Conference 7.286::maynard

Does anyone know if the negotiating committee has completed the
deal yet?  I had heard that they would finish negotiations last 
December, but I have yet to see a final report.  I am very 
interested in this subject but it is hard to discuss it without
knowing how the towns will benefit from the merger, if indeed that 
is the case.

....Margaret

    I understand there is to be a "draft" regionalization plan available
    the first of the new year.
    
    Does any one know if this _is_ in fact available? If so, where/how do
    we get a copy to review?
    
    Thanks in advance,
    Norma

    Yes, there is a draft of the regionalization plan.  I talked about it
    with Bob Geldart, who is head of the Regionalization Committee, a
    couple of days ago.
    
    Bob said that the plan is still in flux, and he doesn't want copies
    circulating, while the plan is changing.  I can understand his point,
    but on the other hand, I think that the citizens of the town really
    deserve to read the document as soon as possible, considering its
    importance.  He also said they plan to hold forums to discuss the plan.
    
    The Regionalization Committee is holding a public forum tonight, 7:30
    at Maynard High School.  At present, this is the best way to get
    information about the proposal, and to ask any questions you have.
    I stongly suggest that everyone interested in their kids, town
    govermnent, or their taxes attend the forum.
    
    -Steve

    There are several items in today's Beacon relating to regionalization.
    
    Bruce Pekkala wrote a long guest opinion piece on the editorial page.
    What's particularly interesting are the statements he quotes from
    people on the School Committee, Regionalization Committee, and from the
    former superintendant.  Pekkala teaches the AP History course at MHS.
    
    There are also articles on the Regionalization Committee's presentation
    to the selectmen (the selectmen objected on financial and control
    issues) and about the public forum tonight.
    
    -Steve

    Thanks for the info Steve! It's a shame that the plan was not ready for
    distribution _prior_ to tonight's forum.
    
    My son is only 3 months old, but my husband and I want to start getting
    involved now. What ever is decided with the regionalization plan will
    effect us when Daniel is ready for school. From what other parents tell
    us, that will be "before we know it".
    
    Norma

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    In case anyone is baffled by Julian's note 261.6, the word "lacrosse"
    was used very prominently in school committee member John Comella's
    speech during the regionalization forum last night.  Note that when Mr.
    Comella mentions "AB", he means the members of the Acton-Boxboro
    regional school committee, who were present.  We taped the discussion,
    so the words below are an exact quote.

    John was talking about the potential for budget cuts in education, and
    what that would mean for both Acton and Maynard.  His example was that
    in Acton, a budget cut would mean that they would lose the lacrosse
    team.  Then he said: 

	I wonder how many people in this room other than the AB people
	even know how to spell the word "lacrosse"?

    There were several hundred people in the room, almost all Maynard
    residents.

    So, those of us who live in Maynard are not smart enough to spell
    "lacrosse", are we?  I expect we will hear quite a bit about lacrosse
    in the coming months.

    -Steve 

Unfortunately work kept me late at the office last night and I was unable to
attend the meeting.  After reading the previous note I wish I had!

I say the following in a somewhat serious vain...

Can a member of the school committee be removed from office?


In my opinion we DO NOT need a person of this frame of mind on a committee that
has anything to do with the education of our children.

    Regarding .8:  I don't mean to keep throwing Charter at you,
    but under the present governmental system in Maynard, there
    is no process for the recall (read: removal) of an elected
    official.
    
    The proposed Charter, which will be voted on at the May 6th
    general election, has a provision that allows for the recall
    of elected officials.
    
    Frank (Charter Commission Chairman)
    

There is a School Committee Meeting tonight at the Maynard High School 
Library.  The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Maynard High School Student Government is also meeting to night at 6:30 p.m.



re: note 261.9.

Frank is correct.  There is currently no provision that permits the recall of 
a town official.  However, there is no reason why we cannot request his 
resignation tonight.

Julian



See you there!

[After re-reading my previous reply I deleted it as it contained an assertion
 that really is speculation on my part.]

It is my understanding the the seat in this controversy is up for election
in the spring.  It is my understanding that Mr. Comella may run again (I
heard that he has "taken out papers").    If we don't have the power to
recall an official, then people who oppose Mr. Comella's presence on the
school committee should find an alternate candidate and start backing him/her.
Democracy and all that...


- dave

    This regionalization issue is starting to become a very heated issue. 
    Many people are saying things that are derogatory to the town of
    Maynard and it's residents.  My feelings are we have a good town and a
    good school system.  There is room for improvement in the school
    system and all school systems should be continuously trying to improve.
    However, if the School Committee and Regionalization Committee had put
    their efforts in trying to improve the Maynard school system instead of
    trying to eliminate the school system over the past year, I wonder how
    the school system could have benefitted.  Maynard has some talented and
    dedicated people and I feel its time to put the regionalization issue
    to rest and get on with educating our children the best way Maynard
    can and to do it ourselves. 

    Speaking of regionalization, two groups have been formed, with opposite
    opinions on the regionalization question. 

    SOS (Save Our Schools) wants to keep the schools in Maynard.
    SHARE (not an acronym, the name refers to the idea of sharing services)
    proposes to regionalize with Acton-Boxboro.

    Both groups are making presentations to the Green Meadow Parents' Group
    on Tuesday, April 2, 7:30 PM.

    The head of the Parents' Group, Jim Demott, has asked that no questions
    be asked in the meeting (a strange request, if you ask me), but I'm
    sure that the presenters will hang around afterwards.

    This is a good opportunity to hear both sides of the question.
    
    -Steve 

IS there a regionalization plan available, for those of us new to the
discussion?

Mari

    The Fowler Parents Group is discussing regionalization tonight, April
    4, 7:30 PM at the high school.  This is probably in room 102, but could
    end up in the library if enough people show up.  SOS is giving a
    presentation.
    
    -Steve

Several people have asked about the availability of the regionalization plan.

Last November, I had a conversation with Bob Geldart, the head of the
Regionalization Committee, about getting the regionalization plan into this
notesfile.  He hedged a bit, but was generally positive about the idea, after
the plan became firm.  We even talked about disk compatibility, since the
plan is filed on a PC, etc.

Now the plan is reasonably firm, and he's changed his mind.  I talked to Bob
last weekend, and he says that ... 
1) He doesn't have the authority to give me an on-line copy.
2) He is apprehensive that once the plan is in the notesfile, someone
   could alter it, and claim that the altered version is the true one.

Instead, Bob suggests that you get a copy of the regionalization agreement
at Town Hall, or look at one on file in the Town Library.

Could all this be true?  If he doesn't have the authority, why didn't he tell
me that back in November?  Does he really think that one of us DECcies is going
to falsify the document? 

My personal opinion is that in their enthusiasm to regionalize and accommodate
Acton in every way, the Regionalization Committee has written an agreement
which is very contrary to Maynard's interests.  Thus, they would prefer that
citizens *not* read the plan on their own, but instead just go to the
regionalization forums, and ask questions there.  That way, unless you know in
advance of some minefield in the agreement, you may not know enough to ask
about it specifically. 

Of course, we were promised regionalization forums once a month, and that
hasn't happened, either.  It appears that we're just supposed to take their
word that this agreement is good for us and our kids. 

Anyway, there's certainly no point in falsifying the document to make it look
worse. It is plenty bad, as it stands. 

I'll copy some passages into another note.

-Steve

Steve,

Instead of just slamming the regionalization plan, and instead of just copying
random passages, maybe you could talk more specifically about passages that
disturb you (and why). And are there any parts of the plan that you like?
(I realize, of course, that you're against regionalization in general).

For my part, I've been disturbed by the "Just Say No" posters that have
cropped up around town. "JSN" was a superficial and ineffective approach
to drugs, and it seems to be the same for Regionalization. I wish the 
"anti-r" group had more concrete suggestions for improving the schools
other than leave things the way they are and cross our fingers that the
overrides pass every year. Unfortunately, the anti-regionalization folks
come across as having very little to offer as an alternative.


Liz

    Liz
    	One way to improve school is to remove the teachers who are not
    qualified to teach. All we do is give more to to schools and we
    still have the same bad teachers. If we can weed out these teachers
    maybe the school systems will improve. This also go for adminisation
    and school committee members. 
        Maynard is a good school all we need to do is start testing
    teachers we test the students why not the teachers. Test them on
    how a come across to a student,how they help a student. 
    	I hear so much about a teacher helping a A student but never about
    a teacher helping a D or C student.
    
    More money a regionalization is not the answer because you can have
    these same problems at the AB school also. Look a the seniors and 
    see what colleges they go and if they stay in college.  In all
    I think Manard has a good school system but it needs to be improved
    so I am voting against regionalization. It is also going to cost more
    money to this town to regionalize and this town does not have any more
    money to give out.
    
    art

Re: .17

You want to talk issues?  Great!  In reply 18, Art had some suggestions and
comments that I think are positive.  Let me offer up these questions and see 
what your response is.

Did you know...

1.  That Maynard is only 21% of the 7-12 school population, yet we will always
    pay for 25% of the debt for construction costs of the regional buildings?
    Although Boxboro is 11% of the population, they will only pay 5%.  Maynard
    will continue to pay 25%, regardless of the student population.

2.  That the regional school committee can decide to build a new junior or 
    senior high school without a town meeting vote?  We just hand over the 
    money.

3.  In regard to item 2 above, Acton will control 58% of the regional school
    committee.  Maynard and Boxboro combined will pick up the other 42%.

4.  Conservative enrollment projections in 1996 show the A-B Junior High as 
    nearly full.  Maynard has the space to handle its own students.  We will
    continue to pay for a bond on Fowler Junior High until 1997.  Can we afford
    25% of the cost of a building in Acton?  This is one of the biggest benefits
    for Acton (i.e., Maynard will carry 25% of the bebt.  Without Maynard, Acton
    has to pay 95%; with Maynard, Acton pays 70%).

5.  Maynard will continue to pay bonds for Green Meadow, Fowler, and for the
    high school roof (without help from A-B), along with paying for our 25%
    share of the regional school debt and the $1.6 million cost of buy-in.

I think the is a good start for debate.  I'd like to make myself perfectly clear
here though.  I have a good many friends who grew up or now live in Acton.  I
would have had absolutely no problem with regionalization had the agreement been
better thought out.  But, I think it is totally unfair that we, as a town, would
pay an outrageous amount of money to buy into the region, as well as pay 25%
for any construction or debt service.  It just seems to me that this agreement
is being railroaded through the process, without everyone getting all the facts.
I have a copy of the town counsel's opinion of the proposed regionalization 
aggreement in my office.  This 7 page memo is loaded with questions with very
few answers.  You could either contact me or Mike Gianotis (Maynard administra-
tive assistant) to get a copy for your review.

I'd also like to add that this is a very political issue.  I've already seen 
friends and family who are on different sides of the issue become alienated.
I hope that because I am in favor of keeping the citizens of Maynard in control 
of our town budget, I do not lose friends as a result.

My wife and I are a product of the Maynard school system.  We have one child 
attending the Green Meadow school, with another a few years away, so I have a 
STRONG interest in the education of our children.  As we've heard many times 
before, they are our future.

					Regards,
					Steve
    
                                                                      

    Liz,
    
    You're disturbance with the "Just Say NO" posters is a red herring.
    It's a side issue altogether.  Let's talk about some of the issues I've
    presented in the previous reply if you wish.
    
    					Steve

Steve,

You may feel that my issue with the slogan is a red herring. I disagree.
Unfortunately, I feel that the slogan is symptomatic of the approach 
taken by those against regionalization. I had already decided how I felt
about the issue before I saw the slogan, but had I been undecided, the
slogan would have helped. I'm sorry that I left you with the impression
that the slogan and issue were unrelated.

As for discussion, in your previous reply, you said that you would be
presenting questions, but you listed a set of statements. I don't know
what sort of "answers" you're expecting. I would, however, like to hear
from others about what they don't like in the regionalization agreement.
And even if you're against the issue, is there anything that the planners,
in your estimation, did right? (This, of course, would not oblige you to
vote for the merge!)


Liz

Re: .19


	OK, I'll bite:

1.  That Maynard is only 21% of the 7-12 school population, yet we will always
    pay for 25% of the debt for construction costs of the regional buildings?
    Although Boxboro is 11% of the population, they will only pay 5%.  Maynard
    will continue to pay 25%, regardless of the student population.

	I think I recall from reading the local rag that the Acton School
	Committee was also objecting to the "cast-in-stone" percentages
	(especially given the fact that the Boxborough school population
	has increased from the time of the original agreement).  I believe,
	however, this debt payment is for the original construction, not
	for future capital repair.  Would you agree that the percentage
	OUGHT to be between 20 - 25%, and, furthermore, should be based,
	to a large extent on projected student population (i.e. those
	students that will "enjoy" the facility in the future as well as
	those that would attend it today)?

	Note that even if Maynard pays 25%, Acton with 68% (if my math 
	is correct) of the student population, also pays more than its
	share.  Let's join together and go bash Boxborough. (;')

2.  That the regional school committee can decide to build a new junior or 
    senior high school without a town meeting vote?  We just hand over the 
    money.

	I've got to believe it's highly unlikely in these economic times
	that they will propose a new building, especially if the Maynard 
	facilities are also available.

3.  In regard to item 2 above, Acton will control 58% of the regional school
    committee.  Maynard and Boxboro combined will pick up the other 42%.

	I believe, however, that any two of the three towns can block
	(or require) any capital spending.  Furthermore, if the percentage
	is not based on population, on what would you have it based?
	
4.  Conservative enrollment projections in 1996 show the A-B Junior High as 
    nearly full.  Maynard has the space to handle its own students.  We will
    continue to pay for a bond on Fowler Junior High until 1997.  Can we afford
    25% of the cost of a building in Acton?  This is one of the biggest benefits
    for Acton (i.e., Maynard will carry 25% of the debt.  Without Maynard, Acton
    has to pay 95%; with Maynard, Acton pays 70%).

	See above and below.

5.  Maynard will continue to pay bonds for Green Meadow, Fowler, and for the
    high school roof (without help from A-B), along with paying for our 25%
    share of the regional school debt and the $1.6 million cost of buy-in.

	And Maynard will continue to use the Green Meadow School.  The other
	bonds are an issue that Maynard will have to grapple with; the 
	continued cost of past construction on facilities that will be
	under/not utilized in the future.  Acton has a school that has
	the same problem (Merrium (sp?)).  It rents out the space (at a
	profit) in that school.  Maynard could do the same to its 
	facilities.

	Regarding the debt and buy-in, what do YOU believe is reasonable?

I think the is a good start for debate.  I'd like to make myself perfectly clear
here though.  I have a good many friends who grew up or now live in Acton.  I
would have had absolutely no problem with regionalization had the agreement been
better thought out.  But, I think it is totally unfair that we, as a town, would
pay an outrageous amount of money to buy into the region, as well as pay 25%
for any construction or debt service.  It just seems to me that this agreement
is being railroaded through the process, without everyone getting all the facts.
I have a copy of the town counsel's opinion of the proposed regionalization 
aggreement in my office.  This 7 page memo is loaded with questions with very
few answers.  You could either contact me or Mike Gianotis (Maynard administra-
tive assistant) to get a copy for your review.

	How about posting some more questions for discussion?

	 - David                                                       

    Sorry Liz, I improperly phrased my previous reply.  My objective was to 
    begin discussion on these rather important issues in this forum.
    
    If I'm reading you right, you don't appear bothered by the fact that the
    town of Maynard will be fiscally held hostage (nicest way I could think
    of putting it), should the current proposal be voted in.  If this is
    the case, you're not alone.  I've spoken to people that also have
    problems with the current proposal, but they just want to "do it"
    (regionalize).  This mindset seems so bull-headed to me, but there is
    nothing I can offer that will change their minds.  Oh well, to each
    his/her own.
    
    					Steve  

Well, I'm sorry that people who disagree with you seem to be bull-headed.
Gee, it doesn't leave a lot of room for discussion, then, does it? In this
imperfect world, I don't believe that there will be perfect solutions.
However, some proposals sound better to me than others, and it sounds like
you have a similar philosophy. It's just that we've drawn different 
conclusions.

On political power in general: I don't believe that I as an individual
hold very much political power at all. However, town meetings afford me
more than I get in any other forum. I've seen votes decided by one or
two people. And I've seen people request a second try and reverse the
first vote. It's pretty exciting.


Liz

    Liz you have politcal power as you stated in your vote at town meeting.
    But you also can help by getting involve with the town government.
    Run for office, get appointed to a board or committe. The people on
    these boards and committes are just like you town people who are
    concern with ther town. Get to know why things are done the whre they
    are.
    	I've been on the FINCOM for 15 years and I see it all the time
    people get invole only arounf town meeting time which is to late one
    have to get involve at the beginning. One needs to look at the whole
    picture and not just a piece of it (regionization,trash pickup, etc)
    It tought being on the Fincom because we are blamed for all the
    problems because board A  didn't get what they asked or board B. If
    we recommended every thing that the boards or committes want your
    tax bill would be out of sight. We have a fix amount of money to work
    with and we have to make the discussion that are we think is best for
    the town.
    
    Come the the Fincom open house on the 14th of May if you have question
    on the town budget.
    
    I know you are talking about regionalization but it does affect the
    rest of the town know and in the future.
    
    art filz
     

             <<< Note 261.24 by 38636::AUGUSTINE "Purple power!" >>>

>Well, I'm sorry that people who disagree with you seem to be bull-headed.
    
    This is not at all what I was saying, Liz.  The people I'm talking about
    have read the regionalization agreement, have had problems with several
    aspects of it, but they're still going to vote to regionalize.  I know
    of a couple in town that are nearing retirement.  They plan on moving
    to Florida upon retiring, and this woman has come right out and told me
    they're voting for regionalization because their property values will
    go up.  Can you say "GREEDY"?
    
    
Note 261.22  HYEND::DHILL "Is 1991 *next year* for the Red Sox?"  78 lines  24-APR-1991 13:02
    
> 	 Would you agree that the percentage OUGHT to be between 20 - 25%, 
>        and, furthermore, should be based, to a large extent on projected 
>        student population (i.e. those students that will "enjoy" the facility 
>        in the future as well as those that would attend it today)?

    What I would agree to should Maynard regionalize, is a flexible
    percentage (based on projected student population).  Not one that is
    "cast in stone", which is the way the proposal that we'll be voting on
    is written.  Conservative estimates show that Acton has the potential
    to double in size and Boxboro has the potential to triple in size,
    while Maynard could potentially grow by 20%.  Should all three towns
    reach their growth potential, Maynard would have roughly 17% of the
    student population, with Boxboro possibly reaching 26%.  Maynard would
    STILL be contractually obligated (which is the proposal we'll be voting
    on) to pay 25% of construction costs, with Boxboro paying their 5%.
    We are voting on an agreement at Town Meeting that I think was poorly 
    negotiated.  Do the people that are voting "yes" to the proposed
    agreement truly understand the problems with this agreement, or am *I*
    missing something?
     
    
>	Note that even if Maynard pays 25%, Acton with 68% (if my math 
>	is correct) of the student population, also pays more than its
>	share.  Let's join together and go bash Boxborough. (;')

    I'd rather not bash anyone, thank you.  I don't think it should be
    Maynard's obligation to bail out Acton financially, because of the
    sweet deal Boxboro negotiated years ago.


>	I've got to believe it's highly unlikely in these economic times
>	that they will propose a new building, especially if the Maynard 
>	facilities are also available.

    Ha!  And I've got a bridge for sale.  I'm not trying to be a wise guy,
    but I have to disagree.  Like I said in a previous reply, I have a lot
    of friends from Acton, some who now live in Maynard.  They freely admit
    there is a class difference between the two towns.  Do you honestly
    believe the people of Acton will want to bus MORE kids to Maynard to
    a school built over 60 years ago?
    

>	I believe, however, that any two of the three towns can block
>	(or require) any capital spending.  
    
    This is true.  BUT, in order for this to happen it would require a
    combined special town meeting of all three towns.  In case you're not
    aware, this is not currently legal.  The state legislature will have to
    pass a law allowing this type of forum.  I don't know about you, but I
    don't have a whole lot of faith in the state legislature.
    
    In any case, should this law be passed, the voter population of Acton
    is greater than Maynard and Boxboro's combined.  My biggest problem
    with the regionalization agreement, is the possibility of losing total
    control of the school budget, which would result in severe hardships
    for the remaining town departments.
    
    
>	And Maynard will continue to use the Green Meadow School.  The other
>	bonds are an issue that Maynard will have to grapple with; the 
>	continued cost of past construction on facilities that will be
>	under/not utilized in the future.  
    
    Terrific.  We'll have to continue to maintain the Fowler Middle School, 
    which would be closed, at a cost of about $120K a year, plus continue 
    paying the outstanding bonds.  Is it just me, or does this picture look
    bleak to everyone else?
    
    
>       Acton has a school that has
>	the same problem (Merrium (sp?)).  It rents out the space (at a
>	profit) in that school.  Maynard could do the same to its 
>	facilities.

    This is an *extremely* optimistic statement.  See the Coolidge and
    Roosevelt schools for examples.
    
    
    					Steve

    While the topic is on my mind, I'd like to remind everyone of a
    statement made by John Comella at a regionalization meeting this 
    past January:
    
	I wonder how many people in this room other than the AB people
	even know how to spell the word "lacrosse"?
    
    John is running for re-election on May 6th.  I cannot begin to describe 
    how personally insulted I felt, and still feel, by his use of these words.  
    Questions were asked when he first said this, if he could be removed from 
    office.  We will have this opportunity one week from Monday.  Please
    participate.
    
    					Steve

Steve,

Thanks for your well thought out reply. You've raised some good points.

I hope you don't think that _everyone_ who is for regionalization has
taken that position out of greed; I, for one, expect to be in Maynard 
for a long, long time.

My hope is that whatever way the vote goes turns out to be a good solution 
for the largest number of people. 

Take care,
Liz

    Hi -
    
    I am neither "for" or "against".  Just wanted everyone to know that
    there are some of us that are just reading and listening.  I am a 
    product of the Maynard School System as are my children.
    
    I now want what is best for my grandchildren.
    
    I do enjoy reading both "pro" and "con" and hopefully by town meeting
    I will make a decision based on something other than emotions.  
    
    I did spend a lot of year on the Finance Committee and have managed to
    continue to be aware of "Town happenings".
    
    I'm still open - keep up the debate!
    
    

  Personally, I feel that the education of my kids is more important than
  whether or not the town pays a couple of percentages more or less.  That
  argument just seems so nickle-and-dime petty.

  Heck, I'd even be willing give up a little political power on their behalf.

  The A-B regional schools are among the best in the nation.  I haven't heard
  one useful suggestion about how to get Fowler and MHS up to their quality.
  Someone suggested firing teachers:  most of them have tenure.  Can we
  afford to wait decades for them to retire?  The truth is, it just can't be
  done.  Maynard is too small.  It will never have enough students on its own
  to populate all of the honors classes and extra-curricular opportunities
  available in the bigger regional school districts.  Worse, the problem is
  self-perpetuating:  young families are shunning Maynard because of its
  crappy schools.  Regionalization is the way to break the cycle.

  -- Bill B.

    My wife and I are trying to decide how long we will stay in Maynard.
    Our son is 2 1/2 years old. We don't want to send him to an average 
    school. That's not going to give him the edge he'll need in that 
    competitive world out there.    
    
    If the schools are regionalized, and thereby become above average, we'll 
    likely stay. If the schools don't regionalize, we'll move within the 
    next few years.  We don't want to leave, because we really like the
    town. But our son's education is at the top of the priority list.  
      

    I am againest this regionalization plan but I am not necessary,
    againest regionalization of some sort.  Regionalizing a school system
    should be a well thought out plan and take several years to implement. 
    This plan is neither.  One year ago the town voted to look into
    regionalizing now we we have plan to vote on, a plan that was just
    finalized a couple of month ago.  There are still many unanswered
    questions that need to cleared up before we vote on this plan.  
    
    I would not enter a contract with anyone if I did not have all the
    answers and completely understand the issues.  I do not think Maynard
    should enter in a contract with anyone if all the issues are unclear. 
    My problem with this plan is not regionalization in general but the
    obsurity of this plan.  This plan should be tabled and if
    regionalization is still an alternative then continue to pursue this
    idea. If Acton is not open to this then they are not really interrested
    in the idea at all.
    
    Another thing to think about is the federal and state government are
    proposing open school systems whereby people can send their kids to
    any school system.

RE: .30

>  The A-B regional schools are among the best in the nation.  I haven't heard
>  one useful suggestion about how to get Fowler and MHS up to their quality.
>  Someone suggested firing teachers:  most of them have tenure.  Can we
>  afford to wait decades for them to retire?  The truth is, it just can't be
>  done.  Maynard is too small.  It will never have enough students on its own
>  to populate all of the honors classes and extra-curricular opportunities
>  available in the bigger regional school districts.  Worse, the problem is
>  self-perpetuating:  young families are shunning Maynard because of its
>  crappy schools.  Regionalization is the way to break the cycle.


Very well put.  Those who are vehemently opposed to regionalization should
articulate the concrete and detailed methodology by which they intend to 
elevate the quality of Maynard schools.  Make Maynard schools better than
Acton's and regionalization arguments based on quality are no longer valid.
Alas, there is a close relationship between quality and funding.  And however 
unfortunate it may be, I just don't think Maynard has (or will ever have) the 
economic critical mass to support a school system that is of excellent quality.
Simple economics makes it virtually impossible, no matter how well-intentioned
the school staff is.  (A staff already grossly underpaid and becoming more
so every day.)

This is not to say we shouldn't question the proposed merger agreement - some 
valid concerns have been raised.  If there are dubious or biased provisions,   
then they should be fixed.  

Also, I find curious the comments (in town meetings and local papers) that 
express indignation at alleged class prejudice shown to Maynard by Acton.
At this point, I've heard more anti-Acton prejudice from Maynard residents
than vice-versa.  And the bottom line is, would you let ANY nose-out-of-joint
attitude influence an important decision in your (or your child's) life?
I wouldn't ...  

