Support Our Schools

The recount requested by Enough Is Enough took place today. The May 15 election results stand with the override passing in Hamilton.

There will be an SOS meeting on Monday, June 9 at 7:30 pm at the Community House. Please come and continue the work to support our wonderful schools.

June 5th: School Committee Reviews Superintendent’s Performance and Discusses Salary

June 9th: SOS meets

June 10th: Selectmen Talk School Funding

We know it’s a crazy-busy time of the year, but the wheels of town government haven’t stopped turning! We have three important meetings we think everyone should be aware of.

Please try to attend or at the very least make your views on these critical topics known to our elected officials. We have included contact information below. Your town leaders need to hear from you.

1. The School Committee will meet Thursday, June 5th, at 7:00 pm at Buker Multi-Purpose room. Among the agenda items is the topic of yearly salary review and evaluation of performance for the Superintendent. If you have an opinion to express, email your thoughts to Richard Boroff, Chair of the School Committee - BoroffR@hwschools.net. (Click to view the agenda).
2. The next SOS meeting is June 9 at 7:30 pm at the Community House. We have lots of jobs, big and small, that we could use help with; can you volunteer?
3. Both SOS and Enough Is Enough members have been invited by the Joint Boards of Selectmen of Hamilton and Wenham to attend the second in its series of discussions on School Funding. The meeting will be Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wenham Town Hall. The goal of the meeting is to continue a discussion on the possible formation of an independent panel, including members of the community, to review school funding issues. Citizen input is welcomed; you can contact the Wenham and Hamilton Boards of Selectmen through the town administrators at jchelgren@wenhamma.gov and cwheeler@hamiltonma.gov.

Enough is Enough has requested a recount of the Hamilton vote on the school override. That recount will take place on June 6 at 9:00 A.M at Hamilton town hall. We do not expect Hamilton’s original “Yes” vote on the school override to change at the recount.

The Town Moderator, Bruce Ramsey, and Jane Wetson, the town clerk, will moderate the recount. We will have SOS members there to observe and EIE members will observe, as well.

Ballots will be put through a machine to be recounted. If the machine cannot determine the vote, then tellers will examine the ballot to determine the voter’s intent. If the tellers cannot determine the intent of an individual vote and the observers disagree with each other about the intent, a board of registrars will make the final decision on each vote.

Again, we don’t expect the result to change at recount. We’ll send out another e-mail to let you know the recount results. Stay tuned.

Thanks for sticking with us through this whole legislative process. We’re getting closer, but we do have yet another 90-second favor to ask of you today.

Click here (http://capwiz.com/stand/issues/alert/?alertid=11403426) to go to Stand for Children’s web site, which will help you email Brad Hill and Bruce Tarr.

Here are the details:

The Senate has voted to close corporate loopholes, opted for a smaller corporate tax cut than the House, and rejected a House amendment that would create new loopholes.

That’s all potentially good news for cities and towns. This Senate version will generate up to $297 million in new revenues in 2008 and $169 million annually after full phase-in, and we’re hopeful that at least some of that money will flow back to Hamilton and Wenham.

Now it is up to a six-member Conference Committee to work out the differences and create the final legislation.

If this is something you support, click here (http://capwiz.com/stand/issues/alert/?alertid=11403426) to email Brad Hill and Bruce Tarr and tell them you want the Conference Committee to approve a final tax bill that will bring the most revenue back to cities and towns.

It’s quick and easy.

Thanks for staying in the game! Isn’t politics fun?

Tracy Mayor
Charlotte Lidrbauch
SOS lobbying subcommittee

Important amendments are in the Senate right now — will you send an email?

Can you take 90 seconds out of your morning to send a quick email to Senator Tarr?

Stand for Children has alerted us that several budget amendments we have been tracking all year are up for consideration today, Tuesday May 20th.

In particular, we have high hopes for Amendment 485, which will increase funding for Special Education out-of-district transportation. This could bring some desperately needed funds back to our towns.

