School committee votes to try once on override request
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The School Committee took a unanimous vote to seek only one try at the ballot box this year as they attempt to pass a $295,000 override request through the two towns.

School Committee member Leonard Beaton said he thought it might be a good idea to let residents know there was only going to be "one bite of the apple" this year and to work under that process. Last year, the School Committee attempted a second override after the first one failed. That second effort also failed.

"The numbers are there for the public to see," Beaton said. "We've done our due diligence."

School Committee member Michelle Gianino expressed concern that even having the discussion may imply to voters the money being requested is not important.

Beaton said many people vote no on a second request because it is a second request.

"We've heard it before, 'No means no'," Beaton said.

Other Committee members wonder, if there was a second override, how it would possible to lower the $295,000 figure.

"It's black and white," Committee member Ellen Holmes said. "There is no gray area as there was in the past."

The override, which would increase the funding to the school district above the 2.5 percent plus growth that each town has already committed to give, will pay for a specific list of items that have already been determined by the committee and the district.

"This does not get us back to where we were last year," Committee member Gwen Farley said.

The Committee has spent the last five months debating the budget and eliminating some of the recommended items from the superintendent's proposed budget.

Holmes added that the knowledge that there would only be one override attempt would give "closure" so students and parents know what the next year will bring before the end of the school year.

In other business:

• The district received a clean audit report, according to Scott McIntrye of Melanson Heath & Company, who presented the district's management letter and other documents to the School Committee. The audit, which was completed in the middle of March, has already been reviewed by the district's financial management team and changes are in the works or already have been completed.

• The Committee also voted to approve the elementary summer-school program proposed by assistant Principals Andrea McGrath and Patty Marquis.

"The alignment goal is to prevent the regression of these kids (over the summer)," McGarth said.

The Briggs summer-school program will run three days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) from June 24 to July 17 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and cost $75. It is geared to students between first and fourth grades.

The Westminster Elementary School program is also geared for students in first to fourth grades, but will run from July 1 to 24 from 8:30 to 11 a.m., also on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

• The Committee also approved the creation of a new summer band program for elementary-school students that would run for 90 minutes two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) from July 1 to August 15.

The program will be taught by three Oakmont students - J.D. Rogers, Sean Synder, and Kylie Brough - and it will be overseen by Ed Tree, the band director at John R. Briggs. The program costs $40.

Rogers said they are working to have an end-of-summer concert before the summer band concerts on Westminster's Town Common.

• Superintendent Michael Zapantis announced the resignation of Westminster Elementary and Meetinghouse schools Principal David Marble. Marble has accepted a new position as principal in Billerica.

"I am quite certain that the time is right for this change, for me, my schools, the district," Marble wrote in his letter to Zapantis.