Can you imagine spending over $8000.00 to win a Barnstable Town Council seat?
Yes, I said $8000. Not $80 or even $800. I said $8000.
Too crazy to be true?
Not if your Eric Schwaab. Yes, that's new resident and voter Eric Schwaab from Boston and Hyannis.
According to the Barnstable Patriot, Eric Schwaab has funneled over $8000 of his own money into the race for Town Council.
And if that is not bad enough, he plans to spend $800.00 on a party on Election night.
Whatever happened to a local home grown, hometown race where you bang in a few signs and wear out the old shoe leather going door to door.
I was told by a Hyannis old-timer today, "that is not how you do things in Boston."
I guess it isn't. But why would someone in his right mind spend $8000. for what is essentially a volunteer position.
If Eric Schwaab wins, I guess that our seats are for sale in Barnstable. For sale to the wealthiest party.
Bostonians must think we are all pretty dumb in Barnstable.
The Eric Schwaab Strategy
Move into Town.
Throw in $8000.
Tell a bunch of lies.
Win a Council seat.
Have an $800 party.
Don't we deserve better. Let's tell Eric Schwaab we aren't for sale.
Let's tell him if he want's to buy a seat, go home to Boston.
What do you think?
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A realistic look at life and politics in the Town of Barnstable.
5 comments:
Has anyone thought about eric's track record on the water board. He got on the board and quit a few weeks later. I wonder if we will be having another election shortly to fill the seat he vacates when the other members don't play nicely with him.
What a jerk!!
Is there ANYONE in that precinct that could affort to spend $8K on a race.
There is something more important to consider here, is he actually hiding the real financial backers of his campaign?
There are several campaign finance reports which have yet to be filed. Is this mere carelessness (not a good quality in public officials), or a calculated attempt to avoid disclosure of contributors, of money or signs for example?
Want to know more about Milne? Follow the money!
BB,
Since the hate bloggers have been making attacks against Tom McDonald for the past few days, I thought it was important to provide some truth about our school system.
Please read the story about "Deficit" Dolby in http://barnstablebeat.blogspot.com/2007/11/we-cannot-afford-to-go-back-to-get-to.html
For those who want an informed outsider's opinion about what is right about with our current school leadership, and Tom McDonald's role in improving the school system, I have attached a Boston Globe opinion column from last year....
In Barnstable, a model for schools
By Julia Steiny
October 29, 2006
"A MAN'S house is his castle," declared Barnstable native James Otis in his 1761 speech against Great Britain's bureaucratic Writs of Assistance. This address, said John Adams, sparked the drive for American independence.
A revolutionary spirit still remains in Barnstable, where educators, tired of over-administration and politics, are boldly experimenting with school-based management and Horace Mann charter schools.
Ten years ago, the Barnstable school department turned to the municipal government to bail it out of a $2.7 million deficit. Instead of the town and school department fighting with each other -- and complaining about state funding disparities -- they worked together and devised solutions that other Massachusetts communities could emulate.
At that time, Tom McDonald, the principal of a 1,000-student intermediate school, pursued a Horace Mann charter. Like most charter schools, the Horace Mann model shifts decision-making from school departments to boards of trustees, principals, and teachers, increasing educational independence while monitoring academic results. Unlike Commonwealth charter schools, the Horace Mann model requires applicants to have both school committee and teacher union approval.
McDonald got the charter in 1999, and Barnstable received an additional Horace Mann charter in 2004. That same year, the school committee asked McDonald to become interim superintendent, and he and his team took several steps to devolve authority to the school level:
They transformed the district's central office functions to enable principals to act more independently.
They gave the town's 10 non-charter schools powers and responsibilities similar to those of the Horace Mann schools, but without the burdensome layer of state oversight.
They consolidated the business functions of the school department's finance and human resources offices into the municipal government offices.
Frank Gigliotti, an elementary school principal, says such changes have reduced his workload. Instead of coordinating purchase orders, deliveries, and balances with the central office, "The budget, pending bills, paid bills, and the current balance all come right up on the computer. . . If we save money, we can keep it; I can hire additional part-time math specialists."
State education reform efforts of the past 13 years have yielded notable accomplishments, including public charter schools, state curriculum frameworks, the MCAS test, school district accountability, and over $40 billion in state aid. But Barnstable's experience shows how much more reform is possible at the district level.
This fall, 617 schools in Massachusetts were placed on the federal "watch" list, up from 420 schools in 2005. Now, almost 40 percent of the state's schools are "in need of improvement." Meanwhile, for two consecutive years statewide MCAS test scores in English and mathematics have been either flat or declining.
Too often, bureaucratic procedures and red tape distract educators from academics. Officials in traditionally managed school systems, such as Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and Lowell, have done little to streamline their unwieldy central offices. The largest and lowest-performing school districts in the state should explore school-based management reforms. That way, student academic needs would take precedence over cumbersome organizational charts.
The next phase of state education reform should mandate that school districts devolve authority over 90 cents of every dollar spent on education to the school level. At present, Barnstable's figure is 80 cents. However, most Bay State superintendents and school committees oppose giving up any of their well-protected budgetary power.
Through school-based budgeting and greater school autonomy, districts can break from outdated top-down administration, which hinders more effective management as well as accountability. As demonstrated by Barnstable, authentic school district reform requires the central office to support school principals, classroom teachers, and students -- rather than vice versa.
Tom McDonald recently retired to take up consulting, and Barnstable has hired Patricia Grenier, a superintendent with experience in school-based management. As McDonald says, "The best ideas come from the people who are actually doing the work. Our people own their work. Now they can see a problem coming and prepare."
Management-hardened district administrators across the Commonwealth need to be more open to the reform example set in Barnstable. In doing so, they too could lead a revolution in school district decentralization that would better serve the academic needs of our children.
Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board. She studied the Barnstable school system on behalf of the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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