We (Maynard; Massachusetts; USA) are not going to recover our slipping standard
of living by simply riding out the current business downturn.  We now exist
in a global marketplace - a phenomenon that neither our grandfathers, nor our
fathers, nor ourselves have any experience with.  We really know nothing about
it except that the skills and careers of years gone by are now largely 
irrelevant and over-represented in the global economy.  We need a 
highly-skilled, well-educated workforce - and we need a school system that
will produce it.  (And we need, sigh, taxpayers who are prepared to make the
investment.)

The time for applying band-aids to the school system has come and gone.  
If someone has a plan for major surgery, then let's hear it.  Otherwise, a
transplant is indicated.  The patient just doesn't look too healthy.






    

[Re: .33 I'm not addressing you in particular - but you've touched upon what
 I'd like to say rather well, so in the interests of a fluid conference I'll
 just use your note as a stepping stone.]

>Very well put.  Those who are vehemently opposed to regionalization should
>articulate the concrete and detailed methodology by which they intend to 
>elevate the quality of Maynard schools.

It was very well put.   The School Committee's long-range planning committee
presented just such a plan to the school committee last week.   The goal was
to create a model school system taking advantage of a number of sweeping
changes that are present in the system and environment right now (e.g.,
business involvement, technological changes, changing attitudes on how
classrooms are structured etc.).   Dr. Ciardi was, reportedly, very impressed
with the report and I believe if regionalization does not pass, it will be
pursued to the greatest degree possible.   There are a number of people in
town who are working very hard to make the school system one the best in the
nation.

Whether those who are "vehemently opposed to regionalization" are members of
this committee, contributed to it, or are articulating any of this I do not
know.

>This is not to say we shouldn't question the proposed merger agreement - some 
>valid concerns have been raised.  If there are dubious or biased provisions,   
>then they should be fixed.  

I think that one of the problems is that there are sticking points, and there
is precious little time to fix them -- combined with the fact (I think that
is a fair assessment now) that this has become an emotionally charged issue
and that people won't stop arguing long enough to fix them.   They sure as
hell won't be fixed at town meeting :-)


>Also, I find curious the comments (in town meetings and local papers) that 
>express indignation at alleged class prejudice shown to Maynard by Acton.
>At this point, I've heard more anti-Acton prejudice from Maynard residents
>than vice-versa.  And the bottom line is, would you let ANY nose-out-of-joint
>attitude influence an important decision in your (or your child's) life?
>I wouldn't ...  

Hmmm... It's hard to address this objectively because it isn't something you
can point to in a newspaper or anything like that.  The opinions are built
up over time -- and, unfortunately, I know where they come from.  I have
lived in the area for 10 years now, I've lived in Acton for a short time, my
wife worked in Acton for a number of years -- so my fact base isn't one of a
"townie" - but I can understand where people from Maynard would perceive
that Acton "looks down" on Maynard.   It is *my* perception (based on *my*
memory) that this condition exists -- that is not to say the entire town of
Acton shares this view.   It is a human quality to remember bad events and
forget the normal ones.

When people talk about merging the Acton and Maynard school systems, a lot of
attention is paid (quite rightly) to the academic side of school.   The A-B
system has a well-deserved reptuation for producing students with high S.A.T.
scores, and doing well later in life.   This is the attractive side of the
regionalization proposal - and one that (as several people in this conference
and elsewhere) appears to be the main argument (with money sometimes coming
up now and then).

As a parent of adolescent children growing up in times of economic distress,
war, drugs, a teetering environment - there is another side to school.  Junior
high and high school is the place where values and social responsibilities are
engendered in our young people.   I believe for many parents (certainly
not all), that they look towards how the school system will foster and
place these values in their children.  The size and character of the school
are critical to these activities.   The size of the school is especially
important to those parents who seek active involvement in their children's
education and experience within the school system - for a small school system
offers a real chance for personal interaction and sometimes change.   It is
the perception of these parents that a large school (such as ABHS) does not
currently provide the learning and *living* environment that they feel is best
for their children -- and that the size of the school prohibits them from
being able to contribute or change in any real fashion.  Maybe the Acton
school system matches these values, and is flexible or conducive to change.
I don't know.  Many don't know.  It is this fear of the unknown that makes
the "brass ring" of high academic achievement not the sole means by which
the regionalization proposal is judged.

[I will also admit that there probably exists a set of people who oppose
 regionalization because some form of identity will be lost - as if it were
 a win-lose football game or something.  Pride (in a town or flag or whatever)
 can be a strong motivator or a vice.  Rational thought usually goes down
 the drain however.]

>                                                                We need a 
>highly-skilled, well-educated workforce - and we need a school system that
>will produce it.  (And we need, sigh, taxpayers who are prepared to make the
>investment.)

I doubt that anyone would (or should) argue with either of these statements.
Regardless of the decision of the regionalization question, these are two
truisms.   From my interpretation of the regionalization proposal that we
will be voting on is that the taxpayers can either decide that it is their
social responsibility to fund their school systems adequately or whether we,
to a certain extent, mandate that responsibility for our town (forcing us
to decide our level of social responsibility for other town functions such
as police, fire, senior citizen affairs, library, etc.).

There is plenty of precedent for this.  I pay a good chunk of my salary to
social security each week.  These funds help our elderly citizens maintain
a standard of living that would not otherwise be possible (we can argue whether
it is enough in some other forum).  The current generations, without choice,
supports the older generations.   Variations of this for school systems are
popping up all over the country.  Texas has just passed legislation that
mandates equitable funding for all school districts state-wide.

I think it is a bit of a shame that we, taxpayers as a whole, are not always
willing to live up to our reponsibilities and take care of the other half:
funding the younger generations so when we are the older generation, they'll
be able to support us.  Perhaps the only way to ensure this is a bill that
we have to pay.

Along with math, science, and the other technical aspects of living on this
planet - our schools must teach these values to our students - and that is
a heck of a lot easier if the current generation lives by these values.


>The time for applying band-aids to the school system has come and gone.  
>If someone has a plan for major surgery, then let's hear it.  Otherwise, a
>transplant is indicated.  The patient just doesn't look too healthy.

Well, that is certainly true.  There are plans, there are options, there
are risks associated with them, and there are costs associated with them.
Everyone is approaching this decision with different values and, to a certain
extent, selfishness in mind (e.g., I wish I could make a decision solely on
the merits of the agreement, but I have two kids who will be at the heart of
the transition -- that weighs in as heavily as someone who has younger kids
or no kids).


I value the opinions that everyone has expressed on this question - it is
a tough one.   I will probably surprise myself when I vote.


- dave


p.s. Any insults expressed in the above were done so mistakenly.  Consider it
     a weakness of the medium.

    Here is another anti-regional point I heard.  When they have a Junior
    high school dance they have to use a lottery system for attendance.  So
    some kids can't go, because the school is so big they do not have
    enough room.  I do not know if this is true but I have heard this.  An
    opponent of regionalization said to me, "my kids is not a super athlete
    but he gets to play varisty sports in Maynard.  In a larger scholl he
    might not even make a team.  On the other side of this is Acton over
    more sports.  But again they have more kids trying out for these teams.
    
    I wish the regionalization committee gave this issue more time to get
    implemented so all the issues could be worked out.  Some odf these
    issues are:
    a.  Not having the whole school merge in one year.  Some Maynard high
    school kids might want to finish their schooling at Maynard.
    b.  Maynard has a better football field then Acton, perhaps some of the
    football games could be played at Maynard.  As well as other sports.
    c.  Teachers could have several years to work out their careers or
    placement in either school system.
    d.  The finance issues could have more time to be worked out in a more
    equitable way.
    e.  More time might stop all the personal attacks on pro and con
    regional people.
    f.  Maynard's enrollment is small now but in 8 years the high school
    will have 500 kids again.  My son is in the 1st grade approx.  125
    student and my daughter is in k which has more kids.  My graduation
    class of 1972 had 105 kids.  These number are my estimates class size
    times classes.
    g.  All the other town dept. are afraid there will not be enough money
    for them if Maynard has to pay large regional costs.
    
    If these and other issues had more time to be worked out then
    regionalization might be a good alternative to the one town school. 
    But we owe it are kids and the town to look at all sides of this issue
    before we jump into it.  If we accpt regionalization now we are jumping
    into an unknown, not thought out situation that we will not be able to
    correct in the future.
    
    We will have some idea how regional will do in the town meeting by the
    way the election turns out.  Two candidates for and two againest
    regionalization.  Kind of a preview.

    Dave,
    
    I really appreciated reading your well thought-out message. I agree
    that going from a small school to a large school could seem over-
    whelming. I, in fact, remember going to larger, but still small,
    school once and going to the library. It seemed so big to me that
    even though I now know it was pretty small, I walked out and didn't
    want to go back for weeks. 
    
    I wonder if it would help to talk to Boxborough parents and see how 
    they feel their kids fit in. I realize it wouldn't give an exact
    picture of how Maynard kids would be incorporated, but it might answer
    some questions. 
    
    Also, I understand that there will be an open house at the Acton
    schools on May 5 from 2-5. That would be an excellent time to ask 
    some of the questions posed in 261.35.
    
    One last thing. We were raised in Washington DC, and my brother ended
    up being a paying student at a Maryland high school. He was only one
    person, not an entire school system, of course. This new school was
    huge (their graduations were held in the Kennedy Center, for example).
    Not only that, but he was throwing himself into a situation where lots
    of people had known each other nearly all their lives. You would think
    my brother would feel lost for at least a few years. He ended up
    thriving. He took classes he never would have had access to in his old
    school. And he was involved in after school activities. I think he
    ended up getting a lead in one play his first year there. Some of his
    best friends today are from high school. I, on the other hand, went to
    a small high school and keep in touch with only one person from back
    then.
    
    I decided to mention this because I see a lot of parallels between my 
    brother's experience and the experiernce that Maynard kids might end up
    going through. And for my brother at least, things worked out really
    well.
    
    So, please go to the open house on May 5th and ask lots of questions --
    I hope that forum helps!
    
    
    Liz

I'm getting very far behind in my notesfile activity.  (Isn't it a drag when
work gets in the way of more important priorities?)  On top of that, people
keep responding so quickly, I keep having to edit my half-written notes. 
So, let me respond to a few notes, mostly dealing with the proposed
regionalization agreement.

.17>For my part, I've been disturbed by the "Just Say No" posters that have
.17>cropped up around town. "JSN" was a superficial and ineffective approach
.17>to drugs, and it seems to be the same for Regionalization. 

The "Just Say No" sign is just a gimmick, a reminder.  I understand your
point, Liz, and in an ideal world, all the voters would attend all the
presentations, and read all the literature from all the groups and
candidates, and not need signs to remind them.  However, this will not be
universally true. The idea is to make people notice the sign, and thus the
idea, and if we're lucky, perhaps think about it. 

.17>I wish the 
.17>"anti-r" group had more concrete suggestions for improving the schools
.17>other than leave things the way they are and cross our fingers that the
.17>overrides pass every year. Unfortunately, the anti-regionalization folks
.17>come across as having very little to offer as an alternative.

As Dave Griffin pointed out in .34, the best alternatives to regionalization
came out of the Long Range Planning Committee. Their report has recently been
placed in the town library and in all the schools.  I think that this
inch-thick report provides very much of an alternative.  I'll enter a note on
it as a separate reply. 

The head of the committee was Cindy Parker, the lone dissenter when the School
Committee voted to endorse regionalization.  One of the members of the 
committee was Betsy Griffin.

Now, on to the proposed contract.  The thing to keep in mind is that
regionalization is effectively forever.  All of the problems that
regionalization is supposed to solve are short term problems (enrollment,
money, classes available). Look at the agreement for long term solutions: they
are not there. Long term, this agreement will become even worse financially for
Maynard. 

.22>	I think I recall from reading the local rag that the Acton School
.22>	Committee was also objecting to the "cast-in-stone" percentages
.22>	(especially given the fact that the Boxborough school population
.22>	has increased from the time of the original agreement).  I believe,
.22>	however, this debt payment is for the original construction, not
.22>	for future capital repair.  

Actually, it was the Acton Selectmen who objected, and the debt payment is in
fact for ** ALL ** construction, whether original, or repair, for the grade
7-12 region.  Such bonds are voted by a simple majority the Regional Committee.
There is no Town Meeting approval involved.  And Acton, of course, is fixed at
58% of the Committee.  Thus, if Acton wants to build, we just pay 25% of the
bill, regardless of the number of our students.

I would think that the Acton Selectmen would like the proposal, since
it shifts almost all the unfair portion of bonding from Acton to Maynard.

.22>2.That the regional school committee can decide to build a new junior or 
.22>  senior high school without a town meeting vote?  We just hand over the 
.22>  money.
.22>
.22>	I've got to believe it's highly unlikely in these economic times
.22>	that they will propose a new building, especially if the Maynard 
.22>	facilities are also available.

I don't think the psychology works that way.  The average citizen lets his
local government know what the spending priorities should be by voting at town
meeting, in good or bad economic times.  The regional proposal would 
effectively take away that ability.  Of course, citizens have the recourse of
electing school committee members, but if Acton's members want to build,
it doesn't matter what the Maynard members want.

Without the hindrance of democracy, why would the school committee limit
their spending?  After all, this is done to benefit the kids, right?  Why
should they use an old building in Maynard, when they could build on to Grey
Jr. High one in Acton?  (And if they did use a building in Maynard, how would
they coordinate curriculum between buildings in two different towns?) I think
that the regional committee would just decide what they want, and bill us, for
the yearly assessment, and for bonding construction. 

Right now, the AB Jr. High is tight enough that not all the kids can go to a
dance, or invite both their parents to all the events. Imagine what all their
parents will say if the population increases by another 207 in 1992, from
Maynard's kids. They will have to build around 1997. 

And note that there is talk of Acton adding both Littleton and Harvard
students to the region as well.... 

.22>3.In regard to item 2 above, Acton will control 58% of the regional school
.22>  committee.  Maynard and Boxboro combined will pick up the other 42%.
.22>
.22>	I believe, however, that any two of the three towns can block
.22>	(or require) any capital spending.  Furthermore, if the percentage
.22>	is not based on population, on what would you have it based?

This issue is three-fold:

    1. Capital spending can be blocked IF one of the three towns calls a 
special town meeting within 30 days.  Law says you have to post a TM at least
14 days in advance, so there's not much time to react. And of course, a town
meeting costs us money. And there is no reason why the committee can't just
turn around and propose the capital spending again. 

    2. The 42% vs 58% is also important to consider on issues like closing 
Maynard's high school which will house 4-6 if we regionalize.  In other words, 
Maynard and Boxboro could vote against moving Maynard's 4-6 to another town and 
Acton can overrule us.  Town meeting cannot stop this.

    3.  Percentage of votes should be based upon population (as is required by 
law); however, they could have easily written the agreement to require that
one Maynard and one Boxboro member be counted in every majority vote.  We hear
again and again from the regionalization committee that everything works by
consensus. If the board truly decides issues by consensus, then why not let
the legal language reflect that philosophy?  The only answer is that the
committee believes in consensus, as long as Acton gets their way. 

.22>5.Maynard will continue to pay bonds for Green Meadow, Fowler, and for the
.22>  high school roof (without help from A-B), along with paying for our 25%
.22>  share of the regional school debt and the $1.6 million cost of buy-in.

On debt for local schools: Maynard will not need any major improvements or 
expansion of its own facilities for a long time.  However, Acton is currently 
considering major work on its heating systems: conversion to gas.  Maynard 
will pay about 30% of the cost for the Acton K-6 schools and 25% of the 7-12 
schools.  If we were not regional, we wouldn't be spending this...  We have 
not even heard what work needs doing in Boxboro: how's the roof?  the boiler?  
the capacity?  Our regional planning committee has said that Boxboro will need 
more space by the end of this decade.  How much will it cost to build a 
Boxboro school?

.22>	Acton has a school that has
.22>	the same problem (Merrium (sp?)).  It rents out the space (at a
.22>	profit) in that school.  Maynard could do the same to its 
.22>	facilities.

The proposal is to empty Fowler.  There are reasons why Acton can rent
out Merriam School, and why Fowler is less suitable:
- Fowler is zoned residential.  Because it is owned by a municipality, any
municipal use will override zoning.  Any educational use is likely legal, but
you can't do anything else with it. 
- Merriam school has parking; Fowler does not.

So we would need to rent Fowler for an educational use which does not require
parking.

.22>
.22>	Regarding the debt and buy-in, what do YOU believe is reasonable?
.22>

I think that Maynard's assets (computers, microscopes, weight equipment,
furniture, books, etc.) should have been considered as an offset against the
buy-in.  We have not seen a list of these items.  We also have not seen
exactly how much A-B paid for its facilities after the state construction aid
was paid to them.  Are we paying for buildings that have already been
reimbursed by the state? 

Some issues that could be considered questions:

o Courses are done by lottery because there are not enough courses to go 
around.  Are we really going to get all these opportunities if we economize 
for scale?

o Our curriculums are currently different.  What will we do to accommodate the 
Maynard 7th and 8th graders entering A-B, not to mention the 9-12?  This will 
be tough when you combine this with the social issues of being a pre-teen or 
teenager going to a new school.

o How will Maynard kids get to after-school activities?  Many of Maynard's 
kids participate now because they can walk or it takes 2 minutes to drive the 
child to the school.  When it becomes a half hour or more to get the child to 
the school and get home, it will become less likely that Maynard kids will 
participate.

o How will Maynard handle the impact on our other town services when we no 
longer have schools that we must override for?  The bill must still be paid 
for the regional school even if we close other vital services.

-Steve

    Steve, 
    
    I think you missed my point about "Just Say No". Of course a three-word
    slogan is going to be a "reminder" and an effort to get people to
    think. My point was that it got me to think and pushed me further onto
    the other side. For me, it symbolizes a superficial and ineffective 
    campaign of recent years where the leader was totally ignorant of the 
    real issues and had no real solutions. I'm surprised that anyone would
    want to reuse the slogan. Sorry I was unclear the first time.
    
    Representation: the implication I'm hearing is that because Acton will
    have a majority on the board, then Acton will dominate all the votes. I
    agree that the potential exists, but that the conclusion is not
    necessarily foregone. It would be helpful to talk to Boxborough parents
    and see how decisions have been made in the past. On committees that
    I'm familiar with, there's always been opportunity for discussion
    before votes are taken. And on many committees, the conversation can
    lead people to change their vote or make up their mind. 
    
    Lotteries for classes? First of all, what percentage of classes do they
    hold lotteries for? In any case, it sounds just like my high school and
    college where I had a large choice of courses and didn't get every
    single first choice course I signed up for. Sometimes I didn't get
    first choice because of scheduling and sometimes it was because of
    over-subscription. But I was at both schools for four years, and I had
    ample opportunity to take the courses I wanted over those eight
    semesters. Usually, seniors had priority because they wouldn't get that
    chance the next year. And I also found that if I really didn't like a
    policy, I could talk to someone about it and either they could change
    my mind or I could change theirs. This doesn't seem too terrible to me.
    
    After school commuting: Hmm... I suspect there are some easy solutions 
    to this, although I agree that after-school activities wouldn't be as
    convenient if they were in Acton as they are when held in Maynard. A
    few ideas I can think of: 
    - carpooling
    - kids with cars could perhaps take a few other kids
    - perhaps we could set up one bus to bring kids back.
    Again, it might be good to talk to Boxborough parents to see what
    solutions they've come up with.
    
    Conversion to gas. Sounds great. It'll probably recoup the expense of
    conversion in the first few years and then go on to save money. Sounds
    like a very wise decision, especially with the continuing unstable
    conditions in the mideast.
    
    Switching schools. Yes, it's always stressful to switch schools, just
    as it is stressful to switch jobs. Kids go to new schools, though, 
    when their parents move or when their folks decide to send them to a
    new school.  On the other hand, if regionalization passes, the Maynard
    students will be going to a new school _together_. Ordinarily, when
    people need to switch schools, they go by themselves and often meet up
    with a whole schoolful of kids who've been together forever. But
    Maynard students will be in the same situation as people in towns who
    go to small and dispersed middle schools and then go to one big high
    school.  They're not separated from their friends -- they're still with
    the kids they grew up with -- _and_ they get to meet a bunch of other
    people they may  not have known  before. And in addition, they'll end
    up with a much larger set of courses and activities in one of the best
    schools in the country. It sounds like a neat (and pretty normal) 
    experience to me.
    
    
    
    Liz

    Liz,
    
    I really do wish you would not let the "Just Say No" sign become a
    weighted factor in your decision to vote for the regionalization
    agreement.  Please believe me when I say that many of us working with
    the Save Our Schools (SOS) committee agree that the slogan is, shall we 
    say, empty, but what other choices are there for a catchy slogan?  
    Personally, I feel that the signs for Cindy Ruzich are the most sensible.
    
    Onto other matters.  Having literally talked to hundreds of people,
    both for and against regionalization, I've found one common denominator
    among the two groups.  Both sides agree that the proposed
    regionalization agreement that we will be voting on at Town Meeting,
    has many holes in it.  Is it any wonder, considering that the writing
    of the agreement was done with the assistance of the Town of Acton's 
    lawyers, with NO representation from Maynard?  This is ludicrous!  
    
    I've once again reviewed the Maynard Town Counsel's opinion of the 
    agreement, which was requested by the committee AFTER the agreement was 
    drafted.  He has raised a total of 55 questions in a seven page report.  
    Does this not concern any of you who are voting "yes" on this rather 
    important matter?  Why are we voting yes on something that is of such 
    importance, when we know there are faults with it?  What is the big rush?  
    If anyone can help me understand the logic behind this thought process I
    would certainly appreciate it.
    
    					Thanks in advance,
    					Steve
      

    From earlier notes:
    
    - I found out last night that there has been no lottery for courses in
    Acton. The lottery was proposed for junior high school dances. It turns
    out that the place where the dances are held is too small for all
    junior high school students. So they've decided that if too many people
    want to attend a dance, they will hold a lottery. So far, they've
    never had to hold a lottery because not everyone wants to attend every 
    dance.
    
    - School percentages. It turns out that the Maynard student population
    is between 26% and 27% of the proposed region, not 21%, as was stated
    earlier. So if Maynard is paying 25%, we're actually getting a good
    deal.
    
    - Comment on property values: As a home owner, I'd be a fool not to
    want property values to go up. Don't you want your property values to
    increase? And if they do increase, what does that say to you? To me, it
    says that the school system has improved drastically enough that
    potential home buyers are willing to pay more so that their children
    can be a part of that system.
    
    - After school activities. My understanding is that we would have a
    late bus to transport students home after late-afternoon activities.
    
    - School usage. Apparently, if regionalization goes through, there will
    be only one empty school (Fowler), and there have already been
    inquiries from organizations wanting to rent it. I suspect our school
    buildings would be relatively full within a short time.
    
    - Rushing into things: The regionalization study has been going on for
    several years. There have been many forums to discuss issues. In my
    opinion, we are not rushing into anything. This is an idea that is long
    overdue.
    
    -- Liz
    
    
    

    Addition to last note.
    
    Steve M: In note .19, you did say that the Maynard population of Grades
    7-12 is 21% of the region, and that's fairly accurate. However,
    remember that we're regionalizing the entire school system, so we
    should really be looking at the population of the entire school. As I
    stated in my last note, Maynard's entire population is 26% to 27% of
    the whole.
    
    Roof bonds: I understand that Maynard is receiving outside funds
    (I believe they're state funds) for the Fowler roof. Those funds will
    continue to come to Maynard.
    
    As for deciding to construct new buildings, don't forget that there are
    fiscal conservatives in Acton as well as in Boxborough and Maynard. If
    there is any new construction, I suspect all other avenues will have
    been explored first. Especially in tight economic times, towns don't go
    off building new buildings frivolously. (As an example, look at the
    hassle Stow went through to get a new town building. They talked about
    it for two decades before finally getting permission to break ground.)
    
    
    Liz

             <<< Note 261.40 by 38636::AUGUSTINE "Purple power!" >>>
    
>    - School percentages. It turns out that the Maynard student population
>    is between 26% and 27% of the proposed region, not 21%, as was stated
>    earlier. So if Maynard is paying 25%, we're actually getting a good
>    deal.
    
    It might be a good deal if you don't mind paying the cost of the $1.6
    buy-in.  These numbers are also based on today's enrollment figures.  
    What happens when the growth potential of Acton and Boxboro are fully
    reached?  We'll still be paying 25%, with a *much* smaller percentage
    of the student population.  Why is the 25% figure definitive?  Why couldn't
    we have negotiated a flexible percentage to reflect the student
    population, reviewable say, every 3 years?  Could it be that Maynard
    had no formal representation of attorney, and we got snookered?  
    
>    - School usage. Apparently, if regionalization goes through, there will
>    be only one empty school (Fowler), and there have already been
>    inquiries from organizations wanting to rent it. I suspect our school
>    buildings would be relatively full within a short time.
    
    And I am of the opinion that you are being very naive.  Are you unaware 
    of the 1.5 schools that are *already* empty and not being used?  Schools 
    that will continue to remain empty?  And now you're telling us there have 
    been inquiries into renting the third school in town that will be closed 
    down?  The one without any parking facilities?  Please tell me more, as
    I have a high level of interest in this one.  We live within a stone's 
    throw of this building and if the right tenant (or buyer) were to come 
    along, our property values might go up!  I'm very interested in hearing
    about these so-called "inquiries".
    
>    - Rushing into things: The regionalization study has been going on for
>    several years. 
    
    If several years to you equals two, then I'll agree with you here.
    
>    There have been many forums to discuss issues. In my
>    opinion, we are not rushing into anything. This is an idea that is long
>    overdue.
    
    In January there was a town forum in which we were told there would be
    open regionalization forums held monthly until election time.  There was
    no forum held in February, there was no forum held in March, and as far 
    as I know, April!  The ABM regionalization agreement wasn't even available 
    to the public until after the last forum was held!  Do you still believe 
    we are not rushing into this?
     
