Sam Obar 180

The 2010-2011 school year got off to a roaring start on Wednesday with a number of new changes at Walpole High School that are aimed to bring the school into alignment with accreditation recommendations, give teachers more collaboration time, and increase student achievement levels, among other goals. The changes come as the school goes through its first major leadership shakeup in years. The school has a new principal, Stephen Imbusch, and a new assistant principal, William Hahn, both of whom, along with existing assistant principal Ed Connor, are setting an ambitious agenda for improving the school.

Among the new initiatives spearheaded by Mr. Imbusch and the new leadership team are Professional Learning Communities, otherwise known as PLCs. PLCs are intended to expand and enhance collaboration between teachers, as studies have shown that teachers who collaborate and work together to share their teaching practices upgrades student achievement in the long run. Students this year will be allowed to report to school 35 minutes later every other Wednesday, at 7:55 rather than the normal school start time of 7:20, so that teachers can spend that half hour in PLCs. There is added benefit too, for having students arrive at school later, according to Mr. Imbusch. With an increasing number of studies showing that students who have had plenty of sleep are performing better in school, Mr. Imbusch told students this week that he hopes the later start time on PLC days will enable students to be better-rested and therefore more prepared for school.

But teachers aren’t the only ones who will be taking time off from the school day to communicate more with one another. Students this year will be attending weekly advisory groups, as recommended by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The concept of advisory is to allow students and staff to have an opportunity during the school day to discuss what is going on in their classes, lives, and in the world. [See 2009 Rebellion article about advisories here.] The advisories will be run by staff members from nearly every part of the building. In addition to teachers, non-teachers like secretaries and janitors and others employed at the high school are expected to be running the groups when they start up at the end of the month. Students will be assigned to one advisory group for the entire year – meaning that they will be meeting with one specific teacher and one specific group of students every Wednesday for about a half hour in the middle of the school day. Advisories have already been in place at many other schools, to success and rave reviews.

The addition of PLCs and advisories to the high school represents an interesting transformation in the history of contemporary education. The PLCs and advisories allow students to actually spend far less time actually learning in a physical classroom. Under PLCs and advisories, students will lose anywhere from about a half-hour to an hour of classroom learning time every week. But education leaders hope that the benefits of PLCs and advisories will translate into greater success for students, and compensate for the lost classroom time.

Other changes are also taking place at Walpole High as well. With the creation of advisories, homerooms have been eliminated and students now report directly to their first period class upon entering the school in the morning. And, in what has apparently now become a tradition for all new Walpole High School principals, Mr. Imbusch has made his own mark on the bells that alerts students class is over or about to begin. The bell sound, last changed under the Bernstein administration several years ago, has been modified to a softer and shorter tune under Mr. Imbusch - not such a popular change among students. Another not-so-popular change has been made in the school’s attendance policy. School administrators realized last year that by allowing students to have a maximum of twelve unexcused absences per year, some seniors were stocking up on unexcused absences and then using them all at once towards the end of the school year. Under the new policy implemented by Mr. Imbusch this year, students are permitted a maximum of three unexcused absences per term, totaling twelve per year for all four terms.

Most of the new changes so far are already getting positive reviews by the school community, but with the school year only just now beginning, Mr. Imbusch is likely to make more changes as the year progresses. It remains unclear how much of an impact his initiatives will have on the lives of students and staff and on the overall education quality at the school, but it is clear that Walpole High is more than ready to try out creative and new ideas with its first major administrative turnover since 2006.

Here is an interesting fact for Sam Obar 180 readers to ruminate about:

The Administrative Contact for ScottBrown.com, Senator Scott Brown’s official campaign website, is E.M. Collins Landscape, Inc., based in Walpole. Hmmmm?

I returned yesterday from an incredible expedition in the South, just in time for the start of school tomorrow. My family and I took a seven-state, eight-day road trip through Tennessee (primarily), Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia. I visited Memphis, Nashville, and plenty of small towns and other cities in between.

The theme of the trip, for me at least, turned out to be “Al Gore.” A relative of mine, Alice Forrester, who we stayed with in Nashville, was previously married to Chip Forrester, who is now the Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party. Chip was a top aide to Al Gore when he was a Senator from Tennessee. As a result, Alice and Chip were good friends with Senator, and later Vice President, Gore, and continued to be involved with his activities up to Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. When I was with Alice in Nashville, I stayed in the same house that Al Gore himself had visited numerous times. Alice regaled me with stories about what Al Gore was like in his private and social life. I used the same shower in Alice’s house that Al Gore himself had used many years back, I touched the same telephone he had used, and I basically sat in the same house he had visited many times when Chip was his Tennessee Chief of Staff.

I am a big fan of Al Gore. He was elected to become our 43rd president, but had the presidency stolen from him in the controversial 2000 election. His post-2000 activities, especially around global warming, are a bit more controversial for me, but I do believe he should have been seated as our president, and I would vote for him in a heartbeat.

