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Showing posts from May, 2022

Enfield's School Audit: A Breakdown in Communication and Oversight

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The newly released audit of the Board of Education's $5.6 million cost overrun makes one thing clear: this wasn't a simple mistake. It was a systemic failure — the result of siloed operations, weak internal rigor, and missteps by both the school district and the town. And here's the hard truth: Enfield still hasn't actually paid for this failure. Town reserves covered the gap, shrinking our financial cushion and limiting our ability to soften future tax hikes. Next year's budget will reveal just how vulnerable we are. What this incident tells us is that Enfield isn't managing its risk very well — and that should worry everyone. Fundamentally, this was a costly risk-management failure, and nothing in the audit suggests it can't happen again.  [ Audit link , and Council  slide deck ] CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), the audit firm, outlines eight major problems, many of them rooted in communication breakdowns between the town, the school district, and the state. The ...
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Ban gun purchases for people under 21

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Ban gun purchases for people under 21 is something Congress should act on. That's one big step since teens are responsible for a disproportionate share of school shootings. Until then, any 18 year who buys an AR-15 and a load of ammunition ought to be an automatic red flag. Unfortunately, the median age of school shooters is 16. That might make a case for requiring gun owners to store their weapons securely. The U.S. Secret Service studied school shootings and what it found in 25 attacks that involved firearms: "Nineteen attackers (76%) acquired a firearm from the home of a parent or another close relative. In half of the firearms cases (n = 12, 48%), evidence indicates the firearm was either readily accessible, or it was not secured in a meaningful way." You combine immature and mentally ill kids who have easy access to firearms, and you have a problem. Requiring secure storage, and raising the purchase age, might help. Responsible gun owners already secure their weapon...
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