The Principle of the Six (6) P's

Bob King Pig meeting with various City Officials. Durfee principal (2nd to right of BKP) with hand on MMB's (Ms. Porkette) head.

"B" is for Bob

"K" is for King

"P" is for Pig

Bob King Pig

Well, it's time for a bit of wondering aloud. There are strange things happening in Fall River. For a City that has just elected a new Mayor, the old one seems to have put the petal to the metal, to turn an old phrase, not just put his stamp on everything he sees, but to scorch those things, and every institution in Fall River, with his personal branding iron. The smell of burning flesh is just plain ugly and unmistakable.

Case in point. The principal of Durfee High School claims to have sufficient saving from within his school's budget to afford new computers with which to more fully utilize the wireless system and other improvements to the computer system at Durfee. This improvement to the computer system was made possible by a grant, a grant which cannot be spent on new computers themselves. The amount of savings is approximately $200,000. We have been consistently told for over a year now that there exists a budget shortfall in the School Department budget due to the Teacher's Union refusal to accept an 8% pay cut and reduction in negotiated Health Benefits. Where did such savings come from?

" The school is projected to save approximately $200,000 in fiscal 2010. The bulk of the savings is due to teacher retirements and defections that occurred after the annual spending plan was established. The teachers who left Durfee were replaced by new hires at a lower pay rate.Marshall said additional savings is also expected through midyear retirements.Both Marshall and Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said those teachers will likely be replaced by long-term substitutes until the end of the school year.Marshall is asking for School Committee support to use those savings, and additional money saved on textbooks and supplies. "

Ok...so after the 9C cuts and the resulting FY10 budget, REAL teachers and department heads started leaving after seeing the handwriting on the wall, that Fall River talked a good game about teaching it's regular students and improving education system wide, but in reality, didn't give a damn about anyone but talented kids and took measures to work in the opposite direction. Yes, quite an interesting word "direction" is.

You see, I cannot help but think all of this was at the DIRECTION of the soon to be ex-mayor, ol' Hamhocks LaRue, but known across the City as "Bob King Pig (BKP)"! That's why the vast and overwhelming majority of voters kicked his porcine butt out of office, for making possible such personal intervention that results in these types of destructive "directions" . It worked something like this.

First, BKP decided his regal reign would last far beyond his requied two terms (Required for a sweet, feather bedded retirement). He therefore decided to make the world into his own image and likeness . He immediately became involved in the whorry business of patronage appointments (see last weekends Herald News article about "WIB"), including hiring a personal driver with your tax dollars, although he'll still tell you, as his knows grows, that she does other things for him ( I don't even want to know!) and a phalanx of talentless, overpaid attorneys. (I know the terms "overpaid' and "attorneys" are often redundant).

Second, then began the purges, "the night of the long knives and forks", of the Cd Office and most critically, the School Department. BKP had manufactured, at his personal "direction", the framing and prosecution of School Superintendent Fischer in a sham of an administrative trial that would make l'affaire Dreyfus look like an after school detention. And as any good puppet master would do, he made sure he found a willing supplicant to replace Fischer who would do his bidding and who shared his values...blind ambition and obsequious fawning by underlings. I have absolutely no doubt what-so-ever that BKP found his own personal "Porkette" in MMB well before he pulled the trigger on Fischer. That's usually how all despotic dictators handle their business. It's the original application of the " Principle of the Six (6) P's" . I'll explain that later!

The budget for FY10 was an outgrowth of the tsunami of pain which was the "9C' cut laden budget for FY 09. Like any scheming politician, BKP sought to use this situation to hegemonize his absolute rule of all he oversaw in his kingdom. With a state review of his School System underway, he demanded that the School Department come in with a budget less than that which was required by state law. He also reduced other manpower driven departments in City Fire and Police, laying off 150 or so Public Safety officers, along with scores of other City employees. This was the official start of his, and the school's efficacy, downfall.

The City's three biggest unions, the Teachers, Fire and Police, all had contracts to be negotiated. The FY 10 Budget was based on a set of ridiculous assumptions that all employees would take an 8% reduction in pay and a lesser health insurance plan, leaving the issue of final balancing until a later day. Immediately, conspiracy theories abounded centering on how this FY 10 budget , when combined with BKP's known tendency towards policy and manpower machinations, was some sort of way to manipulate a re-election scenario to favor BKP above all others, to paint him as "Saint ol' Hamhocks", restoring order out of chaos just prior to the November election.

