[CabotCommunity] Budget Relalted

Mon Mar 3 11:51:14 EST 2008

Thanks to
more than 60 parents who came to attend the Cabot Community
Conversation meeting last week. We  hope you found the evening
informative and helpful
in understanding the current situation regarding the three issues -
strategic planning regarding the schools of the future, long-range
facilities planning, and the most pressing issue of school budget for
FY'09. 

There are three budget being discussed right now - Allocation Budget,
Maintenance of Effort budget, and Override budget.  Allocation budget
is the one that Mayor has allocated based on the money available
currently, Maintenance of Effort is the budget needed to maintain the
current programs in the schools, and the Override budget is the one
that is needed to to keep all the program where they should be.

If an additional funds
are not obtained through override, there will be deep cuts and these
changes will effect Cabot school and your children. Based
on the public comments and concerns, the School Committee and School
Superintendent, Dr. Jeffrey Young, is working together to reach a
compromise.

There is a lot of information out there to understand.  We will make
every effort to get this information to you.  For this reason, we will
do the following:

Attend relevant meetings;

Keep you up-to-date, via
emails, with all the information that we receive from the City and the
School Committee(these emails will have "BUDGET RELATED" as the subject
matter;

Create a thumbnail on Cabot PTO website for these issues; and 

Post the letters parent that have been sent to the Alderman, and/or to the press;

You may have many questions about the budget and the override. Please stay informed, try to get information to make an informed decision and ask questions.

Please feel free to contact Sarah Ecker, Co-chair of Move Newton Forward, and Cabot's Move Newton Forward Cabot School field coordinators, John Kett (johnakett at gmail.com) and Sarah Hemphill (sarahhemphill at rcn.com), as we make our way through this process this spring.

As we discussed on February 28th, from some Aldermen have
informed us that every Board member needs to hear some communication
from the public about the override.  So far, they are just hearing from
the folks who are against the override.

For effective communications and your voice to be heard,  please do take a moment to send a quick e-mail stating that: 

q      You attended a meeting at Cabot School about the override and have serious concerns about next year’s operating budget;

q      You believe Newton needs a realistic, winnable operating override;

q      The amount of funds that need to be raised through override needs to be determined soon; and

q      The plan should address the core needs of our city and schools, including funding to start work on a new Cabot School.

Your
e-mail message should go to all of the Aldermen.  You can do that by
sending your message to the Board's Clerk, David Olson and he will
forward it to the full Board.  His e-mail is:  dolson at newtonma.gov

Thanks again for your support.

 Archana Vahalia
Cabot PTO Co-President
auvpto at aol.com
617-244-1435

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