"BOE must show better leadership"

Letter To The Editor From The Bridgewater Selectmen


February 12, 2007


To the Editor,
Last Friday evening at the Roxbury Town Hall, Mardie Ford, Jim Hirschfield, and Dave Baron from the Region 12 Board of Education and the First Selectman Barbara Henry acting as moderator, and Neil Cable and Bill Stuart, representing Bridgewater, met and agreed on a settlement of the pending litigation. We agreed to pay the $15,927.00 and withdraw the lawsuit and they agreed to review their procedures and give the Town officials an opportunity for input and we are hopeful that until such time all new purchases over $10,000 will be put out to bid.
We want to thank these people for their time on a Friday night and for their consideration and understanding of the issues.
On the other hand we regret the interference from Dick Sears, First Selectman in Washington. Mr. Sears has a short memory. He forgets the fact that Washington bagged Bridgewater for $10,000 on a pension plan obligation. He forgets the fact that 10 to 12 years ago, Bridgewater withheld $26,000 from the Region12 bill because of a wrongful practice and that the Attorney General ruled that Bridgewater was right and as a result, Washington and Roxbury were both issued refund checks.
The Town of Bridgewater has only initiated two lawsuits in the past 32 years: One in 1983 against our insurance company that we won and now this one. We are not a litigious community! However, when the School Board deliberately withholds pertinent information from our members and they fail to follow bidding procedures that most likely would have saved this region $30,000.00 it became time to expose their actions.
We, the Board of Selectmen of Bridgewater believe that our School Board should pay better attention to the manner and rules of conducting meetings, and they should understand their fiduciary responsibility to the tax payer’s money. We also believe that when you go to court and testify under oath that it should be very easy to remember the truth. We also believe that there is not fair representation on the Region 12 Board of Education. The Town of Washington only pays 44% of the Regional School’s budget, but they have 50% of the vote on the School Board. In Bridgewater, 71 cents out of every tax dollar goes to the School budget and Washington has a greater influence on how our taxes are spent then they deserve. That needs to change!
We don’t regret the lawsuit as we feel that serious attention was finally given to some serious problems.
The bottom line on all of this is that the Region 12 BOE needs new leadership. Here is just one example. Three years ago, Bill Stuart went to a school board meeting and reminded the board that the 20 year school leases only had three years until expiration. Two years ago he stood up at School Board meeting and held up a copy of the 20 year lease and told them they only had two more years left. Last summer Roxbury and Bridgewater hired attorney Fred Baker to rewrite our leases and we presented them to Irene Allen at a subcommittee meeting and it has gone nowhere. This week, four weeks before Bridgewater’s lease is up, Irene Allen writes a letter asking for a one year extension without any reference to their current legal obligations in the present lease.
The Region 12 Board of Education is responsible for a 17+ million dollar budget and this is the kind of leadership they have shown? This Region deserves better.

Sincerely,
William T. Stuart
First Selectman
860-354-5250

Neil Cable
Selectman
860-355-2519

Ed Bennett
Selectman
860-354-0050