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Mayor says he'll vote 'yes' on revised school budget
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said he will support a revised school budget on June 3
Mayor says he'll vote 'yes' on revised school budget Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said he will support a revised school budget on June 3 Check out this story on burlingtonfreepress.com: http://bfpne.ws/1nfZb00
Elizabeth Murray, Free Press Staff Writer Published 11:07 p.m. ET May 19, 2014 | Updated 7:05 a.m. ET May 20, 2014
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, center, addresses school budget concerns at a news conference at C.P. Smith Elementary School on Monday afternoon. (Photo: EMILY MCMANAMY/FREE PRESS )Buy Photo
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said Monday that he would be voting for the revised school budget in a special election on June 3.
"I believe the School Board elected in March has demonstrated through repeated steps that it is serious about cleaning up the schools' finances," Weinberger said during a news conference on the lawn of C.P. Smith Elementary School. "My support of the budget is, in part, a reflection of my belief that it is important to support this board's ongoing effort to put our school system on more stable footing."
Weinberger said the board has much work to do to better manage district finances and work on controlling unsustainable tax increases. However, he said board members have proven themselves this year, and residents should support the work the board has done so far so commissioners can continue to improve in the future.
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"The school district faces major challenges continuing to modernize its facilities and meet the emerging educational needs of the community, while at the same time containing the costs this modernization requires," Weinberger said. "My administration will continue to support and challenge the district to do more in these areas in the months ahead through the School Board and City Council-approved cost-control measures that I first proposed last January and through other efforts. It will be very important that the district make significant progress in all these areas before next Town Meeting Day."
Burlington City Councilor Dave Hartnett, School Board Commissioners Keith Pillsbury and Scot Shumski call on Mayor Miro Weinberger to allow automatic distribution of new absentee ballots for upcoming special election. EMILY McMANAMY/FREE PRESS
Several parents also spoke in support of the budget during the news conference, saying that voters should approve this year's revised budget so the school board could begin work on next year's budget before Town Meeting Day.
"We feel that the voters spoke on Town Meeting Day, and wanted fiscal mismanagement to be considered, and I think rightly so," Burlington resident and parent Sam Wool said. "I support this school budget because we have now made a step in the right direction. ... To punish our children for fiscal mistakes that were made, budgetary mistakes that were made, is the wrong way to go about it."
School Board Finance Committee Chairwoman Miriam Stoll said the board is taking the revision very seriously and is taking steps to remedy the situation. Stoll asked community members to vote "yes" with Weinberger to "clean up the mess."
Later in the evening, the Finance Committee met for more than three hours to discuss a default budget on which the school district would operate if the revised budget fails on June 3. Though most of the meeting was spent debating the process by which cuts would be made, the committee agreed on a budget to be presentedto the entire board later in the week.
Only Commissioner Scot Shumski was opposed to the default budget, which represented $1.3 million in cuts from the proposed revised budget of $67.4 million. The budget represented cuts in areas such as athletics, consultants for the district, transportation for students who fail to qualify for free and reduced lunch, and an English Language Learning teaching position that was set to be added next year.
School Bard Chairman Patrick Halladay argued that identifying specific cuts would give voters a better idea of what they would be deciding on June 3.
"This level of cuts ... is really hard work," Halladay said. "We would like to provide voters with information as they're walking into the booth. ... It's easy to be in favor of an additional $400,000 to be cut somewhere. It's hard to be in favor of getting rid of summer school. I'm using summer school as a straw man, but that will resonate where people will really understand the choice they are making."
Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.
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