The Westbrook School Committee approved its proposed $26.6 million budget last Wednesday night.
The committee voted, 5-1, to approve the budget and send it on to the City Council for final approval. Chairman Colleen Hilton and committee members Jay Casavant, Don Perkins, Cheryl Roma and Mary Hall voted in favor of the budget. Committee member Tim Crellin cast the sole dissenting vote. Committee member Greg Smith was not present at the meeting.
While the total school budget is up over last year’s budget, thanks to an additional $2.1 million in state money that the school department received this year, the amount of the school budget coming from property taxes is down $871,000 or just over 5.5 percent from last year’s budget.
In contrast to the May 11 School Committee meeting, where the room was almost full of people supporting the proposed school budget, only about 15 people attended the committee’s public hearing on the budget.
There was very little comment from the public during the public hearing. Those who spoke were in support of the proposed budget.
Ann Brown, a member of the Wescott Junior High School PTO, said she felt school budgets have already been cut enough, and she would rather see more money spent on schools than have that money go to offsetting property taxes. “Tax relief in this city is not worth the tax benefits that we are going to receive,” she said.
Following the public hearing, Crellin said he chose not to support the budget because he did not feel it went far enough to provide tax relief. “I have to say that my position all along is we could have taken a more conservative approach on behalf of the taxpayers,” Crellin said. “My personal feeling is that there is still a lot of room to make cuts in the budget.”
Roma said she felt the budget was a responsible one. “Quality education comes with a price,” said Roma. “I think we’ve put together a frugal and good budget.”
Mary Hall, the chairman of the School Finance Committee, said the committee took its work very seriously, and she hoped the City Council would keep that in mind when considering the school budget. “The cuts that we made out of this budget, I took to heart,” said Hall. “I’m hoping that when it goes to the city, they’ll take a long hard look at it and see what we’ve done.”
In other news, prior to the committee’s public hearing on the budget, two members of the public criticized the school administration for the way they handled a recent series of bomb threats at Wescott Junior High School.
Two weeks ago, school staff members evacuated students and staff twice as school administrators along with police officers and firefighters investigated threats written on a bathroom wall at the school. School administrators allowed students back into the school once they felt it was safe.
The school did not notify parents about the threats until the afternoon of May 13, a decision that has upset some parents concerned about their children’s safety. School officials said they consulted with public safety officials and made the decision not to immediately notify parents because they were concerned about hindering the investigation into the threats, and they were concerned that calling attention to the threats could encourage more threats.
Ray Richardson of Graham Road said he was extremely angry at the way the schools chose to handle the threats. “I cannot believe that you would not notify my family that my child’s safety is threatened,” Richardson said.
Richardson then attempted to call for the resignation of Superintendent Stan Sawyer over the matter. However, as soon as he began to make the demand that Sawyer resign, Hilton immediately cut him off and told Richardson that personal attacks would not be tolerated.
Perkins, who has a child at Wescott, said he thought the school handled the situation properly. “I appreciate the way this has been managed,” Perkins said. “From my point of view, there’s been an enormous amount of thought put into (the process of dealing with bomb threats), and it’s been done very well.”
Tony Bessey of Mechanic Street disagreed with Perkins, and said he felt the schools were “playing games with children’s lives.”
Bessey said he couldn’t believe parents were not notified about the bomb threats when they first happened. “Not only was it grossly irresponsible,” he said, “it’s criminal.”
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