    Once again, it is not the concept of regionalization that I am opposed to.
    What I am opposed to is the regionalization agreement that we will be 
    voting on at Town Meeting.  It is felt by a great many people, should
    this agreement pass, the screws that will be implanted in our backs will 
    tighten to the point where the Town of Maynard will no longer exist, as 
    we know it, with each passing year.
    
    I feel secure knowing that we have a well-equipped fire department with
    paramedics.  They have saved 3 members of my extended family over the
    years.  I feel secure knowing that should I have problems with my water
    or sewer systems, I can be sure it will be fixed regardless of the hour, 
    as happened to us on New Year's Eve, 1983.  Tree roots decided to find 
    their way through an elbow in our sewerage system, essentially blocking 
    it, while we had a house full of 30 people.  It took about an hour, but 
    the water dept. was there to fix it.  What IS going to happen to the
    remainder of the departments in town, when we no longer have control
    over our budget should this agreement pass?
    
    					Steve  
    
    
                               

    Steve,
    
    My understanding is that if things change dramatically, we can write
    amendments to the agreement, as Boxborough and Acton have done with
    theirs about six times since it was first signed.
    
    I'm very concerned that if we don't start sharing resources with other
    towns, then Maynard will be in serious trouble. Actually, I think we
    are in serious trouble already and that we're being offered a lifeline.
    
    One thing I'm hearing from you is that you are very suspicious of
    people from other towns -- they're out to screw us and take us for
    every cent we have. While I respect your right to feel that way, I
    guess I have basic faith in the folks who've been working on this 
    plan -- that those from Maynard and from the other towns are working
    towards a situation where everyone comes out ahead. You can call me all
    the names you want to, but I guess it just boils down to our having 
    different philosophies.
    
    Listen, Steve, we may not agree, but that does not mean I'm an idiot.
    We both work for the same company and live in the same town. I even
    suspect that we're both interested in some of the same goals, though we
    have different ideas about how to attain them. Notes tends to make
    other human beings seem remote and abstract. I hope that we can
    continue this conversation in a respectful manner.
    
    
    Liz

    Liz,
    
    No hostilities intentionally directed at you on my part.  I sincerely 
    apologize if any of my notes have made you feel that way.
    
    Have a good day,
    Steve

RE .34 - kudos - a thoughtful reply.

>It was very well put.   The School Committee's long-range planning committee
>presented just such a plan to the school committee last week.   The goal was
>to create a model school system taking advantage of a number of sweeping
>changes that are present in the system and environment right now (e.g.,
>business involvement, technological changes, changing attitudes on how
>classrooms are structured etc.).

Is the plan available to the public?

>   Dr. Ciardi was, reportedly, very impressed
>with the report and I believe if regionalization does not pass, it will be
>pursued to the greatest degree possible.   There are a number of people in
>town who are working very hard to make the school system one the best in the
>nation.

Well, I hate to ask the obvious, but who are these people and what specific
problems are they trying to solve?  


RE Acton versus Maynard:

I continue to have difficulty believing that the citizenry of Acton are
engaged in massive descrimination toward Maynard.  I can believe that
some individuals do.  I can believe that more pervasive
descrimination existed in the past.  Neither of these are sufficiently
valid reasons to sway someone's thinking about regionalization in the 1990's.

>When people talk about merging the Acton and Maynard school systems, a lot of
>attention is paid (quite rightly) to the academic side of school.   The A-B
>system has a well-deserved reptuation for producing students with high S.A.T.
>scores, and doing well later in life.   This is the attractive side of the
>regionalization proposal - and one that (as several people in this conference
>and elsewhere) appears to be the main argument (with money sometimes coming
>up now and then).

>As a parent of adolescent children growing up in times of economic distress,
>war, drugs, a teetering environment - there is another side to school.  Junior
>high and high school is the place where values and social responsibilities are
>engendered in our young people.   I believe for many parents (certainly
>not all), that they look towards how the school system will foster and
>place these values in their children.  The size and character of the school
>are critical to these activities.   The size of the school is especially
>important to those parents who seek active involvement in their children's
>education and experience within the school system - for a small school system
>offers a real chance for personal interaction and sometimes change.   It is
>the perception of these parents that a large school (such as ABHS) does not
>currently provide the learning and *living* environment that they feel is best
>for their children -- and that the size of the school prohibits them from
>being able to contribute or change in any real fashion.  Maybe the Acton
>school system matches these values, and is flexible or conducive to change.
>I don't know.  
*>Many don't know.  It is this fear of the unknown that makes
*>the "brass ring" of high academic achievement not the sole means by which
*>the regionalization proposal is judged.

That's a fair statement - it shouldn't be the sole criteria, but it is one
of the most fundamental reasons for having the school system in the first
place.  By example, I can teach my children fundamental values like humanity,
honesty, integrity, courtesy, etc, at home, but teaching them the 3-R's 
requires explicit, time-intensive instruction that is much more difficult for 
me to provide.  (I certainly hope that the aforementioned values are at least
relatively free from negative reinforcement and (better) subject to positive
reinforcement.)  

It is unfair and unrealistic to expect the school system to compensate for
the lack of a value system being taught at home.  Occasional, notable
successes are possible in individual cases, but without improving the student
teacher ratio, large-scale success is impossible.  This means our children
will come in contact with individuals who are lacking in character - this
will happen in Maynard, and it will happen in Acton.  I suppose that simple
numbers suggest that the Acton school system will have more "problem" students
than Maynard - but the same logic dictates that there will be many more
students of good character as well.  My personal perception is that the
fostering of good social values will not be a problem in either school system
for those student who initially acquire the values from their own families.


>[I will also admit that there probably exists a set of people who oppose
> regionalization because some form of identity will be lost - as if it were
> a win-lose football game or something.  Pride (in a town or flag or whatever)
> can be a strong motivator or a vice.  Rational thought usually goes down
> the drain however.]

I also suspect that some segment of our population wants to exercise permanent
veto over any further increases in the educational budget and thereby
views regionalization as a threat to that veto.

>truisms.   From my interpretation of the regionalization proposal that we
>will be voting on is that the taxpayers can either decide that it is their
>social responsibility to fund their school systems adequately or whether we,
>to a certain extent, mandate that responsibility for our town (forcing us
>to decide our level of social responsibility for other town functions such
>as police, fire, senior citizen affairs, library, etc.).

>Along with math, science, and the other technical aspects of living on this
>planet - our schools must teach these values to our students - and that is
>a heck of a lot easier if the current generation lives by these values.

It is, understandably, very difficult to appeal to someone's social 
responsibility when they:

1.  Are on a fixed income
2.  Are underpaid or underemployed
3.  Haven't had a raise in N years
4.  Are out of work.

It is also, I fear, very difficult to stress the necessity for education
and educational investment to someone in that predicament.   My argument
is based on something less admirable but more fundamental than social
responsibility: self-interest.  To wit:  if you want to preserve and enhance 
your standard of living, get the best education you can for yourself, your
children, and your neighbor's children.  Relying on the attitude: "Maynard
schools were good enough for me; they're good enough for my children" is
a receipe for continued economic decline.  

I'd like to know a lot more about the plan presented to the school committee.
I have 2 children in Fowler - an institution that does not inspire confidence.
I can't afford to merely hope that (1) a comprehensive plan has been created 
and (2) it will be fully supported by the town and (3) it will produce 
significant change soon enough to help my children.  I (we) need hard 
information.



Acton has it now.  Will Maynard have it soon?
    

    My son attends Green Meadow and came home with a memo fro Dr. Cicardi
    that described what cuts would probably have to be made if neither of
    the override questions passed on election day.  Last year there was a
    very strong effort to get the override passed.  This year I have seen
    or heard next to nothing on this effort.  I have a question (and a
    fear...)
    
    Assume that Regionalization does not pass
    			AND
    Assume that the first override choice does not pass
    			AND
    Assume that the second override choice does not pass
    
    
    What will happen to the school system in Maynard?

    The girl who babysits for us is a freshman in Maynard High.  I asked
    her some questions about Maynard High.  She answered my questions and
    summed it up this way. Going to Maynard is like going to a small
    private school, it may not offer a variety of everything, but what it
    does offer, it is the best.  Her average class size is about 15 kids
    per class.  She said the individual attention she gets from teachers is
    great.
    
    I have been exposed to resent graduates of some of the area towns,
    through summer help and contractors.  These kids have graduated from
    what we all call good high schools.  The major problem I have noticed
    is these kids can not spell, add without a calculator, write a
    understandable sentence or express themselves verbally.  These kids are
    usually going to college in the following fall.  It does not seem to
    matter what school system they come from they have the same problems. 
    Education does not come from schools, it comes from the home. 
    Education is a state of mind.  I am interested in my kids education. 
    My kids will do well in a one room school offering the basic
    3-R's only.  Because I care.  If our graduates can read and write well,
    and think for themselves then they will do well in college and in life.

re:		      <<< Note 261.45 by 12116::LEACHE >>>
                            
> The School Committee's long-range planning committee
>presented just such a plan to the school committee last week.   The goal was
>to create a model school system taking advantage of a number of sweeping
>changes that are present in the system and environment right now (e.g.,
>business involvement, technological changes, changing attitudes on how
>classrooms are structured etc.).

>Is the plan available to the public?


A copy of the Long Range Planning Committees report and presentation is 
on-file at the Maynard Town library.  Also, Dr. Ciardi has a copy.

The report is available to anyone wishing to make a copy.



>Well, I hate to ask the obvious, but who are these people and what specific
>problems are they trying to solve?  

The report contains a listing of the individuals on the committee as well as 
their positions within the community.


All problems/challenges to be solved are listed and covered at great length 
and detail in the report.  If you are interested, I suggest that you make a 
copy or review the copy at the Maynard Library.


Julian

    I am not from Maynard but I have really enjoyed reading about
the regionalizing issue. I have a question though, I have walk over to
the town hall and I have gotten all the material every one in the notes has
spoken about.
     My question is this, If the over-ride passes, the school will
system will still have less money than it did last year and positions
or class will have to be cut.  If the override is not passed, then
bigger cuts will have to be made and from what I understand the
school is tettering on accreditation as it is because of all the 
class and teacher cuts. No accreditation and what happens to the
kids then.

     If the school has to cut even with an override passage, will they
not have to come back next year for another override just to keep the
level of service they have now. and if this is the case, I don't see
how anyone could live in Maynard for long with an override having to 
be passed each year, just for school services this doesnot include
other town services going up also. Maynard doesn't have that big of a 
tax base does it, people I have spoken to say that their taxes are 
already very high as it is.
  
    I don't really have an opinion on this matter because it doesn't 
affect me, I live in Andover, but it appears that the education level
is going to go down no matter what the town does, override or nooverride
level of service is not up to par with what it should be.

   Very good debate though

my three cents

Carl w. carlson

RE:  47

>    Education does not come from schools, it comes from the home. 
>    Education is a state of mind.  I am interested in my kids education. 
>    My kids will do well in a one room school offering the basic
>    3-R's only.  Because I care.  If our graduates can read and write well,
>    and think for themselves then they will do well in college and in life.

It's true that a motivated student will tend to optimize whatever educational
opportunities are available to him or to her.  But that's the easy case.
What about good kids who just aren't motivated?  I have known a number of 
such children in my life, and it isn't necessarily true that education is 
not valued in their homes.  This is a situation in which the school system 
can make a difference - the right combination of staff, curriculum, 
facilities, expectations, and personal associations can help a child to 
become motivated.  Naturally, this is more difficult if there is no emphasis 
on education in the home - but it's still possible.

>    3-R's only.  Because I care.  If our graduates can read and write well,
>    and think for themselves then they will do well in college and in life.

It's a sad (but accurate) commentary on the quality of education across the
US, when our greatest expectation is that they can use their own language
effectively.  I'm sure many colleges would love to see a group of freshmen
who could uniformly read, write, and think for themselves.  The unbelievable
truth is that far too many can't.  And these are "merely" the foundation 
     skills required to succeed in the future.
    

    

    Re: .45
    
>I continue to have difficulty believing that the citizenry of Acton are
>engaged in massive descrimination toward Maynard.  I can believe that
>some individuals do.  I can believe that more pervasive
>descrimination existed in the past.  Neither of these are sufficiently
>valid reasons to sway someone's thinking about regionalization in the 1990's.
    
    I agree with your above statement, but there is an underlying sore, if
    you don't mind me calling it that, regarding this subject.  Unfortunately, 
    it even lingers in our own backyard.  We have a member of the Maynard 
    School Committee, John Comella, who while addressing a hall full of *very* 
    concerned citizens, publicly questions whether half of them can spell a 
    two syllable word.  Here we have a public official openly denigrating 
    the citizens of Maynard.  It's the nature of the beast to become upset
    by such an insult, but I agree with you, this shouldn't be used as the
    sole basis of judgement on the issue of regionalization.  Thankfully,
    we do have the priviledge of deciding whether we want this man to continue
    being a member of the Maynard School Committee, when we vote on Monday.   
    
>It is unfair and unrealistic to expect the school system to compensate for
>the lack of a value system being taught at home.  Occasional, notable
>successes are possible in individual cases, but without improving the student
>teacher ratio, large-scale success is impossible.
    
    Maynard's student/teacher ratio is lower than Acton-Boxboro's, fyi.
    
>I also suspect that some segment of our population wants to exercise permanent
>veto over any further increases in the educational budget and thereby
>views regionalization as a threat to that veto.
    
    Maynard has a very high percentage of senior citizens who do feel
    threatened by Prop. 2.5 overrides, this is true.  If I may speak on behalf 
    of the S.O.S. group, the vast majority of it's members realize an override 
    is quite necessary.  I've never taken a poll, but *everyone* I've spoken to 
    about this issue is in favor of at least voting yes on the lower of the
    two override questions.  For the record, when SOS speaks of the
    economic issues should regionalization pass, the reasons are in regard 
    to the loss of town control and the flaws in the proposed agreement.
    
    Whatever happens on the evening of May 20th, I'll awaken the next morning 
    feeling quite happy in knowing there are a great many people in this town 
    who truly care about the welfare of our kids.  We may be on opposite sides
    of the fence, but for the majority of us, the bottom line is constant.
    Good luck to all.
    
    					Steve
                     

RE .51
    
>    I agree with your above statement, but there is an underlying sore, if
>    you don't mind me calling it that, regarding this subject.  Unfortunately, 
>    it even lingers in our own backyard.  We have a member of the Maynard 
>    School Committee, John Comella, who while addressing a hall full of *very* 
>    concerned citizens, publicly questions whether half of them can spell a 
>    two syllable word.  Here we have a public official openly denigrating 
>    the citizens of Maynard.  It's the nature of the beast to become upset
>    by such an insult, but I agree with you, this shouldn't be used as the
>    sole basis of judgement on the issue of regionalization.  Thankfully,
>    we do have the priviledge of deciding whether we want this man to continue
>    being a member of the Maynard School Committee, when we vote on Monday.   
    
I assume you are referring to the famous "lacrosse" incident.  I wasn't there,
so I'm not familiar with the context or the tone of the remark.  But, I would
hope the voters judge Mr Comella by his overall performance, not by an
occurrence or two of foot-in-mouth disease.  (If we were to use the latter
metric on national politicians, we would vote out both George Bush and
Dan Quail and probably most of the House and Senate too.)  

Now that I think about it, wasn't his remark intended to comment on the
over-emphasis of sports to the detriment of general education, 
rather than insult the spelling prowess of the citizenry?  (To be honest, 
I wasn't sure I could spell "lacrosse" correctly either - don't have much
cause to use the word.)

    

.30>  Personally, I feel that the education of my kids is more important than
.30>  whether or not the town pays a couple of percentages more or less.  

I agree.  However, that particular argument, of course, is not about a
couple of percentage points, but about being locked into an unfair contract
forever. But I concede that the educational issues are critically
important, and are being given less attention than they deserve.

.30>
.30>  The A-B regional schools are among the best in the nation.  
      .....
.30>  young families are shunning Maynard because of its
.30>  crappy schools.  Regionalization is the way to break the cycle.

Crappy schools?  

.31>    Our son is 2 1/2 years old. We don't want to send him to an average 
.31>    school. That's not going to give him the edge he'll need in that 
.31>    competitive world out there.    
.31>    
.31>    If the schools are regionalized, and thereby become above average, we'll 
.31>    likely stay. If the schools don't regionalize, we'll move within the 
.31>    next few years.  We don't want to leave, because we really like the
.31>    town. But our son's education is at the top of the priority list.  

The thing I don't understand is how people can be so sure that the Maynard
Schools are so bad for their kids, and that Acton would necessarily be
better for their kids, and everybody else's.  Let me give you a counter
opinion. 

There's a fellow in town named Mike Kalafatas who has always talked about
how good the Maynard Schools are.  In particular, he focuses on the fact
that in a small system, there are more opportunities to achieve, and
develop ability and self-reliance, and that this relates to success in
college and in later life.  So what?  Well, Mike Kalafatas is Head of
Admissions at Brandeiss. 

Just think about that a minute - would you think that Mike is in a
position, professionally, to make a good judgment about the quality of a
school system?  Is this an "average school"?  Considerably better, I think. 
"Crappy"?  Uh, no.  I don't have any qualms about my daughter attending
school in Maynard. She will have a chance to excel which may not exist in a
larger system.  I'm not saying a large school is bad; it's like the choice
between a small, good college and Enormous State University - there are
good points to each.  And as far as course opportunity, I think the Long
Range Planning Committee has it covered. Anyway, enrollments are going up
as the kids in Green Meadow and Fowler get older, anyway. 

Bill, you speak with such vehemence about the "crappy schools".  Do you
have a kid in the Maynard Schools? I've talked to a couple of people who
have had problems, for example playground problems at Green Meadow, and
their answer is regionalization. The initial question is: Did you go to the
Principal with the problem, then, if there was not satisfaction, the
Superintendent?  Then the School Committee? My points are (1) there's a
structure for dealing with problems and (2) if the Superintendent is in
Acton, presiding over thousands of children, I don't see how that
guarantees a better response than you get now. 

We have a new Superintendent who, I think, is very promising.  We will
likely have some changes on the school committee, too.  I suspect this
means that we will have people in authority who are willing to listen to
the public. If we keep the decision-making local, we have the best chance
achieving this. 

So what was your experience with the Maynard schools, Bill? 

-Steve

re: 48
                            

>A copy of the Long Range Planning Committees report and presentation is 
>on-file at the Maynard Town library.  Also, Dr. Ciardi has a copy.

>The report is available to anyone wishing to make a copy.

I asked my wife to make a copy of this report today - the librarian claimed
to know nothing about it and gave her an amended copy of the regionalization
agreement instead.  Does the document have a formal title?
    

    
I have been reviewing Note 261 and would like to make a few comments.  To give
you some idea as to my involvment with this issue, I'd like you to know that
my husband is president of the Maynard Education Association and we have
a son who is just finishing his freshman year at Maynard High.  Both my husband
and I graduated from MHS too many years ago to mention, so my perspective is
deeply rooted in my life experiences within this community.  I cannot look at
this issue from afar and speculate about the possibilties without becoming
emotional and I do not apologize for that.  I am thankful for calmer voices
such as Steve Ruzich, Steve Morgan and Julian Parker who are able to articulate
the Ts and Cs of the proposed agreement.  It is a critical piece, but there
is also the personal side to this issue and it ought to receive consideration.
There are those who would wave the human side of all this off as 
inconsequential.  It is not.

Throughout this note, I have read broad brush statements about the quality of
education that children in Maynard receive and the teachers are painted as all
being less than adequate.  My experience, and that of many of my friends is
quite the opposite.  The MHS graduates attend very good schools. They are
certainly accepted at the top universities, sometimes economics mean that 
they choose other alternatives. The kids get a lot of special attention from 
their teachers and are taught to speak up for what they believe.  Everyone
can participate in just about anything that they want to sample.  My son is
not a top athlete, but has been on a sports team every season this year and
he has tasted success from that.  That is very important to the growing process.
He is in the band, gets after school help in math, belongs to WAVM and can still
walk home from school and get his homework done in the evening.  Should this
merger happen, he will be entering his junior year of high school.  This is
a time when young men are just coming into their own.  It is a time for feeling
capable and somewhat independent.  It is not a time to be uprouted and
moved like cattle into an unpleasant situation.  It will be unpleasant.  The
superiority complex carried by the Acton community did not happen over night and
it will not go away over night.  For people who can not comprehend the reality
of it, I cannot explain it.  It is there, though.  I have seen it expressed
here at Digital.  I have sat in meetings where people have "shared something
about themselves with others" and they were not aware of my background.  I
have heard people who are residents of Acton make disparaging remarks about
Maynard.  Mr. Commella's infamous LACROSSE comment was just such a remark.
He was saying that the citizens of Maynard do not have as broad a social or
educational background as the citizens of Acton.  He was saying that he 
thinks Maynard residents are inferior to Acton residents. 
As a parent, I would not want my child exposed to that at a time when his
sense of self worth is maturing into what he will carry with him throughout
his life.  

If the Maynard Schools are guilty of anything, it is that they do not PR 
themselves very well. Acton is considered a top school system because it sells 
itself as one.  It makes sure it plays the politics it has to in order to get 
recognized as such. Sort of like getting listed in the "Who's Who in America's
High Schools" - you pay your $$$ and list your accomplishments and you're in.
My god, every little insigificant event that goes on in Acton, you read about
in the paper.  Maynard needs to do a better job of that as well.  Lots and lots
of good things happen in the Maynard Schools.  There are kids making very
special contributions to society and we hear so little about it.

To Arthur Filz:  I agree with you about regionalization, Arthur.  I  agree
that this is a whole Community. We must think about all of our services.
Schools are, of course, a very big part of that, but they are not the only
thing.  I can't conceive of how people can think that the value of their
homes will increase when the town is bankrupted paying their regionalization
bills and no longer can afford police, fire, DPW, etc.
However, Arthur, I am sick of your broken record approach to education.
All you ever say is fire bad teachers and whine about tenure.  I am not
saying there aren't bad teachers.  Of course there are.  I am sure there are
bad teachers in Acton, too.  Just as there are bad computer operators, dentists,
shopkeepers, hairdressers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, etc..My point is
teachers are people - nothing else.  There is no basis for you to expect them
all to be perfect.  And, just like at Digital you can fire bad teachers IF
the administrator/manager is willing to go through the pain of the paper
work and confrontation.  And just like at Digital, there are some good school
administrators and some bad.  Tenure doesn't preclude firing a bad teacher.
Arthur, I'd suggest you try and find a more creative approach to improving
the quality of education in this country.

The person who stated he would be willing to give up a little of his
political voice for his kids is speaking some scary stuff.  You should NEVER
want to give up your right to choose.  Each time you take even a bit of that
away, you chip a little further into the foundation of our democratic process.
This is not the legacy I want for my kids.       

We need to pass the override.  I hope and pray that we do.  As long as we
have 2 1/2, there will be a need to ask for overrides every year for one 
thing or another and not just in Maynard either. This is the standard across
our State.  My husband and the MEA have been trying to help alleviate some
of the distress of this situation.  They had hoped to give the people of
Maynard an opportunity to have a choice at Town Meeting.  They have been
meeting with the school committee since February attempting some kind of 
an agreement that would be reasonable for them to consider freezing their
salaries for this year.  But the school committee has not been involved in
the dialogue.  The meetings have all been the same.  The MEA presents a
package of terms for consideration and the school committee has flatly
refused to consider any terms each time.  I strongly believe that this is
being done intentionally, so that the committee won't have the option of
$300K to work with; making their plans to regionalize look like the only
way.  They have cut standing programs needlessly; while instituting new
programs without any basis in real need.  This school committee is completely
irresponsible and I only hope that we can make the right changes on Monday.

As for holding public officials to "foot in mouth" statements:  God, wish
we could...then maybe we wouldn't have to look at George Bush and especially
Dan Quayle...

 re: -.1

 Bravo!!  Well written and articulated!

 Cliff (who's not from Maynard but has lived a second life here for
        over 15 years and feels a certain affinity for this town)

I've read all these comments with great interest.  I think the discussion
has been great.

As of right now, I'm only sure of one thing: whichever way I vote, I won't be
sure I'm making the correct choice.

I did want to chip in though with a comment on the lacrosse issue.  I wasn't
at the meeting.  I don't know John Comella.  But when I first read the account
(261.7: you here it here first folks!  we scooped the Beacon! :^) I said
to myself "what did that guy really mean?".

Well, the only logical explanation that came to my mind was that Mr. Comella
was trying to make the point that if an override failed to pass, AB would lose
an obscure sport (which almost nobody except those who play it even know how to
spell) while Maynard would lose critical parts of its core curriculum.

I began to enter a reply to that effect when I read 261.7, but figured "eh,
what the heck... no big deal".

Two weeks later, after the Beacon explosion and requests for his resignation, 
in a letter from Mr. Comella addressed to the Maynard community I read exactly
that explanation in the Beacon.  And by the way, I believe the quote reported by
the Beacon was more generous than that given in 261.7 in that it implied that 
Mr. Comella was referring specifically to those AB people that were involved 
with the lacrosse team, and not AB people in general.

I'm not trying to defend Mr. Comella's somewhat poor choice of words to 
demonstrate a difference between the fiscal situations of two schools.  But I 
do think it's a bit much to draw the inferences that have been drawn in this
conference about Mr. Comella, and people in favor of regionalization generally,
from that one statement.  He's pro-regionalization, in a big way (or so his 
campaign signs and school committee actions indicate).  But I don't believe his
comments should be construed as an insult to anybody.

I played "lax" in college.  That's the way I always spell it, 'cause it *is*
kind of an obscure word.  I picked up on what Mr. Commella says he meant
as the first meaning.  I really didn't see any offense in the comment.  And
yes, I live in Maynard.

Think about it: if you were an ELECTED official trying to PERSUADE folks with
logical arguments on a tough issue, would you insult your audience?

Now I know someone will probably pick up on the meaning of "lax" as being
"remiss" or "negligent" and try to play that back against regionalization,
Mr. Comella, this reply, or this correspondent :^).  I would suggest that we
consider another meanining of the word: "Not taut; slack", and that we
cut Mr. Comella some on this particular issue.

