DOLLAR DAZE - HERE ARE SOME NUMBERS THAT ARE PRETTY HARD TO SWALLOW

Granted a budget is a pretty complex dish with like they say on the Food Network, having layers of flavor. Still I hope somebody can explain the items on the menu a little better or are we just being fed a diet of delusions?

Case in point. It seems that every school has a line for paraprofessionals that serve as lunch aides. It would seem there is no doubt about they're necessity. A lunchroom can be pretty chaotic even with their presence and well the food can't serve itself.

Here is where it gets a little dicey. It seems it seems in addition to every school having a line item for aides, Food Service has its OWN PAGE. First we have a SUPERVISOR pulling down $60,000 (fed by a grant) with secretary at $50,528, a budgeted salary (pretty nice when the secretary makes almost as much as the boss - only in Lynn). The goose that laid the golden grant egg serves up three more paras at a cost of $69,330 )I wonder just where these people can be found). The bill for your service in CAFE LPS comes to a total of $650,000 (down $200,00 from last year).

• I tell you though looking at all those numbers on the balance sheet made this poor little, disabled poet's head swim. It's like having a foreign waiter in a fancy restaurant and 1 + 1 doesn't equal two in his language. I'm out of here. CHECK PLEASE!

(Don't think you skipping out without leaving a TIP - we have breakfast stipends at $14,000)

Probably if we TRIMMED THE FAT, this meal would be a lot easier to digest.

LYNN, LYNN, CITY OF FRIENDS!