BACKGROUND TO THE PETITION:
The Wayland School Committee has said they have not heard significant citizen concern that their proposed 4.5% budget increase for the new tax year (FY2016) is too high. School spending and associated costs account for over 70% of the Town’s total budget, yet the School Committee continues to exceed the Finance Committee’s budget guidelines.
The increase for these most recent two years is 10.8%, even though enrollments over the past 10 years have dropped 9.4%.
Wayland citizens who are deeply concerned about runaway spending, poor fiscal controls, and the lack of comprehensive, long-term planning for how our tax dollars are spent, are circulating a petition to the School Committee, Finance Committee and Selectmen to register our discontent.
We believe increases in the School budget can be mitigated WITHOUT reducing services, and our petition urges the School Committee to hear our concerns and find better ways to manage the School Department budget.
If you'd like to show your concern and help control spending and tax increases without cutting services, please sign this petition and send this link to others you know who support this message. See Petition Text below....
PETITION TEXT:
I do not support the proposed 4.5% increase in the FY16 school budget, on top of this year’s 6.1% increase. Both exceed the Finance Committee’s guidelines. They represent an actual 10.8% increase over these two years, which is unsustainable for many taxpayers. Furthermore, student enrollment is down 9.4% in the last 10 years yet these inordinate increases continue.
I therefore respectfully request that:
• any increase in the school budget to cover contractual, state-mandated and other existing obligations be offset by other cost reductions and/or new revenues to the extent possible, without reducing current services;
• any newly planned positions be considered only if other positions are reduced accordingly;
• the School Committee provide the public with a sustainable five-year budget plan, as requested by the Wayland Finance Director.
Updates
February 3, 2015
I am currently finalizing a formal letter to the Finance Committee and the School Committee to present our position on the FY16 budget guidelines. We are preparing to request a formal review session to address the disconnect between declining enrollment and rising expenditures.
33 Comments
I sign this not because I'm anti-school. My mother taught school for 38 years so I appreciate how hard teachers work. But we must learn to stay within our means. Wayland's ever increasing taxes are not sustainable. Please endeavor to find a way to level fund the school budget. Thank you.
I am a senior on a fixed budget. Please consider how your decisions affect the WHOLE town!
Providing personal computers to all Middle School and High School students is an unnecessary and unproven excess indicative of a long history of over-.the -top spending.
In order to maintain a community which is well-balanced including 30% of families who have school-age children along with retirees we must control costs. If costs rise at a rate greater than inflation or those who can afford it on a fixed income then the town or migrate toward the younger population and lose the wisdom and richness of it's older population. Ultimately this budget decision we will go to town meeting and people show up will vote on its magnitude with privacy in their hands. It's not hard to imagine that an overly large request for budgetary increases would have a better chance of being defeated if it was perceived to be unfair and or unnecessary. Herein lies the risk of asking for too much.
Why is the school budget increse 6X the rate of inflation? The latest inflation rate for the United States is 0.8% through the 12 months ended December 2014, as published by the US government on January 16, 2015.
The cost of living in Wayland has just risen by far too much. With an enrollment drop you should be able to cut somewhere.
Massachusetts
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BACKGROUND TO THE PETITION:
The Wayland School Committee has said they have not heard significant citizen concern that their proposed 4.5% budget increase for the new tax year (FY2016) is too high. School spending and associated costs account for over 70% of the Town’s total budget, yet the School Committee continues to exceed the Finance Committee’s budget guidelines.
The increase for these most recent two years is 10.8%, even though enrollments over the past 10 years have dropped 9.4%.
Wayland citizens who are deeply concerned about runaway spending, poor fiscal controls, and the lack of comprehensive, long-term planning for how our tax dollars are spent, are circulating a petition to the School Committee, Finance Committee and Selectmen to register our discontent.
We believe increases in the School budget can be mitigated WITHOUT reducing services, and our petition urges the School Committee to hear our concerns and find better ways to manage the School Department budget.
If you'd like to show your concern and help control spending and tax increases without cutting services, please sign this petition and send this link to others you know who support this message. See Petition Text below....
PETITION TEXT:
I do not support the proposed 4.5% increase in the FY16 school budget, on top of this year’s 6.1% increase. Both exceed the Finance Committee’s guidelines. They represent an actual 10.8% increase over these two years, which is unsustainable for many taxpayers. Furthermore, student enrollment is down 9.4% in the last 10 years yet these inordinate increases continue.
I therefore respectfully request that:
• any increase in the school budget to cover contractual, state-mandated and other existing obligations be offset by other cost reductions and/or new revenues to the extent possible, without reducing current services;
• any newly planned positions be considered only if other positions are reduced accordingly;
• the School Committee provide the public with a sustainable five-year budget plan, as requested by the Wayland Finance Director.
Updates
February 3, 2015
I am currently finalizing a formal letter to the Finance Committee and the School Committee to present our position on the FY16 budget guidelines. We are preparing to request a formal review session to address the disconnect between declining enrollment and rising expenditures.
33 Comments
Fiscal Accountability is a good lesson for the School Committee to model and teach its students. With reduced student enrollments over past decade, it is more than time to stop the increases and look for ways to live within reduced (or level) funding budgets.
I sign this not because I'm anti-school. My mother taught school for 38 years so I appreciate how hard teachers work. But we must learn to stay within our means. Wayland's ever increasing taxes are not sustainable. Please endeavor to find a way to level fund the school budget. Thank you.
I am a senior on a fixed budget. Please consider how your decisions affect the WHOLE town!
Providing personal computers to all Middle School and High School students is an unnecessary and unproven excess indicative of a long history of over-.the -top spending.
In order to maintain a community which is well-balanced including 30% of families who have school-age children along with retirees we must control costs. If costs rise at a rate greater than inflation or those who can afford it on a fixed income then the town or migrate toward the younger population and lose the wisdom and richness of it's older population. Ultimately this budget decision we will go to town meeting and people show up will vote on its magnitude with privacy in their hands. It's not hard to imagine that an overly large request for budgetary increases would have a better chance of being defeated if it was perceived to be unfair and or unnecessary. Herein lies the risk of asking for too much.
Why is the school budget increse 6X the rate of inflation? The latest inflation rate for the United States is 0.8% through the 12 months ended December 2014, as published by the US government on January 16, 2015.
The cost of living in Wayland has just risen by far too much. With an enrollment drop you should be able to cut somewhere.
Massachusetts
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Fiscal Accountability is a good lesson for the School Committee to model and teach its students. With reduced student enrollments over past decade, it is more than time to stop the increases and look for ways to live within reduced (or level) funding budgets.