Once the FY 10 budget was finalized, the exodus of long time subject matter-certified teachers and department heads at the School Department, but Durfee in particular, began in earnest. Then came the decision to replace these professional educators with much cheaper new hires and, most appallingly, long term substitute teachers. High priced administrators also ate up some of those monies made free by the loss of long time teachers, some due naturally from retirement, and department heads. Several administrators were known long time associates of MMB . MMB seemed to learn from her sponsor and certified teacher in despotism and patronage, BKP. The fact that the two are partners in crime can easily be seen any evening the School Committee meets. It is quite a performance indeed.

Look, I think it's great that AP courses and the program itself have been increased. (I am also just as sure that MMB's kids do not enroll in ANY classes taught by non-certified instructors!) But I would like to know how these so called professional educators deem it a good thing for the schools, and Durfee in particular, to go from November to June without subject-certified teachers in many, many courses? As a parent I would revolt and demand that my child, if they were in the middle of the pack academically, had the same resources to help them as do gifted students . Who makes this type of decision and on what basis? This one's got to be explained in detail, and in public.

I think it a great thing to save monies internally to buy new computers, but while the teachers pay is still not cut 8% for the year, and while contract negotiations are ongoing and, therefore, the current fiscal year School Department appropriation is being overspent, why not save this money to balance the budget. This entire argument to "get a three year lease right now before we loose this deal" is crap, utter and total BS! Who is kidding who Mr. Principal? I worked in better managed communities than Fall River, with much higher rated School Systems than Fall River's , and know this is a complete crock! Better come up with a much better explanation. I have grave doubts about this whole last minute stuff going on here. A more suspicious person might conclude that this is one of BKP's famous "final days in office" attempts to push a large lease contract to a friend of a friend. In fact, I AM that person! That makes you and MMB complicit in a termination level of malfeasance. Enjoy!

Of course, maybe it only looks like The School Committee, led by the firm porcine hand of BKP, and his supplicant MMB, don't care about educating ALL the children of Fall River. Maybe this replacing long term, higher paid and also subject certified teachers with lower paid newbies and substitutes at a low hourly wage rate is totally misunderstood by those outside the School Department. Maybe it's because Durfee is in its self-study year for accreditation by NEASC and next year the process starts in earnest. And maybe the fact that the School Department wants a " teacher evaluation tool", some sort of "improvement plan", which is not in the current Teachers Contract and is , we hear, the key sticking point in the Teacher Contract negotiations that these BKP-like bullying tactics are being played out. But the kids and parents are paying the REAL price here.

The state won't approve that School Recovery Plan unless the teachers settle with the city. And the settlement won't come about while BKP is still around, that I can tell you is a lead pipe cinch because the Teacher's Union hates his guts. Guess you know how they feel about MMB too, and anyone closely associated with her. So MMB will start to see BPK's support on the School Committee start to fall away, issue by issue. And so shall MMB's. Get the old resume' polished up MMB. Six weeks and your cover is completely GONE!!!!! The City's budget will NOT be balanced until next year. BKP will be in Florida snookered on the type of wine he was probably drinking at lunch the day he was behind the wheel that fateful "T-Bone" incident occurred. (You just know that had to be it for all the politicians in the car with him to act like they were 16 year olds on a Saturday night not wanting to call their parents from the Police Station for a discussion with the Sargent and a ride home.) So get your ducks in line now MMB. Be prepared. Oh yeah, the "Principle of the Six(6) P's"!

Well, you see, BKP was caught by fate and unwise decisions. He never got to exploit his over $200,000 campaign war chest, or City government full of hand picked appointments throughout the City who would run things for years while BKP mailed it in after getting voted in for his critical, money laden retirement making second term. No, he blew it. He screwed up by making the kind of heartless, stupid decisions that you are making right now as School Superintendent. You learned some lessons far too well. So don't screw this one up and get your resume' prepared, get your feelers out for new horizons. Don't do what BKP did when he lost the primary and has been acting like he matters ever since. He failed to live up to the Principle of the Six (6) P's, which my mentor and now, best friend, taught me on my first job in the business out of graduate school so very long ago. It goes like this:

1)Prior

2)Preparation

3)Prevents

4)Piss

5)Poor

6)Performance

It never fails !