes on. Listening³ to the way Mr. Ells needed to push this motion through, and the obstinacy he encountered, I’m amazed anything at all gets done. I’m grateful that Mr. Ells has the patience of Job, and grateful that Mr. Johnathan Kenyon has the ability to clarify, speak loudly, and quickly second a motion.

But what really disturbs me is the way the chair proposed the budget committee handle itself. In the words of Mr. Moriarty, there’s “nothing to cut from the elementary schools” and so the bulk of the time should be spent looking at the high school, vivisecting the budget line by line, in order to see what could be eviscerated.

The budget committee hasn’t even had a chance to see the budget for the next year, which is still in the progress of being made…and the chairman of the budget committee wants to look at what can be gouged from it?

This in a high school which is facing the loss of accreditation, struggling to meet AYP, and which repeatedly deals with issues of safety resulting from the decline of the building…and he wants to cut from the budget in a year which sees more than five million dollars returned from the district in surpluses and unexpected revenue.

Um…what the heck?

The chairperson of the school board, Ms. Colline Dreyfuss, stood and made this exact same point during public comments, and in the kind of rudeness I wouldn’t expect from my juniors, let alone the graduates we send out, Mr. Moriarty shut her down, “Oh, that’s just you being you.”⁴

On the other hand, I’m pleased Dr. Eliot Kaplan stood and made the point once again that a lie repeated does not become the truth. The Monadnock Taxpayers Association—of which Mr. Moriarty is a member—is fond of repeating extraordinarily large numbers when it comes to items such as teacher retirement, but as Mr. Moriarty did when talking about insurance plans,¹ so the Monadnock Taxpayers Association does with issues such as teacher retirement. The numbers put out by the budget committee chair are not the whole picture—they assume no cost of keeping those teachers who would retire—and Dr. Eliot made this point.

Unfortunately, I rather doubt those spewing the numbers will much care about accuracy. After all, a big lie is easier to swallow than a little truth. It’s not logical, but then, neither is denying children an adequate education.

1 Astute readers will notice that there is no $850,000.00—(850,000–400,000 = $450,000) On the other hand, I suppose given the roughly 2 million dollars left from last year’s budget, saying $450,000 just doesn’t have the same impact. More importantly, if one’s goal is to throw scary numbers around to make a point about spending and cost, then we want to make those numbers as large as possible—even if they aren’t real.

2 There’s an MP3 of the meeting burning a hole on my hard-drive right now, but I want to check the legalities before I go posting audio online. It’s not like lawsuits are out of the ordinary in this line of work…In any case, I know a student from the Monadnock Community Connections School who knows Robert’s Rules like the back of his palm. I wonder if we could get him graduated and elected to the board in the next few months?

4 I’m always amazed by the unintended lessons adults teach students. Sitting next to me, the editor of the school newspaper turned, her jaw dropped in amazement, and she looked like she had been slapped in the face. Adults tend to bemoan the lack of participation in government among the young. Right then, I felt bad that what we showed a young woman, soon to be a voter, is how disagreeable being a member of the adult community can become.

Gregarious

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