Deadline for citizens petition to be submitted to Lexington Town Office: Friday, Dec 19th 12.30pm
Congratulations on the hard work which brought about a successful vote on BLOOM. A new high school is necessary, there is no doubt about that. But how we go about it gives rise to some doubts.
In 2018, as a newly minted School Committee member, I was looking through LPS invoices prior to approving them. I saw an invoice to replace an industrial kitchen appliance for Diamond Middle School. Unremarkable, except I suddenly recalled that school renovations were completed only a few months ago. This was too soon for any self-respecting kitchen equipment to be up for replacement. Upon inquiry I learned that the one year warranty was over and so we had to absorb the cost.
Conclusion: Lexington was paying interest and principal for multiple years on equipment which was headed to a landfill while LPS used its annual budget to buy its replacement.
It was beyond my ken or role to dig into the whys and wherefores of the equipment purchase, use, and breakdown. But I did wonder why there were no better mechanisms to hold the various vendors responsible for that faulty equipment installation?
You may wonder why the fuss about something that cost $1,000-$5,000 only, so many distant years ago. It’s was a rounding error on the LPS annual budget and, definitely, a minuscule amount in the annual debt amounts paid.
Please consider even today, a public-school teacher can only accept a gift <$50 per year and has to report it; $100-$250 is the discretionary budget of an average kindergarten schoolteacher for classroom needs; the stipend for the care, and 24/7 availability of some amazing afterschool club running teachers is about $2,500 annually …
The little amounts are important.
One suggested solution:
Create a volunteer group of financial and construction experts to look at the expenses incurred by the BLOOM project as they are incurred. The group should be appointed by the Lexington Town Meeting, and answerable only to the people of Lexington.
In order to do so, submit a citizens’ petition (only 10 signatures of resident citizens needed, easy how to information available here) before December 19th, 2025.
It could even be a wonderful project for our high schoolers if interested in accountability, governance and policy in municipal and public-school financing.
Best and happy holidays
Deepika Sawhney
(Precinct 6 TMM)
Deepika:
You discover a tad late how much money the LPS waste each year, e.g. some $3 million EACH year for the past 20 years (since I started noticing this) by running elementary classrooms systemwide that are not even filled to preferred size because of antiquated assignment policies. It’s irresponsible, in my view, for a former SC member, to not have noticed this (detailed at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JiIMtzKMew1jutuhqLFgNM8SOdZpm_d8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116971253884586510151&rtpof=true&sd=true for FY26 and at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yKC-UkCy4GG38giEwq23pqf2wvVcgYtm/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116971253884586510151&rtpof=true&sd=true for FY25) whilke serving on the SC.
When you were a SC member, “was [it] beyond [your] ken or role to dig into the whys and wherefores of [$3 million wasted year after year]”? I guess it was — but I am not surprised: your 5 successors on the SC and Julie Hackett also don’t care.
But I am surprised that you are suddenly waking up to LPS’s waste of money left and right. It’s a little late for those of us who have watched this for decades, and were consistently ignored by Julie Hackett and all her predecessors, instead of being asked for help on how to run our Schools in a more financially responsible manner.
Another example: why do we need (highly paid) curriculum Heads? Does calculus, even for 12th grade AP students, change each year? I don’t think so. Does a new Shakespeare, to be added to English studies, appear each year that needs to be added to the curriculum, justifying a full-time English curriculum person? I don’t think so. Etc.
Dear all,
I have continued to elaborate on the reasons why there is need for financial oversight for the BLOOM expenses. All the reasons can be read at this link – https://www.sawhneyforlexington.com/news-views. Asking for care and clarity on how our tax dollars are spent should not be an unusual ask. All the best, Deepika Sawhney
Rather than engaging in “I told you so” (however satisfying it may be), let’s focus on how we can help our town face its many upcoming challenges. Thanks to Trump’s whims, and the expected influx of residents from the over 5,700 MBTA re-zoned housing units, we need to prudently use every tax dollar we can find.
I agree with Deepika that we need to have the town’s representative(s) examine and approve every Bloom bill. I did something like this during the 2000’s LHS renovation, and I found that, for example, by picking up the phone and asking the right questions, I secured the fed. govt. discount rate for all office furniture of 60% rather than just following the state bid list and getting only 30% discount. I hope that the SBC and SB implement Deepika’s suggestions without the need for a citizen’s article.
I’d like to go a step further. Though Bloom is the largest project expenditure we are currently facing, as far as I know, we do not have the similar detailed budget oversight function for any operating budget category. Had it existed, we could have avoided the embarrassment of Superintendent expenditures for 2018-2024. Every month, a SC member signs off on all of the warrants to be paid, but since this responsibility usually rotates among SC members, it is difficult to get a picture of category expenses over time. Besides, there is so much work SC members have to do already, adding a time-consuming job to their plate is not reasonable.
How and in what forum should the ideas of detailed budget oversight for the many categories of spending be addresses, so that they can be implemented as soon as possible? To allow our residents of lesser means to continue to live in Lexington, we need to be far more careful on how our tax dollars are spent.
If you believe this project is high stakes and complex with non trivial odds of overspend then by default you would want some hard core financial expertise and esp construction know-how.
The town citizens have it. Sign me up…