Falmouth School Superintendent Barbara Powers seems to be lost at sea. In a School Board meeting this year she didn’t know the correct number of students to teachers in the system, the number of teachers (FTEs) under her supervision (it’s 197.43, not the 180 Powers thought), she didn’t have a census (list) of the teachers and how much their compensation package was for each teacher or a list of how many teachers have masters degrees and what we pay them for those degrees and how many have masters in their subject matter versus a masters in education.
Also, she didn’t know that based on a national standard Falmouth is overstaffed by 64 teachers at an extra cost to the taxpayers of $4.4 million.
From the workshop Dec. 6 we now learn that Ms. Powers is considering adding an additional six teachers and two ed techs at a new cost of $300,000. This will round off our over-staff at an even 70 teachers and $4.7 million.
Does Ms. Powers know how many students are enrolled in the schools she supervises? This is the woman that we entrust the control of $25 million of the $35 million of our total town budget. Am I the only one that feels nervous?
Will someone give Ms. Powers a compass so she can find her way back to shore, because she is surely lost at sea in her own office.
Michael Doyle
Falmouth
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.