Tags: There’s a lot to unpack in this Facebook comment from School Committee member Matthew Miller but is he really saying that without an override Newton School kids will soon be dying?
School Committee member blasts NewCal, calls for tax hike
by Greg Reibman | Sep 9, 2019 | NewCAL, Newton, Override | 50 comments
I don’t have the full context of this post and could not find it on his page, but I’m surprised to see it from Mr. Miller, who I deeply appreciate. Both the message and the use of hyperbole are off the mark. We will all be seniors one day and that can be a lonely experience, especially for those who have lost their significant other. Seniors need to be kept alive too. We endlessly talk about our schools, but the senior population rarely gets mentioned. NewCAL is every bit as important as NPS projects. Whatever happens with NewCAL, at least it brought the issue of senior services to the forefront.
P.S: What override?
Mr. Miller is free to speak his mind but:
Was he elected to represent the teachers or the people of Newton?
How can the School Committee negotiate effectively with the teachers’ union while Mr. Miller releases statements like this?
Should School Committee members make rogue calls for tax overrides, as if that has no effect on the City’s overall fiscal planning?
Disclosure: I donated $ to Matt, displayed a lawn sign, and voted for him. Probably won’t repeat.
@Newtoner Don’t fall for equating NewCAL with Seniors. They are two very different things. I am 100% in support of a new and/or improved Senior Center. I am 100% opposed to NewCAL.
As for Mr Miller’s post I too would like to see the full context
@Greg, in my hurry to address the subtext of Matt’s statement, I forgot answer your question.
Yes: Matt is saying that if you support NewCAL or oppose a tax override you are contributing to suicides.
Greg, that post has 128 comments. Posting a single comment – out of the 128 in the conversation – without any context is both unfair and misleading.
Tricia: Please share a link to the post. That’s all I’ve seen.
Wow. So someone sent you this and you posted it – a single comment on post with 128 comments – *without knowing what was said in the original post or the 127 other comments*? With absolutely no knowledge of the context? I thought you were purposely leaving out the context to enhance the click-bait level of this headline/post; the fact that you had none and still posted it is… disappointing.
In any case, a link won’t help – the discussion is in a closed Facebook group, so it’s only visible to members.
There is a lot of context in this thread that you are missing. This is unfair to Matthew. We, the NPS parents, are not against the Senior Center, but we do have a lot of questions about where the money for NewCal is coming from when the teacher contract issue still hasn’t been resolved and current NPS funding has proved to be inadequate. The scope of the project is also not clear.
Newtoner: Matthew is on the SC, so I appreciate it that he puts NPS as a top priority. That’s his job, and he’s doing exactly what he was elected to do. Yes, we will all be seniors one day, and I hope we become a community where intergenerational community ties are more valuable than a fancy building. Research shows that both seniors and young people benefit from that.
Agree with @Tricia posting this comment without knowing the context is irresponsible. I think many support seniors but not the idea of NewCal to meet “their” needs. Perhaps the connection is that the Mayor is coming up with money for her NewCal idea but isn’t able to fund later start times for high school students something that studies show benefits students mental health. Just a guess because I don’t know the full context of the discussion. 🙂
Newton has a problem, it has many problems, but it has many great things also. However, having our teachers work without a contract is not one of our great things. And discussing NEWCAL (which I like the idea of, but not the current direction) BEFORE we have a teachers contract finalized is in poor taste. If we don’t have enough money to pay teachers a FAIR wage, then where is the money for NewCal coming?????
Seniors deserve a great building. Maybe making a smaller Senior Center now and really researching NEWCAL for the future is a better idea.
And our city really stretched out not offering Full Day Kindergarten for 20 plus years. How long will our city discuss later high school start times? The mayor is RUSHING New Cal so that will be her legacy, but is it right for Newton?
Get the teachers a contract now.
Get later high school start times now.
Get NewCal on the road to being built without demolishing our sense of community or our budget.
Typical Greg. Loves to stir the pot! Would love you hear his thoughts after reading the entire original post.
@Matthew: And I’d be interested in reading it! But for all of us who are not part of this closed group but are now aware of your comments, perhaps you can explain.
