School Violence and Budget Bootstrapping

This week Tewksbury made news all over Massachusetts with the antics of three (give or take) students writing threatening messages and smashing a stripped down D-Cell Alkaline battery to smithereens. Moreover, while administration, police, faculty, students, firefighters, bus-drivers and staff distinguished themselves with quick response times, appropriate action, and an enormous effort to communicate with families, the real news in Tewksbury is not about what happened at school. But, its about to be.

Every year the budget process represents, to I suspect many residents, a boring footnote in springtime activities. It is tedious, mind numbing in complexity, and regularly produces the same results: months of dire warning, panics, arguments on town floor, and then, often, a surprise influx of money.

Not this year. Every single person that’s involved with the budget that I’ve spoken with at various school committee meetings, selectmen meetings, finance committee meetings, and Town-wide budget subcommittee meetings agrees that for Fiscal year 2008 Tewksbury is in trouble to the tune of $3.5 million. Out of a $77 Million budget, $3.5 seems like a drop in the bucket. However, for a town that has cut back new growth, and a school department that has developed an unfortunate talent for reductions after four years of forced cuts, well there is not much left.

Which brings us to a somewhat perplexing question raised by quite a few folks involved in the budget process: why do we continually hit the essential services, public safety and schools, and leave non-essential services practically alone? The police department will likely have to cut 4-5 officers, the fire department may have to close a station for all or part of a year, and the school department is looking to cut around 30 teachers and staff.

Cuts like these affect public safety by significantly reducing response times. If the town loses an ambulance and the remaining crew is in south Tewksbury, who will answer the call in north Tewksbury?

What about the burgeoning drug trafficking in town? Already an estimated four officers according to Chief Donovan understaff the police department. How do we handle school threats appropriately, keep the drug dealers on the run, or stop bank robberies when we do not have enough smart and capable men and women wearing our uniforms and watching our backs?

With all these cuts, why is the library safe? Why the Senior center? Why the Recreation department? Sure, those departments are all having their budgets cut too, but the library is only cutting one part time employee, one teenager that shelves books, and not staffing the Assistant Director position. I use the library often and I respect the people that work there and value the service they offer, but the library is not a golden goose we cannot touch. I am not alone; there is real dissent among the groups of people working on these budget reductions about what to cut and why.

John Mackey said it best, that if we keep cutting the biggest departments soon we are going to cannibalize essential services. Before we throw education and public safety under the bus, we need to reconsider what is essential. Before we tell kids they cannot have textbooks or charge families a fee for nearly everything (full day kindergarten, pricier hot lunches, bussing, athletic fees, activity fees, parking fees) we ought to share some of that pain across the town. I am not a fan of rubbish fees, but I am less a fan of lower property values because the perceived (incorrect) value of education in this town hurts home sales.

Much of the problem boils down to a mental partitioning many of us make when thinking about the budget: the Town Side versus the School Side. As if the two are adversaries. How can that be? Homeowners pay property tax to one office, not two. We all share in the indivisible goods provided by the services in the town. Parts of those indivisible services include education, though at first glance that may not seem the case. Massachusetts and Federal laws require the town to fund special education, to pay for placements at the regional vocational school, to pay for health insurance, pensions, and so forth for employees. Yet, every year the school is given its chunk of revenue and told to deal with it. So while fixed costs rise well beyond the control of the school department (tuition for out of town placements rose by nearly 50% in one year), the department is required to cut every year to essentially level fund. Still, the town is mandated to provide education for all eligible children.

Every time the school department and committee members talk about the impossible position for schools at public meetings, “town side” managers roll their eyes and undermine the nature of the beast, that it is the Town’s responsibility to educate, not just the teachers and parents.

The various demographic groups must share the burdens of the budget shortfall. Not to do so is discriminatory, punishing families for having children and choosing to raise them in Tewksbury. Now, after years and years of substantial cuts in the operations budgets to fund ever rising fixed costs, the cuts are hitting other departments, harder in the public safety area. No one likes or frankly, supports these cuts. However, with slow growth in town, a reduction in funds from the state, and no one-time monies ready to dig us out of the hole, the town still has to present a balanced budget.

I’m encouraged by the direction of the new Board of Selectmen and a real attempt to create a sustainable financial plan to put these budget woes behind us with what I call Selissen’s Manifesto, the Three-Year Plan Task Force.

Like so many, I am hopeful that Cressman’s office can pull a rabbit out of its hat in the form of some accounting gymnastics or obtain some help from the legislature. But I am not holding my breath. The more residents that come to town meeting can raise these questions and make significant changes on town meeting floor about budget reductions. Residents can ask committee members why certain cuts were chosen and residents can vote down the budget.

When this budget comes to Town Meeting floor on Monday, if the money articles are not deferred, passage will result in a very different town come July 1. In some ways, essential services will be stripped down and smashed against a wall until unrecognizable, just like that D-cell battery at the high school.