I’m posting a copy of the e-mail message I sent last night to the Board of Selectman regarding the pending debate about funding for the School Dept. and Town, and the need for an operational budget override for 2009 to make up the ~$3 million budget shortfall. I encourage all B2′s readers to take a few minutes to send the Selectmen your thoughts on cuts to school funding and vital town services in this difficult budget year. If they don’t hear from anyone who cares about small class sizes, music and art education, after school sports and all day kindergarten, it makes it all the easier to skim over the need to maintain the excellence in education for which Belmont has become known and focus, instead, on the demands of the pot hole posse.
As I’ve often said, I can get new shocks for my car for $250, but it’s going to cost me $25,000 a year or more — per kid — to pay for Shady Hill. And that’s just not an option. From an economic standpoint, schools beat potholes any day of the week.
The e-mail for the Selectmen is selectmen@town.belmont.ma.us
Contrary to previous posts on BloggingBelmont, this e-mail is very much “live” and messages sent to it get forwarded to all three Selectmen — and they do read those e-mails. So get typing, people!
MY LETTER TO THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN:
Hello, Gentlemen. My name is Paul Roberts and I’m a town resident and
a Town Meeting member from Precinct 8. I’m also the editor of
BloggingBelmont.com, a Weblog serving the Belmont community. I’m
writing you today to express my concern at reports of pending budget
cuts to both the Town and School Department budget for 2009 and to
strongly urge you to put an operational budget override before Belmont
voters that will allow us to close the funding gap and maintain vital
public services.
As the father of three young girls, I am deeply concerned about the quality of our public schools. Both my wife, Lisa, and I are the product of public school education and moved to Belmont from Watertown in 2005 for the express purpose of taking dvantage of this town’s excellent public schools. While I don’t have hard figures, I don’t think anyone will contest that the quality of
the schools is one of the top reasons families choose Belmont over
similarly situated towns like Waltham, Watertown, Arlington or
Medford.
I was alarmed to learn that our Superintendent, Peter Holland is now
being asked by the Town Accountant and Warrant Committee to consider
cuts of $1.6m in his proposed budget, with similar cuts to the Town’s
budget that will also curtail vital services. While no specific cuts
have been outlined by the School Dept., my understanding is that the
schools may be forced to cut up to 18 full time instructors, eliminate
plans for a full day kindergarten program that has deep support among
the working families in this town, eliminate or drastically curtail
funding for music and art education and push the cost of
extracurriculars onto town residents in the form of much higher fees
(aka use taxes). The practical effect of this will be to increase
class size (reportedly to 35 students/class or more in some grades)
and reduce the quality of the public education our town offers. While
affluent families in town may be able to reach into their wallet to
pay for extended day kindergarten, pricey athletic programs like
hockey and football, or private music and art instruction, many
middle income families in town simply will not – exacerbating
divisions that already exist within town.
As I write, you are considering a number of issues to put before town
voters. The serial failures of heating and cooling systems at the
Wellington School make it clear that the building is nearing the end
of its useful life and must be replaced. I’ve been encouraged by the
support voiced by the Board for a debt exclusion to fund the
construction of a new Wellington. With the State signaling that it may
be willing to contribute matching funds to the project, now is the
time to act.
I’m less encouraged by the Board’s commitment to extensive and
expensive road reconstruction plans when so much else in the town’s
budget is in turmoil. As someone who lives on the unreconstructed end
of Cross St., I fully appreciate the need for reconstruction of many
of the town’s roads. However diverting scarce dollars to expensive and
comprehensive road reconstruction while also laying off teachers and
other town employees and asking the town’s students to “make do” in
classes with 35 or more students and without extracurricular
activities that contribute greatly to their physical, intellectual and
moral development isn’t something that I support — nor would most
town residents, I suspect. For that reason, I encourage you to
postpone an override for road construction and, instead, put an
operational override for the Town and School budgets instead.
I fully appreciate the difficult situation the Board finds itself in,
with scarce state and federal support, slow growth in town revenue and
rapid growth in costs like health care, utilities and the like. Rather
than making up your own mind about what town residents will and won’t
support, allow Belmont residents to show their support for their
schools and for vital town services at the ballot box.