Are you calling for an override because you believe Newton is so severely under funding mental health services that kids lives are in danger?
I understand that we have a mental health crisis in our schools. It touched our family directly. But is money the one thing standing between successfully combating it?
And I suspect you did not mean to pit this as a debate between funding senior services and schools. So what did you mean?
Greg, posting an out-of-context comment on a thread that you didn’t even see is really antagonistic, even for you.
This is not the first time Greg has targeted me. After a story slam, he highlighted some comments I made and asked readers if I was the type of candidate they would want to support. After campaign finances were released, he questioned my decision to hire a campaign field director citing irresponsible spending. It’s almost as if there is something about me he doesn’t like. Hmmm.
About one month ago I emailed Greg information about new papers being pulled in the School Committee race. It was not widely known at the time and I thought I would give him a heads up. Here is his reply:
“I don’t actually have time to report. But if you had a photo of the registration page i could do something with it?”
So with that I think it’s pretty clear that we are dealing with anything close to reporting here.
@Greg, if you care to give me a call we can discuss and you can maybe find time in your schedule to do some actual reporting.
Greg – You’re fully capable of joining the group and reading the 128 posts to get the full context. All you have to do is click the “Join” button for goodness sakes. The name of the group is to Newton Residents Civic Debate and other elected officials have also commented on issues the city is currently debating.
As for this particular FB post, a lot of people wrote about the teachers contract, the effect of a major capital project that will be paid for out of the operating will have on city services and the schools, and other issues.
Since you didn’t bother to find out for yourself, the context is this : the school committee has been trying negotiate a new contract with the teachers for a full year but the school committee negotiating team continues to claim that there isn’t enough money to provide adequate salary increases. That’s because the mayor cut the school allocation – at a time when she moving forward with the plans for a major capital project (a community center). So the question on the thread turned to what effect would paying for this project out of the operating budget have on the schools.
While I often comment that you throw out red meat, you’ve taken this one step further: taking one comment out of context, when you were perfectly capable of reading the entire thread if you’d bothered to join the group is simply irresponsible – and poor journalism.
OK. So I have now been appropriately scolded for publishing a Facebook comment from an elected official out of context. Guilty as charged. (Not sure I was being “antagonistic.” If I had wanted to be antagonistic, the headline would have read “Miller: Kids will die if city funds NewCAL” …and folks know I’ve written headlines like that before.)
But Matthew, now that you’re here (and thanks for being here and, really, I’ve considered our differences to be water under a two-year-old bridge) could you please take a few minutes and explain to readers here, what you meant? Much appreciated.
I agree that taking one comment out of a very long Facebook thread, from a closed group, with no context, and making it the subject of a post here was inappropriate.
But I do want to point out that Matt’s comment also lacks a bit of context. Neither Greg nor anyone else here on Village14 is a paid journalist. This is a community blog run by volunteers in their spare time. The response you quote from Greg:
is a perfectly reasonable response from where I’m sitting.
Here’s another way he could have said the exact same thing
What’s wrong with that?
If Greg was swamped with his real job, then he should have refrained from creating this thread.
Another response would have been to email Matt Miller and ask him for the context. At this point, Greg’s put sufficient time into this to have done so and gotten an accurate response.
Greg – Using phrases like “scolding” when a teacher expresses an opinion is something I’ve gotten used to over the last 45 years. Unfortunately, all I do is sigh and roll my eyes at yet another demeaning comment about public school educators. Another personal favorite of mine is calling a teacher protest a “temper tantrum”. It gratifies me that a new generation of teachers across the country are rightfully demanding more respect. Good on all of us.
Oops. “is demanding”
@Jane: Sorry my friend but it’s not always about you (or our teachers): I hadn’t even read your comment when I was writing mine.
Our schools have escalated their spending to an unsustainable
level. No wonder people are worried about more tax overrides.
There is not enough money to fund everything.
Teachers may want more spending for the schools but it simply
dies not exist. Both sides wake up. Make due with existing funds.
No more overrides. Residents are running out of money to live here. Settle your contract.