RE .57:
>Well, the only logical explanation that came to my mind was that Mr. Comella
>was trying to make the point that if an override failed to pass, AB would lose
>an obscure sport (which almost nobody except those who play it even know how to
>spell) while Maynard would lose critical parts of its core curriculum.

Yes, that was Mr. Comella's point.

I think this is a lot like the kind of situation where someone makes
a comment about a racial or ethnic group, without knowingly trying to insult
them.  (Like black peoples' ability at sports, or some tired comment about
about Catholic families... ) Then it happens that someone who hears the comment
gets deeply offended.  And the speaker is totally baffled. 

I don't think that John was trying to insult the audience, but he did,
and he should have known better. 

>Think about it: if you were an ELECTED official trying to PERSUADE folks with
>logical arguments on a tough issue, would you insult your audience?

Some do, yes.  

It appears, Pete, that you have not had the misfortune of attending any school
committee meetings.  School Committee member Gary Farrow has deliberately
insulted members of the public on many occasions, while sitting on the
committee. 

I recall two incidents most vividly.  The first was at a School Committee
meeting, held to discuss the committee's proposed budget cuts, about a year
ago.  One fellow in the audience stood up and pointed out that all the proposed
cuts were all in areas which hurt the kids (elimination of programs, canning
teachers), and suggested that the Committee should consider cuts in other
areas. 

Farrow responded by calling him "stupid".  I was just amazed - I'll never
forget that. 

The other occasion was when my wife, Cindy, submitted a report to the School
Committee which detailed what they had really done with the money that year. 
For example, taking most of the money out of the Green Meadow textbook fund,
added money to Administrative Travel, etc.  Farrow said that she had "violated
the Committee", and "violated the process", and violated a couple of other
things, as well, for bringing light to the facts. 

The School Committee has a circle-the-wagons approach to rebuff any ideas which 
did not come from their inner circle.  (Cindy Parker excluded, of course.)

    I guess it boils down to each person having the right to decide whether
    something insults them or not.  I've been hearing much from people
    who *did* find this statement insulting.  In fact, I'm remided that I
    *should* find this insulting by a certain noter's personal name pretty
    much every day ;^).
    
    I just wanted to express my point of view, which is that I didn't find
    it insulting, and that the folks who do are, in my opinion, probably
    reacting as much to the issue (regionalization) and the source (a major
    regionalization advocate, and a member of the school committee) as to
    the actual statement.
    
    Sorry to hear about Mr. Farrow's behavior.  I can see why that might
    color your interpretation of the lacrosse statement.

    In a later article in the Beacon John Comella said that the Maynard
    schoosl do not challenge students and if regionalization did not pass he
    would be sending his kids to another school system.  Mr. Comella thinks
    the Maynard schools are not good enough for his kids.  He is running
    for re-election today.  Do you want a person on our school committee
    who thinks the Maynard schools are not good enough for their kids to
    attend?  All schools need to improve including Maynard's. I want school
    committee members who realize this and who work to improve our schools
    and who have faith in themselves, Maynard residents and the school
    system.  
    
    When you vote today remember who the candidates are and what they stand
    for.  In my opinion Mr. Comella degraded the Town of Maynard, the
    school system, and the residents of Maynard.                            

Actually, yes, I would like someone like John on the committee.
He's not just sitting around complaining about the school system.
He's offering to give up his free time to improve things. If
he thought things were hopeless, I don't think he'd be running
for this office.

I actually feel more uncomfortable with the candidates who seem
to think that things in the Maynard school system are just 
wonderful and that no improvements whatsoever are needed. *sigh*.

My understanding is that the schooling situation in Maynard will
change dramatically in the next few years. At this point, it's
hard to tell what exact changes will come about. My hope is that
the changes will be positive primarily for the students and
secondarily for the taxpayers.


Liz

Hi, I just wanted to let you folks know that I've found this topic extremely
interesting, very informative, and generally well-put.

I live in Acton, and I've seen precious little information (and I read the
Beacon all the time) on the impact on Acton or Boxborough if the proposed
merger goes through.  Granted, the change for Maynard is probably larger, since
Maynard is not currently part of a region, but there is an impact on Acton and
Boxborough as well.  Tell me, from Maynard does it appear a foregone conclusion
that Acton and Boxborough voters will approve the proposal?  I've been planning
to vote in favor, but the lack of effort at trying to convince me either way,
coupled with the high level of controversy in Maynard, has me vacillating.

Vote your conscience.

						Brian

    All four candidates are not just sitting around complaining about the
    school system and all four want to give up their free time to improve
    the school system, which is commendable.  And I believe all four
    candidates feel they are doing what they think is best for the schools,
    they just want to go about it in a different way.  I personally can not
    support anyone who has said so many bad things about Maynard and it's
    residents.

           <<< Note 261.61 by MEWVAX::AUGUSTINE "Purple power!" >>>
    
>I actually feel more uncomfortable with the candidates who seem
>to think that things in the Maynard school system are just 
>wonderful and that no improvements whatsoever are needed. *sigh*.
    
    Liz, where on God's green earth do you get this information?  All four
    of the candidates for School Committee have expressed a desire to
    improve the Maynard School system!  I hope you don't think I'm trying
    to personally attack you again, but the above statement has absolutely 
    no basis in fact.
    
    					Steve

Well Steve, I guess our perceptions just aren't meshing, which is 
perfectly ok. I do agree with Mr. Lesage (sorry, I didn't catch
your first name) who suggested that folks vote. I'm very curious
to see how this election goes.


Liz

    Yes Liz, our perceptions obviously do not mesh.  To be perfectly frank,
    I'm thankful they do not.  I've had an open mind about this issue from
    day one.
    
    I do not have the official numbers, but Cindy and Tom, not to be
    confused with John and Jim, were the winners in yesterday's election!
    Congratulations to both!
    
    					Steve

    I do not remember the numbers either but, both the anti-regionalization
    candidates won by large numbers.  The override did not pass, Phil was
    re-elected to the library trustees and the town charter was accepted. 
    I believe these were the only contested  items on the ballot.

    A few more numbers:
    
    2699 voters went to the polls.  I believe this is less than half of the
    registered voters in town.
    
    School Committee
    ------ ---------
    Cindy Ruzich - 1531
    Tom Konetzny - 1490
    John Comella -  974
    Jim DeMott   -  463
    
    Charter Commission
    ------- ----------
    1680 - yes
     833 - no
     186 - blanks
    
    350K Override
    ---- --------
    1417 - no
    1170 - yes
     112 - blanks
           
    850K Override
    ---- --------
    1731 - no
     833 - yes
     135 - blank
                 

.68>    Jim DeMott   -  463
    
    Steve, you have to give Jim DeMott a little more credit than that...
    
    School Committee
    ------ ---------
    Cindy Ruzich - 1531
    Tom Konetzny - 1490
    John Comella -  974
    Jim DeMott   -  940
    
    -Steve

    Thanks for the correction, Steve.  My fingers must be still
    water-logged from yesterday.  :-)
    
    
    <<< Note 261.62 by VMSDEV::WIBECAN "Cheese in the kitchen everywhere" >>>
                      -< Comments from an Acton resident >-
    
>Tell me, from Maynard does it appear a foregone conclusion
>that Acton and Boxborough voters will approve the proposal?  I've been planning
>to vote in favor, but the lack of effort at trying to convince me either way,
>coupled with the high level of controversy in Maynard, has me vacillating.
    
    Hi Brian,
    
    It's good to hear the feelings from an Acton resident's perspective.
    Regarding your question above, it depends on which amateur politico you
    talk to.  There are all kinds of theories.  On the most part, I think
    the people who are active on both sides of the issue are too involved
    to even *begin* worrying about how Acton and Boxborough are going to
    vote.  I would suspect you might start seeing more information about 
    it in Acton, after yesterday's election and with Maynard's Town Meeting 
    less that two weeks away.
    
    					Steve

in re: where on god's green earth:

two places.

1) The slogan "save our schools" implies that they should be
preserved as they are. It's unclear whether that was the 
intention behind the slogan.

2) The fact that Ms. Ruzich made a point of saying that our
schools are "adequate". There's an implication there that 
they're fine the way they are.

I'm depressed about the overrides. Town meeting should be
very interesting.


Liz

    I would pay admission to attend this town meeting!
    
    

    
    
    Since the overrides did not pass, what are the implications?
    
          It seems the level of services for education will definitely
    	  be lowered if regionalization does not take place. 
    
    	  The Maynard Town Library will be closed.  
    
    Some opinions please.  I know the Town Meeting is yet to come. I want 
    to make an informed decision.  This note has been helpful.
    
    					Darlene
    

.71>1) The slogan "save our schools" implies that they should be
.71>preserved as they are. It's unclear whether that was the 
.71>intention behind the slogan.

Of course, that was not the intent.  The School Committee has done a poor
job for years, and it's amazing the teachers have done as well as they have.
The Schools definitely need change.
The intent is to keep the kids, and the schools in town.

.71>2) The fact that Ms. Ruzich made a point of saying that our
.71>schools are "adequate". There's an implication there that 
.71>they're fine the way they are.

Liz, where, *exactly* did you see my wife Cindy say that the schools were
"adequate"?  In print, or in a conversation?  And what was the whole quote?

-Steve

    I am sad that the override did not get voted in.  I also feel bad 
    about who got elected for the school committee.  I can just be greatful
    that I do not have any children that will be going to the Maynard
    schools.  There is no doubt in my mind that the town of Maynard just
    hurt itself.  We are responsible for the future of the world.  Taking
    care of our children includes educating them to be prepared for the
    future.
    
    Change usually is very positive.  
    
    We bought a house in Maynard last year.  I would not have done it if I 
    had thought the town was into self distruction.  I can't imagine a town
    without a LIBRARY!  I guess I will be using Acton and Concord.
    
    With a poor school system the town will attract people who do not have
    education or personal growth as one of their top priorities.
    
    I hope this is not the end of this.  I will continue to think positive
    about Maynard as long as possible.  I just hope that the motive wasn't
    the big $$$ because people are going to pay one way or the other. 
    Lower property values, and children who will be in a declining school
    system.
    
    How sad!  

Well, I am NOT one bit sad about having Cindy Ruzich, Tom Konetzny and Cindy
Parker on our School Committee.  The people who have been into the destruction
of the Maynard Schools are people like:  

                    Mike Sentence
                    Eileen Ahern
                    John Comella
                    Linda Bretz
                    Bob Geldart
                    Gary Farrow

and all their self-serving cohorts.  

I am more than sad that we have elected a team of people with a positive 
attitude about Maynard and its schools, but we did not give them much to
work with (the override).  

I am further impelled to ask those of you bemoaning the quality of Maynard's
Schools, where you get your information?  What do any of you know personally
about the young people that graduate from our high school?  The young people I
know are articulate and confident.  They attend schools such as BC, Syracuse,
UNH, Hofstra, U Mass, Bates, etc.  They become engineers, lawyers, teachers,
nurses, doctors and so on.  They travel, participate in government and care
about social issues. Is there something more that you would expect from our 
students?  I am proud of their successes. I encourage parents of these kids 
who read this notesfile not to let these criticisms go unanswered.  I am sick 
of people saying that our children are not well educated and somehow less than 
the AB kids.

I am a parent of a high school student. My son made the Honorable Mention
Roll this term which was not an easy accomplishment for him.  He got a letter
of congratulations from the Guidance Department, one from the Principal's
office and cards from teachers!  I know he would not be able to get that
level of personal encouragement from AB. If Cindy stated that Maynard Schools 
are adequate, she was correct in doing so. That does not say in anyway that 
improvement is not needed.  Maynard Schools do a good job considering the lack 
of any leadership they have had to live with over the last several years.  
Everything requires improvement.

As a citizen of this community, I am angry about the override situation, but I
am totalling insulted by people who deem the population of this town  
uneducated cretons because we do not think that a merger with AB is our best
option.  The deal we would be getting with AB is not a good one.  It is
rushed and not very well thought out.  It is a product of those that developed
it - people in a hurry to give up.  


    

    Up until now, I have been in "read only" mode. At this point, I feel
    like I have read enough in this file and the newspapers to base an 
    opinion. In all honesty, I originally was quite excited to hear that
    Maynard might merge with Acton/Boxboro. But the more I hear about the
    plan that is up for vote later this month, the more I hope that the
    folks in this town vote it down! I have heard/read that the plan has
    some major issues that need to be resolved before it could work for all
    parties concerned.

    Granted, AB may have a great school system, but that doesn't mean that
    Maynard has a lousy one. It may need some elbow grease to polish it up
    a bit, but it isn't _that_ bad that we have to enter regionalization
    with blinders on. Haste makes waste comes to mind.

    Norma

    I too am saddened.  By the failure of the override and the attitude
    of some of the townspeople over regionalization.

    The failure of the override will make those committed, dedicated and
    involved work all the harder for the good of our children.

    The attitude of those that want "this regionalization package", and
    I make that distinction because it is an important one, is one of
    defeat and fatalism.  That is sad.  So many have said, and I'm
    paraphrasing somewhat, "If we don't regionalize with AB I'm sending
    my children elsewhere."

    Well, AB, and any school for that matter, does not have all the
    answers.  It takes involvement, not only from the students and the
    teachers but especially from the parents.  I take great pride in
    going into ANY of the Maynard Schools, which I do quite often, and
    know every teacher and administrator by name, know that they know
    me, know most students, of which many more know me and feel free to
    have a conversation about anything.  I have been involved, not as
    much as some, but more than most.

    I have seen involvement make a difference.  Probably the most
    significant of which was when Don Cranson was made the full time
    Principal at the high school.

    I am also talking about involvement in the current condition,
    whatever that may be.  Today it's Maynard High School.  If it's
    going to be something different tomorrow, I will still be involved. 
    I also believe in the basic belief that this country was built on,
    democracy, and the will of the people, read as majority.  I will put
    aside my personal beliefs and work for the good of all, if that's
    what the majority decides, and I feel that I can contribute.  (I'm
    not perfect, so I'm sure that there have been instances when my ego
    got in the way and I just said "If I can't do it my way, I"m not
    going to do it at all!", but that's life.  I've also learned from
    some of those times, that it's better to be involved and help, even
    though I don't get everything I want, than it is to sit back and
    live in the "if only...")

    The point I'm trying to make is that the solution to this problem,
    and to be absolutely certain I am not being ambiguous, the problem
    is defined as "the ALLEGED sub-standard Maynard Schools", is to get
    involved with the Maynard Schools and make a positive contribution.

    John

    Liz, I would hope you'd have the decency to enter Cindy's *entire* quote
    when she spoke of the Maynard school system as being adequate.  Or are you 
    a student of the Roger Ailes school of politics?
    
    re: .78
    
    I think you've struck on one of the most, if no *the* most, important 
    aspects of a child's education, John.  Parental involvement.  We've
    already been told by some in here, and by John Comella himself, that if
    regionalization didn't pass, they would send their children to school
    elsewhere.  This attitude reminds me of some of the parents of kids my 
    wife does day-care for.  In my wife's case, there are parents out there
    who basically "dump" their kids off, show up when they feel like it,
    and then are the first to voice their displeasure when my wife has to 
    raise her rates .25/hr, for instance.  
    
    Talk to some of the teachers, and they'll tell you they sometimes feel 
    like they're day-care operators themselves, with some kids totally lacking 
    discipline and respect.  I not only feel bad for the teachers, but more 
    importantly, it is the children I feel most sorry for.  Don't get me wrong.
    I'm not  accusing anyone in here of having such an attitude, but I just 
    threw it out here for people to think about.
    
    I think this attitude is less prevelant now than it was a few years ago
    with the advent of the various parental groups that have formed in each
    of the schools.  This is progressive, and the people who take part in
    these groups should be commended.
    
    There is a great deal of dedication being put forth by many people within 
    the Maynard school system, as well as volunteers that expend a tremendous 
    amount of time and energy to better the schools in our town.  Maybe those 
    that are sitting back doing all the criticizing should open their eyes a 
    bit to witness this and possibly have a part in it all.  You might find
    a change in your outlook.
    
    					Steve
    
   

To CSSE::SYMES

Thanks for your note. Your son's accomplishments sound impressive, and 
I can only imagine that you are very proud of him.

A couple of questions and thoughts:

- Why do you say that the people you listed (and their cohorts) are 
  "self-serving"? I think I'm missing an important point here, and 
  I would like to understand it.

- You say "I am totalling insulted by people who deem the population of 
  this town uneducated cretons because we do not think that a merger with 
  AB is our best option." I, too, would be insulted if anyone called me
  names because I disagreed with them. I would like to extend my apologies
  to you in advance if you've gotten this impression from anything I've
  said. For the record, I think we are all concerned about the education
  of Maynard students. And we have differing ideas about how to provide
  the best education possible.



And a general question:

- Did anyone attend the AB open house last weekend? And if so, what were
  impressions or concerns did you come away with?


Liz

We moved to Maynard twenty six years ago. Although I consider Maynard home, I 
am not considered a "townie".  Let me assure you that my closest friends in
Maynard are both "townies" and "transplants".  We moved to Maynard when
my husband was offered a teaching position here.  We looked for homes
in the area, and needless to say, bought in Maynard for economic reasons.  
A decision I have never regreted.

Our four children attended the Maynard School system.  The older children
are on their own now. One attended UMASS and decided to go into the trades.
The second child graduated for Bentley, a Dean's List student.  The third is
graduating from UNH in two weeks, another Dean's List student.   She spent
last fall as an exchange student in London.  Our youngest is a sophomore
at Framingham State College.  My (beloved) son-in-law is a Maynard High
graduate and a WPI grad.

I have had the opportunity to know dozens of young people in Maynard.
The vast majority are college graduates or college students.  Some have
done well in the trades.  

I guess the individuals who believe we have "crappy schools" don't know the
same young adults that I do.  I do know that these past graduates of MHS
have or are attending the likes of Tufts, Brandies, Babson, Bates, Boston
College, Holy Cross, WPI and Oberlin, and the list goes on and on.  I believe
these young adults bring pride to our community.  If our schools are 
"so sub-standard", why are these individuals so impressive? 

While my children were in school, I didn't sit back and make judgements.
I became involved in the parent groups. Its great fun. I encourage it!

Congratulations to Cindy Ruzich and Tom Konetzny!  I believe they have a
strong commitment to our school system and our community.  Like Cindy and
Tom, we are all very disappointed that the override did not pass.

Unfortunately, CSSE::SYMES is right when she states that some people believe
that Maynard is populated by "uneducated cretons".  I've heard derogatory
comments about Maynard from Digital employees for years.  BUILD::MORGAN's
point about parental responsibility is well taken.  Historically, our schools
have mirrored society's current attitudes.  Some have the mistaken attitude
that our neighboring towns are far superior.  Its sad.  






    

Steve M and Steve R: 

You asked me to back up my statement that Cindy had called the
Maynard schools "adequate".

There's one quote from the 14 Feb Beacon where Cindy says that 
the schools are "adequate" but goes on to say that adequate isn't 
good enough. I do know that she's been widely quoted around town 
as saying that the schools are adequate. And I think that the 
14Feb article was in response to an earlier article by Alan Hoch
that in part challenged her on that statement. 

For what it's worth, Cindy says in the same article that "We need 
to get more from our education system." and "I think we all agree 
that our schools do not challenge our kids enough." and goes on to
say that regionalization is not the solution.

In usage that I'm familiar with, "adequate" means "good enough for
present purposes" and sometimes has the added connotation of "ok
but mediocre". So from this quote, it sounds like Cindy feels that 
the schools are barely doing their job and the system as it stands 
today isn't all that great.


Liz

Note 261.80                     REGIONALIZATION                         80 of 80

>>Thanks for your note. Your son's accomplishments sound impressive, and 
>>I can only imagine that you are very proud of him.

Thank you, but I did not mention his academic improvements for
any reason except to illustrate the personal encouragement he received from
both the administrative and teaching staff.  It is a level of personal
involvement that is impossible in a large school system.
Top students will flourish no matter where they are.  And the special
students will get the attention they need because the State mandates it.
Its all the kids in the middle, like my son, that I am worried about.  I have 
observed that at Maynard High School, kids who enter as average students often 
blossom because they are provided with so much personal encouragement. They 
start feeling really good about themselves and the possibilities are endless. 
I'm already seeing this happening with my son.  I am very concerned that, 
should he be put smack in the middle of regionalization, that all the good will
be lost.  No longer will his teachers be people he has come to know and trust 
during is freshman and sophomore years. Nor will they be people who know him.
They will not have seen his progress or understand his motivation.  He may go 
from participating in a variety of sports to, perhaps, not being "good enough" 
to participate in any of them.  I don't even know what might happen to his 
involvement with the band. Those are all personal concerns and I don't suppose 
that they will have any bearing on what others do. 


>>A couple of questions and thoughts:

>>- Why do you say that the people you listed (and their cohorts) are 
  >>"self-serving"? I think I'm missing an important point here, and 
  >>I would like to understand it.

Mike Sentence and Eileen Ahern are old news.  My personal observations were
that neither of them ever felt that Maynard Schools had anything to offer
and they were responsible for the bad image the school system has been
plagued with ever since.

As far as the current school committee (Cindy Parker excluded), I think that
they are self-serving because they have not tried to address the areas that
need improvement in our schools.  From day 1, their only interest has been
regionalization. All their engergies have been to that end.  When John Comella 
tells you that unless this plan passes, he is removing his children from the 
Maynard Schools, he has set a personal agenda.  As a group, the Committee is 
endorsing a very "bad deal" for the Town of Maynard.  They are agents of this 
community and are not acting for its best interest. Just Monday, we as a 
community, voted to the School Committee two individuals who do not support 
the AB plan as it stands. This ought to give the current Committee an idea that 
the voting majority is basically opposed to the plan. Yet, the School Committee
will go to the Town Meeting on May 20 and endorse the AB plan.  This is not 
representative of the community and is, therefore, self-serving.   

I don't know what their motivation is.  I suspect that they want their own 
kids to go to AB for very personal reasons.  I guess they can't afford to live
in Acton and don't want to pay the tuition. I understand that its more 
expensive than some of the area's private schools. I can think of no other
explanation for why this group would ignore what they hear from the community;
either via the elections or at forums. When a small group of elected officials
    behaves in such a manner and chooses to ignore the concerns of the
    majority of the people that 
elected them, I can only conclude that their reasons are personal and 
self-serving.  

>>- You say "I am totalling insulted by people who deem the population of 
>>  this town uneducated cretons because we do not think that a merger with 
>>  AB is our best option." I, too, would be insulted if anyone called me
>>  names because I disagreed with them. I would like to extend my apologies
>>  to you in advance if you've gotten this impression from anything I've
>>  said. For the record, I think we are all concerned about the education
>>  of Maynard students. And we have differing ideas about how to provide
>>  the best education possible.


Its comments like those included in Note 261.75
that turn my flame on high.  They sound like "Comella-isms" to me.

>>261.75
Remarks such as "I can just be greatful that I do not have any children that
will be going to the Maynard schools."

This person doesn't have one iota of personal experience with the Maynard
Schools, but is already grateful her kids won't be attending.

"With a poor school system the town will attract people who do not have
education or personal growth as one of their top priorities."

Again, no experience with the schools, but certain they are poor and there is
general inuendo as to the quality of the people in the town.

"Lower property values, and children who will be in a declining school system"

Boy, SHARE has sure done a good job on this person. The basic presumption
is that the Maynard Schools are poor.  I obviously disagree.

Other comments, which compel me to ask where people get their information
are:

"crappy schools"
"an institution that does not inspire confidence"
"don't want to send him to an average school"
"If the schools are regionalized, and thereby become above average"
"We need a highly-skilled, well-educated workforce - and we need a school
 system that will produce it."

I have no problem with the last statement above except it implies that we
do not have a school system which can produced an educated workforce. I
strongly disagree. 

"The A-B system has a well-deserved reputation for producing students with
high S.A.T. scores, and doing well later in life."

I made my thoughts known in an earlier note as to how I feel about A-B's
reputation.  You can buy almost anything and you can sell almost anything.
A-B has done both.  Good for them.  S.A.T. scores?  Please.  I know very
intelligent individuals that could barely pass a driving test.  Testing
doesn't tell you all that much.  In Maynard, we encourage everyone to
take the S.A.T.s.  At A-B, only the top students are encouraged to participate.
A-B does not want its numbers messed up by students that cannot score high.  
Do well later in life? When did we run a study on where A-B grads versus 
Maynard grads end up "later in life?  And by who's definition do we measure 
"doing well"?

In regard to the superiority complex of Acton, I'll give you some of my
more recent experiences.  I also want to state that I know very well that
every Acton resident does not suffer from this complex.  However, this is
not a figment of anyone's imagination.  It does not come from Maynard
resident's inferiority complex.  It is not something that happened in the
past and is now a tired old song.  It exists today.

1.  I belong to the Fitness Corner in downtown Maynard.  Recently, an
    Acton resident who joined the club asked if it was safe to park
    her car along the street.  Seems she had been warned that the local thugs 
    might do her harm. She would not have given a second thought to parking
    her car in any parking lot in Acton. She learned to believe that 
    Maynard was dangerous somewhere.

2.  I know a Maynard grad who, while attending college, met a former A-B
    grad.  When the A-B grad found out where she was from, promptly told
    her that "Gee, when my Mom and I drive through Maynard, my Mom makes
    us roll up the windows and lock the car doors.  She learned to believe
    that was necessary somewhere.

3.  Recently here at Digital, I met an employee who was raised in
    Acton.  When I told her where I was from, she commented that even
    though she lived pretty close to the Maynard townline while growing up,
    her parents never allowed her to associate with any Maynard kids.
    And you wonder why this is perpetuated?  Excuse me if I don't want
    my kid to be the one to have to try and break the ground on this.
    
4.  At a recent Digital training course, I heard a young woman, that now
    lives in Maynard, tell everyone that she has address labels that read
                   Name
                   Street
                   Maynard, MA 01754
                   "But I Was Raised In Acton"
 
    

.82> There's one quote from the 14 Feb Beacon where Cindy says that 
.82> the schools are "adequate" but goes on to say that adequate isn't 
.82> good enough. 

Thank you.  That, finally, is what she said.

