Fuggedabout It.
By Jim Conley • Feb 13th, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Tomorrow evening, Brookline Schools Superintendent Bill Lupini will present his 2009 Budget (Jaysis, another night out). And it looks like more deficit.
Here’s how we can save $800 thousand right off the bat - cut don’t pursue the world languages program increase to the Schools budget. It’s a great idea to have world languages (in fact my son allegedly knows some Chinese), but it’s not going to work at that funding level. In fact, I believe the study committee (whose booklet School Committee Chair Judy Meyers was waving around last night) called for twice that amount of spending.
Placing one language teacher per elementary school is not a program, it’s a set up to failure. And fail it will.
Hey, I have an idea - let’s use the money to save the Steps to Success program, that seems to be working.
Update: The Superintendent’s budget presentation will occur at 8:00 tomorrow in the auditorium of the Old Lincoln School. There are some mighty comfortable chairs in that room.
Update (2): In case the point has been buried, Lupini’s plan is to put one world languages teacher - that’s right, one - in each of the elementary schools. How much instruction is possible under that scenario? Not much.
Update (3): A clarification - the $800 thousand is not in the current Schools budget but would be the subject of an over-ride. Still not workable.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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IS BROOKLINE ALL ABOUT ITS SCHOOLS?
The answer is yes for many who moved to Brookline with its high real estate prices, its proximity for jobs/professions in Boston (and its environs) and its reputation for its excellent (as with beauty, in the eye of the beholder) schools, prepared to pay high property taxes. But some of these persons bail out of Brookline after their children conclude their public education, moving to a community with much lower real estate prices, less taxes and perhaps less diversity (also in the eye of the beholder in Brookline).
But to many, Brookline is indeed more than its schools. So discussions of the override should reflect the broad spectrum of what is Brookline, what should it be. And no, it is not just about the seniors either. Families tighten belts when faced with financial problems. Brookline needs belt tightening.