Letter: Support the School Budget at the Williamstown Town Meeting
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To the editor:
Due to an overnight school field trip, I am unable to attend Williamstown's Town Meeting, much to my regret.
I encourage voters to support the proposed school budget as presented. While the percentage increase is substantial, difficult decisions have been made to keep it as low as possible while maintaining current levels of service.
I also oppose the proposed amendment to add $120,000 for a math interventionist position.
Let me be clear: I value our schools and deeply respect the work of our educators. I spent the first 25 years of my career as a teacher, primarily in mathematics, and administrator in independent schools, and the past nine years as a principal in a public school. I also support the thoughtful and thorough process that produced the budget before town meeting. The superintendent and School Committee developed this budget carefully, and the Finance Committee reviewed it within the context of the town's overall financial picture and endorsed it.
Members of the Finance Committee have rightly noted that rising costs are placing increasing pressure on residents. Many in our community are feeling the strain of living here. Those realities and the process that produced the proposed budget should guide our decisions.
Adding $120,000 at town meeting, while permitted, is not sound policy. It bypasses the process designed to balance priorities across the entire town. It risks undoing the careful work of the committees charged with considering long-term sustainability, not simply immediate needs, however worthy. Most importantly, funding a new position is not a one-time expense. It increases future budgets without a clear plan to reduce costs elsewhere or generate new revenue beyond higher property taxes.
A vote against this amendment is not a vote against our schools. It is a vote for fiscal discipline, for respecting the process, and for making sure decisions are made thoughtfully and collaboratively rather than in a single emotional moment on the Town Meeting floor.
Just as importantly, a "no" vote does not mean doing nothing. There are practical ways to strengthen math support now. The district can evaluate the effectiveness of the new curriculum at the end of the year to better understand both strengths and gaps. Existing staff time can be coordinated for targeted intervention blocks. Peer or cross-grade tutoring could be expanded. Volunteers, including retired educators, college students, and community members, could be invited and trained to provide supplemental support.
Existing professional development resources could be directed toward best practices in targeted intervention. If the school determines that a dedicated interventionist is the highest priority, it could make the difficult choice to lay off a teacher and increase class sizes modestly and fund that position within the existing budget.
These are steps that can begin immediately while allowing the district to assess needs carefully and bring forward a well-vetted, sustainable proposal through the regular budget process in a future year.
I urge voters to reject this amendment, not because I do not support education, and math education in particular, but because I support the work of the superintendent, the School Committee, the Finance Committee, the town manager, the Select Board and everyone else who has worked hard over the past several months to develop a spending plan that does the greatest good for the greatest number.
John 'Jay' Merselis III
Williamstown, Mass.
Tags: annual town meeting,