There is NO appetite for an Override in the City of Newton. Like most people the City must live within it’s budget.
@ Mathew : Hello, I do not know if we met. My name is Alexi Reibman and Greg is my father. Something you may not know about me is I am openly gay and my father has been my number one supporter for years never once questioning me or trying to “change me”. So if you are trying to accuse him of being homophobic I urge you to stop right there, I will not allow that slick comment or rhetoric to be written about him.
Not everything is about being gay and please realize YOU chose to be in politics and not everyone is going to agree with you. Just because they do not agree does not mean they’re against you or the way your family is set up, it’s nothing personal. Please feel free to reach out to me if necessary if you have any questions.
Why do people always want to shoot the messenger? Are citizens not entitled to know what their elected “leaders” think about relevant topics of critical importance? Of course we are! Is context important? Sure. But when a quote from an elected official is released into the ether, and they think they’ve been misquoted, misrepresented, or taken out of context, the burden is on that official to correct people’s impression.
My personal impression of Matt Miller as a School Committee member is not a good one. He claims to be concerned about teen suicide, [and no doubt he is], but as an elected member of the School Committee he has failed to adequately address the single biggest health threat to our teen students, the sleep deprivation and stress associated with early morning high school start times. The fact is, Miller has talked a good game, but done jack shit to fix that problem.
That probably shouldn’t come as such a big surprise, because Miller, [like the rest of those brilliant minds on the School Committee], still thinks tackle football is an appropriate sport for public schools. Their ignorance about the long term effects of concussions virtually insures that many of our student athletes will suffer some brain damage as a result of playing football, along with life long orthopedic issues. Just try to get one member of the School Committee to acknowledge this issue and see how fast they dodge the topic.
As I have said many times, Matt has been the best SC member when it comes to communication. He initiated the update emails. He is the ONLY school committee member that responds on V14. I would hate to lose him on V14 and I think in his heart-of-hearts, Greg would also.
Like Mike I am very critical of the fact that we still don’t have a late high school start. I think everyone who has been on the SC for the last 15+ years deserves blame. To be fair, the blame should be proportional to how long they served.
OK, folks, can we focus on the content? When I read the comment, I tried to put it in the context of the the schools being really underfunded this year…and I mean REALLY underfunded..and there are going to be some really unpleasant tradeoffs for families. If you account for the $16 million (or whatever the number the Mayor has given out) that would be coming straight from the City’s operating budget for NewCAL, that creates a real issue.
I’m at a loss to explain why the City would fund NewCAL out of the operating budget–this seems to me to be a perfect example of something to be funded with a debt-exclusion override. But of course, there needs to be some consensus on what we want it to be and where we want it to be.
I would hate to see Newton once again divide itself in two: those that want more money for the schools and those that want a new Senior Center. We really need some leaders who will figure out a way to do both…some strategic, long-term thinking would be really nice.
The problem is that Greg took a quote out of context and turned it into a thread with an inflammatory headline. The quote within the context of the FB conversation was quite unremarkable and was part of a larger conversation about the effect that a community center (not a senior center) would have on the school budget, given that it will be paid for out of the operating budget.
No one is calling Greg homophobic. However, I did have a comment deleted today that called him out on the language he uses in reference to other people with whom he disagrees. If Greg wants to create posts like this, he needs to expect and be able to accept push back.
Alexi-I admire your defense of your father. He and I agree on just about every issue, but argue quite heatedly about our different styles of communication. Just so you know, I’ve been called every name in the book on this and the previous Newton Tab Blog. It happens and if you’re going to engage in a forum such as this, you have to be able to accept it and move on.
That’s a relief! But then, what did Matt Miller mean when he wrote?
Much more importantly I’m still interested in understanding if he’s really saying that Newton kids lives are in danger if we don’t have an override. It’s a much more urgent question that I still hope he will answer here.
@ jane : I can read shade for myself and I know what I read. Thank you 🙂
Based on my take of the closed Facebook conversation – I think some people think an unbudgeted capital project should be funded from a debt exclusion override, which would be voted on, not taken out of the current operating budget, as that would require cutting funds for existing programs – like schools. It is a zero sum game, unless you add money, if you add spending, something else has to go away.
