Letter to the Editor: When is Enough Enough?
Wenham resident Tracey Hutchinson writes in support of the school budget and a call to end the fighting about it.
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To the Editor:
This year the School Committee was asked by the town officials to develop a level funded budget. With much effort and using many one-time resources, they did just that; voting a budget with no override, not one penny added to the tax bills. But now some town officials want more: asking for an additional $500,000 from the school's emergency fund, bringing its level below the state and audit recommended 3 percent, while the towns are maintaining levels at or above 3 percent in their own emergency funds. Where is the trust and goodwill in that?
We have spent lots of time, money and energy on many school audits that have found no glaring fraud or mismanagement. Hopefully some true areas for savings will emerge, but it won’t be this year.
It is time that we come together and vote in support of our schools and towns to end all this divisiveness and ask all our elected officials to end the fighting over the budgets. Really, isn’t Enough Enough already?
Please come out to Town Meeting, and bring your neighbors, to ensure that our schools have enough to meet their budgetary needs this year and next. Wenham Town Meeting will be held May 7 at the Buker School from 1-3 p.m. and Hamilton Town Meeting will be held May 14 at the high school from 9 a.m.-noon. Hope to see your there!
Tracey Hutchinson
Kimball Avenue
Wenham
Jay Burnham
4:17 pm on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tracy...Thank you for your "call to peace". It is commendable. The problem, of course, remains as a result of 8 significant overrides to support the schools over the past 10 years. The cumulative total of those overrides (since 2001) is just shy of $44 million and they now cost the taxpayers nearly $7 million a year. So you see, we have "come together" and voted in support of our schools...time and time again. It's now time for the schools to exercise citizen support and return the excess and unused funds from this past school year. It's the right thing to do, it's the fair thing to do and it's the right time to do it. Then, perhaps, the healing can begin.
Tracy
4:43 pm on Friday, May 6, 2011
Well, seeing as school families are taxpayers and the students themselves are citizens, the question becomes, what's the best thing we can do to ensure the safety and security of the school system going forward? A lot of parents are very worried about 2013. Those of us who had kids in the system in 2002, where there were big cuts mid-year, remember how disruptive it was, especially for the elementary kids who really need a stable environment and a set routine in order to learn best. I think everyone can agree that we don't want to put our children through that again!