To All Concerned Citizens of Hamilton and Wenham
Bill Dery, school committee member - he’s quite a character!
He has a number of good ideas, and is very bright.
Find out what's happening in Hamilton-Wenhamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
You don’t get to be an almost Ph.D. in physics without a good mind.
However Bill has a huge handicap - himself.
Find out what's happening in Hamilton-Wenhamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The school committee has a few selected rights and duties,
(see MGL Ch. 71, Scn 37) but Bill refuses to be limited to them.
has completely immersed and involved himself in the daily affairs
of the maintenance projects of the district. He has gotten
estimates,
written proposals and interacted with workers on job sites.
OK you say, he has a big construction background
so why not let him do it?
Good question! Three major reasons why not.
First, he has no right as a school committee member to act
as an employee of the district. He is doing things that are
the responsibility
of the superintendent, business manager and director
of maintenance.
As such, these three people need to supervise and oversee
his activities.
But how can they, he is on the school committee
and is their supervisor.
The result is that he is a loose cannon, which brings us
to the second point.
Bill is sloppy and careless in the way he does things.
He likes to do everything
on a word and a handshake, or a phone call.
Remember the tinsmith and the repair of the
high school lockers.
And third, since he is actively working and interacting
on job sites,
what if he get injured? Who is responsible? Will he be
covered under
workman’s comp? Or worse yet, what if he causes
an injury or death
on a
work site?
Which brings me back to the sloppy,
careless way he conducts business?
Remember now, it is very difficult for our paid staff to
supervise him,
they cannot. My biggest fears are that he will do
something that will
cost the district money, or God forbid, someone,
your child or grandchild,
gets injured or killed because of the way he causes
a project to be completed.
But that will never happen right, he’s too good for that!
Wrong!
Some of it already has.
Lets look at the business of the Buker sprinkler system
installation project.
Bill estimated the cost to be $150,000, and he took
the amount from a
CMC report of a couple of years ago. Everyone knew
that the numbers
in the report were not thoroughly investigated and
should be used
with caution.
But Bill used the number as the basis for budgeting a bonding,
When the bids came in, he was off by a whopping $450,000.
He forgot that the original estimate was based on non-union labor, add $150,000. Then he forgot to include the attic,
double the amount to $600,000. Since the project was already
part of a
bonding at $150,000 it could not go forward.
Thankfully no one has been hurt and the school district
has not lost any money.
To his credit, Bill completely acknowledges
that he made a mistake,
and he has discussed it in two different
school committee meetings.
However, he cannot be allowed to continue
involving himself
in the daily
affairs of the district. He cannot be both the employer
and the employee.
We cannot wait until something much more serious happens
because of his
carelessness.
Please contact the superintendent,
Dr. Michael Harvey, m.harvey@hwschools.net,
and the school committee chair,
Roger Kuebel, r.kuebel@hwschools.net,
and inform them that you want Bill Dery to immediately
cease all activities accept those that are permitted of a
school committee member.
Please ask your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Thank you.
Richard Boroff