Also, please consider asking Senator Tarr to support the Education Adequacy Study. This will help all school districts determine what constitutes an adequate public education in 2008.

To send the message to Senator Tarr that you support these amendments, please click here to go to Stand for Children’s web site and follow their directions. It’s fast and easy!

Thanks for staying committed with us.

Tracy Mayor

Charlotte Lidrbauch

SOS lobbying subcommittee

These are the official numbers.

Thank you. As promised, SOS will continue working to make our school system the best and most cost efficient district it can be. Thank you for voting and for your support. Stay tuned.

Dear Friend & Neighbor, We read with concern the recent information published in a local newspaper regarding the override to fund the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District (HWRSD). This letter is an attempt to provide complete and factual information.

Per Pupil Spending

• Per pupil comparisons are complicated due to the huge impact of special education expenses.
• HWRSD’s per pupil spending, excluding Special Education (SpEd), is $9,075.
• Our district’s SpEd expenses are higher than some surrounding towns. In order to meet some of our student’s needs, we have a higher than average number of students in out of district placements. Legally, we must pay for these tuitions and transportation.
• The HWRSD continues to work to bring out-placed SpEd students back to our district at a lower cost. Supporting this year’s school budget will result in a future reduction of costs with new in-house SpEd programs.

Teacher Raises

• Half of the HWRSD’s teachers received only the 2.5% cost of living increase.
• The remaining teachers received contracted increases based on education level or length of service.
• The HWRSD teacher contract is structured similarly to other district’s contracts negotiations and mirror how contracts are negotiated nationwide; this limits our district’s ability to bargain outside of this structure.
• Finally, the HWRSD contracts are structured much like other unionized departments in our towns.

District Spending

• The district faces the same increases in fixed cost like insurance, utilities, pensions and taxes that we all face.
• Additionally, public education and our district are legally obligated to meet state and federal mandates, many of which are unfunded.
• Since 2001, HWRSD’s state funding has declined so that now we are required to pay 85% of our costs. If the Commonwealth continued to fund our district at the level it did in 2001 we would have had no overrides.

What’s been cut?

• Teachers have been cut every year for the past 5 years. More than 75 staff positions have been cut, including administrators, secretaries, teachers, nurses, and custodians.
• HWRSD has cut all funding of athletics, clubs and activities and instituted 100% user fees (football, for example, costs $1,318). Imagine the fees paid by a student who plays multiple sports or participates in clubs.
• Our foreign language program has been dismantled and ongoing instruction is provided only in one language.
• Inadequate curriculum and a “lack of reliable funding source” are the major reasons our High School was placed on warning status by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC).

What’s at stake if the override does not pass?

• 47 academic sections at the high school - meaning reduced core courses and electives. Our high school students will spend more time in study halls and those study halls will significantly larger.
• We’ll lose 27.7 full time positions throughout the district, most of them teachers. (38 teachers would be affected.) These cuts would bring the number of positions lost since 2002 to 102.
• Class size will increase dramatically at every level, with some high school classes projected to exceed 40 students.
• We’ll eliminate the team structure at the middle school, deeply affecting these students at a vulnerable age.
• 45 elementary school students will be redistricted.
• Elementary school language support program for regular education students will be lost, putting more students at risk for needing specialized services.

Ongoing Efforts

Many groups in town are engaged in measured and informed dialogue to develop new sources of revenue to solve our school funding problem. These efforts include: lobbying for greater state aid, changing the way SpEd is funded, seeking greater transportation reimbursement, and increasing local revenue through cost savings and non-residential tax sources. These efforts will continue long past the budget season until all options have been exhausted.

We hope all voters will make an informed decision on the school budget override, a decision based on facts that tell the full story about our school district. Please help to stop the decline of our schools and towns by voting yes for the override on Thursday, May 15^th. The polls are open from 7AM to 8PM at Buker and Winthrop schools. Thank you.

