To the Editor:

Please Support the School Committees' Budgets as Presented.

In the privacy of a voting booth, we elected our school committees to keep a broad perspective of our communities' educational needs. I believe that as townsfolk we have the responsibility to respect their research, their deliberations, and their often soul-wrenching decisions regarding how best to attain excellence in our schools within the limits our communities can afford.

Sometimes we may disagree with committee recommendations, but unless circumstances are clearly extraordinary, considerable weight should be given to the fruits of the committees' labor. Their views are broad; they must consider their principle charge of attaining student excellence within the context of local, state, even federal spending, over which they have little, if any, control.

Many comments have been made in this forum and others citing the serious shortcomings of Williamstown's town meeting form of government. Many find it downright undemocratic. Often concerned citizens in our community wish to attend our usual once-a-year meeting, but for excellent reasons cannot. In a town that often professes to value “every voice heard,” a motion from the floor to substantially change the carefully-deliberated product of an elected committee further undermines the democratic process. One can have similar comments about Citizen Petitions. But that is a discussion for another day.

I strongly urge you to support those who are willing to do the challenging, time consuming, and often unrewarded work of serving on our committees. Please support the school budgets as presented.

Donna Carlstrom Wied
Williamstown, Mass.