Julie Dunn, the kindergarten fee and $6.5M loss of State Aid

Posted on behalf of Steve Harrington...




"I did initiate and ultimately find a solution that let us eliminate the (kindergarten) fee." - Julie Dunn

http://www.juliedunnfortreasurer.org/faq/#Kindgergarten


We heard from political opponents of Steve Gilligan about his use of hyperbole in campaign literature and lack of prudent investment management concerning an investment draw down of about $350,000 five years ago at the height of the financial crisis.  

Let's talk about Julie Dunn doing the same thing, or worse.  You be the judge.

Who initiated the elimination of the Kindergarten Fee

In April of 2011, I forced a reluctant school committee to decrease high school athletic fees by half, saving residents $250K per year in illegal and unnecessary fees.  That spring and later in the fall, a half dozen parents asked me to take a look at the kindergarten fee of $3000.  I can name names.

In early January, news broke about the school department putting forth a warrant article to place municipal liens on residents who failed to pay these fees.

I wrote a blog post concerning the kindergarten fees on January 25, 2012.

http://truepersons.com/2012/01/25/kindergarten-fees-in-the-arlington-public-schools/

On January 27, 2012, I spoke at public participation in front of the school committee; recorded here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg_irbtaLvA

On February 4, 2012 I spoke with a town peace officer who was upset with the fee, the collection tactics and his treatment by the APS business office personnel of which Julie Dunn was a member.

At the next school committee meeting, the SC voted to create a subcommittee led by Bill Hayner to gather facts about the kindergarten program.

In response to nonsense posted by SC member Kirsi Allison Ampe, I wrote on the parent's list on March 27 that "I think full day kindergarten should be free.  I know that Arlington can afford this important and necessary expense merely by strengthening their financial management."

This prompted RuthEllyn Jacob to contact me the next day and ask me to attend the April 4, 2012 kindergarten committee meeting.  I went and spoke saying the same things recorded above.  Ruthellyn (not Ruth Ellen as Julie Dunn's FAQ misspells) told me today that that " I read your blog which was extremely helpful and validated the views I also had".  Particularly, you'll note that at the end of the blog post, I identified communities that had eliminated their kindergarten fees.

Julie Dunn and Hardy Principal Deb Domico attended that meeting.  They read into the official subcommittee minutes that "The charge of the committee was never to eliminate the fees."

Julie Dunn did not initiate the elimination of the kindergarten fee.  I initiated the elimination of the kindergarten fee.  Bill Hayner carried the ball.  RuthEllyn Jacob did the legwork.  Julie Dunn was part of the organization that did not want to change the fee.


SC and APS Obstructs through May, 2012

During April and May, I participated in warrant articles hearings urging the Board of Selectmen (Dan Dunn, et.al.) to vote no action on the municipal lien scheme, to no avail.

I made a public records request to Diane Johnson requesting the names, addresses and fees paid by all kindergarten participants.  The APS denied the request citing FERPA privacy law.  

On April 23, 2012 I wrote to all Town Meeting members: "the school department is claiming that the fee amounts charged to parents are protected student records and can not be made public.  Article 14 makes a subset of these same, protected student records public through the municipal charge lien process." which caused the Board of Selectmen to have an emergency meeting in the hallway at Town Meeting to vote "no action" on the lien article.  I upbraided Dan Dunn and Joe Curro (newly elected member and former SC member) for their intransigence surrounding the municipal lien for kindergarten fees.  

The point is that through the end of April, the APS and Board of Selectmen intended to charge a kindergarten fee and collect it in the most heinous manner. 
I put an end to their collective nonsense.

Special Town Meeting returns $1M to residents

During the summer, when the BoS met on the leaf blower ban and the vote to overturn it.  I spoke to John Leone, Town Moderator, outside the BoS chambers about the need for a fall Special Town Meeting to eliminate the kindergarten fee and that I intended to piggy back on this with a new TM vote on the LB ban.  He told me that he knew of no such plan.

Unless the Town Meeting appropriated (fronted) the kindergarten fee money for FY13, the APS could not report the full kindergarten enrollment and get an increase in Chapter 7 funding.  The deadline to do so was around October.  The APS had no intention of eliminating the kindergarten fee for FY13.

I called a Special Town Meeting and was roundly criticized by every elected official.
That STM resulted in $970,000 returned to 436 families and an increase of $1.6M in Chapter 70 funding in FY14.

The real story was never discussed at Town Meeting.  Julie Dunn, Diane Johnson and Kathy Bodie, enabled by the School Committee, had charged residents an unnecessary kindergarten fee for 5 years resulting in about $6.5M in State Aid left on the table.

Julie Dunn was one of the cogs in the APS that lost Arlington $6.5M in Chapter 70 State Aid over 5 years.

Conclusion

It was interesting yesterday to receive campaign literature from Dan Dunn and Julie Dunn.  Their listed supporters overlapped by more than 75%.  The list includes the usual suspects who control the politics in Arlington.  This back story won't convince any one of them about the relative performance (or incompetence) of their favored Treasurer candidate.  One thing I do know, is that by electing Julie Dunn, they will perpetuate governance based on lies, hyperbole and incompetence.

One last point.  Julie Dunn called me early on in her campaign, as she did every Town Meeting member.  I asked her some pointed questions about fact; how much debt outstanding does Arlington have, how would she find out, whether she knew of the "official statement", the MSRB, the town's bond underwriter, etc.  She had no clue.  Financially, she is clueless about the most important aspect of the position of Treasurer; issuing debt.

Worse, by electing her using the dirty pool tactics that her supporters use (and want a monopoly on), Arlington guarantees a break in the institutional knowledge handed down by Bilafer to Fantani to Gilligan that might educate a clueless treasurer elect.

Instead, you have the financially inept Dan Dunn, Annie LaCourt, Gordon Jamieson, Adam Auster and their entire crowd of kindergarten fee deniers holding the purse strings through their pliant puppet Julie Dunn.