.71> 2) The fact that Ms. Ruzich made a point of saying that our
.71> schools are "adequate". There's an implication there that 
.71> they're fine the way they are.

.82> I do know that she's been widely quoted around town 
.82> as saying that the schools are adequate. 

Isn't it interesting how those statements reverse Cindy's meaning 100%?

Just because a lie is widely repeated doesn't make it true.

.82> And I think that the 
.82> 14Feb article was in response to an earlier article by Alan Hoch
.82> that in part challenged her on that statement. 

Nope.  Cindy did write the Feb 14th article in response to Hoch's
Feb 7th Beacon letter, but he never said the word "adequate", and neither
did she, until Feb 14th.

.82> For what it's worth, Cindy says in the same article that "We need 
.82> to get more from our education system." and "I think we all agree 
.82> that our schools do not challenge our kids enough." and goes on to
.82> say that regionalization is not the solution.

Yes.  As I said in a previous note, most of the teachers go a fine job,
but we've had serious deficiencies on the School Committee and administration
in the past.  Both areas have greatly improved recently, and we are in a
position to better the system. 

.82> In usage that I'm familiar with, "adequate" means "good enough for
.82> present purposes" and sometimes has the added connotation of "ok
.82> but mediocre". So from this quote, it sounds like Cindy feels that 
.82> the schools are barely doing their job and the system as it stands 
.82> today isn't all that great.

Oh, come on.  Let's not get out our dictionaries to split hairs.  The point,
obviously, is that the Cindy recognizes that the schools need improvement,
as does everyone else.  

-Steve

    In an earlier note an Acton resident asked if Maynard was assuming that
    Acton and Boxboro would vote in this regional plan.  This is a very
    good point. The Maynard issue of the Beacon covers the regionalization
    on the front page and it makes up most of the local news. If you read
    the Acton issue of the Beacon the last few months you might see one
    article on page 4 concerning the regionalization.  It does not seen to
    be a major issue for Acton. Perhaps Acton is waiting to see if Maynard
    approves it before getting to involved. 
    
    If any of the residents of Acton or Boxboro who read this file could
    give us their ideas or thoughts I would find it interesting.
    
    Thanks 

    I was talking to a lady at the little league field last night and she
    made a good analogy to this regional plan.  She said think of it this
    way.  You own a house 1 bath, kitchen, 3 bedroom on 1 acre of land. 
    You have lived in this house for 30 years and your family has lived in
    it for 100 more.  The house needs some repairs but is livable and you
    have little or no money for the repairs.  A builder come along and says
    I will build you a new house for $100,00.00.  This new house will have
    a big kitchen, 2 bathes, 4 bedrooms and will be on 3 acres of land. It
    will be bigger, newer and better.  The builder says you can keep your
    old house. You can sell it, fix it, rent it, he does not care.  The new
    house will only cost you X amount of money each year.  The builder will
    pay all the bills and take care of the maintenance on the new house. 
    You will not have to do anything except pay the yearly fee.
    
    You ask what will the yearly fee be.  He says he does not know, but it
    will be determined each year.  You ask who will set the fee.  The
    builder says he will.  You ask will I have any say, and he says yes you
    have a say but the final decision is mine.  The builder says I am not
    taking anything away from you and  you still have your old house. 
    
    This lady I was talking to asked me if I would enter an agreement like
    this.                     

	REGIONALIZATION IS NOT GOING TO SOLVE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES!



    I would like to share some information with you regarding the U.S. and
    global Education systems.
    
    Let me begin by stating that my daughter will graduate from Maynard 
    High School on June 1, 1991.  Yippee!!!!!!! To her credit I will add 
    that she has also been on the Honorable mention list.  Something for 
    which I am very proud.  Additionally, she has been very active in sports, 
    WAVM, and numerous other activities throughout her tour through the 
    Maynard School System. She applied as was accepted to the Boyd 
    Business School in Pittsburgh, P.A., Lasalle in Waltham, M.A. and Dean 
    Jr. College in Franklin, M.A.  She will be attending Dean this fall.
    
    Back to the subject.  
    
    On Wednesday, 8 May 1991, my wife and I had our second meeting and tour 
    of Dean Jr. College and had the opportunity to speak at length with the 
    assistant admissions officer.  One of the question asked of him was, 
    "Do you find that the students coming to Dean directly from High School 
    are prepared for college, and have you collaborated this issue with 
    other Colleges/Universities?  His answer was, "Most students coming to 
    Dean and other colleges directly from High School are not prepared, not 
    just Maynard, but most of them."  He went on to state that, "the problems 
    lie in three areas, 1) English, 2) Math, and 3) Study Skills.  For this 
    reason, Dean like many other colleges are implementing an approximately 
    30 day "mini semester" which begins in July, to improve those areas 
    previously mentioned.  Additionally, we see the same challenges with 
    our international students; Germany and England."  
    
    Dean, as with many other learning institutions are now establishing an 
    English as a Second Language (ESL) program.  This will be their second 
    year.  
    
    I might interject that Maynard has had this ESL program for some time.
    
    
    This leads me to the next comparison:
    
    Dean also has a large group of Japanese students who are attending.  So 
    my wife and I put him on the spot.  We asked him why the 
    Japanese are sending their students to U.S. Colleges since Japan is 
    supposed to have an excellent education system and to compare the 
    Japanese students abilities with those of the U.S.  His reply was, "As 
    for why the Japanese are sending their students to U.S. Colleges; their 
    colleges are very over crowded and they have but one excellent 
    University which is located in Tokyo.  Only their best students get 
    into this College, so they send their students to the U.S. for two to 
    four years, they graduate with a degree and can then have a better 
    chance of being accepted into Tokyo.  As for the second part of your 
    question, they have the same abilities, and the same qualifications as 
    the U.S. students, the only difference was in their study habits.  The 
    Japanese students are considerably more disciplined toward studying 
    than the U.S., German, or English student."  These were his words, not 
    mine.
    
    I would also point out another issue which is very much in favor of our 
    Maynard School System.  Dean Jr. College class size is small, just like 
    Maynard.  They prefer smaller class size because it provides a vehicle 
    for improved communications, improved teacher/student interaction, and 
    if the student is having difficulty, the teacher is there for the 
    student.
    
    We asked these same questions to all colleges which we visited and 
    received very similar responses.
    
    And now back to the program:
    
    It is interesting to listen to people belabor the issue of whether or 
    not the Maynard School System performance is low, adequate, or superior.  
    Personally, I do believe that they need improving, so do all schools.
    
    However, REGIONALIZATION IS NOT THE ANSWER.  From the many printed and 
    televised reports which I have read and viewed on education, the 
    Maynard School System has just what the doctor prescribed.  All of 
    these reports are recommending against regionalized education, and are 
    encouraging smaller schools using creative educational means just like 
    those presented by the Long Range Planning Committee.   Maynard has many 
    of these programs already has in place.  Yes, it will take time and yes 
    it will take money.  But, we don't have to implement the entire plan 
    now.  After all, you must crawl before you walk.
    
    Maynard does have challenges, not problems, to overcome at all levels 
    of education and so do other schools.  But, they are our challenges, 
    and our children.  If the U.S., Germany, England, and other countries 
    are experiencing these same challenges, why in the world would we blame 
    it on one education system or one teacher.  Most importantly, 
    regionalizing isn't going to make it better or make it go away.  It is 
    for these reasons that I'M VOTING AGAINST REGIONALIZATION.
    
    Julian Parker
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

You asked for views from Acton residents who read this file, and I've already
thrown in a few comments, so I guess I'll throw in a few more.  Sorry if
they're a bit long-winded.

First, a host of caveats.  I am a new resident of Acton, having just moved
there less than a year ago, so I'm not fully up on everything going on.  I do
not have any children in the school system yet.  I do not consider myself to be
a good representative of the Acton population as a whole.

On the other hand, I moved to Acton in a large part because of the school
system (I have a young daughter).  I do read the local paper regularly, and I'm
very interested in the goings on at the school and in the town.

I think it worthwhile to mention my school experience.  I grew up in NYC, and
in my peer group, going to your local high school was only one option.  There
were three entrance exam public schools, several schools geared toward
performing and visual arts open by audition, and other schools with various
special characteristics.  I went to one of the exam schools, commuting on the
subway 45 minutes each way every day.  (I had taken a school bus for at least
part of my elementary education.)  My graduating class was 1200; I entered with
a class of 1800; the school population was 6000. I didn't feel I lacked for
personal attention, and I enjoyed the opportunities available for classes and
activities.

From all this, you could probably guess that I'm comfortable with (a) large
school districts, (b) large school populations, (c) schools, particularly high
schools, well outside of walking distance.  It was actually hard for me to deal
with deciding where to live based, at least in part, on public school quality.

I decided to live in Acton, as I said, based in large part on the school
system.  It has an excellent reputation, and seems to have a diverse
population.  It also seems to have a town population that supports its school
system very strongly.  When I was deciding where to live, I was told by some
people that Acton's schools almost always get the budget they want, overrides
are passed easily.  While this was meant as a negative, it is a positive
attribute in my view.  I also heard stories about people who scraped to rent an
apartment in Acton in order to use the school system.  This, too, was meant in
a negative way, but I took it as a positive.

(You've probably heard all too much trumpeting about the quality of the A/B
school system, so I won't bother you with any more.  Suffice it to say that we
considered Maynard and decided against it for a number of reasons.)

[BTW, let me correct an erroneous statement someone made in an earlier note.  It
is not true that a small minority of A/B students take the SAT.  The school
district report stated that 88% of the students took the test; statewide the
figure is 72%, nationally, it is 40%.]

I am in general in favor of the concept of regionalization.  I like large
school districts, because of the diversity of opportunity.  Consequently, I was
initially in favor of the extension of the A/B region; it would add resources,
grow the school population a bit, and increase diversity.  However, there are a
number of factors that now make me question whether Acton will benefit from
adding Maynard.  (Maynard has its own set of issues about joining a region at
all, but this is essentially moot for Acton.)

Acton recently passed an override; Maynard rejected theirs.  While there are
many, many reasons to reject an override, the fact that Maynard rejected its
overrides makes me less likely to approve the regionalization plan.  Some
substantial portion of the information I have seen (not necessarily including
the opinions in this notes conference) seems to indicate that Maynard is very
concerned about being railroaded into accepting larger school budgets than they
would like.  The vehemence of this concern, and the apparent absence of a
concern that budget hikes desired by Maynard would be vetoed, also makes me
think that Maynard might be less likely than Acton to vote in favor of school
budget increases.

I am not sure anymore whether the benefits outweigh the risks for Acton.  There
will be an informational meeting next Thursday to discuss the issue; I or my
wife will attend.  I wish you in Maynard the best in deciding whether the
merger is good from your point of view.

						Brian

    Yesterday's Maynard Beacon contained a Guest opinion article written by
    Linda Bretz, titled 'Tracking the history of merger talks'.  She
    incorrectly described the motives behind the concept of regionalizing
    the Maynard school system with A/B in this article.
    
    She was correct in stating that the School Committee received a letter
    from Bill King, who was then the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, in
    March of '89, asking that they attend a meeting with Acton officials and
    Acton-Boxboro school officials.  She did fail to bring up one point in
    her article, however, which is explained below.
    
    Bill King is a friend of mine.  At the time, he was pushing for negoti-
    ations between Acton and Maynard to explore the possibilities of Maynard
    regionalizing its school system with Acton and in return, Maynard
    would provide sewerage treatment for Acton, from the town line to what 
    is known as Kelly's Corner (Rte 111).  In fact, early regionalization 
    committee meetings included dialogue on both of these topics.  It was 
    finally decided (and rightly so) to separate the two issues.  I was aware 
    of this proposal before the school committee even received the above
    mentioned letter.
    
    Now, wouldn't you think Mr. King would be in favor of the current 
    agreement, considering he was a driving force behing this whole business?  
    If you've answered yes, you are very much wrong.  He, in fact, campaigned
    for Tom Konetzny and Cindy Ruzich!  He feels that this was a poorly 
    negotiated contract that would be BAD FOR THE TOWN OF MAYNARD.
    
    Both the SHARE and SOS organizations are throwing around figures that
    are enough to make your head spin, with one group contradicting the other, 
    misinformation being distributed, and on and on.  I've even seen the SHARE 
    group come up with three different figures in three different articles, 
    in the *same* edition of the Beacon newspaper, each telling us all how 
    much of a savings regionalization would provide to the town.  Yet, each 
    of the figures were different!  As the saying goes - there are lies, damn 
    lies, and statistics.  You can do an awful lot with numbers to present
    your side of the issue as being the right thing to do. 
    
    I suspect we'll be hearing an awful lot more of these numbers leading
    up to, and at Town Meeting.  But, the bottom line remains the same. 
    This was a poorly negotiated contract from a Maynard resident's
    perspective.
    
    I haven't got a whole lot more to add to this discussion and I really
    don't know how many people have yet to make their decision, so for now
    anyway, I'll be read-only in this topic.
    
    					Steve

    Steve M,
    
    My understanding of the conflicting figures is that the lower figures
    are older and more conservative than the newer figures. With newer 
    information, the amount-saved figure has been increasing. I understand
    that you doubt the information, but asking a few questions of the 
    appropriate people may give you more of a basis for judging.
    
    
    Steve R,
    
    My goodness. Your implication that I'm willfully spreading lies about
    what your wife has said is out of line. As I mentioned in a previous
    note, she has been widely quoted around town as having said that the
    school system is "adequate", and in fact, Alan Hoch brings up the quote
    again in a 9 May letter to  the Beacon editor. Perhaps you should
    mention your concerns to him.
    
    As for your point about "dragging out the dictionary", I didn't. I gave
    you my definition of the word. It seems entirely germaine to the
    conversation and might, in fact, help Cindy understand why some folks
    are so upset with the quote.
    
    
    Regards,
    Liz

.90>    My goodness. Your implication that I'm willfully spreading lies about
.90>    what your wife has said is out of line. 

That is neither what I said nor what I meant.  I think, Liz, that you are
not at all the sort of person who would knowingly repeat a statement which
is both damaging and completely untrue.  Your notes show that you have
strong opinions, but that you very much want to be fair, and civil. My guess
is that someone told you that Cindy thought that "adequate" schools were OK,
that you were incensed by the idea (I certainly wouldn't want such a person
on the School Committee, either), and that you repeated the statement. 

I think it most likely that this whole "adequate" business started when
someone read Cindy's statement in the Beacon, and decided that they could
gain political advantage by deliberately misquoting her. I suppose it could
have been an accident, but I rather doubt it. The Beacon emphasized Cindy's
point by boxing a related statement in a large text: "Let's put our energy
and money into improving our own schools". That's hard to misinterpret -
someone made a conscious decision to change her meaning, to lie. 

What I expected, Liz, is that you might be unhappy to find that you were
being used, to carry false information for someone's political gain. 

.90>    As I mentioned in a previous
.90>    note, she has been widely quoted around town as having said that the
.90>    school system is "adequate", 

Yes, you've said this twice.  I hope you're not claiming that Cindy really
said that adequate is OK, since it is diametrically opposed to her point of
view, as expressed in print and in person, in public, many times.  No one
who knows her would think that. 

.90>    and in fact, Alan Hoch brings up the quote
.90>    again in a 9 May letter to  the Beacon editor. Perhaps you should
.90>    mention your concerns to him.

I think Alan Hoch likely has access to the Beacon, and is capable of
verifying a quote.  I'll leave that to him. 

-Steve

  
  
  
                 ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ON REGIONALIZATION
  
                       SHARE RESPONSE TO SOS STATEMENTS
  
  At the May 20 town meeting, Maynard voters will be asked to make a decision 
  on the merger of the Maynard school system with Acton and Boxborough.  An 
  objective analysis of the proposal will show that it is an opportunity for 
  Maynard to improve the education it offers its children and be more cost 
  effective at the same time.  The proposed agreement is the result of over 
  two years of study and negotiations by the Maynard committee formed for 
  this purpose.  SHARE is an organization of Maynard citizens that supports 
  regionalization as the best alternative for providing increased educational 
  opportunity at a decreased cost to the town.
  
  Maynard voters need facts to properly evaluate this proposal.  
  Unfortunately, a lot of misinformation has been disseminated.  Recently the 
  anti-regionalization group, SOS, has made presentations and distributed 
  literature that grossly misrepresent the facts regarding regionalization.  
  So that the citizens of Maynard can have the facts, the information below 
  is given as a direct response to statements taken from the literature 
  distributed at the Green Meadow Parents Group meeting on April 2.  The 
  SHARE organization urges you to consider the facts and ask for additional 
  information if necessary by calling Robert Schleelein at 897-9535:
  
  SOS STATEMENT				SHARE RESPONSE
  
  The reason we are being asked to 	This has not been a rushed process.  
  vote so quickly ... is because the	The issues have been under study 
  rules change as of July 1, 1991.  	since 1986.  Formal study of 
  The new rules require towns to	regionalization began with the 
  submit a long range plan to 		formation of the Maynard Regional
  address:				Committee on June 8, 1989.  The 
  - what will be gained educationally	committee initially set a target date 
  - enrollments				of 1991 which it has adhered to ever 
  - fiscal benefits			since.  All of the items listed have 
  - administrative structure.		been studied.  The committee began 
  					its work with a study of 
  					alternatives, and focused on 
  					regionalization only after it was 
  					shown to be the best choice.  This 
  					study is the basis for the recent 
  					report by the recently formed Long 
  					Range Planning Committee.  A vote at 
  					the May town meeting is required to 
  					enable the process of merging the 
  					school systems to begin in September. 
  

  
  This merger is for financial 		There are educational and financial 
  solutions.  The Acton-Boxboro 	benefits for both towns.  The  
  Regional School Committee first 	benefit to Maynard this year have 
  turned toward Boxboro for additional 	been a $520,000 reduction in the 
  money by trying to change their 7-12  education budget.  Maynard approached 
  region to a K-12.  Boxboro turned 	A/B and the discussions were delayed 
  that down, and Maynard was 		until after the issue of expanding 
  approached.				the existing region with Boxborough 
  					had been voted on.  
  					
  The state has cut its aid.  		Regional schools always receive more 
  Regionalized schools will bear a 	money because regional aid is
  greater financial shortfall than 	incremental to local aid and has been 
  local school systems.			much more reliable.  The following is 
  					a comparison of the per cent 
  					difference from the preceding year in 
  					the school aid received by Maynard 
  					(M) and the regional school aid 
  					received by Acton/Boxborough (A/B). 
  
  					LOCAL SCHOOL AID vs REGIONAL AID
  					Year	    M		  A/B
  					----	  -----         ------
  					1988	  - 10%		+ 1%
  					1989	  - 11%		+ 0.3%
  					1990	  + 0.1%	+ 0%
  					1991	  - 29%		- 4%
  
  					Source:  Maynard Town Accountant
  						 AB Business Manager
  
  Through the assessment process, A/B	Maynard joining the region brings in 
  wants to minimize the impact by 	more state aid which is shared by 
  allocating this shortfall across 	all.  There is no "shortfall."  With 
  three towns rather than two.  This 	the infusion of Maynard students into 
  regional agreement is solely a 	the system, sufficient numbers will 
  marriage for money. 			exist to maintain academic programs, 
  					which will be available to all.
  
  We will ultimately be giving up 	Control will be exercised through our 
  control over our entire community, 	elected representatives, as in every   
  not just our school budget.		level of government above the town 
  					level.  Additional state aid and  
  					savings due to efficiencies will make  
  					more money available for other town 
  					needs, relieving the pressure on the 
  					overall budget.

  
  
  Maynard High School: Current Courses  This is the list of offerings before  
  Offered				this year's cuts.  To maintain these    
  course listing			offerings, a 7.9%  budget increase 
  					would have been required.
  
  STATE AID: Pot of Gold?		Maynard will continue to receive the 
  Next year, regional schools are 	same local aid.  Regional aid is 
  projected to be cut by 10%. 		additional.  It is also substantial 
  Maynard's state aid was only cut by	and has been much more stable from 
  4%. 					year to year than local aid.  
  					Maynard's SCHOOL AID was cut by  
  					over 29% in FY91.
  
  State aid is given on the basis of 	The aid Maynard receives because of 
  need.  Maynard will always be 	need will be given to Maynard 
  "needier" than Acton or Boxboro.	whether or not it is part of a 
  					region.  With improved educational 
  					opportunity, the average income in 
  					Maynard will go up, and it will be 
  					less "needy."
  
  Bar Chart:				THIS BAR CHART IS NOT A 
  State Aid: Maynard benefits in good 	REPRESENTATION OF SCHOOL AID.  The 
  times as well as bad.			school aid provided to Maynard under 
  					Mass General Law Chapter 70 since 
  					FY87 is:
  
  					  LOCAL SCHOOL AID TO MAYNARD
  					FY	    $		% Change
  					--	----------	--------
  					87      $1,695,702	    -
  					88	 1,518,302	  - 10%
  					89	 1,352,766	  - 11%
  					90	 1,354,367	  + 0.1%
  					91	   954,884	  - 29%
  
  					Source:  Maynard Town Accountant
  
  Hidden Costs of Regionalization	
  - Maintain empty schools: $120,000	ONLY THE FOWLER SCHOOL IS AFFECTED BY 
  					REGIONALIZATION.  If it is not 
  					rented, or used to provide other 
  					services, maintenance costs will be 
  					well below $120,000.  For comparison, 
  					the costs of maintaining the 
  					Roosevelt school are $4000 for 
  					maintenance and $11,000 for 
  					insurance.
  
  					Source:  Maynard Selectmen's Office

  
  - Loss of SBAB aid for		THIS IS NOT TRUE.  Aid will continue 
    Fowler:		      72,000	to the full reimbursement for both 
  					the Fowler and Green Meadow schools.
  
  					Source:  School Building Assistance 
  						 Bureau (SBAB)
  
  - Employee health care 		The reduction in the total number of 
    differential:	      80,000	employees will offset the health care 
  					differential.  It is not appropriate 
  					to add this item and the following 
  					item, "teacher salary differential" 
  					to the above items, implying that 
  					they will be costs to Maynard.  
  					Employee health care and salaries 
  					will be expenses for the region, not 
  					Maynard.  Furthermore, the AB 
  					business manager has stated that it 
  					would be possible to insure all 
  					Maynard town employees under the AB 
  					plan, enlarging the insurance pool 
  					and decreasing costs - for the entire 
  					town budget.  
  
  - Teacher salary 			The current teacher's contract will
    differential:	     730,000	not expire until Aug 31, 1992.  There
  			   ---------	will be no "differential" until a new 
  			  $1,002,000	contract is signed.  Any pay increase 
  					in that contract will be an expense 
   					of the region, of which Maynard will 
  					pay approximately 25%, not 100%.
  
  
  Teacher Salary Differential		
  Acton & A-B average teacher salaries	This implies that Maynard does not   
  are currently about 21% higher than 	pay competitively.  Pay scales are
  Maynard.				based on qualifications and 
  					experience.  Merging of different pay 
  Acton & A-B: $42,000  		scales will be part of the 
  		Maynard: $34,500	negotiation of the next teachers 
  					contract, to take effect in FY93, one 
  In 1992, Maynard teacher salaries 	year after the initiation of the 
  will have to be increased to Acton's	regional system.  There will not be 
  an level:				automatic, immediate raise for all 
  98 teachers x $7,500 = $730,000	Maynard teachers in the amount of the 
  If staff are cut to cover the salary 	difference in the average pay.  
  increase, we will lay off about 28 	Instead, there will be a negotiation
  teachers!				to set a new pay scale and a plan to 
  					bring teachers to the appropriate
  					levels.  

  					The cost of bringing Maynard teachers 
  					up to the new pay scale is unknown at 
  					this time because it depends on those 
  					negotiations.  To at least partially 
  					offset any salary budget increase, 
  					there will be a reduction in the 
  					total number of positions.  This is 
  					expected to be handled through 
  					attrition, not layoffs.  Under the 
  					present system, the best case 
  					scenario for Maynard teachers this 
  					year (passage of the $850,000 
  					override) would have meant an 8% cut 
  					in staff.  Because neither override 
  					passed, more Maynard teachers will be 
  					laid off.  Finally, any lay off by 
  					the region would be applied across 
  					the entire system, not to only the 
  					teachers from Maynard.
  
  Voting Power
  Acton=58% vs Maynard + Boxboro=42%	The implication of an adversarial 
  					relationship between Acton and the 
  					other members of the region is 
  					unfounded.  It has never been an 
  					issue in the 35 year history of the 
  					Acton-Boxborough region.  The voting 
  					power is based on the principle of 
  					"one person, one vote," based on town 
  					population, as required by law.  To 
  					do otherwise would be unfair and 
  					illegal.  The voting power is also 
  					proportional to the budget 
  					responsibility.
  
  58% of the Committee can:
  o Build or expand 7-12 facilities 	The facilities for grades 7-12 will 
    without town meeting approval.	be used by students from all 3 towns.  
  					The Merriam school is available when 
  					additional facilities are required.  
  					When that eventually occurs, the 
  					agreement requires Acton to pay 70%.  
  					All members of the committee will 
  					have strong motivation to see that 
  					the expense of new facilities will 
  					not be incurred until it is 
  					absolutely necessary.  Historically, 
  					when construction was necessary, the 
  					region has submitted town meeting 
  					articles in both Acton and 
  					Boxborough.

  
  o Hire, fire or layoff teachers, 	Since this is a K-12 region, the term
    administrators or other staff in 	"Maynard local schools" is a
    the Maynard local schools.		contradiction.  The contract between 
  					the teachers and the region will 
  					determine the layoff policy and it 
  					would be applied to all teachers in 
  					the system, not just those from 
  					Maynard.
  
  o Close an "overcrowded" or "under-	THIS IS UNTRUE.  THIS IS NOT PART OF   
    utilized" school in Maynard.	THE AGREEMENT.  Reference section 
  					III, which states conditions under 
  					which children in grades 4-6 may 
  					receive education in another town if 
  					the school committee determines that 
  					overcrowding or underutilization 
  					exists.  Under these circumstances:
  					a) the transferred student shall have 
  					   equal opportunity
  					b) a study committee provides a needs 
  					   assessment
  					c) the superintendent reviews the 
  					   study committee reports and makes 
   					   a recommendation to the school 
  					   committee
  					d) the school committee takes action.
  
  o Create or eliminate academic or 	The purpose of regionalization is to 
    extracurricular programs in 	pool resources to restore and
    Maynard.				preserve programs.  Maynard has 
  					eliminated programs every year since 
  					1987.
  