Over these past few weeks, we have heard from many of you who have shared your suggestions, concerns and ideas. We’re listening!

Regardless of what happens at the ballot box tomorrow, SOS isn’t going to drop the ball. We pledge to:

• continue to work to find long-term solutions to our budget crisis.
• promote deep and thoughtful dialogue between our schools and our community.
• continue our lobbying efforts at the state and federal level.
• keep you informed about the schools’ spending and budgeting process.
• advocate for “benchmarking” efforts to compare our schools with similar districts.
• promote an “open door” policy within our school system that welcomes the entire community

Most important, we want our district to have the best and most cost-efficient schools possible.

We have some big fiscal challenges ahead of us. Thankfully, we also have a community that is committed to solving these problems. It’s time to redirect the tremendous energy we see in our towns towards finding long-term solutions.

Now It’s Your Turn

Tomorrow we want to be able to stand up as community and send the message that excellent schools are a top priority in our towns. To do that, we need an overwhelming turnout of voters supporting this override. That means every single school supporter needs to make it to the polls. Vote before work. Vote before baseball or soccer or lacrosse. Vote before dinner.

And, Finally, Thanks

It’s been an honor and a responsibility to have such a wide and thoughtful audience. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion. Thank you for listening and thank you for participating.

Please vote on Thursday to support our schools. Remember, we need each and every vote.

Wenham voters: Buker School, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Hamilton voters: Winthrop School, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

SOS is about sharing information, whether it is good, bad or ugly. At last week’s school committee meeting, our guidance department discussed the accreditation issue and shared a quote from the Director of Admissions at Boston College. We felt we should share it with you:

“…While the college would not penalize the student applicant due to the fiscal or political climate of the community, I strongly advise the town to get its fiscal and political act together in order to get off sanction status.”

- John Mahoney, Director of Admissions at Boston College

Keep in mind that we are still a fully accredited high school and that the NEASC does not publish a list of schools, like our high school, that are on warning status. But the NEASC has concerns about curriculum and funding at the high school based on the deep cuts we have made in the past five years (click to view the NEASC Letter). If the override fails, the situation at the high school will get worse: we’ll be eliminating an additional 47 academic sections and class size will increase to as much as 40 in some high school classes. The override will at least prevent us from making more cuts at the high school. Help us begin to turn the tide by voting “Yes” for the override.

Mark this Thursday, May 15 to vote. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It only takes a few minutes!

Wenham voters: Buker School

Hamilton voters: Winthrop School

If you know you will be unavailable on May 15 to vote, you can go down to Town Hall and vote in person up to 12:00 noon on Wednesday, May 14.

Wenham Town Hall hours - Monday 9 - 4:30 pm, Tuesday 9 - 7:00 pm, Wednesday 9 - 4:30 pm, Thursday 9- 4:30 pm, Friday 9 - 1 pm

Hamilton Town Hall hours - Monday 8 - 7:00 pm, Tuesday 8 - 4:30 pm, Wednesday 8 - 4:30 pm, Thursday 8 - 4:30 pm, Friday 8 - 12 pm

Is the “No?” vote organized enough to defeat this override? You bet they are. Here is what they are doing:

• building an e-mail list
• developing an on-line presence
• printing flyers
• going door-to-door in neighborhoods to distribute those flyers
• calling senior citizens to remind them to vote
• providing transportation to the polls
• distributing absentee ballot information
• passing out lawn signs
• posting bumper stickers
• soliciting donations

Don’t let our record turnout at both town meetings lull you into thinking this override is sure to pass. We need every “Yes” vote we can get on Thursday.

What can you do? Get yourself, your spouse, and your school supporting neighbors to the polls on May 15 (Thursday). Ask your friends to do the same.

Mark next Thursday, May 15 to vote. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It only takes a few minutes!

Wenham voters: Buker School

Hamilton voters: Winthrop School