Jackie Doherty for the Students
Posted: July 8, 2010 Filed under: Politics 3 Comments »
I posted an item last week about a comment Jackie Doherty had made about not having the stomach to make any more cuts and insinuated that she was to pro-union and that if she didn’t have the stomach then she needed to step aside along with Dave Conway and Allison Laraba to bring about change.
I received many emails defending her and her position along with a comment by another school committee member who thought I was being to harsh on her. I may have been and for that I apologize.
Jackie has children in the school system at Lowell High and has been a strong advocate for change. She like all members have made cuts but her point that night wasn’t so much that she didn’t have the stomach to make cuts, it was more of we already cut 4 million and that’s as bad as she wanted it to get.
She didn’t want to have to make any more cuts. She knew fiscally it wasn’t the best thing to balance a budget on 1 time funding but after eliminating jobs and cutting four million dollars, she didn’t want to have to cut any more. She felt that the students had suffered enough.
She will I am told work towards getting the union to work with the committee on concessions during the new contract negotiations and will take a hard-line on sick leave buyback.
I hope she holds the line against buybacks and Union raises and proves that what people have told me on her behalf is correct. That she is a strong advocate for the kids and supports change that benefits the students over the Administration and Union.
So now she will fight for union concessions. Isn’t that nice. Had she fought for them the last couple of years, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed the horrible cuts she didn’t have the stomach to make this time around.
Stick to your guns Gerry. You were correct the first time around. When push comes to shove, the childred of the school system and the taxpayers who foot the bill take a backseat to the union voters necessary to celebrate the first Tuesday of November in odd numbered years.
The day she, or anyone else on that committee stands up to the union is the day the voters say enough is enough and elect a slate that guarantees to tell Paul Georges and his folks where to go.
Come to think of it, I’d love to see that. Get a group of six like-minded folks to run as a slate on the premise and promise of standing up to the union. 2011 might be the right time for such a coalition to succeed.
Remember… you are so right. Jackie is pro union at every turn and she should step down if she can’t do the job she was elected to do.
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