  Maynard residents or school 		Maynard residents and school	      
  committee members will have very 	committee members will have the 
  little impact.			impact that is consistent with the 
  					principle of "one person, one vote," 
  					just as we do now.  Furthermore, four 
  					members on the committee will give 
  					Maynard slightly greater 
  					representation than it has voting  
  					power. 
  
  Town Counsel's Concerns:		Comments on an early draft of the 
  					agreement were made by the town 
  					counsel.  The agreement was revised 
  					and at a special school committee 
  					meeting on Apr 17, 1991, the school 
  					committee attorney stated that there 
  					are no legal issues with the final  
  					version of the agreement.

  
  Unfair Bonding			Fixed percentages of costs apply only 
  K-6:  Debt cost based on student 	to construction.  The region has 
        population.			adequate facilities for the
  7-12: Debt cost fixed forever, 	foreseeable future, making 	 
  	regardless of population!	construction unnecessary in the 
  					foreseeable future.  Maynard will be 
  					responsible for 25% of costs vs 100% 
  					if it is not in a region.  Maynard 
  					will initially have 26.3% of the 
  					students, making a 25% share of 
  					construction costs a bargain.  
  
  Maynard will continue to pay for 	Maynard will pay these debts whether
  Green Meadow, Fowler and High School 	or not it is in the region.  Acton 
  debt with no assistance from the 	and Boxborough will pay debts 	        
  region.				similarly incurred without assistance 
  					from the region.  The region will 
  					continue to pay debts incurred before 
  					Maynard joined without assistance 
  					from Maynard.
  
  Growth & Bonding			
  o Maynard can handle its own growth.	The administration is currently 
  					studying facilities requirements with 
  					the anticipation that new 
  					construction will be required by the 
  					year 2000.
  
  o  Regionalization means building 	It is more likely that new schools
     schools in Acton and Boxboro.	be required in Maynard before they 
  					are in Acton and Boxborough.  The K-6 
  					facilities in Acton and Boxborough 
  					are respectively projected to be at 
  					85% and 63% of capacity in 1996.  
  					With students from all 3 towns, the 
  					Grey JHS is projected to be at 91% of 
  					capacity in 1995 and the regional 
  					high school is projected to be at 75% 
  					of capacity in 1996.  If additional 
  					facilities are eventually needed, the 
  					Merriam school on the regional 
  					campus, with a capacity of 475, is 
  					available.
  
  o Maynard will be obligated to pay 	It is unrealistic to argue based on   
    25% of the cost of the 7-12 	the premise that Maynard will have no 
    buildings, even if we have no kids	children in grades 7-12.  When new 
    in grades 7-12.			facilities are required, Maynard will 
  					pay 100% if it is not part of the 
  					region.

  
  Can Maynard Afford This?
  
  o From 1986 to 1990, Boxboro's 	Assessments are in proportion to the
    average assessment went up 10.8% 	student population, which is fair.      
    each year.				Statements in terms of percentages 
  					are misleading because Boxborough has 
  					such a small population that an 
  					increase by a few individuals will be 
  					large percentage difference.
  
  o Acton's assessment only went up an	Assessments are in proportion to the
    average of 5% each year.		student population, which is fair. 
  					Acton's student population only 
  					increased by 5%.
   
  o Maynard's assessment increase will	Maynard's assessment increase will   
    fall between the two.  Then we pay 	depend on Maynard's student 
    the buy-in too.			population increase; just as the 
  					costs of the current system increase 
  					with student population.  
  
  					The buy-in will be Maynard's purchase 
  					of the regional facilities, valued at 
  					$33M.  After SBAB assistance, the 
  					cost to Maynard will be $233,000 to 
  					be paid over 20 years and with no 
  					payments due until 1994.  The buy-in 
  					is a bargain. 
  
  Regional Schools & Prop 2 1/2
  
  o Regionalization does not eliminate 	It is true that regionalization does 
    the need for overrides.  It does 	not eliminate the need for overrides.
    force us to pay whatever budget 	Overrides are an integral part of 
    the district approves.		Proposition 2 1/2.  Regionalization  
  					provides stability and efficiency 
  					through a budget that is developed by 
  					your elected representatives.  
  				
  o If we do not override to pay the 	The regional high school is providing
    increased budget, we will have to 	better educational opportunity at a
    cut services and programs to cover 	lower cost than Maynard high school.  
    the shortfall.			Under the present system, we have 
  					steadily cut services and programs 
  					while, at the same time, we are 
  					wasting money through inefficiency.  
  
  o Boxboro's budget assessments 	Assessments are in proportion to the
    average +10% each year.		student population, which is fair. 

  
  10% of Maynard's school budget = 	The assertion of a 10% increase is
  $600,000.  Where will the money come 	unfounded.  It contradicts the SOS  
  from?					statement above, "Maynard's 
  					assessment increase will fall between 
  					Boxboro's (10%) and Acton's (5%)."  
  					Because of the receipt of incremental 
  					aid, Maynard's cost will initially 
  					decrease.  Future increases will 
  					depend on costs and student 
  					population.
  
  Comparison of Overrides		Direct comparison is not possible 
  					because the Acton and Boxborough 
  					overrides are general overrides for 
  					multiple town services.  Maynard's 
  					1990 override was solely for the 
  					purpose of avoiding further cuts in 
  					the schools.  Whatever the 
  					implications of this list of 
  					overrides is, the A-B regional high 
  					school has a lower cost per student 
  					than Maynard high school.  
  
  Features of the Maynard Public 
  Schools
  
  o 71% of the graduating class of 	90% of the A-B graduates went on to   
    1989 went on to post secondary 	post secondary education.  According
    education.				to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
  					90% of all newly created jobs will 
  					require post secondary education.  
  					Last year, only 58% of the graduates 
  					of Maynard junior High School chose 
  					to attend Maynard HS, compared to 95%  
  					in the A-B regional system.  
  
  o WAVM is a widely recognized, 	The value of WAVM is recognized both
    unique program in which students 	in the AB region and in Maynard. 
    run a radio and television station 	There has been no consideration of
    in cooperation with the local 	curtailing or abolishing WAVM.  On 
    cable company.			the other hand, under the present 
  					system, it is vulnerable being lost 
  					through budget cuts.
  
  o The ACT (Academically and 		Since neither override passed, this 
    Creatively Talented) program at 	program will be cut.
    elementary and Junior high levels 
    has brought individualized special 
    instruction to gifted students 
    and enrichment to all students.

  
  o Each school contains a computer 	Regionalization will provide our
    lab which all students use for 	students with more computer 
    improving their writing with word 	experience at all levels.  The 
    processing skills and a variety 	regional high school has more 
    of other activities.		computers than Maynard high school.  
  					The computers at the Fowler will 
  					become available for use where most 
  					needed.
  
  o Special programs in the arts have 	Sights and Sounds was developed under   
    been developed within the system 	a federal grant.  It is now the only 
    and brought in from museums.  The 	music course offered at Maynard high
    art and music departments at the 	school.  Last Fall it utilized 2 
    high school have developed "Sights  teachers to teach 4 students.  AB
    and Sounds," an interdisciplinary   offers drama as well as music.
    course....
  
  o Last year, our high school was the 	This shows that there would be no
    host site for a pilot program in 	problem in linking the Acton- 
    interactive television.  A course 	Boxborough facility with the Maynard
    in learning skills was sent by 	facility, for special programs and
    cable to Acton-Boxboro, Lincoln-	for WAVM broadcasts.  Interactive
    Sudbury and Hudson high schools 	television is not a substitute for 
    where students had a direct 	class room instruction and is more 
    telephone hook-up with the Maynard  expensive.
    teacher and class.
  
  
  MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
  
  The average class size at MHS is 15 	MHS has 18 courses with enrollment
  students with some classes lower 	under 10 and 5 courses with 
  than 10 and some in the high 20's.	enrollment of 4.  This is simply 
  					inefficient and expensive.  MHS 
  					teachers teach approximately 65 
  					students.  AB teachers teach 
  					approximately 100 students and 
  					achieve higher standard test  
  					scores at the same time.
  
  ABSAF
  Acton-Boxboro Student Activities 	The Maynard Booster Club and WAVM
  Fund was established in 1981 as a 	fund raising activities are the the
  unique and workable alternative to 	counterparts to ABSAF.  With no
  the fiscal constraints of 		override in Maynard, the shortfall 
  proposition 2 1/2.  ABSAF covers 	in the athletics budget this year 
  the unfunded portion of the annual 	will be in excess of $20,000, or 22% 
  of the operating budget for 		of the athletics budget.
  extracurricular  school activities 
  - the "shortfall."

  
  ACTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
  Last year's override averted major 	Maynard has not averted a major loss
  loss in teaching staff, but did not 	of teaching staff.  Refer to the
  eliminate budget cuts.  Library 	Maynard superintendent's memo #91-51 
  staff at each school has been cut 	for the list of 34 cuts to be made in 
  by five hours per week...  (Green 	FY92.  
  Meadow has a full time librarian.)
  
  The children from the Douglas School	This is irrelevant to the
  have to be bussed to the computer 	regionalization question.  Green
  center at the Merriam School... 	Meadow will continue to have its own 
  (Green Meadow has its own computer 	computer lab.
  lab.)
  
  ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS
  Maynard High requires a minimum of 	Comparison of academic achievement 
  five academic courses per semester 	rather than minimum requirements is 
  for each of four grades....  One 	what will determine college 
  hundred credits are needed to 	acceptance and careers.  The average 
  graduate....  The Massachusetts 	AB student graduates with 115 
  Basic Skills Test must be passed by 	credits.  The lower  minimum 
  all students before graduating....  	Requirements allow special education 
  Acton-Boxboro requires ...eighty 	students to graduate.  In 1990, 88% 
  credits.				of Acton-Boxborough graduating 
  					seniors took the College Board's 
  					Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), 
  					compared to 40% nationally.  The 
  					results were combined verbal and 
  					math scores approximately 100 points 
  					higher than the national average, and 
  					Maynard's scores.  90 A-B students 
  					took advanced placement tests, with 
  					94% achieving scores qualifying for 
  					college credit.
  
  COURSE SELECTION
  At MHS every effort is made to 	Scheduling is more flexible at the 
  schedule all students in all 		regional high school because there 
  courses they desire to take.  	are more courses, levels of courses
  Because of the school's small size 	sections of the courses offered.  At 
  they are able to be more flexible 	MHS only one section is offered in 
  with scheduling.			70% of the courses.  Courses must be 
  					taken in sequence.  
  

  
  EXTRA CURRICULAR
  At MHS over 70% of the student body 	Extracurricular activities, such as 
  participates.  It is very unusual 	hockey, have been cut at MHS because 
  to have anyone cut from an activity.  of an inadequate number of 
  Because of the small size more 	participants.  At ABRHS, 90% of the 
  students have had the chance to be 	student body participates in a wide 
  involved.				range of activities at a number of 
  					levels.  There is no question that 
  					Maynard children will have a much 
  					broader selection of activities in 
  					the regional system.
  
  THIRTY AND THREE
  This push to regionalize is coming 	The problems of the Maynard system 
  30 years too late and 3 years too 	have been under study for four years,
  early.				and the regionalization question has 
  					been studied for over two years.  If 
  					we do not take this opportunity, 
  					Littleton is waiting to take it.  As 
  					part of the process, 10 towns within 
  					a 15 mile radius were contacted.  
  					Only one offer to regionalize with 
  					Maynard was received.  If we do not 
  					take this opportunity, there will not 
  					be another.  
  
  Dr. Greg Ciardi ... has proven 	SHARE agrees that Dr. Ciardi has 
  himself to be a creative, thoughtful 	shown himself to be a very capable 
  administrator who is more than 	administrator.  Dr. Ciardi has 
  willing to investigate new methods 	publicly stated that the current 
  and to really look at a problem 	system is not one of the choices.  
  from all angles.  			The choices are either to regionalize 
  					or to drastically increase the 
  					funding of the Maynard school system.  
  
  ...in three years... there will 	The system cannot survive as it is 
  still be the option of	 	for three years.  The issues of 
  regionalizing.			accreditation of the high school and 
  					the school choice law will have taken 
  					away the Maynard's options by next 
  					year.  No system will be interested 
  					in talking to Maynard.  No contiguous 
  					town will be open to regionalization 
  					with Maynard.

As of last night the Maynard FINCOM voted NOT TO ENDORSE regionalization!

As of last night the Maynard SELECTMEN voted NOT TO ENDORSE regionalization!

The regionalization committee was told by the Selectment that they still have 
not answered the concerns of both the Selectmen or the people.


COMMENT:

Did you know that as of 1 July 1991, the State has mandated that shools 
wishing to regionalize MUST prove to the state and citizens that 
regionalization has a true benefit for ALL parties involved and not special 
interest groups!!!!!!!


So why try to push regionalization through now??????   Hmmmmmmmm.



Julian

    I heard the other day that the school committee is withdrawing article
    5 from the town warrant.  I believe this article was for the
    regionalizing of grades k thru 8.  Apparently the town voted only to
    negotiate a regional plan 9 thru 12 last year. The only regional plan
    the town will be voting on is to regionalize the high school.  The k thru 12
    regionalization is not on the warrant.
    
    If anyone has more information on this please add it to this file.
    

Re: .92  

Well, I guess I didn't last too long in read-only mode.  :-)  I'm glad I pre-
fixed that statement with a "for now".

Thankfully, the company offers a 45 minute lunch period to wade through 608
lines of propaganda (consuming 56 blocks of disk space no less).  8-o 

  >An 
  >objective analysis of the proposal will show that it is an opportunity for 
  >Maynard to improve the education it offers its children and be more cost 
  >effective at the same time.

HA!  This is like saying a fan of the Boston Red Sox can objectively analyze 
the New York Yankees!
  
  >A vote at the May town meeting is required to enable the process of merging 
  >the school systems to begin in September. 
  
A perfect example of misinformation, and a play with words, which runs rampant 
throughout SHARE's rebuttal.  Weren't we just told at the regionalization open 
forum last Wednesday, the merger would not happen until 1992?
  
  >With improved educational opportunity, the average income in Maynard will go 
  >up, and it will be less "needy."
  
And where will the...um...less intelligent! citizens of Maynard be moving to, 
resulting in this escalalation of average income?  No offense meant to those 
lowly paid professionals who dedicate time/service for the betterment of people.
  
  >Furthermore, the AB business manager has stated that it would be possible to 
  >insure all Maynard town employees under the AB plan, enlarging the insurance 
  >pool and decreasing costs - for the entire town budget.  
  
This statement directly contradicts what I've been told by Maynard's administra-
tive assistant, Mike Gianotis, and every single town department head I've spoken
to.  BUT, since the Acton-Boxboro business manager tells us it is "possible" 
let's not hesitate to take his/her word for it!  Mike Gianotis has nothing to 
gain or lose (other than increased health costs) should we regionalize, as he 
does not live in Maynard.  I think I'd tend to believe Mike's opinion on this 
matter, thank you.

  >Instead, there will be a negotiation to set a new pay scale and a plan to 
  >bring teachers to the appropriate levels.  The cost of bringing Maynard 
  >teachers up to the new pay scale is unknown at this time because it depends 
  >on those negotiations.

Typically, negotiation sessions are handled by negotiators (lawyers).  Why did
Maynard *not* have any negotiators present when the regionalization agreement 
was reached?  Why *were* Acton's used?  To look out for the best interests of 
Maynard?  I think not.
  
  >The facilities for grades 7-12 will be used by students from all 3 towns.  
  >The Merriam school is available when additional facilities are required.  
  >When that eventually occurs, the agreement requires Acton to pay 70%...  
  >Historically, when construction was necessary, the region has submitted town 
  >meeting articles in both Acton and Boxborough.

This is one of my biggest peeves.  Maynard will be required to pay 25% of new
construction.  This is no problem today, as we speak, but what about 20, 30, 40
years down the road?  Why is this a "cast in stone" figure? As I've said before,
why couldn't an adjustable percentage have been negotiated, to reflect the stu-
dent or projected student enrollment?  Now that would truly be fair.

  >Comments on an early draft of the agreement were made by the town counsel.  
  >The agreement was revised and at a special school committee meeting on Apr 
  >17, 1991, the school committee attorney stated that there are no legal issues
  >with the final version of the agreement.

But what about the town counsel's concerns, which were referred to in the
original statement?  Another play with words.
  
  >The value of WAVM is recognized both in the AB region and in Maynard.  There 
  >has been no consideration of curtailing or abolishing WAVM.
  
I don't mean to degrade our 4-6 grade students, but it's foolish to propose that
they'll have the vigor and energy required, to carry on the excellence of this 
program!  WAVM will no longer exist as we know it today, to put it mildly.

  >The regional high school has more computers than Maynard high school.  
  
Another case of numbers being used to promote ones own self interest.  I would
*hope* the regional school has more computers.  After all, the student enrol-
lment, to conservatively estimate it, is only about 5 times that of Maynard's!

Once again, numbers can be used to give favorable views on either side of the
debate.  It's the contract that we will be legally bound to that *stinks*.  

					Regards,
					Steve
    
                                     

Mr. Lesage: I'm trying to find out about your question. It would surprise
me if the school committee could withdraw that item from the town warrant.
I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Steve,

I can address some of your points, but not all.

Timing: My understanding is that if regionalization passes, students will
  stay in their respective schools for the '91-'92 school year. The
  transition work would start during that time, and the appropriate schools
  would merge in the fall of '92.

Average income: The implication is that a better education will prepare
  many more people in town for better jobs. I don't believe that anyone
  is expected to go somewhere else. I don't believe this has anything to
  do with intelligence.

Pooling town insurance: Can't comment on this. You may be able to get more
  information from the person referenced in the original.

Your comment on negotiations: Seems unrelated to the negotiations for 
  teachers' salaries mentioned in the report. I don't know who was used
  for what negotiations. I understand that the town counsel had issues with
  an early draft of the agreement, and I further understand that his
  issues have been addressed in later drafts. It sounds like you're 
  uncomfortable with the process. I feel that the end result is what really
  counts here.

Maynard's contribution of 25%: My understanding is that over the years,
  Boxborough and Acton have ammended their agreement several times (six or
  seven; I don't have the exact figures). If this becomes necessary in 
  Maynard, we, too, can propose changes. To me, this means that the agreement
  is solid but not "cast in stone". Right now, because our student population
  is more than 25% of the proposed region, we are getting a good deal.

Town counsel's concerns: addressed earlier.

WAVM: I agree that this is important to the town. I would hope that if
  regionalization passes, all the concerned parents that Tom Konetzny has
  told me about will work together to ensure that WAVM continues to thrive.

Computers: I'm not sure what point to address here. I agree that it makes
  more sense that A/B has more computers than the Maynard school system.



Liz

    The withdrawal of an article can be done at the Town Meeting, but only
    by the sponsoring organization.  If this article is going to be
    withdrawn it will have to be done by the Regionalization Committee.

    Apparently there has been some question in the legality of article 5. 
    The vote last year was was to negotiate with the Acton Boxboro regional
    school system which is grades 7 thru 12.  Article 5 is asking to vote
    on grades K thru 12.  Some folks say this can not be done others say it
    can.  It will depend on the interpretation of the law.  As far as
    withdrawing it from the warrant I have not heard anything from the
    regional committee who are the sponsors of this article.  I will say
    the withdrawal of this article is just a rumor at this time.

    Re: .96 (Liz)
    
  >Pooling town insurance: Can't comment on this. You may be able to get more
  >information from the person referenced in the original.
    
    The information I want would not come from Bob Schleelien (sp?).  It
    would come from the person who is directly responsible for handling
    these matters, who as I've previously mentioned said it is NOT possible 
    to pool town insurance.  In fact, insurance for the remaining town
    departments would skyrocket by losing roughly half the insurance pool.  
    Furthermore, there is a good possibility Blue Cross/Blue Shield would 
    pull out of town altogether. 
    
  >Your comment on negotiations: Seems unrelated to the negotiations for 
  >teachers' salaries mentioned in the report. I don't know who was used
  >for what negotiations. I understand that the town counsel had issues with
  >an early draft of the agreement, and I further understand that his
  >issues have been addressed in later drafts. It sounds like you're 
  >uncomfortable with the process. I feel that the end result is what really
  >counts here.
    
    My problem is this, Liz.  Our School Committee uses lawyer(s) to
    negotiate contracts with the Maynard teachers union, who have
    professional negotiators themselves.  This is what you'd expect.  This 
    is what negotiation is all about.  Yet, when the time comes to negotiate 
    a contract over a far more complex matter, the Maynard Regionalization 
    Committee used the lawyers from the town we were negotiating with (Acton)! 
    Do you truly believe they (Acton's legal representatives) were looking out 
    for the best interests of Maynard?  As someone from SOS has pointed out, 
    this is akin to asking your wife for a divorce and using *her* lawyer to 
    negotiate the settlement!
    
  >Maynard's contribution of 25%: My understanding is that over the years,
  >Boxborough and Acton have ammended their agreement several times (six or
  >seven; I don't have the exact figures). If this becomes necessary in 
  >Maynard, we, too, can propose changes. To me, this means that the agreement
  >is solid but not "cast in stone". 
    
    Acton has never been able to get Boxboro to ammend the agreement
    changing Boxboro's 5% contribution though, have they?  When you say 
    the agreement has been ammended several times, what exactly did these
    ammendments cover?  This is yet another case of using numbers to
    promote ones own (SHARE) self-interest.
    
  >Right now, because our student population
  >is more than 25% of the proposed region, we are getting a good deal.
    
    Yes, we'll have 26% of the population.  But what about next year, the
    year after or 30 years from now?  Acton has the potential to double in
    size, Boxboro has the potential to triple in size.  What will our
    student population be then?  Boxboro will still be paying 5% and we'll
    be paying 25%.  This is not a "good deal" as you put it.  It's a lousy
    deal.  
    
    I work in close proximity to two secretaries who work for some of the
    highest ranking officials of this company, and I speak to them daily. 
    They live in Acton, and they've stated that once they retire, they'll
    no longer be able to afford living in the town of Acton because it is
    so expensive.  I don't know how some of the newcomers to Maynard feel,
    but I love this town, and I don't want to have to move to Montana once I
    retire, so I can live comfortably.
    
    There is one more subject I'd like to address regarding the recent
    override defeat, but I'm stuck for time, and will address it later.
    
    					Steve  
                                               

A Maynard Beacon editorial today took a position against regionalization.

They cited the solid education at the Maynard Schools and the benefit of a
close-knit caring environment for the kids. 

Then they went on to list their reasons to oppose this regionalization:
- Regional aid is "shaky and questionable".
- The Maynard Long Range Planning Committee has good ideas.
- There are questions about how willing Acton & Boxboro are to welcome
Maynard students.  They cited Acton-Boxboro Regional Committee chairman
Lees Stuntz's statements that Acton residents were concerned about class
differences between Maynard and Acton students and that residents worried
that Maynard students would bring drugs into the schools.  Stuntz recently
described how aggressively Acton negotiated the regional agreement, when
she said that Acton "held out for a Biggie", the three-town meeting, which
ensures that Acton will always get their way. 

Beacon summarizes, saying:

"Statements like this make us wonder whether Acton will extend a genuine
hand of friendship and community - or merely an outstretched hand seeking
additional bodies and finances."


The Acton edition of the Beacon contained interesting news and letters.

If Regionalization between the three towns fails,  Acton has a fallback
strategy:  They are pursuing a K-12 agreement with Boxboro, which would
expand the current 7-12 agreement to the lower grades. The Maynard
Regionalization Committee has been asked about this in the past, and gave
noncommittal answers.

In the same paper, Dennis Kuipers, Boxboro Fincom member, and former
Regional School Committee member wrote a scathing letter opposing
regionalization.

-Steve

re .99 Steve M, an aside:

You're writing to a person (me) who used one lawyer for her divorce.
Actually, we negotiated everything ourselves before hiring a
professional. And I think we both ended up with a terrific and very
fair deal. So I'm afraid that you haven't convinced me!

I don't know what the amendments to Boxborough and Acton's agreement
have contained, but I can find out for you if you'd like. You may be
right that the percentage paid has never been negotiated, but that 
does not mean that it is impossible to change the figure in the future.



Liz

    
    
    It is my understanding that although Maynard lawyers did review the
    proposal and made recommendations to correct any areas of concern.
    
    
    					Darlene

Well, there were two lawyers involved, and a couple of rounds of documents:

Maynard Town Counsel was concerned about three areas in the agreement:
1) Giving up our rights - he used the term "hostage".
2) What happens to Fowler when it goes under the control of the Selectmen?
3) Legal technicalities, e. g., exactly how the fractional votes worked.

The Regional Planning Committee responded to Town Counsel, saying that a
"mature and responsible" board (really! their words!) shouldn't need anyone
else to tell them what to do with Folwer.

The School Committee's lawyer reviewed the same document and said:
1) He agreed with Town Counsel on everything
2) He had additional concerns about giving up control

Then there was a revised document.  The School Committee's lawyer said
that all the legal technicalities were taken care of, that it was a legal
document.  (The issues of control were not addressed).

I didn't hear if Town Counsel reacted to that version.

Now there is yet another revised agreement.  Perhaps at Town Meeting,
someone will ask Town Counsel what he thinks of it.

.102>  It is my understanding that although Maynard lawyers did review the
.102>  proposal and made recommendations to correct any areas of concern.

No, only partially. Some legal technicalities were dealt with, but the
lawyers' objections to the control issue was never addressed.

-Steve

            <<< Note 261.101 by MEWVAX::AUGUSTINE "Purple power!" >>>
    
>You're writing to a person (me) who used one lawyer for her divorce.
>Actually, we negotiated everything ourselves before hiring a
>professional. And I think we both ended up with a terrific and very
>fair deal. So I'm afraid that you haven't convinced me!
    
