Column Regarding Public Education

The Board of Selectmen’s meeting March 21st, brought Tewksbury’s budget into sharp relief in a way, perhaps, unintended by the parents’ group U:25 which presented that evening to a sometimes unsympathetic Board and defensive town leaders.

The U:25 group seeks class sizes under 25, a number seen by education professionals as a benchmark for an effective learning environment. Class sizes throughout the school system from Kindergarten through Grade 12 struggle against this number with far too many classrooms exceeding its limits. Some classes in the high school have more students than available desks. Some children in the elementary schools suffer significant challenges with reading due to a lack of specialized teachers and large class sizes. So, the U:25 group has a point.

But the problem extends far beyond class size for Tewksbury schools. Furniture from the high school is hard worn and as old as the structure itself. Computers, an expensive and necessary part of modern education, are either broken, work poorly, and in too few numbers in the high school and many elementary classrooms. Reading teachers and reading programs stretch beyond limitations, due to the number of student referrals and lack of teachers. Fee schedules for activities, parking and more begin a march into the mindset of parents and the structure of the budget.

Over the last five years the school budget contracted, and contracted and contracted. Redundant to say and damaging to do. Per pupil spending in Tewksbury is one of the lowest in the state. Experiments in busing result in young middle school children riding with older high school students. Experiments in Kindergarten education saw significant changes to the schedule to avoid the expense of a mid-day bus. The School Board works very hard for creative solutions to significant budget problems. Contractual obligations from collective bargaining agreements create, effectively, a standing deficit where fixed costs increase every year. When met with a levelly funded budget, other budget items get cut to meet those fixed (but increasing) costs. Effectively, the school department’s budget, while at first blush a very large number, actually represents a department so tight that any surprises may push the system over its tipping point.

The U:25 group sought to move funds from other town departments into the school budget as a way to increase the budget marginally without needing to increase taxes. Their attempt, while admirable, brought quite a stir to that Selectman’s meeting as department heads came forward one by one to defend their budgets. Town departments hardly possess the fiscal functionality within their budgets to do little more than triage problems and slap band-aids on crises.

The police department has fewer officers than ten years ago and a rising, dangerous drug trade operating in and around our towns. The fire department finds that lowering the budget further may require closing the North Fire Station, a situation untenable with the growth Tewksbury recently experienced. The Department of Public Works barely has enough money for operating costs and the library, with a lower budget, may lose its accreditation. Town reserves are so low as to threaten the bond rating and more and more the budgets rely on one-time monies to meeting level funding.

The Tewksbury budget is flirting with disaster. Scott Consaul and Keith Rauseo of the school board both shook their heads but agreed that now may be the time to ask the Town for a Proposition 2 ½ override, across the board. And they are right.

At some point living in Tewksbury needs to be pleasant again. No more obscene cell towers in picturesque parks to reap a relatively small payoff. No more Superfund sites. No more driving around town on moon patrol with jarring teeth due to patched and rutted roads. No more overburdened classrooms and teachers. No more selling off parts of the town for questionable development that threatens the very way of life and character essential to Tewksbury.

What makes Tewksbury great is not a Wal-mart or a Home-Depot or even a mall. It is Tewksbury’s open spaces that offer a treat for an afternoon walk with the family dog. It is Tewksbury’s youth sports programs where families gather weekly to celebrate kids and have fun. It is generations coming together for Fourth of July activities and summer concerts on the common. This year, generations may need to come together again on Town Meeting floor, a sight rarely seen, but necessary to preserve the interests of all residents.

The time has come for this town, having enjoyed lower taxes than surrounding communities for years, to make some hard choices and consider an override. Residents need a budget that looks beyond the current crisis and accounts for impending long term needs. Tewksbury cannot support constricting the budget again and again. Budgetary seams are popping all over the place as the fabric of the town pulls tighter and tighter. No one wants to raise taxes and no one likes to pay taxes. Households on fixed incomes or with small incomes suffer when taxes rise, unquestionably and regrettably. But, we must reassess our priorities. Last week’s meeting clearly showed the town cannot continue to function without increasing the “inputs,” as Mr. Cressman put it. Its time to grow Tewksbury from within and stop the dependence on ever decreasing state aid and dubious development at the cost of our schools, our safety, and our way of life.