accepts "gift" money from towns
December 16, 2004
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
East Bridgewater
West Bridgewater
Massachusetts
Legislation & Politics
USA
Legislation & Politics
World
Education
Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
Massachusetts
USA
Archives (past stories)
Opinion/Analysis
Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
Probably not a surprise to anyone, but the School Committee did vote to accept the additional 'gift' money from the towns of Bridgewater and Raynham. What is interesting is to read the the requirements of the two Town Articles:
Raynham: "...sum of $92,244.66 as a gift ...contingent upon the Town of Bridgewater Town Meeting gifting the proportional matching share of $184,464.34 to the District..."
Bridgewater: "...sum of $184,464 ... to account School Gift/Grant... with the condition that the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District provide to the Town documentation acceptable to the Town Accountant detailing the expenditure of such funds..."
(a) In order for Bridgewater to release funds, the burden appears to be on the School District to provide satisfactory documentation to the Town Account first. The wording was fairly similar to the wording from the October 5 Special Town Meeting where $520k was gifted.
(b) Because of the way Raynham worded their Article, specifying an exact amount to the penny combined with the fact that Bridgewater rounded the dollar amount, Bridgewater does not meet the requirement of the Raynham gift. All for thrity-four cents. But, technically the conditions of the Raynham Article are not met.
(c) There is a question about if the Article from Raynham was acceptable. I have already heard differing opinions on whether a Town Meeting Article can be worded in the way the Raynham worded this item - the specifying of a contingent event. I will be looking further to see if I can find more details on this.
Perhaps Raynham should consider another Town Meeting to rectify situations (b) and possibly (c). A new vote would cost the town. However, if the question or process is flawed, a correction is required. At the very least, someone from Raynham should find out if either of these issues are truly problems.
The funny thing is, that while I still have major concerns about the acceptance of "gift" money - it removes the School Committee from making the decisions we are supposed to make and it distorts the financial process - I did vote to accept the money for the benefit of the High School students. It is still a mistake to solicit for and accept gift money, but in this case, the acceptance of the money at least evens out the financial picture across all of the schools and students of the district.
