The Roof is on fire.

 

We are in a world of pain.

 

Let me get this straight.  After a long series of meeting of the Budget Advisory Sub-Committee, several months of debate at the School Committee level over process,  messages from the Fincom so subtle they found the front page of the paper, the schools bring the same numbers back to the Fincom and they reject it.  So the only way we are going to get that 1.2 million will be to go to the floor of town meeting and fight for it.

 

And what a fight it will be.  The CCSC will be there, pointing out the mystery that is the school budget.  Phil Bartlett and the Fincom will line up against it.  The Selectmen and Libby will line up against it. All of the usual Yahoos will oppose it. Starting tomorrow, a horde of annoyed and angry people will troop down to the Atheneum to check out the numbers.  So the hordes will be well armed with numbers.  Opposing them will be Tim Lepore, Robin Rowland, and lame duck Kim Horyn.

 

While the majority of three fight the Yahoos who will want to know why we keep the lights on during the day and why the elementary school isnıt fixed yet,  the voting public will be sitting and listening.

 

But they will have been primed and pumped by a bruising school committee race, a Selectmanıs race where the budget is already an issue and the ever contentious School Committee regular meetings-which will include the Superintendentıs evaluations.  All of those food fights will be firing out ways to save money, not things to spend money on.  I havenıt read any campaign ads screaming for increased money for textbooks or more sports at the middle school. 

 

Even more importantly, money is tight.  Real estate has slowed down, building is down, stock market is down, summer rentals are down (Iım guessing) and we will either be at war or have just finished one and will be busy ³rebuilding.² 

 

So the voters will have been buttonholed by candidates, watched debates on TV and read six weeks worth of negative school news in ³The fish wrap² as my personal physician likes to say.  And remember who my voter is: An older couple on Fairgrounds with an empty apartment and remarkable bills.

 

Into this mess will stand the oratorical skills of our only board licensed surgeon, arguing for another override.  What will he say?

 

It better not be ³85% of our taxes are paid by summer people.²  That argument is deader than nub scallops.  All of those voters are looking, immediately, at the bills they have to pay.  The fact that people worth 100 times more than they do will pay 6x as much in property taxes wonıt wash.  They donıt want to give up the extra $35, especially if it is to a mystery.

 

It also better not be ³Give us the override or we will cancel athletics and fill the pool with sand.² After last year, the voters just donıt trust the threats.  And from what is happening on the rest of the Cape, they might be willing to push that.  Anyone for a $200 bus ride and a $1300 full day kindergarten?  Those threats only work if people know that it will happen.  They need to believe.  If the budget had been transparent all the way through (i.e. ³The third grade spends $400 in colored pencils²), then people could believe the threat.  We could challenge them to cut the money themselves.  But we have no transparency and therefore no trust that the cuts will be genuine. 

 

And it better not be ³Letıs get the best for our kids.² Because we will hear all about the Community School and the $10,737 we spend per student now and Buildings and Grounds and all of the rest of it. 

 

Tim would be on a Foolıs Errand.  He would invite a huge personal rebuke that would make the cemetery road fiasco look mild.  Whatever credibility he has with the town would crash.  Letıs not forget the Christine pulled a few more voters than Tim did in the last election. 

 

So, at the schools, we better have a Plan B and a Plan C. 

 

Plan B would be to accept that we surrendered all budget making ability this year and gave it to Libby and Phil Bartlett.  The School Committee botched the job the state gave it.   Itıs done.  So, put out the 17.4 million dollar budget tomorrow, make some ³quiet² 1.2 million cuts and donıt do anything on Town Meeting floor.  If anything, send the SC including the two new members, to put their shoulders to the wheel to get the other override passed. That is no slam dunk.

 

Plan C would be to figure out that the Town override isnıt going to fly, either. Then, we would need to make some very, very, very serious cuts around the place.  I think Westmoor might have a better chance than the school or the town might get on the override. 

 

Itıs not use pointing fingers at Christine and David here.  The budget has passed beyond them.  Itıs no use whining about the paper or the SC candidates.  All of the stars are lined up against the schools right now.  We are in a world of hurt and if jobs are to survive this spring,  the Schools better come up with a real good plan.

 

And it canıt be Plan A.  The doctor canıt save it.

 

B

 

P.S.  I think the SC is in a legal morass anyway.  If the budget needs to be reviewed and passed in the next few days, but we wonıt know what the final numbers are going to be until April, arenıt we breaking the law?  Christine, help me here.