School committee regroups in aftermath of override vote
By Adam Swift
The school committee is beginning work on bringing a new budget override vote before the town council. Voters said no to a $4.95 million override request earlier this month that would have helped fund school district budget shortfalls for the next three fiscal years. At Monday night’s school committee meeting, budget subcommittee chair Gus Martucci said that committee has begun discussions on what a new override request will look like and when it may be brought before voters.
“We did not take any votes, but we did have a discussion,” said Martucci of the subcommittee meeting earlier in the evening. “We did a quick review of some of the budget numbers for 24-25 and we had a discussion going about going forward with the override and we talked about when we want to go for another override, if we want to go for another override, we talked about what the number we’d be asking for to for to go to the town council. We had several different opinions and we’re still working on it.” Discussions will continue at the next budget subcommittee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m. in the Harvey Hearing Room at town hall. “We’ll talk some more and hopefully have something to come back with,” said Martucci. Town Council President Jim Letterie said it was important to stress that the no vote on the override on Nov. 7 was disappointing, but that the school committee is doing a great job trying to regroup. “I don’t think, personally, that there is a doubt that there is not a need there, and the onus is on us to make sure we educate that need as best we can, and I look forward to hearing ASAP from the committee with their thoughts,” said Letterie.
“I know they are going to put a lot of time and effort into it. The importance can’t be lost at all, this is an incredibly important thing that affects not only the school, but the town as a whole and I just hope people gather around and get together and ask the questions they need to ask.” School Committee Chair Jennifer Powell said it is important for those who supported the override and put the effort in to understand what the next steps forward are for the schools.
“I just want to thank the override committee deeply for the work that they had done, along with our teachers’ union and our staff and our families for all coming out to vote,” said Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard. “Certainly, it was disappointing for the override not to have passed. I was very confident that it was going to pass, and am still confident that the town council and the school committee are in agreement to move forward and request it again.”
One of the important things the school department will be doing going forward in anticipation of another override vote is to do some analytical work around the things it may have missed the first time around regarding information that did not get out to the public, Howard said. “I look forward to doing that work with any committee, whether it is the school committee or the override committee and reminding folks that we are ready for questions,” said Howard.