Northbridge Town Meeting votes to put tax override for schools on election ballot
The vote at Town Meeting was 413 in favor of placing the override on the ballot, and 205 voting in opposition.
Following approval of Town Meeting, which approved the question on Tuesday night, voters in the town will decide in two weeks on whether or not to approve a $4.95 million override to support Northbridge schools.
"I'm a big supporter of public schools and it is not about having the resources to send my kids somewhere else, it is about investing in a town and a community that has a lot of new people," Liz Roach, a parent of two Northbridge Elementary School students, told the Telegram & Gazette. "The town has a lot of potential, and instead of arguing about what happened in the past, we need to look at where we are currently and look at all the families who want their kids to have a quality public education."
If the override is approved, the money would be used to help balance the budget over the next five years, with $700,000 being factored into the budget for next fiscal year, and the amount marginally increasing over the following five years.
Heather Adler, a member of the Northbridge School Committee who presented the Town Meeting article to put the override question on the ballot, said that over the years, local and state Chapter 70 funding have not kept pace with the rise of inflation.
"The amount that is provided from the state and the local level can't keep up with the rising costs – and our district only spends 1.7% over the required minimum of what our sister districts are spending, so we can't keep up with inflation," Adler said. "We've tried to keep up with cuts and moving positions around where we can, and leaning into our revolving account – which is intended to be an emergency savings, to manage the deficit."
According to the School Committee, if the override is not approved, cuts will have to be made, including reductions to school staff, the dissolution of middle school sports teams, and a reduction in AP courses taught at the high school. School bus fees may also be increased.
"If we don't have the override approved, there are nine positions we are looking at moving, including the librarian at the elementary school. A majority of the cuts would be at the elementary school because in the past we have looked at the middle and high school to make some cuts," Adler said.
Northbridge has 1,838 students, including elementary, middle and high school.
Interest in getting the override approved has led to increased political activity among some Northbridge parents and concerned residents, such as Roach, who along with other parents launched Residents for a Stronger Northbridge to encourage approval of the override.
"We tried to vote for an override in 2014 and it was voted down," Roach said. "Consistently I guess there are about 2,500 people in Northbridge that will vote against spending more for the schools. Our position is the school budget is the most scrutinized budget. We are hoping that this activates a lot of the newer people in our community."
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Northbridge Town Meeting puts tax override for schools on ballot
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