I visited (Vice) President Gore’s hometown of Carthage, TN, and stood on the steps of the Smith County Courthouse where he announced both of his presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2000. I also visited his current home, in Belle Meade, an upscale suburb of Nashville. Although I couldn’t get onto his property, I got a good view of his house, his pool, his yard, and his solar panels. There was no security whatsoever, and the gate to the driveway, in fact, was partly open. I don’t think (Vice) President Gore himself was home though.

Besides the visits to Al Gore-related locations, I got the opportunity to visit the home of Andrew Jackson, known as the Hermitage, and the home of James K. Polk, widely considered to be the best president in our country’s history because he actually fulfilled every campaign promise he made.

I also had some interesting conversations with some Southerners about the Confederate flag, its connotations in the South, and the Rebel mascot up here in Walpole. While in Nashville, we passed by a large group of Confederate flags standing next to the major Nashville thoroughfare, Route 40. The flags are on private property, so they can be posted as free speech, but our host, Alice, explained that the man who puts them up regularly gets criticism for them and there is a constant uproar over them. It seems that the problems we’re having here in Walpole with our own Confederate flag is very similar to some problems Nashville is having.

All the same, I had a remarkable experience visiting the South, and I didn’t appear to miss much here in Walpole. It seems that the library groundbreaking was wet and rainy (it was sunny and hot in Tennessee that day). Town Moderator Jon Rockwood has appointed new Finance Committee members, and is facing even more vacancies than he planned for, with two resignations. I think Keith Ferguson’s coverage of it this week in The Walpole Times, pointing out two Rockwood campaign contributors who were appointed, while also allowing Mr. Rockwood to respond, was fair. I won’t pound the issue to death on this blog.

I am excited about the start of school and especially the election season that is heating up. I also can’t wait to see what happens at Fall Town Meeting.

Update 8/19/10: I just wanted to add a link to a Facebook page run by a local citizens group, Walpole Citizens for School Funding, that is seeking to lobby our state leaders for expanded funding for our school system, including the restoration of the prison mitigation money that Governor Deval Patrick stole from us.

It has been a slow news week, and a slow news month in fact, so there’s not much to blog about. A good indication of the fact that it is a slow news week is that the most active thread at the Walpole Words forum right now is the one entitled “Stone Field,” and anonymous local residents are arguing over how best to handle the geese situation on Stone Field. I’ve never seen such passionate discourse over such a minor issue.

There will be many more issues for all of us to discuss once we enter the final sprint towards the November election, and Fall Town Meeting even before that.

By the time the first shovel hits the ground at the groundbreaking for the new Walpole Public Library on August 24, I will be many miles away, somewhere in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, or Georgia. I wish I could be in town to attend.

Moving the library from its current home to its eventual location at the corner of Stone and School Streets will be a tremendous loss to the neighborhood where I live, on Lewis Avenue, near the library. I will be sorry to see it go.

All the same, I hope that the groundbreaking attracts a large crowd. Good luck to the Library Trustees as they move forward with the construction of this new building.

The groundbreaking is Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 10 AM at the corner of Stone and School Street.

About a month ago, and about a month after the town election, I discovered a collection of ballots, all filled out and from Precinct 4, from the June 5 town election. They were scattered on the ground in the vicinity of a dumpster behind the Walpole Fire Station. It wasn’t clear how many ballots there were. I wish I had taken a closer look.

I collected two of them, and promptly informed Town Clerk Ron Fucile, who coincidentally happened to be at the nearby Farmer’s Market. He glanced at them briefly, and told me that they weren’t useful anymore. To tell the truth, I don’t believe he really took a good look at them, and didn’t realize they were clearly filled out.

I was under the impression that it was illegal for ballots to be disposed of before a certain point after the election. I wasn’t able to find any evidence that any laws were broken either locally or statewide regarding this incident. So it doesn’t seem that there was anything illegal about the ballots being disposed of so soon after the election.

Regardless, I thought ballots were intended to be secure materials. It is disturbing to find them tossed into a dumpster behind the fire station only about a month after the election. Paper ballots should NOT be thrown into a dumpster. They should be RECYCLED. They should not be tossed into a dumpster behind the fire station, but rather should be carefully disposed of as secure election materials. Further, I only found a few - it makes one wonder whether these ballots had been separated from the others and for what reason.

I believe that the Town of Walpole should enact a bylaw, if one doesn’t already exist, specifically outlining the time frame during which municipal ballots are retained and where they are disposed of. One month after the election is too short a time frame, in my opinion. Perhaps the state already has policies regarding the retention of ballots after an election for municipalities to follow.

I will be keeping the ballots I was able to collect for my own personal collection as souvenirs of the election. It should not have been that easy for me to obtain these ballots.