Colleen,
Can you be more specific with your claim that “residents don’t have enough money to live here.” Are you insinuating that teachers bite the bullet, and do what is best for Newton taxpayers, which is sign a contract that is fitting for you and your cronies? Given the expectations placed upon teachers, shouldn’t they be rewarded for their hard work, dedication, and commitment to their job? Do teachers arrive for their first class as the bell rings and then sprint for the door the second their last class ends? Parents demand their children receive an excellent education in Newton. Therefore, teachers need to be paid accordingly. Financial austerity doesn’t work.
Matthew Miller is the ONLY elected public official to join several Facebook parents groups (one with 8,000 members), answer questions, provide DETAILED information on how the SC works, links to more info, and more.
Matt was the ONLY school council member to take a very hot seat as we parents and residents pressed him to explain a VERY COMPLEX situation with on how the school budget process works. His patience is amazing. I have learned so much.
MATT SHOULD BE LAUDED for engaging openly, transparently (and courageously) on social media, a very sticky situation many politicians are afraid to do (namely, all the rest).
Meanwhile, a group member secretly snapshots his words and surreptitiously sends to you, & you post on here trying to shame him and twist his words out of context?! Shame on you!
CONTEXT: This whole problem with budgeting started because the Mayor cut the allocation. Someone asked Matthew what could be done at this point, we are all worried about the effect of this on the quality of our schools and yes the mental health issues at all schools is IMPORTANT. Someone asked, would he support an override to PROPERLY fund the schools. That was his response. YES, HE PUTS STUDENTS FIRST. Poking fun of his defense of mental health issues, when we have had suicides at both high schools is unbelievably callous.
Students and teachers are priority No. 1 in this community for many of us, and we want our elected officials to LISTEN. Schools are the reason many of us moved here, not fiscal pride. Many councilors are short-sighted, defunding the prime source of new taxpayers and civic pride, our schools.
Our group which started off as parents group concerned about the year-long contract negotiations with NTA, and the 10 other expired union contracts, while the Mayor plows ahead with funding NewCal out of our operating budget instead of debt exclusion override. We are focused on positive action, not name-calling.
It is an open group anyone can join, but NOT people who try to publicly humiliate other members. You violated the trust of the nearly 700 members by “spying” on us and publicizing a comment out of context with obviously negative intent. And allowing you to join would stifle the free flow of discourse and ideas we are circulating to help our children, our schools, our green spaces and the city we all love.
Maybe you should focus on something which actually helps the situation, the students and our beautiful garden city. What a waste of civic time and brain power this thread you started is. T
Kim Smith, Co-Founder of Newton Residents Civic Debate
Financial austerity doesn’t work. Brilliant thanks.
Shall we print money then?
I’m all for the teachers, but please try to make sense. Newton has a very serious Pension and OPEB problem that is eating up any excess funds we might have had. Yet I never read about it in the comments.
We can’t afford things we want now because a previous generation failed to fund the promises it made to city workers. Period, end of story.
Matthew Miller is our very own Trump right here in Newton Massachusetts. He lashes out on social media, attacks local media that he deems not journalistic enough, plays with facts – recants a day or two later (check some of his Facebook posts), has yet to dig deep and truly do any of the actual work of the office, and has a number of surrogates speaking on his behalf here. Just because he’s liberal, it doesn’t make his hands any cleaner. Ten years ago, his immediate personal attack in the post would have shocked all of you – not brought you out to support him. Can you please remember he is actually an elected official? Wouldn’t it be a refreshing change to see him help to bring this community together or help get the teacher’s contract signed, or even to actually explain his own comment? No. He’s making a list of his enemies. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Wonder if Chrissy Teigan is on that list.
It’s unfortunate that Mathew Miller decided that my post here was some sort of confrontation. It wasn’t meant to be. It was meant to start a conversation, just not the one we got.
Please reread my entire original thread. I wrote:
OK, I hadn’t — still haven’t read the original thread. But why should that truly matter? He’s an elected official. Those are his words. Why couldn’t Miller just have provided the context several others here say is missing?
