Reading the Warrant Committee’s Tea Leaves

I’m just back from the Warrant Committee meeting at the Chenery where both Town Administrator Tom Younger and Dr. Gerry Missal, the School Department’s Director of Finance and Administration, presented their best estimates of what kinds of cuts would be necessary to meet an expected 1.4m budget deficit. It wasn’t an upbeat meeting, as you might expect from a group of people who were kicking around variations of “given the choice, would you rather chop off your right arm, or your left leg?”

I won’t go into the details of the proposed cuts on the School Department side of things, given recent posts here that have provided lots of details about what cuts are being proposed, beyond saying that we’re looking at the elimination Belmont’s elementary music program and of the equivalent of between 5 and 11 full time staff from both the elementary and high school level –that includes library aides and elementary teachers, as well as proposed new teachers to keep class size manageable in the 5th grade, and a director of guidance at BHS.

On the Town budget side, Mr. Younger outlined some options available to close a $300,000 or so funding gap, which include things like eliminating Sunday hours at the town’s main library, and reduced staffing at both the Police Department and Fire Departments.

On the critical issue of whether the Warrant Committee will recommend (and the Board of Selectmen approve) an operational override for FY 09, I’d say the jury is still very much out. The Board of Selectmen was represented at the meeting by Angelo Firenze, who noted that the Board was interested in knowing the details of proposed cuts before making up their mind to 1) back an operational override to fund comprehensive road reconstruction in town or 2) back an operational override to close the town’s operating budget deficit, thereby restoring both School and Town programs or 3) back neither option — or both. However, time is short — the BOS has to make up its mind by March 1 if it wants to put any matter before the town on the April 7 town-wide election. As it stands, the Warrant Committee has voted in favor of an override for road reconstruction, but is less enthusiastic (judging from this evening’s meeting) about doing something similar for the schools.

Speaking personally, I left the meeting with a bad feeling in my gut. I sincerely respect the long hours that both the Board of Selectmen and Warrant Committee members give to the town — for little or no pay, at that. WC members listened respectfully to comments from parents in attendance, but it’s hard to spot an enthusiastic supporter of the schools on the Warrant Committee. To the contrary, there was some visible eye rolling and head shaking when one parent in the audience spoke of the importance of Belmont’s excellent elementary music program to her family –that her young family moved to Belmont expressly because of such enrichment programs. WC member Liz Allison — the Warrant Committee’s representative before the School Committee — later quizzed Dr. Missal about why the BPS persists in offering what she termed “non core” classes like music, visual arts and ceramics even in the face of budget shortfalls. Clearly, in Ms. Allison’s eyes, these types of offerings were fluff. So you can see the direction things took.

On the subject of an operational override, Mr. Firenze expressed his opinion that such an override only stood a 50/50 chance based on his unscientific polling and e-mail reading. When it was suggested (by me) that the town had nothing to lose by putting an override to voters — given that its failure would put us right back to where we are now — Mr. Firenze said that the town has to prove that it is prudent in its spending. That, despite the fact that Belmont has not passed an operational override in six years, despite skyrocketing costs. Sounds prudent to me!

If I had to guess, the Warrant Committee is banking that some $250,000 in extra funding from the Town Assessor’s office will offset the worst of the faculty layoffs and keep parents from banging down their doors. That will free them up to pass the road reconstruction override in April, and the (much needed) Wellington debt exclusion in November.

As I’ve written elsewhere, the best thing you can do as a town resident who is concerned about school funding is to take five minutes and write an e-mail to the Belmont Board of Selectmen (selectmen@town.belmont.ma.us). Express your desire for an operational override to allow the Town to close the budget gap and maintain the excellence of its schools. Belmont hasn’t passed an override in more than six years and structural gaps in its budget will lead to annual crunches like this without an override.

There is one important meeting in the community room of Chenery Middle School Saturday morning, March 1, starting at 9:00am. At that meeting, the School Committee, Warrant Committee and Board of Selectmen will meet to discuss funding for the schools, as well as competing proposals, such as an operational override to fund road repair. Parents should absolutely come and voice their support of the schools before the Selectmen.

Come out and show your support!