    You've just shot yourself in the foot here, Liz.  You said you
    negotiated everything yourselves before hiring a professional.  We're
    talking apples and oranges, I'm afraid.
    
>I don't know what the amendments to Boxborough and Acton's agreement
>have contained, but I can find out for you if you'd like. You may be
>right that the percentage paid has never been negotiated, but that 
>does not mean that it is impossible to change the figure in the future.
    
    I was brought up to believe that nothing is impossible, but when you
    have a member of the Regional Planning Committee publicly state that
    Acton had "held out for a biggie", I don't exactly hit the comfort
    zone, do you?
    
    The editor of the Maynard Beacon, Sandy Quadros Bowles wrote a very good 
    article in today's paper.  The caption in bold print says, "Whatever
    happens Monday will happen because it is the will of the people.  And, 
    like it or not, we will all have to face Tuesday together..."

    This brings me to a topic I wanted to address in an earlier note,
    concerning last week's election and voting pattern.  Let me just say that 
    I was outraged to hear at last Wednesday's regionalization meeting, that 
    several people admittedly voted for Jim DeMott and John Comella, then 
    voted against the override questions out of spite.  This was purposely 
    done to hurt the Maynard School system and to promote the need for 
    regionalization.  Now if several people *openly admitted* this, I wonder 
    how many others did the same?  This can be confirmed by both Karen Derby 
    (an ardent supporter of the Maynard School system) and Bob Geldhart (school
    committee/regionalization committee member).  Of course, Karen was hooted 
    and hissed at by the SHARE folks in attendance, for even suggesting
    something so preposterous.  Bob then quieted the wolves by backing her
    claim.  Hopefully, people will grow up and follow Sandy Bowles' advice 
    when this whole matter is settled.

					Steve
    
           

	re:92
>	Last year, only 58% of the graduates of Maynard junior High School 
>	chose to attend Maynard HS, 
	
	Can somebody clarify, or expand on, this statistic?  What percent
	attend the voc school, what percent go private?  

	Does this mean that 58% of 71% = 41% of Maynard's reach post 
	secondary ed via the MHS route? (Note: this says nothing about
	the overall percentage that continue their education.)

	This statistic is not encouraging to me.   Can someone clarify?

Hi Steve,

I don't feel that I've shot myself in the foot, but I do feel that
our exchange illustrates my perception of our separate philosophies.

Basically, I'm not out to take advantage of others, nor are others 
(for the most part) out to do the same to me. In the larger context of 
regionalization, I understand one of your concerns to be that Acton will 
try to take advantage of Maynard. As in most negotiations, my hunch is 
that Acton can win, but that doesn't imply that  Maynard will lose. In 
fact, I think it's possible that Acton can win and Maynard can win at 
the same time. I also think that the presence or absence of a 
"professional" on the negotiating team does not change the equation by 
much. 

I'm looking forward to reading the Beacon this week. I agree that 
regardless of what happens, we'll still all live in the same town on
Tuesday (or Wednesday or Thursday) morning. And we'll all have to work
together to ensure that the town's decision works.

Override votes: Votes are secret, so I have no idea what the statistics
other than the outcome were. One guess, though, is that folks have been
concentrating so hard on regionalization that educating voters about the
need for the override fell through the cracks. Or maybe assumptions were
made that the need was "obvious" and that everyone would vote for that
ballot item. I think this was an unfortunate but important lesson that
we remember next time an override is on the ballot.


Liz

RE: Note 261.104 by BUILD::MORGAN 

>>    This brings me to a topic I wanted to address in an earlier note,
>>    concerning last week's election and voting pattern.  Let me just say that 
>>    I was outraged to hear at last Wednesday's regionalization meeting, that 
>>    several people admittedly voted for Jim DeMott and John Comella, then 
>>    voted against the override questions out of spite.  This was purposely 
>>    done to hurt the Maynard School system and to promote the need for 
>>    regionalization.  Now if several people *openly admitted* this, I wonder 
>>    how many others did the same?
>>    etc.....

I'm getting a little tired of the outrage at a isolated example while 
ignoring a lot of other available facts.

The available data says that both overrides did BEST in precinct 1, which is
the only precinct I won.  That SUGGESTS that my supporters in general did
support both overrides.

And, since Jim and I lost by 500 votes, both overrides would have EASILY
passed if the Ruzich/Konetzny supporters had supported them EVEN REASONABLY
WELL. 

So the data say that MANY Ruzich/Konetzny supporters MUST HAVE VOTED AGAINST
both overrides. Why aren't you outraged by that, Steve?

It is possible that some of my supporters voted against the overrides.  If
that happened, I'm sorry.  My campaign literature (and Jim's) said clearly
that we supported the large override and that even if it passed we would lay
off 10 teachers and staff. 

I believe that many people did just what the signs said to do:  They just 
said NO.  Unfortunately, that is the catastrophic third option: No to 
regionalization and NO to supporting an isolated Maynard school system.

The people who support regionalization support education strongly; they
support it enough to give up some local control to get it.  SOS people seem
very worried about Acton and Boxboro doing something Maynard doesn't want.
Since Acton and Boxboro reliably pass GENERAL overrides, one might suspect
that SOS people want to protect their right to vote NO. 

Steve, I think your outrage is misplaced.

:-)

John

    Hi, remember me?  I'm the guy who started this note some 100
    plus replies ago.  I have not made any comments about this
    issue so far, and I won't here, since Mr. Gerrior has asked 
    me to be the Deputy Moderator for Town Meeting.  If you don't 
    know me, please feel free to swing by the podium in the Gym
    and offer your condolences (or bring me a diet soda or black
    coffee, it could be a long couple of nights).
    
    Frank  
    
    

    Concerning the overrides, some town officals I have talked to feel the
    overrides failed for several reasons:
    
    1.  The regionalization and school committee race stole all the thunder
    form the other issues.  For example we voted in the charter but did not
    pass the overides that will fund many of the changes.
    
    2.  The two question vote, was misleading.  Some people thought if you
    voted yes on both questions then the sum of both would be the override
    $350k + 850K= $1.2 million. So some voters voted yes for one and no on
    the other.
    
    3.  Then there are some voters who just can not afford any more taxes.
    
    As you know I am againest this regional plan for the folowing reasons. I
    feel Maynard can give my kids as good or better education as any other
    school and by education I mean the whole education process not just
    academics.  I do not want to give up control of our school system.  I
    do not know what the cost will be of regionalization.  
    
    

SOS keeps asking for guarantees about regional aid.  Why don't they ask about 
guarantees about local aid?

Today's (Friday) Boston Globe headline is 

	House panel's budget cuts $480M in local aid

That is an increase of $210M from Weld's proposed $270M cut.  Does that 
translate into a 7% cut in local aid, up from 4%?

In the middle of the discussion about local aid there is a paragraph which
says IN ITS ENTIRETY: 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The Ways and Means proposal RESTORES REGIONAL SCHOOL AID, and
	separately reserves $75M in lottery funds for municipal hardship
	cases. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weld's proposal, you may recall, cut regional school aid by 10% between 
FY91 and FY92.

Neither Weld's proposal nor the Ways and Means proposal are law yet, but it 
certainly appears to set the stage for regional aid not going any lower than 
Weld's proposal and possibly rising to this year's level.

In the section on education the article talks about focussing the 
chapter 70 cuts and the "relief":  freezing 766 special ed rates, 
repealing mandated student-teacher ratios and removing the mandate to 
bus anyone above the 6th grade.  

Those foci won't help Maynard much; we've already cut 766 and bussing a 
lot.  We're already going to exceed our own class-size guidelines at the 
Green Meadow.

So, where's the guarantee?

:-)

John

    
    
    I also believe that the overrides were confusing on the ballot.  I
    don't believe that the majority of people would have wanted the library
    closed if they realized that it would also impact using the libraries
    of other towns as well.  The association of the overrides and the 
    specific impacts to school and library were not connected on the
    ballot.
    
    I am very disheartened, however, to believe that people would vote by
    emotion only when it came to the schools.  By voting in members who do
    not support regionalization and then not to pass the overrides is like
    giving a death sentence to the Maynard school system.  It seems clear that 
    the general population does not want to pay any more property taxes but it 
    is very short sighted not to see how this will affect our children.
    
    I hope that people will try to disassociate their feelings even though 
    this is a very volatile topic, and try to sort out the actual facts. 
    My belief is many people are going by a personal point of reference of
    15 to 20 years ago--the head set of Maynard vs. Acton and the Maynard
    school system was "good enough for me, so it should be good enough for
    my kids."  The truth is because of the cut backs and the progression of
    industry, the Maynard school system may not "be good enough" in the
    near future.  The options seem clear, either pass the overrides or 
    regionalize.
    
					Darlene

    Good luck, Frank.  Might I suggest you keep your good sense of humor
    intact?  You'll most likely need it.  :-)
    
    Welcome to the discussion, John.  While I may have never publicly stated 
    so in this notesfile, I was *extremely* dissapointed the overrides did not
    pass.  But, I felt from the beginning that we'd have another chance at
    getting them to pass, which we will, therefore no sense of outrage. 
    
    What bothered me was hearing that people (even if there were only a
    handful) chose to vote for Jim and yourself, and then turned around
    and said, "screw this town I'm not voting for the override."  Spiteful,
    selfish, whatever you want to call it; it left a bitter taste in my
    mouth.  It was not my intention to equate this to something you
    promoted at all.  I was well aware that your literature stated that you
    were in favor of the override questions.  I'm in precinct 1 as well, as
    are several other members of SOS.  Could this also be considered a
    reason why the override questions fared well in precinct 1?  I believe
    so.
    
    As I've stated before, every single member of SOS that I spoke to was
    in favor of the override questions.  As Paul LeSage noted, there were 
    several factors that led to its defeat.  For example, our only local, 
    daily newspaper, The Middlesex News, printed erroneous information both 
    before and after the election, in regard to the overrides.  They referred 
    to it as a $1.2 million override, which we both know it wasn't.  I also 
    wonder how many people voted for just the $850K override without realizing 
    should that get defeated, and they didn't also check off the $350K question
    the 350K override would also be defeated?  Those of us involved, may also 
    be guilty of tunnel vision in focusing on the school committee race,
    without expending the required energy to get the overrides to pass.  I'll 
    plead guilty to this. 
    
>The people who support regionalization support education strongly; they
>support it enough to give up some local control to get it.  SOS people seem
>very worried about Acton and Boxboro doing something Maynard doesn't want.
>Since Acton and Boxboro reliably pass GENERAL overrides, one might suspect
>that SOS people want to protect their right to vote NO. 
    
    True.  I'm of the belief that the majority of budgetary, governmental 
    decisions, are best settled at the local level, thus eliminating x
    levels of bureaucracy at the state and federal levels.  It is so much
    simpler and leaves the decision making process in our hands, instead of
    the hands of a bloated government.  Maynard is a town.  It *should* be
    up to the people of this town to decide how they want their money spent.  
    If there are people that live here who are unhappy with this, then they 
    are free to leave.
    
    					Have a good one,
    					Steve  

    REF: NOTE 111.  Your last sentence has a lot of merit.  However, whether
    regionalization passes or not, overrides are going to be on every town
    election for awhile. If it passes we will be asking for overrides for
    other town services, if it fails then we will be asking for overrides
    the same as we are doing now.

    
    Re. 113:
    
    Yes, you are right.  Overrides will be with us for awhile.  
    But if one or more overrides pass, then the town has the right to raise
    property taxes for that amount.  The appropriation of those funds are
    then determined by the town meeting vote.  Is this correct?
    
    I would hope Maynard, if it does not regionalize, would have a special
    election with the overrides once again and pass them.  I don't,
    however, see Maynard continually passing overrides each year.  
    
    I don't necessarily adhere to the quote in the Maynard Beacon yesterday 
    that Maynard is more like Hudson.  Our kids in general are more likely to 
    blend just as well with Acton's kids if we don't program prejudices into 
    them.  I also don't believe that heading that the FINCOM did not 
    endorse Regionalization may have been accurately stated. If people are in 
    doubt, it will appear that they don't favor something when in truth they 
    don't know.  I hope we aren't playing politics at our children's expense.  
    
    I will be getting a copy of the regionalization proposal tonight
    so will see if I have reservations for myself.     
    
    
    					Darlene

I was also surprised to go home and read the actual Beacon editorial
yesterday. It was hardly what I would call a ringing endorsement, and
in fact, it was difficult for me to discern what they were saying.
I came away with the impression that they waffled a lot and then
barely came down on the side of not regionalizing. I'm looking forward
to reading the rest of the Beacon tonight.


Liz

Another perspective. We've now lived in Maynard five years and have 2 
preschoolers. We moved here because the housing was affordable, the location 
was right, and there was a sense of community and pride. We've outgrown our 
starter house and we had planned to buy again in Maynard, but now we're 
wondering and rethinking.

I believe that schools mirror social inequalities in our society. Remember 
the Coleman report, which stated that socioeconomic status is a primary 
factor influencing school achievement. Specifically, "students from lower 
socioeconomic classes achieve in terms of traditional school measures at a 
rate significantly lower than their age and grade peers from the higher 
classes".

Coleman's research found that social class mix was the most important 
intervening factor affecting academic achievement of all youngsters.
Hence a poorer child improved academically when studying with a mix of social 
classes--less likely when poorer kids make up more than 60% of the school. In 
Sunday's Globe, another study expanding on Coleman was cited that stated the 
quality of teachers was a critical factor in achievement.  Since better 
teachers cost more $ the report demonstrated, school systems that could spend 
more get better results. My conclusion: class and money count.

Nevertheless, I previously had scoffed at the class issue references from 
Acton and here.  Sure Acton was wealthier but Maynard kids weren't 
qualitatively different in abilities and aspirations and motivation. 

Then the quote from one of our selectman who believes that Maynard is 
different from Acton & Box., we were more like Hudson. My translation of his 
remark: there is a class difference and Acton's got a higher "altitude". 

Unfortunately, the latter gets people thinking who they identify more with, 
Hudson?  Acton? It starts to make me think about measures of excellence and 
our own expectations of ourselves and our kids, and the class "thing".

I would like to see regionalization pass because I am willing to pay what it 
takes to get the best education. I supported the overrides. I see it as a 
Colemanesque choice. Do you get the class that you pay for?

Ernie                     

RE .110, on local and regional aid:

My wife, Cindy, had a conversation with State Reps. Hasty Evans and Pat Walrath 
about school aid this morning (at a toxic waste event at the Sudbury Annex).
The local school aid is called chapter 70, regional aid is chapter 71.  
The two reps said that the current proposal is to strip 134 towns of all
chapter 70 and Additional Assistance aid.  That list includes Sudbury, Wayland,
Weston, Boxboro, and they thought (but weren't sure) Acton.  Maynard was not
zeroed, as these other towns were.  

Chapter 70 and Additional Assistance are 66% of Maynard's state aid.  What
impact will this have on Boxboro's and Acton's town budgets?  And consequently
on the regional school? 

.110>	The Ways and Means proposal RESTORES REGIONAL SCHOOL AID, and
.110>	separately reserves $75M in lottery funds for municipal hardship
.110>	cases. 

Yes, the proposal is to restore regional aid, but Pat Walrath said that
other kinds of schools have been added to the list of recipients of
regional aid.  In other words, the pie is back to its original size, but will
be divided into more and smaller pieces.  And the budget has yet to go to the
Senate, so it is not final. 

I'll deal with the state aid for Maynard and the region in another note,
a comment on .92, the Share Propaganda Sheet.

-Steve

Since John Comella has joined the discussion, I'd like to get his opinion on
the teachers' union proposal to give back their raises, giving the schools
between $300,000 and $350,000.  The conditions of the offer were as follows: 

(1) The town votes down regionalization.
(2) The school committee doesn't close the Maynard schools and just tuition all
    the kids out somewhere else before 1993.
(3) Money is restored to athletics and extra-curricular activities. 

John, why did the School Committee reject this proposal?

I am requesting that the SOS folks stop calling the papers prepared
by SHARE "propaganda." I think it's disrespectful and a "dirty"
fighting technique. In the short time remaining, I am hoping that 
we can continue this discussion in a more respectful manner.

Thank you,
Liz

    re .119 - propaganda
    Of course Share's papers are propaganda.  The SOS flyers are meant to
    convince people of the SOS point of view - they are propaganda, too. 
    However, note that SOS doesn't take Share's text out of context in
    their propaganda, as Share does with SOS's words.
    
    If you want dirty fighting, look at the current SHARE mailing which
    goes on about "we challenge SOS" on a number of points, 4 days before
    Town Meeting, when there is insufficient time to respond in a similar
    forum.
    
    By they way, check out the Boston Globe West Weekly section this Sunday
    for Tom Konetzny's article on regionalization.
    
    -Steve

    Steve,
    
    I disagree with you about the meaning of the word propaganda, and 
    I suppose we have to leave it at that.
    
    I've seen the "challenges" published somewhere else earlier than
    the SHARE mailing; I'm sorry you were not aware of them earlier, and
    I can't recall where I saw them.
    
    I really don't want to escalate this into a discussion of who has 
    the "dirtier" fighting techniques or who takes whom out of context
    more.
    
    And no, I haven't seen this Sunday's Globe yet; I usually read it on
    Sundays. But I look forward to reading Tom's article.
    
    
    Liz

    p.s. Steve,
    
    I can not be responsible for anyone's behavior but my own. Nor can I
    ask you to take on responsibility for anyone else's behavior. Please
    feel free to complain about what SHARE has done. And I expect that as
    in the past, you will let me know if you feel I have written something
    inappropriate. But answering my request to alter _your_ behavior with 
    a complaint about a _group's_ behavior indicates to me that you've 
    missed the point.
    
    
    Liz

    Just a note from the Chairman of the "soon to be defunct Charter 
    Commission".
    
    RE: .109:
    
    >> 1.  The regionalization and school committee race stole all the   <<
    >>thunder from the other issues.  For example we voted in the charter<<
    >>but did not pass the overides that will fund many of the changes.  <<
    
    
    Paul, bad example.  The Charter and the overides were not related.
    The overides did not contain ANY money to implement the Charter.  
    
    There are *NO* start-up expenses related to the Charter.  Period.
    
    As I have mentioned many, many times, the Charter Commission would
    never have spent over 3000 hours developing the Charter if the end
    result would be an additional cost to our Town.
    
    In fact, the Charter was written to ensure that we get a dollar's 
    worth of service for every dollar spent, which I can assure you is 
    not the case today.  And that is a conservative statement.  I am
    confident that the Charter will save the Town a great deal of money
    once we get it completely implemented.  In accepting the Charter by
    a two to one margin, the voters seemed to agree with me.  
    
    Your comment above was a "drive-by" shooting and was not correct.  In
    the future, please take better aim.
    
    Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
    
    Frank              

    
    
    I believe previously a request was made to have a soft copy of the
    agreement.  We are getting close to the Town Meeting Vote.  I will
    try to type in the agreement in about 3 sections.  My apologies for 
    any misspellings.
    
    
    A-B-M K-12						April 25, 1991
    
    		             AMENDED AGREEMENT
    
    AMONG THE TOWNS OF ACTON, BOXBOROUGH and MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS
    	WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF A REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
    
    The Agreement entered into pursuant to Chapter 71 of the General Laws
    of Massachusetts, as amended, between the member towns of Acton and
    Boxborough, is herby amended in its entirety to add the Town of Maynard
    as a member town and to read as hereinafter set forth.  In consideration 
    of the mutual promises herein contained, IT IS HEREBY AGREED as follows: 
    
    SECTION I.  THE REGIONAL DISTRICT COMMITTEE
    
    A.  POWERS, DUTIES AND COMPOSITION
    
    	1. The Regional District School Committee, hereinafter referred to
    	   as the "Committee", shall consist of twelve members, five from
    	   the Town of Acton, three from the Town of Boxborough and four
    	   from the Town of Maynard.
    
    	2. A majority of the members of the Committee, which majority 
    	   shall include at least one member from each member town, shall
    	   constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
    
    	3. The Committee shall have all the powers and duties conferred
    	   and imposed upon it by this Agreement, and such additional
           powers and duties as are specified in Section 16 to 161,
    	   inclusive, of Chapter 71 of the General Laws, any amendments
    	   thereof or additions thereto now or hereafter enacted, or as
    	   may be specified in any applicable special law. 
    	   
    	4. At the first regular meeting of the committee following the
    	   latest town election to be held in each year, the committee
           shall organize, by choosing a chairman and vice-chairman
    	   from its own number, and by appointing a secretary and a
   	   treasurer who may be the same person, but who need not be
    	   members of the Committee, provided that the chairman so chosen 
    	   shall be from each member town, in rotation, rotating among
    	   the three towns on a regular basis.  The Committee shall 
    	   appoint such other officers and agents as it deems advisable.  
    	   Provisions shall be made for regular and special meetings, 
    	   provided that the location f every regular meeting shall
    	   be rotated among the three towns on a regular basis.
	
   
    
    
    B.  INTERIM COMMITTEE
    
    	Members of the school committees of all three towns shall serve as 
    	members of the committee until their terms expire.  Each member's	
    	vote shall be weighted in the following manner.  The current 
    	population of each town shall be divided by the total population of 	
    	all three towns, then multiplied by the total of eligible members
    	of the school committee for that year.  The resulting number
    	is then divided by the number of members that that town is entitled
    	to on the school committee for that year.  For purposes of this sub-
    	section, population of the member towns shall be based on the most
    	recently reported decennial federal census of population and shall
    	be revised as of the date of the organization meeting of the
   	committee next following the official publication by the United 
    	States Bureau of Census of its report of each such decennial
    	census of population.
    
    C.  ELECTED MEMBERS
    
    	At the annual town elections in 1992, and every third year
   	thereafter, the Town of Acton shall elect one (1) member of the
    	committee from the Town of Acton, the Town of Boxborough shall
    	elect one (1) member of the committee from the Town of Boxborough
    	and the Town of Maynard shall elect two (2) members of the committee
    	from the Town of Maynard. At the annual town elections in 1993,
    	every third year therafter, the Town of Acton shall elect two
    	(2) members of the committee from the Town of Acton, the Town
    	of Boxborough shall elect one (1) member of the committee from 
    	the town of Boxborough and the Town of Mayard shall elect one
    	(1) member of the committee from the Town of Maynard.  At the 
    	annual town elections in 1994, and every third year therafter, the
    	Town of Acton shall elect two (2) members of the committee from the
    	Town of Acton, the Town of Boxborough shall elect one (1) member
    	of the committee from the Town of Boxborough and the Town of
    	Maynard shall elect one (1) member of the committee from the Town
    	of Maynard.  Each member so elected shall serve for a term of three
    	years or until a successor is elected and qualified.
                                                 

Re: 261.118 by HELIX::RUZICH
>> Since John Comella has joined the discussion, I'd like to get his opinion on
>> the teachers' union proposal to give back their raises, giving the schools
>> between $300,000 and $350,000.  The conditions of the offer were as follows: 

>> (1) The town votes down regionalization.
>> (2) The school committee doesn't close the Maynard schools and just tuition
       all the kids out somewhere else before 1993.
>> (3) Money is restored to athletics and extra-curricular activities. 

>> John, why did the School Committee reject this proposal?
------------------------------------------------------------------

Since Cindy/Julian Parker has been in this discussion longer than I have,
why doesn't Cindy/Julian go first and I'll fill in any details she leaves out. 

For the moment let me fill in a few other details that Mr. Symes failed
to mention in his dealings with the press. 

On April 8, the School Committee negotiation subcommittee agreed to a
meeting with the MEA on April 25th. The MEA cancelled that meeting.  We sent
back a letter shortly thereafter, indicating our interest to continue to
discuss the issues. 

Last week, we sent Mr. Symes another letter, which follows:

May 13, 1991

Herbert Symes, President
Maynard Education Association
Fowler Middle School
Maynard, MA  01754

Dear Mr. Symes:

The School Committee would like to reiterate its strong interest in
continuing discussions with the Maynard Education Association regarding a
salary freeze for next year.  We share with the teachers and with the hwole
community a deep concern about the potential layoff of twenty employees next
year.  We believe that it remains in the best interest of the committee, the
association and our students to explore every opportunity to avoid thes
staff reductions if possible. 

We urge you to consider continuing these discussions and look forward to an
opportunity to discuss with you the fiscal status of the Maynard Public
Schools. If you agree, please let us know as soon as possible so that we all
might better understand our options for next year. 

Very truly yours,

Linda Bretz, Chairman
Maynard School Committee

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

As of today, Linda has received no response either orally or in writing.

:-)

John

    
    
    
    D.  VOTING
    
    	Each member's vote shall be weighted in the following manner.
    	The current population of each town shall be divided by the total 
    	population of all three towns, then multiplied by 12.  The
    	resulting number is then divided by the number of members that
    	that town is entitled to on the shcool committee.  For purposes
    	of this subsection, population of the member towns shall be based
    	on the most recently reported decennial federal cenusus of popu-
    	lation and shall be revised as of the date of the organization
    	meeting of the committee next following the official publication
        by the United Sates Bureau of the Census of its report of each 
    	such decennial census of population.
    
    E.  VACANCY
    	
    	If there is a vacancy on the committee the remaining members shall
    	give written notice thereof, within one month of said vacancy, to
    	the selectmen from the town in which the vacancy occurred, who, 
    	with the remaining members of the committee from that town, acting
    	at a joint meeting, shall fill such vacancy by roll call vote.  
    	Such joint meeting shall be called by the chairman of the board 
    	of selectmen and notice therof shall be given to each person
    	entitled to vote and publicly posted in the town clerk's office
	at least one week before the date set for the meeting.  A majority
    	of the selectmen and members entitled to vote shall be necessary
    	to such election.  The person so elected shall be a registered 
    	voter of that town and shall perform the duties of the committee
    	member until the next annual town election for that town, at
    	which election a member shall be elected to fill the unexpired
    	term, if any.
    