Why has he still not explained what he meant?
Is this issue important to him, or not?
Meanwhile, I’m extremely proud of Alexi. He shared here today that he is gay but did not mention that in 2014 he lost a close friend to suicide while attending Newton South, one of three South teens who ended their lives that school year.
Alexi and two of his friends made this video that year to help them and their friends cope with those losses. Alexi is now pursuing a career in criminal justice because he wants to be able to help those in dire straights. Like I said, I’m very proud.
Matthew and others, I hope you will watch that video. And if you are genuinely concerned about the impact financing NewCAL might have on our most vulnerable young people, let’s talk about it.
It’s truly outrageous to watch this spiral. Kim, I value your effort on behalf of Newton teachers. Matthew is not the only school committee member on Facebook or part of Newton Groups. Off hand, I can think of two others who have posted recently: Margaret Albright in the past few weeks posted in that group of 8000. Just because Matthew posts on social media a lot of things that you like to hear, doesn’t mean he’s got a protective force field around him. He’s an elected public official. He posted in a large public group with the name civic in it. It wasn’t a private family group. Let’s be real. Also, words matter. HIS WORDS MATTER. He is part of a group that manages a budget of 300 million dollars of tax payers money. Our hard earned tax money meant to enrich our children’s education and minds. He is not a private citizen. And he was hinting at raising taxes with an implication that if that didn’t happen lives were at stake. Supposedly, he has access that make his words matter more than mine and yours. All he had to do was explain himself. Instead, his feathers were ruffled. Again. Every time someone is not team Matthew, he goes on the attack. It’s not professional, it’s not appropriate and it’s actually embarrassing. He hinted, without further explanation, that Greg may not like him because he was gay. Is that ok? What if Greg did not have a gay son? How would he have defended himself from this incredibly inappropriate personal attack by someone in his community amongst his fellow community members? Matthew Miller could have and should have gone high. He went low. Alexi should not have had to come here to defend his father in this way. Matthew Miller, School Committee, hurt a child today by attacking his father.
I’ve never seen Matthew that way. I think he is usually fine to engage people who agree or disagree with him. He is one of the only SC members who really puts himself out there and seeks input and advice from citizens. He single handedly made improving the lunches a priority. He can be snarky and roll his eyes, but I will take that over a SC member that doesn’t stir the pot but also doesn’t get to know their constituents.
Casey, I did notice that you clearly have a bone to pick with Matthew – not sure what the issue is, it’s your own business. But as a SC member and an elected official, he has been very willing to engage with people who disagree with him, listen to opposing arguments, and speak out when things need to be said. And that’s why he has so many fans in this community.
It’s terrific that Matthew Miller has so many devoted constituents, that he’s wiling to engage, participates on multiple social media platforms, listens to opposing views, flosses, etc. etc.
But why then has he been unwilling to come onto this site and explain to those of us who are not part of this closed Facebook group what he meant when he said kids would die without an override?
This, by the way, is not meant to be a rhetorical question.
You obviously haven’t seen the movie “The Contender”, where the hero refuses to defend herself against rumor and conjecture.
Since this was a private FB discussion (not a campaign, nothing written in stone), private conversations don’t need to be screen shot and presented as a “position”.
What do you have against Matthew Miller, who has worked tirelessly, honestly and transparently on the incredibly complex workings of our schools?
He doesn’t need to come here and defend himself because he feels the schools should be funded more fully. THAT. IS. HIS. JOB. And he does it well. Thank you for all that you and our wonderful school committee members fight for, Matthew Miller.
I didn’t think you are supposed to publicly share posts from a closed group. I always thought a closed Facebook group page meant that only current members of the closed group can see the content of posts by members. Otherwise what is the purpose of being a closed group?
I feel like I went to sleep in Newton, MA and woke up in Stepford, CT.
So everybody wants to talk about whether or not an elected official’s warning that Newton kids are in danger of dying on a closed Facebook page is kosher to share.
But nobody wants to talk about the actual kids?
Geesh.
