Public Comment

Transcript (~20 min @ 1:10)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:17 Speaker 1: Good evening.

▶ 1:18 Speaker 2: Good evening. Thank you for having me here. Sure. Uh, my name is Tom Cardhouse and I live on Sheffield Sheffield Road here in Melrose. Uh, I'm here tonight to address you as a co-chair of the Gold Melrose campaign. And as a parent, uh, first thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I recognize this is a stressful time of year and there are no perfect solutions. Uh, and that's why it's so imperative that we have community engagement, and you get to hear from, from all of us. Um, I'd like to start more from the angle of co-chair, uh, of the campaign to support our students, our teachers, and our community via the override. You know, there were a few arguments presented against the override on Monday night, and that I've heard elsewhere that I found really intriguing. Um, the first was the comparison to the Melrose School system of the eighties and nineties. I didn't grow up here, so I did what I normally do when I went looking for data. Uh, luckily for me, the National Center for Education Statistics has information going back to 1989. I'd like to highlight a few takeaways. Uh, all of which are based on comparing Melrose to the average of 22 area districts, uh, including Melrose from 1990 to 2002, Melrose per pupil expenditures, a averaged 51st percentile with some years as low as 22nd, and others as high as 70th. In that timeframe, our per pupil expenditure averaged roughly 3.4% below the peer group. But in short, Melrose was competitive with every surrounding town. Let's compare that to the recent times. Unfortunately, we only have dated a fiscal year 22, but importantly, that does reflect the last override from 2010 to 2021. Though in those same statistics, Melrose ranked 11th, averaged 11th of this, of the town of the surrounding towns, and our average was 18.3% below the peer group. In 2021, it was 19.6% below the peer group. We've lost our competitiveness.

▶ 3:29 Speaker 2: Um, and I just wanted that to sink in for a second. We're 22nd of 22 in fiscal year 21 after passing a $5.2 million Overrate not before. We're still at the bottom of the list. We're not overspending, we're not being frivolous. In fact, if the current budget is allowed to go through as is current in its current state, we'll, we will barely be scraping by. That's scary. Um, let's be be clear like sky isn't falling. Our schools aren't failing. Uh, our educators and administrators have done an amazing job with the limited resources they have. You can see that in the outcomes for our students, which are at or above the peer group medium, like this is fantastic. Some might highlight as the reason that we don't need to invest more. So I might say that that's good enough. I don't know about you, but I've never striven for good enough. I don't want that for my kids. And the Melrose of the eighties and nineties that is so highly revered, didn't want that either. And you can see that based on how they spent and invested in education. That's not really the point here, though. The point is that this is all at risk under the current budget. We'll lose 13 educators and we won't fail. We'll lay off 13 educators and we won't fill in additional four slots that are coming open due to retirement. How much longer can our educators and students achieve these outcomes when we continue to push them to the edge and underfund and under resource them? These, these results can't continue. Eventually we will fall, be be fall behind. That's the negative way to look at it. The more exciting way to look at it is if we can achieve these levels with minimal funding. Like what are our students and our teachers capable of if they're properly resourced.

▶ 5:28 Speaker 2: I had like to find that out, and I think we owe that to our students to find out. The second point I heard from, from last Monday was around the rapid growth in expenses, um, at the school and city level. Frankly, I was a little confused by this because that's exactly our point. It's not the point against the override. It's the point for the override. The, and I suppose the difference may come down to how you categorize, review these, these expenses. If you view them as discretionary or not, they largely are not. We need a minimum number of people to operate all the city services. We need to pay them fairly to get them in the seats. We can see that we're not doing this just looking at the fire department, which has had several unfilled positions for the last year. We can't get people to come here to work for us. This is a problem. Our city healthcare costs are skyrocketing. That's outside of our control. Our out of district, out of district placement costs are skyrocketing. That's outside of our control. The inflation in the general economy has been above, has been high for the last several years above the 2.5% property tax increase level that's outside of our control. We need the override precisely to combat these costs, to put ourselves back in a position to be able to be more proactive in how we deal with them. On that point, when we think about out of district replacements, those are really expensive out. The number of out of district students has risen from 50 to 67 since pre override that 17 incremental students had roughly $100,000 per student all averages. That's $1.7 million. That's $1.7 million that comes out of the expenses that we could, funds that we can put towards educators that are sitting in the classrooms with our children. Guess what happens when that happens? More kids end up going out of district. That cost increase and then it further reduces it. This is a really negative cycle. We are not in a strong enough fiscal position to fix this, and we need to change that. We're making some steps this year with Superintendent Miss's program on languages. I'm thankful that staying in the budget, regardless of which one passes, we need more of those. We need them now. Um, the,

