By: Philippe Thibault
11.25
The biannual ritual of Town Meeting is scheduled for the 10th of November. It looked like a political rollercoaster earlier this summer, but there has been a tempering of expectations after Labor Day.
I would say it went from the Steel Dragon 2000 to the Beast. This is not to say there are controversial elements still lingering for the next drop. There is still one hundred and fifty minutes of sheer mayhem that are waiting for the citizens of Dracut.
Most of the tension the town is experiencing in town is between the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee. That is not to say that a level of abrasiveness between these two bodies is not unhealthy. Our system of government has always been adversarial; when great minds think alike, someone is not thinking.
The proof of an argument has turned to the trying of patience. We see people contending they are right rather than doing the right thing. It perpetuates into uncivil debate. This is not to say that some of the allegations are correct or untrue.
Issues like the leasing of a school-controlled town building, hiring of a retiree for full time employment, a proposed school building project and formation of the committee overseeing the process, and payroll checks that were flagged by the bank as possibly “fraudulent” with an outdated signature from a former employee have all contributed to their accusations and claims. So much so that in a tantrum, the School Committee pens a letter asking the Board of Selectmen to remove their chairman from that role.
Additionally, the Superintendent of Schools and the School Committee are both threatening legal action against the Town, The Town Manager, and the Chair of the Board of Selectmen. Fact is stranger than fiction and no one would ever believe this could happen if it were in any other town but Dracut.
Is this a case of an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force? Schools through Education Reform are to be independent. This does not make them autonomous.
The battle lines extend into the Fall Town Meeting. There are a few warrant articles that continue the adversarial association that has developed between the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee. An article for funding of a new Campbell School in the Kenwood section of Dracut will be deferred to the June 2026 Town Meeting. There are several reasons both practical and political for the postponement, but there is a level of tension within the proposal.
An article declaring the Parker School as surplus property is on the warrant. This was the impetus from much of the hostilities. If passed, a portion of the Parker School could be leased to an outside organization as a revenue generator for the Town and the school department. A lease had been previously created by the School Department that did not follow State Procurement laws. This article should close that chapter of the story.
Article #18, the last article submitted for the Town Meeting, was submitted by the Board of Selectmen to provide funds for an audit of the Dracut Public Schools. The audit is short on details as to the purpose. There had been discussion about this audit being more of a forensic review into past practices and how they relate to current procedures. Of course, the defense that this has been the way we always did things is of little comfort.
We only improve through our errors. If we are never shown that what we are doing is incorrect, how would we know what to fix?
I suspect that there will be resistance to the article. This goes back to a culture where the schools are independent by education reform; although the real belief is they are untouchable.
This suggests the words of Thomas Paine, “a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Telling the public that you are trustworthy is not endearing. Trust must be earned. Our politicians are jockeying for position in this municipal kabuki theater. Dracut does not need the drama. ◊