Sincerely,
Paul F. Roberts
Thank you, Paul, for your thoughtful comments and for keeping us an informed community! I sent my thoughts to the Selectmen this afternoon. Additionally, our family will be represented at the March 1st meeting.
Hey Christine! Check out my latest posts — there are two important meetings on the School Budget. One is tonight, where the School Dept. will hash out proposed cuts. Perhaps more important is Wed. (tomorrow) when the Warrant Committee will hear the School Dept.’s report. Tonight’s meeting is 7:30 at Chenery. Tomorrow’s meeting is the same time/place, I believe.
Paul,
The roads in belmont are absolutely terrible, I think that you should not mock a group of people who have expressed concerns over the issue by referring to them as ‘pothole posse.’
You express concerns for the possible lack of music and art education, and sports in Belmont Public Schools. Have you considered private instruction for art and music, and sports? It appears that the cost of Shady Hill is too expensive but I think that if you wanted to supplement both art and music education or sports privately it will be much less than $25,000/year and will not pass the costs onto property owners in Belmont. I am sure that you would agree that property taxes in Belmont are high and most people can not afford to pay more.
Cheers,
Jon
You know what? You’re right — the folks who want the town’s roads repaired are totally right to feel that way. I live on the half of Cross St. that hasn’t been repaved and its a disaster. I’d like all the worn roadways in town repaved and, frankly, I’m fond of the granite curbstones too. I think they make the roads safer and prettier and are worth every penny.
What is wrong here is the sustained and divisive argument in town between the “roads” and “schools” people. As I’ve written before, these arguments are akin to sitting around with your friends and debating which appendage you’d rather have cut off, your right leg or your left arm. The answer, of course, is ‘neither, thank you!’ I think we, as a town, need to come to terms with the fact that we’ve got a structural budget deficit that is threatening to undermine some of the core principles and values that Belmont has stood for — a strong and supportive community that cherishes its schools, nurtures its families and provides a comfortable home for its older residents. The truth is that we’ve already trimmed our school and town budgets substantially since the last override (in 2002) just to get by. Losing the front end of your car in a Loch Ness-sized pothole isn’t something I’m comfortable living with. Locking elementary school libraries for lack of funds is not, I believe, an outcome that anyone in town wants to see, either.
The solution, I think, is for all of us to demand that our elected leaders get behind a plan to put the town’s financial house in order and get us out of crisis mode. We deserve no less.
As for private instruction for art, music and sports — putting my finances aside, do you really think that the many middle class and working class families in this town that are struggling with high gas and food prices, struggling to save for college tuitions that have outpaced inflation for almost two decades and already top out over $30,000 a year at many schools and, by the way, trying to save for their own retirement really have loads of surplus cash to pay for yet more services (like school bus rides and varsity sports) that used to be shouldered by the community as a whole? With all due respect, I feel like families with school age children are being asked to make sacrifices that were absolutely unheard of ten, twenty or thirty years ago, when school libraries were staffed with full time librarians, when school music and art instruction were standard, when bus rides were paid for by all the town’s residents and after school sports were free, too. Much of this is due to factors outside Belmont, including reduced federal and state aid to towns. But, from a societal standpoint, is it really smart for us to heap more and more financial burdens on families with young children, forcing some of them, no doubt, to choose between having their kid try out for a sport, or play an instrument and even more important long term goals? Is that a choice we really want to ask our young families to make? I say no.
Pual,
Thank you so much for your response. I think that many of us in Belmont do agree that we should have both the roads repaired and school services, such as sports, music and art, and bus rides, provided for the children.
You also make a great observation that “families with school age children are being asked to make sacrifices that were absolutely unheard of ten, twenty or thirty years ago.” I agree that there has been many great changes in the past 10 to 30 years and that sports, music and art eduction may become ‘luxury’ items that only the ‘well to do’ families can afford to provide for their children. Some families, with whom I am friends with, in Belmont can not afford to even save money for their children’s college eduction. Children then wanting to attend college, will have to apply for government loans to finance their own eduction.
I think the challenges that we are facing, and trying to prevent from happening, will ultimately become the ‘norm’ for both school services and town roads.
With best regards,
Jon