HALLELUJAH!
I frankly do not know what else to say.
Somebody lend me a defibrillator.
The Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District School Committee tonight (June 23rd) astonishingly RE-VOTED and re-certified the fiscal 2012 budget to include the so-called $500k "give back" to the towns for last year's over-funded school budget (approximately $1 million).
There is no further need to discuss the controversy, anger and angst that has now been extinguished by this momentous decision. All that is left is to offer kudos and congratulations to the School Committee for having stepped up at the last minute to end the issue in a right, fair and just manner and also to those community leaders and citizens that helped play a major role in this positive outcome. You know who you are.
This also means that Hamilton will not need to hold the Special Town Meeting that had been scheduled for next Monday, which is likewise a good thing for our community.
THANK YOU again, School Committee, for doing the right thing. I would agree with Hamilton Selectman Jeff Hubbard who said:
"I think this is a night where we can turn the page."
Now......about of those fiscal recommendations from the Operational Audit?
(Hey... you didn't think we'd let you off the hook that easily did you?)
Great news...now we shall see if the schools work on the audit report which actually is over due,,,,if they would use some of audit suggestion,s they might find a budget next year that won't need an over ride.....
ReplyDeleteSo glad Jeff Hubbard and Mark stuck to there guns (ha ha). Don't know who Jeff was refering to when he said the towns people were saying ok at 300k - basically to make this go away. That is the thinking that got us into the mess we are in. Congrats to the other selectmen for thier votes.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful, as well, that we can put this immediate issue behind us - for now. But I am also grateful for people like you and others in EIE who are vigilant to keep the town fiscally accountable to the taxpayers. Frankly, I, too, was disappointed with Mr. Hubbard's vote the other evening. What the townspeople voted for during the last town meeting was reasonable and, frankly, generous.
ReplyDeleteObviously the right thing to do. It's regrettable that it took an historic turnout of incumbents to expose the Committee's remarkably tin ear in these matters. Gone are the disingenuous and mawkish appeals to "We're doing it for the kids," and everyone realizes that fiscal responsibility is now the new normal.
ReplyDeleteQE