By STEPHEN PINTO
Everett needed a new school five years ago. Now it’s going to take five years to have a new school approved and longer than that to get it built.
That puts Everett ten years behind the education process. Everett residents could easily be on the hook to repay 90 mil- lion or more in taxes for their share of a new school.
Especially with cost overruns and delays, the payback could be much higher.
This is a common occurrence when faced with a $400 million project of this size. But more so especially if you hire the wrong contractors.
The city could have easily saved tens of millions of dollars if they built a school five years ago.
I guess our politician’s main concern was building a casino instead. After all, how could the mayor award himself a 232k salary without the casino?
He needed casino dollars for that.
When you live large you need a large salary.
The topic of homelessness came up at a recent council meeting. Most councilors seem oblivious to the issue. They were of the feeling that nothing can be done.
Let’s just throw up our hands and say the homeless can’t be helped.
Is this how the city wants to be about the helpless and the homeless?
They should first try understanding what causes homelessness
One cause can easily be attributed to a lack of quality education.
Overcrowding can lead to poor education. Which can result in low-wage jobs for graduates which can result in homelessness. Everett’s teachers are only as good as the tools we provide them with. Overcrowding is not their fault.
Other issues are mental health, drug/alcohol abuse, PTSD, especially among veterans. Out-of-control rents and paycheck to paycheck living.
Parents disowning their children because they are part of the LGBTQ community.
Councilor Rosa DiFlorio’s comment was homeless people refuse help. That is a cold comment. She is someone who needs an education on the issue.
Being homeless can be life-threatening and very complicated to resolve. But some homeless people will accept help. It affects entire families and not unusual to find a family living in a shelter.
The council just can’t throw their hands in the air and pretend it doesn’t exist and there is nothing that can be done to help because they don’t understand it.
The upcoming election has a lot of our politicians playing musical chairs, and political games. The same old faces that haven’t a clue about budgets, education, or city government are governing the bottom line.
All they know is how to take orders from the mayor. He tells them what office they should run for.
He orders up the bottom line and they willingly vote for it. Some school committee members performed brilliantly in their thankless jobs.
Frank Parker leaving the school committee is a loss.
I’m not surprised the mayor put up a person with name recognition to oust Mr. Parker. Unfortunately, name recognition doesn’t guarantee you know very much about education or budgets.
But the mayor needs his pawns in place to do his dirty work.
Steven Pinto writes about Everett’s issues. He is a longtime Everett resident.