Programming Note: I am pleased to announce that Walpole Selectman Cliff Snuffer will be making his second appearance in a year on the Sam Obar Show on WDIS Radio on September 18, at 4:00 PM.

Tim Cahill’s surprisingly-energetic campaign for governor seems promising at first glance. Using words like “middle class”, “fighting for you”, and “I’m from Quincy,” Treasurer Cahill presents himself as a regular working-class guy who is seeking to turn Beacon Hill around and make it work for citizens again. It is infinitely clear how badly change in leadership is needed at the State House. But while his campaign speeches may make regular voters think he really is fighting for all of us, a vote for Tim Cahill is undoubtedly a vote for a worser Commonwealth.

Mr. Cahill has been State Treasurer for a total of eight years, after a number of years as Norfolk County Treasurer and Quincy City Councilor. Before holding elected office, Cahill ran his own small business, a café in Quincy. He has labeled himself in this race as a fiscal conservative – a title that is becoming increasingly more trendy for politicians to have as the economy sinks and the national debt soars. Yet Treasurer Cahill’s record reflects anything but fiscal conservatism. As a Quincy City Councilor, he supported property tax increases, some intended partially to pay for contractually-mandated pay raises for police, firefighters, teachers and other city employees. “You hate to vote for a tax increase. But if we want the projects and ball fields, this is as fair as we can be,” then-Councilor-at-large Cahill said at the time. Mr. Cahill’s proclamation that a tax increase is “as fair as we can be,” is not fiscally conservative. Between 1997 and 1998, while Cahill was supporting property tax increases, the Quincy city budget went from just $143 million in 1997 to $150 million in 1998, an increase of an outrageous $7 million. As much as Treasurer Cahill would like to try to claim that his years on the Quincy City Council set his fiscal conservatism in stone, the facts clearly indicate otherwise.

Mr. Cahill’s position on higher taxes continued to be troubling even long after he became State Treasurer. In 2006, he endorsed Deval Patrick in his bid for governor because he thought Patrick’s stand on not cutting the state income tax to 5% “took courage.” The voters in 2000 had approved a decrease in their income taxes to 5%, but the legislature stepped in a few years later and froze it at 5.3% to cope with a state budget that wasn’t keeping pace with revenues. Supporting a 5.3% income tax when the voters clearly stated they wanted it at 5% means Treasurer Cahill is not only in favor of high taxes, but also is willing to ignore the will of the voters. The Treasurer stated on The Sam Obar Show recently that he supported the governor’s position because he thought that Patrick would stand firm on his pledge to cut property taxes. But, once again, he conveniently ignores the fact that the voters had clearly said they wanted a cut in their income tax – and they never got it. So Treasurer Cahill isn’t willing to support a tax cut even when the citizens vote for it, and he’s not willing to tell state government to tighten their belt even when the voters clearly want government to do so.

The Treasurer’s attitude towards the state budget during this campaign is also concerning. While making speeches and issuing press releases blasting the state’s current governor for what he refers to as “reckless spending,” and “the Administration’s inability to live within its means,” he presents no real solutions for spending cuts he himself would make if elected governor. His attacks on Governor Patrick’s budget are vague and offer no solutions. The Treasurer has claimed that he can’t propose any budget cuts he would make until he is in the governor’s office, but he has spent the last eight years as State Treasurer overseeing exactly where our budget goes – how much comes in and how much goes out and to where. His opponent, Charlie Baker, hasn’t even been in state government since the 1990s, yet he has been able to come up with a set of about $1 billion worth of cuts he would make immediately if elected governor. The Treasurer, even though he calls himself a “fiscal conservative,” and has been running the State Treasury for the past eight years, remains unable or unwilling to offer any of his own cuts.

His position on local aid is equally concerning. Even while he can’t point to other spending cuts he would make, Treasurer Cahill has announced that he will not be afraid to cut local aid in order to balance the state budget. In other words, he will be cutting local aid, but then when people complain, he can say that he never broke any campaign promises. He can then avoid taking any blame for the fact that communities on their own will be forced to raise property taxes as a result of lower local aid numbers. Even a threat by Mr. Cahill to put cuts to local aid on the table will have a measurable impact on communities. Cops, teachers, and firefighters will lose their jobs as municipal officials try to plan their budgets around Mr. Cahill’s commitment to possible cuts to local aid.

