Pass the Override: Our Students Deserve More

Pass the Override: Our Students Deserve More

Last weekend, a couple was canvassing in our neighborhood. My son asked what they were doing. After explaining that they were talking to people about the city’s proposed override, I asked if he knew what that meant. He looked at me and without missing a beat said, “Yeah, it’s because we’re broke.”

Our city, he said, is broke.

I thought about this for a minute and explained that while the city isn’t technically broke — it’s not completely out of money — he was, in many ways, right. We’re definitely struggling. I told him there are a lot of factors involved, many complicated, but the one he could most relate to was the impact he was seeing and feeling: our schools are having to do more with less — and less. We talked about how the city is growing, which means more students in all of the schools — 266 in just the past few years. (My son saw this first-hand his last two years at Roosevelt. The school lost their computer and music rooms to create new kindergarten and first-grade classes.) At the same time, there have been staffing cuts. He is feeling it now at the middle school, where they had to create a combined seventh- and eighth-grade team after four positions were eliminated. There are now 15 classes at the middle school with more than 30 students! (At the high school, 81 classes have between 26 and 31 students.) My son is in those huge classes and on that combined team. As hard working as the teachers are (despite having some of the lowest salaries in the state), I know that their ability to provide personalized learning to a student body that is growing in size and diversity is compromised.

Is that what we want for our schools? Overcrowded classrooms and underpaid teachers and staff stretched thin? Do we want to turn back the progress we’ve made as a district? Would anyone be happy if we went back to the one-size-fits-all model where a teacher stands in front of the classroom and lectures for 45 minutes and students either get it or they don’t? Do we really want our kids thinking our city is broke?

I know I certainly don’t want that for my son, or for any of the kids in our city. They deserve more, and frankly, at the speed our world is changing, they have to have more. That’s why I’m voting on April 2 for the override. I hope you’ll read more about the override in the mayor’s blog or in the superintendent’s FY 20 Budget Message and strongly consider voting for it, too.

-- Lory Hough (Melrose parent)

Link to superintendent’sFY 20 Budget Message: http://melrosecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3542&Inline=True

Mayor Infurna’s budget blog:

https://mayorinfurna.wordpress.com/budget-and-override-information/