▶ 7:41 Speaker 2: you know, the last point is simply around timing. Um, I know this feels fast. It is, but that's because the cuts that are coming down the road are coming quickly July 1st. These teachers lose their jobs. August. Our kids go into the schools that are underfunded and can't support them like we are in the midst

▶ 8:03 Speaker 2: of contract negotiations with public safety officials. Can we fund those with you? If we don't pass this? I'm not so sure. And if we have to fund those, what do we have to cut? We've cut all the fat. We've been cutting muscle and bone for years now. There's only so much more we can go before we're, you know, whatever. I'll skip that analogy, but, so that's sort of the view as co-chair. We need this by July 1st. I'd like to take a minute to address you as a father. I have two children in the Winthrop School, one of whom currently qualifies for and is receiving extra help from the school for A DHD right now. He's getting the help he needs. He's worked his tail off to catch up with his peers, and I'm super proud of him.

▶ 8:54 Speaker 2: Also need to say thank you to his teacher, Ms. Pepe, who's a rockstar. We love you. Um, if this override doesn't go through, he may lose that help and that support and the attention he's received. Winthrop, the school that he's at is losing one special educator. Uh, his grade, which is one of the bubble years, is losing a cohort. This means he's going from a class with 20 kids to one with maybe 27 or 28.

▶ 9:24 Speaker 2: And in addition, whichever whoever's teaching him has less support from the school. Uh, doesn't matter how good that teacher is, they just simply won't have the time or the resources to make sun, to make space for my son and his needs, or for other students in the class who have special needs. By the way, pre covid, that number was about six 50. Currently we're at about 770 students with special needs. That number is skyrocketing and we're pulling back on resources to, to the met. That just doesn't work. Uh, so I'm terrified what this means for my son as superintendent ERO said the other night, even one bad year can have a lifetime impact on a student. Uh, I'm saying this as someone with means like, we have a diagnosis, we know the problem. We can afford a tutor. We have resources. Um, and I'm still terrified. Is even an hour or two with a tutor can't make up for a suboptimal 30 hours a week in the classroom. More so. What about everybody else? What about those who can't afford tutor tutors? Those who don't even know there's a problem yet? Good luck diagnosing it. If the teachers can't focus on the kids. Um, those who have worked so hard to keep up and are now at risk at backsliding, we need to support all of our students and we need the resources to do that. Uh, without an override, many students will lose the only support system that they have that can't be allowed to happen. Uh, so we have a choice to make, and you all have a choice to make as a committee. Uh, I hope you vote to allow us to make it as a community and to do so before it's too late. Thank you for your time and consideration.

▶ 11:23 Speaker 1: Good evening esteemed committee members. Thank you for having me. Um, my name is Kaitlyn Beatty. I've lived in Melrose almost seven years. I've got three kids, um, in sixth grade, fourth grade, and first grade. Um, and I'm here to tell you, uh, why I think we need an override. Um, overall, we've had a very positive experience as a family in the Melrose Public Schools. Um, I believe there are many dedicated and highly competent teachers, um, at Roosevelt where we started out, um, at Lincoln where my two younger kids are now. And at the middle school. Um, my eldest began sixth grade this past September. Um, she was very enthusiastic at the beginning of the year, but starting in the middle school, being a, uh, being in a new, um, environment, um, being out of elementary school. Then, um, couple months in, she began coming home telling her father and I about, uh, some larger class sizes that she's had, um, complaining about limited elective options. Um, several days. She was in the AU auditorium for two or three straight classes with large groups of other kids, um, because with no instruction during that time, um, due to teacher absences and lack of, uh, numbers from for teachers essentially. Um, when she began her French class midyear, there was a short term sub, um, who was responsible for that class who did not speak French. Um, and so, um, my understanding is a few of those classes, uh, they just were on Duolingo. That was what they did. There was no instruction. Um, thankfully they were able to to hire a French, um, teacher, um, which resolved that issue. Um, but my point being her overall experience at the middle school has been, I think, less than ideal. Um, and I wanna be clear that I do not attribute that to, you know, any issues with the quality of, uh, teachers or administration there. Um, I've been very impressed with my interactions there. Um, it's due to lack of resources and understand and understaffing, in my opinion, um, based on the knowledge I have. Um, so yeah, so my daughter's left. She is complained about feeling bored, um, and essentially not being valued. Um, she'll kind of make comments about, um, you know, oh, this happened again today. Like, I think her morale is kind of down, um, and she feels like she's getting lost in the shuffle a little bit. Although I support moving resources to the middle school, even if the override doesn't pass, which I understand is the plan. Um, and I support this because I think we need it sorely. Um, I'm extremely worried about how the elementary schools and the high school will be impacted if we don't pass an override and we have to do that. Um, currently Lincoln seems stretched to times to me in terms of personnel. Um, I think significantly increasing certain classes at the elementary level would be a huge detriment to, to all students. Um, especially those who have greater learning and emotional needs. But, but everyone, I think, um, every child in those classes, underfunding our city seems, um, to me, like it also sends a message. Um, not, not passing an override would send a message, I think, to all of our city personnel, the teachers, firefighters, police, other city, uh, um, employees, um, that they're not valued. Um, and I worry what the impact on morale will be. I've already been speaking with teachers at Lincoln about this and, and they're very concerned. Um, I think with this potentially on top of, you know, all that the teachers have experienced during the pandemic and contract negotiations, um, I just think it's, it's good. It's tough. Um, And sorry, I lost my space. Um, asking our teachers to take on longer, larger class sizes in a district that already pays below an average salary, will produce serious negative outcomes, including resignations that will be almost impossible to rectify once that happens. Um, my husband and I are both products of public schools. We feel really strongly that public schools provide a unique exposure and learning experiences that independent schools just cannot mirror. At the same time, we're worried that our daughters will not live up to the, to their potential. If the Melrose schools are not properly funded, we wish there were currently more enrichment options than middle school. Um, and if an override fails, these offerings will only be cut. My family thought we would live in Melrose as the rest of our lives.

