We are not alone

From time to time, School Committee members share information regarding topics that effect our districts. There was a recent discussion regarding the funding challenges we are all experiencing. I thought I would share one of those emails:

I am not going to get into a prolonged argument here, but suffice to say
that Local officials and citizens in North Reading have made a massive
effort over the last few years to rein in spending and to push for more
local aid. Where has that left us — still 13th or 14th from the bottom in
per pupil spending in the state. We have gone for an override two straight
years and have lost. We have elementary school libraries and computer labs
that are closed two or three days per week. Also this year, we close our
elementary and middle schools two hours early each Wednesday in order to
give our teachers the required prep time that they lost when we eliminated
or cut music, art, physical education and other courses. In addition, we
had to cut the physical education class option for high school juniors and
seniors and we have numerous classes with more than 30 students.

Thanks to great cooperation this year between various town boards, we will
be able to restore a full school week, every week, at our elementary and
middle schools, as well as some of the courses that were cut this year.
However, we still will have no physical education for juniors and seniors,
still only have ONE certified librarian in our entire school system, and
still not be able to open our computer labs

Last week in North Reading we had the misfortune of approving a $100 increase in athletic fees. Now, a student will pay $400 for the first sport and $100 each for the second and third. The family max is now $1,100. Thankfully, we could keep our busing fee at the bargain rate of $250 per student and our even bigger bargain student extracurricular fee at only $125. And, the big bonus with the extracurricular fee is that the $125 covers as many activities in which the student wishes to participate.

There has been much discussion of late as to the cause of our financial challenges. Is the crux of the problem due to mismangement of funds, inefficient use of revenue, i.e. new fire station, senior center, not being able to live within our budget, etc.? Could we continue to work hard and make sure we are spending every dollar in the most efficient way? Absolutely, but every organization aspires to the same goal. The point of my sharing this email with you is to say that we are not alone. There are many cities and towns facing similar problems to our own, if not worse. My question is, if we are all facing the same problem…..are we all not being financially responsible?