By the way, the Facebook group in question is so toxic that it seems funny to talk about whether or not this comment is appropriate to share. Anyone who thinks V14 should disallow anonymous commenting should take a look at what people say on that group using their full name.
Just speaking for myself, it’s hard for me to answer your question @Greg Reibman if Matthew Miller is saying that without an override Newton kids will die because I’m not in the closed group and thus not privy to the entire conversation and 128 comments. Thinking of myself, if I had a super long conversation with Person A and Person B who was not part of the conversation but heard some of it, pulled a few sentences and made a claim based on that, I would want Person B to know the whole conversation and context. I don’t know and have never met Matthew Miller, just putting myself in that position. So, I guess he’d have to answer that question. I made my comment above because I’m in some closed FB groups on sensitive topics and would be upset if that happened to me. Anyway, I don’t feel qualified talking about the actual kids without seeing the entire conversation (which I shouldn’t since I am not part of the group) or if someone in the group wants to present a recap without using people’s names. But if I saw/knew more, yes, I would want to talk about the actual kids.
@Newton Runner: The difference is Miller is an elected member of our school committee and therefor a public official. Although I don’t know who you are, I presume you aren’t. (And under our blog rules, electeds cannot post anonymously)
Look, Miller is aware of this discussion. He’s clearly chosen to not respond to the substance of his comment. That’s his prerogative but, in my view, very disappointing.
If an elected official is having a conversation with a group of constituents, there should be no expectation of privacy. Whether it is in a bar, on facebook, or wherever. It doesn’t matter.
This thread has veered into the absurd.
Just to be clear, I am not an elected official! I don’t even have kids in the NPS (nor kids at all). Just offering my 2 cents. But it’s good to know that elected officials can have their posts published even if it’s on a closed FB group, because that means other peoples’ comments could get dragged in, as well, as part a conversation thread. I didn’t know that; it will make me more careful about participating on these forums in the future. And I do agree that Matthew Miller is really the only one who can answer your question, and then the rest of us could discuss once he clarifies.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t need more context to get Committee Person Miller’s point. Funding NewCAL out of the operating budget comes at the expense of money available for schools. Limiting funds for schools risks cutting mental health programs. Cutting mental health programs could lead to teen deaths.
I got that on the first read and I am not, as 14th villagers will attest, all that smart.
If adequately funded mental health programs are on the bubble such that NewCAL funding puts them in jeopardy, that’s on the school committee, not the mayor. (FWIW, I think a new senior center should be funded out of an override.) Not every dollar at risk can or should be one earmarked for mental health.
There can be no question that Mr. Miller was accusing Greg of being homophobic. No question. Game, set, match to Alexi.
And, please, the notion that a public official’s complete comment out of a thread from a Facebook thread is off-limits is ridiculous. If you post into a group with hundreds of participants, your expectation of privacy is, uh, diminished. Post with care. If the comment doesn’t stand alone, provide the context. Greg provided every opportunity. We’ll print the whole damn thread, if you want.
Let’s see this very important issue debated on NewTV in a public hearing. With all the School Committee members.
I think your invitation would have been accepted if you didn’t rip one post out of context with the INTENT to make him look back. Intent is the issue, no one ever said a public official’s comments aren’t public. I’m glad Sean Roche admitted it’s pretty clear what he saw, just a correction Sean. After reading and researching, it’s the Mayor’s office who cut the allocation to the school committee. Patch, a real publication published all the facts which are linked in our FB group.
Facebook community guidelines do say you shouldn’t publicize non-public members comments btw so don’t consider that an option. Play nice.
I suppose good folks are going to have to disagree as to whether or not a comment on a closed Facebook group with 7.8K followers made on an matter of public health by an elected official on an issue that directly relates to his job comes with any expectation of privacy.
Obviously I believe it’s not only fair game but an important matter of public interest.
More importantly, I’m disappointed that Matthew Miller declined to make time to explain to those of us not in that private group why he feels Newton students’ lives might be in danger if there is not an override.
Given the seriousness of the allegation, that’s irresponsible, if not cowardly, on his part.
Clearly Miller is not going to explain his comment here so I’m closing comments.