▶ 16:35 Speaker 1: We've lived here almost seven years. We have an amazing community. We find ourselves now questioning whether we should really stay in a city with a high cost of living. We count on quality schools in order to make the math work. I respectfully ask the council tonight to vote to allow constituents, constituents to engage in the democratic process and voice whether the city should pass an override without an override pass pass. I do not think we're valuing our children, city employees. In short, our community members in a city that holds itself out to be one community for all. Thank you.

▶ 17:19 Speaker 1: Hi, Laura McGuire, 32 Albert Street. I am speaking in favor of the override. Let me be transparent. I'm a real estate agent. I am here in Melrose selling houses. I know this market well. I also know this community. My life is here, my kids are here. My everything is here. I have kids in the Melrose Public Schools. I have wanted Horace Man and one in the middle school. I would love more than anything to send them to the high school at this rate. I do not know if I can. So, lemme tell you. There are two types of people in Melrose. There are the people that just bought a house for a million dollars, or the people that own a house in Melrose and wanna sell it for a million dollars. We are now a million dollar community. We're on the heels of the Winchesters and the Belmonts. Our tax bills are disproportionately low compared to these luxury communities. Since I moved to Melrose in 2015, my property value has doubled, almost tripled. So have yours and wait until you see what the spring market did to the property values. You are going to equal parts puke and be elated. These houses are selling for bananas.

▶ 18:40 Speaker 1: When we live in a community like this, a luxury community, we are paying in Melrose a discounted tax bill. If we wanna be in a desirable community with top-notch employees, excellent city services, well-maintained buildings, and most importantly excellent schools with excellent teachers, we need to pay a tax bill that's going to reflect this desire. Keep in mind the schools drive the property values. If we want bragging rights to a luxury community, then we need to put our money where a mouth is.

▶ 19:24 Maya Jamaleddine: Anyone else who wishes to speak, um, during public comment?

▶ 19:39 Speaker 3: Good evening. Uh, my name's Leo Boudreaux. I live at 63 Windsor Street in Melrose. So I'm here today to discuss, um, the 10% pay cut for the veteran services. I ask that, uh, city council please, uh, not cut Veteran Services. We're a very small minority of this community, and, uh, we need every single cent as we age and get older in this community. We need more and more help from our community. The veterans in this community have already paid their debt to society, and all we need is some help and return as we get older. I also ask that if, if they are gonna cut 10% off the veteran services, that everyone in this room steps forward and takes 10% less pay to equal out everything that's been going on. If you want to lead by example, that'd be great, but please don't cut the veteran services and the veteran service officer's budget. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

▶ 20:42 Speaker 1: Anyone else who wishes to speak, uh, in public comment for tonight?

▶ 20:49 Speaker 3: Do we have anyone Online? Not at this time. Okay.

▶ 20:53 Maya Jamaleddine: Since we don't have anyone in person or online to speak in public comment, um,

▶ 21:03 Maya Jamaleddine: I would like to make a motion to, uh, there is no objection. I would like to close public comment and seeing none. We are now closed for public comment. Since we have members of the administration here tonight to speak on the items before us. I would like to motion by unanimous consent, uh, to suspend the rules before we proceed. And seeing no objection, the rules are now suspended.