I just received an e-mail response from Selectman Dan LeClerc to B2’s open letter on the school budget cuts. When I last wrote, the figure being kicked around was $3m in cuts to square the school and town budgets with revenue. Since then, the figure has been trimmed to around $1.4m, with the School Dept. on the hook for around $800,000 of that. The School Dept. will hash out the details at a meeting tonight, ahead of an important Warrant Committee meeting tomorrow (Wed.) and the all-important March 1 meeting at Chenery. If you can spare the time, please come to the Warrant Committee meeting tomorrow (Wed.) evening and show your support for the schools in the face of likely budget cuts.
Here’s what the selectmen are saying now:
Dear Paul,
All of us on the Board of Selectmen are working very hard to construct a sequence in which citizens will have a fair opportunity to express their voter preferences on the three issues which are most pressing at this time: a) A reasonable and prudent road program; b) The maintenance of town-side and educational services at the current level; and c) The building of a badly needed new Wellington School. We feel that this needs to be done in a proper seqeunce and not “bundled” is such a way as to create confusion or override fatigue and therefore doom all of these critical initiatives.
Please call me at 617-489-1443 if your would like a more detailed explanation of the above.
Best Regards,
Dan Leclerc, Selectman