Treasurer Cahill also brings with him a lot of allegations of corrupt activity, most of which Mr. Cahill has either admitted to or danced around. One concerning issue is that the Treasurer has the lowest contributor disclosure rate for any statewide candidate. According to a Globe analysis, “occupation and employment information and perhaps the potential business interests of 36 percent of his major donors since 2002 have not been reported.” The Boston Herald and Boston Globe have each taken turns hitting the Treasurer for what they see as apparent “pay-to-play” schemes, in which Cahill’s campaign contributors are being given state contracts even as they donate thousands of dollars to Cahill’s war chest. He is currently embroiled in a lawsuit over alleged pay-to-play at the State Lottery. Cahill also shrugs off reports that one of his friends, Thomas J. Kelly, apparently told a company seeking a state contract to donate to the Cahill Committee in order to obtain the contract. Mr. Cahill doesn’t seem concerned that Kelly was also hired by this company to apparently take advantage of his relationship with Mr. Cahill and help them get a state contract. There are numerous reports of companies doing contracted work with the State Treasury’s various departments also contributing heavily to the State Treasurer, and Mr. Cahill seems unfazed about the obvious alarm bells these contributions should be setting off. In response to Boston Globe coverage of patronage at the Probation Department overseen by one of Cahill’s friends, John O’Brien, Mr. Cahill blamed the Legislature for allowing the Probation Department to have lax oversight, rather than calling for O’Brien’s resignation or for further investigation of the department. When asked to respond to the fact that a company seeking a state contract once held a fundraiser for him netting $20,000, Mr. Cahill said that he feels that happens all the time on Beacon Hill and he doesn’t see it as a big deal. It was precisely this type of cozy relationship between a company seeking a state contract and a politician that got former House Speaker Sal DiMasi indicted – political corruption deserves no place on Beacon Hill and Treasurer Cahill’s no-big-deal attitude toward it is a problem. He can’t reform Beacon Hill if he doesn’t think there’s a problem in the first place.

Treasurer Cahill’s campaign for governor is definitely exciting – he is the first independent in a long time to have a strong chance of being elected governor. The race is only just now heating up, and he has millions of dollars still remaining in his campaign fund to launch an aggressive campaign come autumn. But voters shouldn’t be fooled by his every-man approach – a Cahill administration on Beacon Hill may mean we’ll have our first governor in awhile who doesn’t own a multi-million dollar home, but it certainly does not mean that we will have a governor who is actually going to keep taxes low and make government leaner.

I want to again thank State Treasurer Tim Cahill and his campaign for scheduling my interview with Mr. Cahill on Saturday on The Sam Obar Show. I had a great conversation with him and his staff both on and off the air, and I respect him tremendously and will continue to hold him in high regard even if he doesn’t win the governor’s seat in November. Best of luck to him.

Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, joined me live in-studio on The Sam Obar Show yesterday.

Here is the audio of the interview, available in .mp3

Take a look at some pictures that were taken of the interview in the newly-furnished Sam Obar Center, courtesy of Alice Obar:

Tim Cahill and I discuss the issues in the race.

Tim Cahill and I share some concerns about our state.

Tim Cahill makes a point.

My new friend Tim and me in The Sam Obar Center.

Here is a video of one question I asked him about the Massachusetts universal healthcare program, which Treasurer Cahill claims is hurting the state budget:

New lights were being constructed at Turco Field today. Take a look:

Picture by Samuel Obar

It’s never too early to endorse a candidate for Congress. In the November election, and the September Democratic primary, I am supporting Stephen Lynch, Democrat, for the 9th Congressional District. More details, as well as other endorsements, as the election gets closer.

I would like to welcome Sal Genovese as the new director of the Walpole Public Library. He started this week, and is taking on some huge responsibilities. Here are the 10 questions someone should ask him:

1. Are you aware that the Walpole Town Administrator has a proven record of slashing the library budget unfairly, and bringing the library to the brink of losing accreditation, or worse? Are you aware that he has even proposed regionalizing the library? What strategies do you plan to employ to combat the Town Administrator’s ignorant attitude towards the library? Will you invite him in for a guided tour at any point to show him firsthand how many people actually do visit the library on a daily basis?

2. What was the number one reason you decided to come to Walpole?

3. Do you plan to move your home to Walpole or a neighboring town?

4. How long do you plan to remain in this position? How long did you remain as director in Marlborough, and what is your ultimate career goal? Do you plan to work in Walpole for the long-term?

5. You seem excited about the plans for a new Walpole Library. What sort of changes, if any, would you like to see in the designs for the new building? Do you support proposals for the new library to more fully utilize the rooftop, rent out café space, and put in a proper archival vault for local historical resources? Would you support self-checkout machines in the new library?

6. What is your favorite book, and what is the most recent book you have read? How many library cards do you own, and to which libraries? How long have you held a library card?

7. What do you believe the future holds for libraries? Do eBooks represent the future of books and reading? Will you be working to expand the library’s use of technology and the internet?

8. What do you plan to do to increase community participation in library programs and in general bring more people in to use the library and its services?

9. What changes would you like to see implemented in library policies, namely in your specialty of customer service, if any?

10. What type of cost savings ideas, if any, do you have for saving money at the library?