Kudos to Belmont High senior Daniel Vernick and his classmates, who took to the pages of the Boston Globe with a well-written and cogent argument for why Belmont so desperately needs to pass the Proposition 2 1/2 override on April 7th – a week from Tuesday. You can read it here.
From the article:
My math textbook is from the 1990s, and the cover hangs halfway off. Some classes are so large it’s difficult to ask questions and obtain help. I’ve witnessed a desk collapse under a classmate more than five times.
Rejection of the override may be the final straw. This year’s graduating class has 280 students, but there are 350 in kindergarten. As hundreds of families move to Belmont for our excellent schools, something needs to give. It can’t be the quality of our education.
Without an override, more than 20 teachers and aides will lose their jobs, and many more top teachers are fleeing. In all of our schools, we would add students but cut teachers. The entire eighth-grade arts program would be cut, along with high school electives such as Advanced Placement art, which has an incredible track record at placing students in top art colleges and careers. Advanced language study would be eliminated, while class sizes would rise to unprecedented levels. Juniors and seniors would be limited to five courses, leaving hours of unstructured time in their schedules.
So now, we are fighting for our education. More than 900 of my current and former classmates, in a school of around 1,200, are part of a Facebook group supporting the override because we understand the depth and severity of the proposed cuts. We are freshmen and seniors, artists and language students, Democrats and Republicans. We know that this is a breaking point for our school, our community, and our future.
As the authors state: this override is more than just a question of funding. This is a referendum on Belmont’s core values as a town. We’ve told ourselves for decades that we’re a town that values high quality public education second to none. But for much of the last 15 years, we’ve acted in a contrary fashion: continually chipping away at our schools and educational programs to try to make do with “level service” budgets that try to run this year’s schools with last year’s money.
The time is now for Belmont to reassert its values and identity as a town that prizes education – and has the accolades to prove it. Vote YES for Belmont on April 7!