Our research into Article 8 convinces us that the arguments made by the Town Administrator, Police Chief and Select Board for exiting the Civil Service are not supported by the facts. We’ve listed our main reasons for voting “NO” here, with further explanation provided below.
In her latest “If I May” opinion piece, Town Meeting Member Judith Feinleib argues that the Town’s proposal to have Town Meeting withdraw the Belmont PD from the State’s Civil Service program leaves lots of questions unanswered.
Closing an elementary school? Laying off 120 teachers? Those are the choices we’d face if a Select Board candidate makes good on his promise to cut $10 million from the Schools’ budget. Don’t let that happen.
COVID special orders will eventually end. Our Select Board should vote now to allow Belmont committee members to deliberate remotely.
A group of anti-tax residents plans to ask the Select Board to halt work on the 7-12 School and abandon the Community Path project. Concerned Belmontonians should tune in to the Select Board Zoom meeting Monday evening at 7:00 PM to support those projects.
At the end of the day: putting the question to voters costs the Town of Belmont nothing. Not giving the voters a choice to throw a lifeline to the Town, on the other hand, has very high costs associated with it.
With per pupil spending in Belmont already about $3,000 per student/per year below the State average per district ($12,700 in Belmont vs. $15,900 avg.), our public schools entered the pandemic stretched to the breaking point. Now we risk plunging into a full-blown fiscal crisis with layoffs of instructional staff, increased class sizes and cuts to supplies.