Town Meeting: What Keeps Me Up at Night... The Schools

So this has been an interesting week at town meeting. Monday night we debated the final items of the Special Town Meeting with the last discussion surrounding the high school’s concession stand. Last night we kicked off the Annual Town Meeting with a little twist. There was a motion to allow the school budget to be present first because typically they are slated to go later in the process. The motion was passed and the school committee, along with Superintendent James Hayden presented the Norwood Public Schools budget. 

Then the fun began….

Before highlighting what happened (and let’s be clear, I was the instigator), I want to defend myself a bit. I was not fully prepared for the motion presented because I did not realize the school budget would be presented last night. Quite honestly, it caught me off guard, so I had to improvise a bit and put together thoughts on the fly. Some said it was foolish and I even heard a fellow town meeting member say, “It was a waste of time.” I say: I stood up for something I feel is important… Norwood's schools.

On Monday night the NTM members denied an added $100,000 to a concession stand and debated for three hours highlighting many things, but one thing stuck out… return on investment (ROI). A comment was made that the ROI would be the service the concession stand brings to the community. Valid argument… some say yes, some say no. The concession stand is going to cost us $250,000, yet how long will it take to recover that money? The answer was, we won’t or anything concrete that is.

Let’s take this same notion and apply it to our schools. At the moment, we are maintaining a status quo and, sure, the total cost of ownership of the schools is high, but one could argue the ROI is the students returning back to Norwood and making their home here. One could also argue investing in our schools and attempting to improve our MCAS rankings will make Norwood more desirable, making the real estate market more competitive and driving up our house values. We can argue the pros and cons of this but I will save that for another post.

So what did I do?

The school committee presented their budget and in doing so, exposed an $183,518 gap that they defined as things critical and in need of restoration. Things like:

• Elementary Teacher – To help minimize class size. Did you know the average class size is 25 to 27 pupils?
• Professional Development – Let’s face it, we need to keep the staff trained and up to speed on latest and greatest techniques.
• MCAS Tutoring – Directly tied to helping our MCAS scores which helps our ranking.
• Middle School Guidance Counselor - This one was the only one on the list that was a little suspect because the justification is the kids are more in need today and the current load is too much for the existing guidance counselors.
• Textbooks and Instructional Supplies – Did you know we have text books date back to 1981 in circulation? I would love the get the whole list of copyright dates for the books in circulation at our schools. I bet we will be surprised.

I stood up and made a motion to amend the school committee’s budget and add the $183,518 by pulling funds from the stabilization fund. Bear in mind the School Committee original asked for $37,205,186, and they ended up with $35,276,212, a $1,928,974 gap. My motion was amended by another town meeting member (I don’t use NTM member names without permission) to pull the funds from taxable revenue. Being less experienced, I accepted the change not realizing the impact. Ultimately, if you take the $183,518 from the taxable revenue, the budget as a whole has to be adjusted or put simply, the money has to come from somewhere. The motion got denied. Then another gentleman stood up and motioned for my original stance to pull funds from the town’s stabilization fund. I seconded it. The debate continued, but ultimately the motion failed and the School Committee’s budget was approved, as is and unchanged. Ultimately our fine town accountant, Mr. Thornton, gave some great insight that most likely swayed the vote and squashed the motion. He has a lot more power than he thinks!

Now, one may think what I did is foolish, but I think it got people thinking. The town is evolving and anyone with kids in the Norwood Public Schools, with a baby on the way or with young kids that are not in yet in school needs to start paying attention to the schools! I won’t apologize for standing up and attempting to make our schools better. Norwood is ranked 150 out of 332 districts in Massachusetts. Our MCAS scores are nothing to brag about. The Balch School is the worst ranked, while The Callahan School is the best ranked in Norwood. All data can be found here: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MA/district/09060/search.aspx. 

Let’s face it, any investment in the schools is an investment in the ‘curb appeal’ of this town. In closing, for those who feel I wasted their time, maybe your time on NTM is not the best use of time. Last night was a fine example of town government and if anything, it got people thinking. For any town member with kids in the Norwood Public Schools or any young families, get involved and join town meeting. “Status quo“ is not acceptable to me and I will continue to be vocal, but I can not do it alone!