    SECTION II.  TYPE OF REGIONAL DISTRICT SCHOOL
    
    A.  The regional district schools shall comprise all the grades 
    	kindergaren through twelve, inclusive.
    
    B.  The Committee may establish and maintain state-aided vocational
    	education, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 74 of the 
    	General Laws, and acts amendatory thereto or dependent thereon
    	by amendment to this agreement.
    
    SECTION III.  PUPILS
    
    A.  Residents of the member towns (grades kindergarten-12) may attend
    	the Regional District Schools under the same regulations as would
    	apply to a local school system.
    
    
    
    	Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, no child in
    	graders Kindergarten, One, Two, Three, or any transition class 
    	below grade four shall be required to attend a school located in a 
    	community other than that in which s/he resides except pursuant
    	to her/his partent(s) consent or pursuant to an Individual
   	Education Plan (IEP).	
    
    	Subject to the provisions of this section, it is intended that all
    	pupils in grade four through grade six in the member towns will	
    	receive their education in facilities which are located in the
    	respective towns in which said pupils reside, except for the 
    	following:
    
    	   (1)  In the case of children with special needs, the committee 
    	        may provide for other appropriate arrangements based on the 
    	        individualized educational plan (IEP).
    
           (2)  By request of a parent or guardian to place a student 
    		in a facility in the district other than a facility in
    	  	the town in which the pupil resides, provided the committee 
    	        determines that it is prudent and can be accomplished and is 
    		in the best interest of the pupil.
    
           (3)  When, in the judgment of the committee, there is either
    		overcrowding or underutilization of facilities within
    		a grade level at the schools located in one of the member 
    	        towns, subject to the following conditions:
    
    		(a) any pupil who is to be transferred to a school outside
  		    his or her town of residence shall have equal
    		    opportunity for placement in school or schools of the 
    		    the other town with that of pupils who reside in the
    		    other town.
    
    		(b) before any pupils are transferred to a school located 
    		    in a town other than the town in which they reside, the
    		    principal of each school building in which the
   		    committee has determined there is overcrowding or 
    		    underutilization of facilities in one or more grades 
    		    shall appoint and convene a study committee consisting
    		    of the principal, two parents of pupils attending the 
    		    school (one of whom shall be the parent of a pupil in a 
    		    grade in which there is overcrowding or underutilization
    		    of facilities).  In addition, three members of the 
    		    committee, one from each member town, shall be
    		    appointed by the chairman of the committee and serve as
    		    members of such study committee. Each study committee
    		    shall prepare and submit to the superintendent of
  		    schools a needs assessment report which shall consider
    		    at least the nature and needs of the pupils who would be
    		    affected, space requirements, grade levels, projected 
    		    enrollment trends, fiscal constraints, residence of the
     
    
    
    
    
    		    pupils who would be affected and any other issues
   		    deemed by the study committee to be related to a
    		    practical and reasonable good faith effort to maintain
    		    class sizes conducive to quality education.
    
    		(c) the superintendent of schools shall review the
  		    findings and report of each study committee and make
    		    a recommendation theron to the committee.
    
    		(d) the committee shall take such action as it deems
    		    appropriate on the report of each study committee and
    		    the recommendation of the superintendent thereon.
    	
    B.  Students residing outside the District may attend the Regional 
    	District Schools under approval of the Committee and payment of 
    	tuition established in accordance with the provisions of the law.
    		     
    C.  Students wishing to attend vocational schools may do so in the 
    	manner provided by law.
    
    SECTION IV.  PARENT ADVISORY COMMITTEES
    
    	Each regional district school may, at the discretion of the regional
    	school committee members of the town in which that school is
    	located, have a school committee appointed parent advisory
   	committee that meets regularly with the principal, and at least one
    	representative of the teaching staff.  This committee may at its
    	discretion provide input to the school committee concerning 
    	curriculum development, curriculum assessment, and principal
    	selection.  It may submit reports on the school administration and
    	any other issues which are related to the unique needs of the 
    	school facility.
    
    SECTION V.  EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONNEL AND EXTENSION OF TENURE.
    
    	All school personnel in positions to be superseded by he inclusion
    	of grades kindergarten through six from Boxborough and Acton and 
    	kindergarten through twelve from Maynard in the regional school
    	district shall be given preferred consideration for similar 
    	positions in the regional school district to the extent that 
    	such positions exist therein and to the extent provided in and
    	subject to all the provisions of Section 42B of Chapter 71 of the
    	General Laws as amended.

    
    
    SECTION VI.  LOCATION OF THE REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT SCHOOLS
    
    A.  Regional District Junior High School and Senior High School
    
    	After the first year of regionalization, during which Maynard 7-12
    	students will continue to attend their current schools, pupils in
    	grades seven through twelve shall attend the regional district 
    	junior high school and senior high school located within the
    	district in the Town of Acton, the present Raymond J. Grey Junior
    	High School and Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, except: (1)
    	in the case of children with special needs, the committee may
	provide for other appropriate arrangements based on the
        individualized educational plan (IEP), (2) students wishing to 
    	attend vocational schools may do so in the manner provided by law. 
    
    B.  Lease of the Present Town Schools
    
    	The Town of Boxborough, the Town of Acton, and the Town of Maynard
    	are hereby authorized to lease to the regional school district
    	the buildings, facilities, grounds, equipment, and educational
    	materials presently used by the member towns for schools purposes
    	as hereinafter listed.  Each lease shall be for a term of twenty
    	(20) years and the term shall commence on the date when the 
    	committee assumes jurisdiction over the pupils in all grades of 
    	the district.  The leases may contain provisions for extension in
    	accordance with the provisions of Section 14C of Chapter 71 of the
    	General Laws as amended.  The Town of Boxborough, the Town of Acton
    	and the Town of Maynard shall receive no rental for the leases,
        except that the lease of the Florence A. Merriam school may pro-
    	vide that rent shall be paid to Acton in amounts not exceeding 
    	the net income from rental of all or any portion of that school to
    	non-district persons or organizations.  The leases shall contain
    	provisions authorizing the district to repair and make minor 
    	improvements or alterations to the buildings or any part thereof.
    	The district shall pay all expenses of maintaining and operating the
    	buildings and keeping them in good repair during the terms of the
    	leases.  The committee shall also be authorized to make major
    	improvements and alterations to town-owned schools, but only after
    	notifications of the appropriate member own's board of selectmen. 
    	The leases shall provide that the district shall insure at its 
    	expense the buildings so leased.  The leases shall be entered into
    	and executed on behalf of the town in which a school is located by
    	the board of selectment of that town, and on behalf of the district
    	by the committee.
    
    	Each town will retain control over the scheduling and use during
    	non-school hours of the K-6 buildings located in its town.  During
    	non-school hours, priority in scheduling will be given to school
    	related activities.
    
    
    
    	Pursuant to the foregoing provisions, the Town of Boxborough is
    	authorized to lease to the regional school district the premises,
    	facilities and building presently known as:
    
			Name and Location of School
    
    			1.  Blanchard Memorial School
    			    493 Massachusetts Avenue
    			    Boxborough, MA.
    
    	Pursuant to the foregoing provisions, the Town of Acton is hereby
    	authorized to lease to the regional school district the premises,
    	the facilities and buildings presently known as:
    
    			Name and Location of School
    
    			1.  Luther B. Conant School
    			    80 Taylor Rd., Acton, MA.
    
    			2.  Carolyn T. Douglas School
    			    21 Elm Street, Acton, MA.
    		
    			3.  Paul P. Gates School
    			    75 Spruce Street, Acton, MA.
    		
    			4.  McCarthy Towne School
    			    5 Charter Road, Acton, MA.
    
    			5.  Florence A. Meriam School
    			    15 Charer Road, Acton, MA.
    
    	Pursuant to the foregoing provisions, the Town of Maynard is hereby 
    	authorized to lease to the regional school district the premises,
    	facilities and buildings presently known as:
    
    			Name and Location of School
    
    			1.  Maynard High School
    			    Great Road, Maynard, MA.
    
    			2.  Green Meadow School
    			    Great Road, Maynard, MA.
    
    	Each lease shall provide that the name of the leased school shall
    	not be changed without the approval of the committee members and 
    	the selectment of the lessor town.
    
    
    
    
    C.  LEASE OF BLANCHARD AUDITORIUM
    
    	The existing lease from the town of Acton to the district of
    	Blanchard Auditorium is hereby acknowledged and shall continue in
    	accordance with its terms.
    
    D.  NEW FACILITIES AND FACILITY EMERGENCIES
    
    	Any new school facility constructed for the purpose of
    	accommodating pupils primarily from a particular member town shall
    	be located in such town, provided that no such new facility shall
    	be constructed unless such construction has been approved by a 
    	majority of the voters present and voting at a town meeting in
    	each town.  Further, if a school described in subsection VI B 
    	should become unusable because of damage or any other cause, the 
    	committee may vote to use a school in the other towns on a
    	temporary emergency basis until facilities become available in
    	the town of residence of the pupils.
    
    E.  REGIONAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
    
    	The district shall at all times maintain at least one elementary
    	school in each member town, except in the case of a facility
    	emergency as described in Subsection VI D.
    
    
    SECTION VII.  APPORTIONMENT AND PAYMENT OF COSTS INCURRED BY THE
    		  DISTRICT.
    
    
    A.  For the purpose of apportioning assessments levied by the District
    	against the member towns, costs shall be divided into two
        categories:  construction costs and operating costs.
    
    B.  Construction costs shall include cost of site, cost of building
    	construction and original equipment and furnishings, cost of plans,
    	architect's fees, consultant's fees, costs of grading, cost of 
    	any subsequent capital acquisitions or improvements, and any
    	other costs which may be incurred to put the building and 
    	premises in operating condition, and also the payment of principal 
    	of and interest on bonds or other obligations issued by the regional
    	school district to finance construction costs.
    
    C.  Operating cost shall include all costs not included in construction
    	cost as defined in Subsection VII B, but including interest on
    	temporary notes issued by the District in anticipation of revenue.
    
    D.  1.  Payment of construction costs for schools accommodating pupils
        in grades seven through twelve shall be apportioned among the 
    	member towns as follows. 
    
    	Acton  70%     	       Boxborough  5%  	        Maynard  25%
    
    
    
    
    
    	2.  Payment of construction costs authorized on or after July 1,
    	1991 for each school used for grades kindergarten through six,
    	including schools leased from the member towns and schools con-
    	structed in accordance with Subsection VI D, shall be apportioned
    	to the member towns on the basis of their respective pupil en-
    	rollments in kindergarten through grade 6.  Each member town's
    	share for each fiscal year following shall be determined by com-
    	puting to the nearest one-tenth of one percent the ratio which
    	that town's pupil enrollment in grades kindergaren through 6
    	on October 1 of the three fiscal years preceding the fiscal year
    	for which the apportionment is determined bears to the total pupil
    	enrollment from all the member towns in kindergarten through
    	grade 6 on the same three dates.
    
    E.  APPORTIONMENT OF OPERATING COSTS FOR THE REGIONAL DISTRICT SCHOOLS
    
    	Operating costs for the regional district schools for the second
   	fiscal year next following the passage of this amended agreement and
    	for every fiscal year thereafter shall be apportioned to the member 
    	towns on the basis of their respective pupil enrollments in the
        regional district schools.  Each member town's share for each 
    	fiscal year following shall be determined by computing to the
    	nearest one-tenth of one percent the ratio which the sum of that
    	town's pupil enrollment in grades kindergarten through twelve on
    	October 1 of the three fiscal years preceding the fiscal year for
   	which apportionment is determined bears to the sum of the total
    	pupil enrollment from all the member towns of the regional
    	district schools on the same three dates. 
       
    F.  APPORTIOMENT OF ADDITIONAL CAPITAL COSTS TO THE TOWN OF MAYNARD
    
    	In addition to the capital and operating costs apportioned to 
    	the member towns in accordance with the foregoing provisions 
    	of this Section VII, for the second fiscal year next following
    	the passage of this amended agreement and continuing for the 
    	next succeeding nineteen fiscal years, the Town of Maynard 
    	shall pay as additional capital costs the sum of $83,000 to 
    	the district in each such fiscal year, as partial reimbursement
    	to the original member towns of Acton and Boxborough for their
    	payments of capital costs on account of the regional junior
    	high school and the regional high school.  The committee shall
    	annually apply the amount of such payment to reduce the respective
    	shares of capital and operating costs apportioned to the towns of
    	Acton and Boxborough as follows:  95% to Acton and 5% to
    	Boxborough.  For purposes of Section XII, if the Town of Maynard
    	shall withdraw from the district prior to the twenty-second year
    	of its membership, the unpaid balance of such additional capital
    	cost shall be deemed to be part of the town's share of the indebt-
    	ness of the district outstanding at the time of its withdrawal.
    
    
    
    
    G.  Each member town shall pay its proportionate share of the con-
    	struction and operating costs to the district for each fiscal 
    	period in not less than four equal installments not later than 
    	the first days of September, December, March and June in such
    	fiscal period, or in accoradance with a schedule providing
    	for more frequenct payments by any member town, as may be 
    	agreed upon by the district treasure and the town treasurers.
    
    
    SECTION VIII.  APPORTIONMENT OF REVENUE
    
    	The committee shall annually determine the amount of revenue 
    	(other than revneue to be received from the member towns and 
    	state school construction reimbursement) to be used by the district
    	to reduce the assessments on the member towns.  The amount of 
    	such revenue to be received under Chaper 70 of the General Laws
    	shall be aportioned as follows:
    
    	A.  To the town of Maynard, an amount equal to the amount of 
    	    Chapter 70 aid received by Maynard in fiscal year 1992.
    
    	B.  To the town of Acton, an amount equal to the sum of (1) the
    	    amount of Chapter 70 aid received by Acton in fiscal year 
    	    1992 and (2) an amount determined by multiplying the amount 
    	    of Chapter 70 and received by the district in fiscal 1992
    	    by a fraction the numerator of which is the town's pupil
    	    enrollment in grades seven through twelve on October 1 of
    	    the three fiscal years preceding the fiscal year for which the
    	    apportionment is determined and the denominator of which is the
    	    sum of the total pupil enrollment in grades seven through
    	    twelve from the towns of Acton and Boxborough, on the same
    	    three dates.
    
    	C.  To the town of Boxborough, an amount equal to the sum of (1)
    	    the amount of Cahpter 70 aid received by Boxborough in fiscal
    	    year 1992 and (2) an amount determined by multiplying the
    	    amount of Capter 70 aid received by the district in fisal 1992
    	    by a fraction the numerator of which is the town's pupil
    	    enrollment in grades seven through twleve on October 1 of
    	    the three fiscal years preceding the fiscal year for which the 
    	    apportionment is determined and the denominator of which is 
    	    the sum of the total pupil enrollment in grades seven through
    	    twelve from the towns of Boxborough and Acton, on the same 
    	    three dates.
    
	Any revenue which thr committee determines is to be received and 
    	used in any fiscal year to reduce the assessments on the member towns 
    	in addition to that apporitoned as a foresaid shall be apportioned
    	to the three member towns in the same manner as is provided in 
    	Section VII E above; provided that if the committee shall determine
    	for any fiscal year that the amount of revenue under Chaper 70 of
    	the General Laws to be received and apportioned to the member towns
    	is less than the amount determined under subsections A, B, and C
    	above, the amount of such revenue to be apporitoned to the member
        towns for that fiscal year shall be prorated amoung the member 
    	towns, on the basis of the ratio which the respective amounts
    	deermined under thos paragraphs bears to the total amount of 
    	revenue to be apportioned.  State school construction reim-
    	bursements shall be allocatd for each project on the same basis
    	as the construction cost was apportioned for the project for
    	which the reimbursement is to be received.  The amount of revenue
    	apportioned to a member town under this Section VIII shall be 
    	deducted from the assessments of costs on that member town.

        In an effort to understand both sides of the school
        regionalization issue, we have read (among other things) every
        note posted under this topic.  We believe that the SOS camp has
        done a superb job of stating their position here.  However,
        after careful analysis of the rebuttal to SOS presented in Note
        261.92, we can only conclude that regionalization is an
        auspicious opportunity -- and Maynard's only choice.

        No one has disputed that the Acton-Boxborough school system is
        excellent, perhaps one of the best in the US.  The
        Acton-Boxborough school system is good not only because it
        enjoys adequate funding, but also because the Acton-Boxborough
        community expects a high standard of education from its
        schools.

        Over the past several years, Maynard has progressed from a
        reasonably prosperous school system to one that is losing its
        staff and programs to relentless funding cuts.  The recent
        override defeat does not bode well for the school system in the
        near term, and probably tells us what we can expect from
        Maynard voters in the longer term.

        We all know that "throwing money" at a school system does not
        guarantee high quality education.  On the other hand, cutting
        funds will not miraculously mobilize the school community to
        compensate by "getting involved".  That seems to be the hope of
        those who would reject regionalization.

        There is no doubt that Acton will benefit financially from
        regionalization with Maynard.  Knowing that Maynard, too,
        stands to gain by getting a much better education for our
        children without committing the funding it would take to
        accomplish the equivalent on our own, we feel that Acton's
        financial gain is irrelevant in this decision (unless you live
        in Acton) :-).

        Under the given circumstances, if we want quality education for
        all children in Maynard, we must join hands with Acton.  If we
        miss the boat now, we will not get a second opportunity to
        regionalize with Acton-Boxborough in the future.  Regionalizing
        with another community, such as Hudson/Marlborough would make a
        mockery of regionalization by sending the children two towns
        and some 10-25 miles away.

        When we accept the funding reality and acknowledge the kind of
        education our children need to stand up to global competition,
        we will reconcile and welcome regionalization.  We owe it to
        our children.
    
        - Anil (TOOK::) Navkal and Naomi (HAVFUN::) Navkal

The following is not intended to make anyone favorable to regionalization
complacent.  Rather it should give those opposed to regionalization one more
thing to worry about when they say, "Maynard can do it better alone." 

The following long, wordy paragraph appears on page 28 of H5300, which was
signed into Massachusetts law on March 22, 1991. 

This paragraph amends section 12B of chapter 76 of the General Laws
(Capitalization is mine). 

<H5300 ON>

"Notwithstanding the provisions of section twelve, or any other general or
special law to the contrary, ANY CHILD MAY ATTEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL OF A
CITY OR TOWN WHERE HE DOES NOT RESIDE upon such terms as the school
committee of such city or town where he does not reside shall fix, if it
chooses to admit nonresident students; provided that said school committee
shall set AND BE PAID BY THE COMMONWEALTH A TUITION RATE which shall not
exceed the average expense per student for such school, for such type of
education as is required by such nonresident student, for the period the
child shall attend; and provided, further, that in the case of a regional
district school, the sum set by the school committee as such tuition rate
shall require the acceptance of the member of the regional district school
committee who represents the town in which such school is located.  THE
COMMONWEALTH SHALL PAY TUITION TO THE HOST COMMUNITY. THE COMMUNITY IN WHICH
THE CHILD RESIDES CANNOT CLAIM THAT CHILD AS ATTENDING ITS SCHOOL and the
receiving community cannot claim that child as residing in that community. 
No school committee shall discriminate in the admission of any child, on the
basis of race, color....."

<H5300 OFF>

The section above is known as the "School Choice law".

In his letter to the House and Senate about this bill the governor says:

(Except for the word "METCO" below the capitalization is again mine.)

<WELD ON>

"This legislation provides for an important innovation in public education -- 
choice.  The problems with many of our public school systems are well known
and well documented. Yet within the Commonwealth, we have a number of school 
districts which are succeeding in providing a quality education to students. 
This legislation will open up the possiblities for parents and their 
children to obtain a quality education in public schools by affording them 
an enhanced opportunity to attend the public school of their choice.  It is 
my hope that this change will serve as a stimulus for some school districts 
to take a hard look at their curriculum, their hiring practices and their 
policies and to take some bold initiatives to improve their districts and 
make them competitive with other public schools.  Consistent with our 
proposal in the FY1992 budget, THE COSTS OF TUITIONS UNDER THE CHOICE 
PROGRAM WILL BE FUNDED BY OFFSETS AGAINST THE CHAPTER 70 SCHOOL AID OF THE 
COMMUNITIES IN WHICH PARTICIPATING STUDENTS RESIDE.  While there are many 
issues to be resolved as this program is being implemented (including the 
neeed to coordinate its implementation with the existing and successful 
METCO program), I believe that this is an important step to improving the 
opportunities for a public education for school children in Massachusetts."

<WELD OFF>

The capitalized sentence above says that if Maynard students go to other
schools, Maynard loses some Chapter 70 school aid.  The law doesn't spell
that out clearly, except to say that Maynard can't count the student as
living in Maynard. 

There are lots of questions about this bill:

1. Will the sending town lose the per-student Ch 70 aid (about $800) or will
   it be closer to the "expense per student" (about $5K in AB)?

2. Will AB declare themselves open under this law?  They do now have about
   40 students tuitioning in.  How about CC, LS and Nashoba?

3. How will transportation be handled?  In my opinion, this is a non-issue 
   between Maynard and Acton.

4. How many students will choose to come into Maynard and how many will 
   choose to go elsewhere from Maynard?

   The answer to question #1 multiplied by the answer to question #4 
   = net effect on Maynard's school budget.

   Suppose that 2% of the people who voted for me have kids and want their 
   kids to go to AB, CC, LS or Nashoba.  Is 2% a good number?

5. Will this law ever get implemented?  Maybe not; but both Weld and Bulger
   want it.  So does Bush, but he probably doesn't count here.

6. What does "upon such terms as the school committee of such city where he 
   does not reside shall fix..." mean?

7. The Commonwealth will pay the receiving town, but where does the money 
   come from?  It is Weld's intention to encourage "efficient" schools and 
   drive "inefficient" ones out of existence.

I hope it doesn't surprise anyone that I think the little calculation in #4 
above will hurt Maynard.  At $5K per student, Maynard could quickly find 
itself in a downward spiral.

If it happens, please don't complain that no one warned you.  There are no
guarantees.

:-)

John

    Here is the full text of the article I sent to the Globe. Unfortunitely
    part of it was cut out due to space limitations.
    
    
    regards,
    
    Tom K.
    
    
    
    

                EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS DO NOT JUST EFFECT MAYNARD!

                                                                    Page 1

      Something amazing is happening in Maynard! One of the smallest towns
in the State may make a decision that in the words of Globe Staff writer,
Brian McGrory, "could portend the future for all other small communities across
Massachusetts". Maynard must decide whether or not to regionalize with two of
its' neighboring towns that constitute the Acton-Boxboro regional school
district.

      What makes this event amazing is that beneath the surface story lies most
of the issues nearly every school system must face over the next decade. Maynard
is a town that is surrounded by affluent communities that coincidentally, are
all regionalized within their own districts. Maynard is a hold out to what some
say is an inevitable trend.

      The perceived issue, as portrayed by the pro forces of regionalization,
state, that it's a solution based on financial good sense. The forces opposed
to the merger, argue about the financial uncertainty of the assumptions that
those for regionalization have used, while highlighting all the hidden 
associated costs.

      The financial issues provide good debating material but as recent studies
into the parochial systems have shown, it does not require extraordinary amounts
of money to provide an excellent educational system. Money is a means to an end
but some stress it as if it was an end unto itself. We live in a society that 
looks for the easy way out of fiscal problems. The average taxpayer pays nearly
5 months of a yearly salary out to some form of tax, yet the creativity seen 
most from our leadership is an ability to find more subtle ways to increase 
taxes. In Maynard, education is highly valued. So is a dollar. These people 
expect good value for both. $100,000,000 fighter airplanes and $100,000 state
house clocks are not good explanations for under funded school systems. 

      Although not as affluent as its neighbors, Maynard does manage to offer
more services. In addition to services such as trash removal, town sewage and 
water, health, police, fire, and various DPW services, the town also provides a 
local, public educational system. Maynard spends approximately the same amount 
on education as its' Acton-Boxboro neighbors. The debate however, rages on by 
both sides on the merits of people's pocketbooks.

      The decision that is made at town meeting on May 20 may very well dictate
the fate for other small school systems within the State. The issues at stake
here are not financial. No educator, scholar or politician has yet been able to
state how much it costs to turn a grade B average into an A. What must be 
decided is how close to and involved with, an educational system should be to 
the community that supports it. 

      More and more studies of successful systems are concluding that the
amount of involvement parents and community are to the educational process and
not their financial abilities, dictate the level of educational quality. 

      Last September, Roger Mudd hosted a show called Learning in America:
"Schools That Work". The one hour show visited four school systems from non-
affluent communities that developed educational processes where students and
teachers performed with skill and enthusiasm and where morale, attendance and
test scores were all high. One of the major conclusions from the show stated
by Roger Mudd was: "Most talk about improving the public schools centers around 
money or equipment or technique or discipline; and though they were important
to the staffs of our four schools,none was the key to their success. The key 
has less to with budgets and buildings, than with respect and relationships."


                                                                    Page 2

      There is a sublime message here that says; do not let the glitter blind
you to the very basic elements that make a school system work. Words like,
identity, respect, pride, loyalty and determination have more value to a good 
educational system than the number of gymnasiums or swimming pools it may have.
Setting high standards and accepting nothing less than maximum effort are what
it takes to succeed.

      Joe Magno, creator and former director of the highly successful WAVM 
Communications Program at Maynard High School, summed it up it up perfectly in 
his article to Maynard's local newspaper when he spoke on the WAVM spirit and 
why it has been so successful- "I don't think you can just pick up that "spirit"
and move it to another community. Acton has both a radio and television 
facility at the high school now with ample equipment to run a similar student 
based program. Why then, did WAVM, born in a much smaller school, flourish and 
grow so much stronger?"

      What Maynard already has are the key ingredients for a success story.
For capital equipment, there are three well equipped schools that offer a good
environment for learning. A dedicated core of teachers providing the building 
blocks for implementing a curriculum that works, and a community that has never
been more active in the operation and performance of the schools. Leading it 
all is a new superintendent, recruited from Lincoln, MA, who comes to Maynard
with impressive credentials and creative ideas. Dr. Greg Ciardi offers the 
first real opportunity to see all these ingredients pulled together to achieve 
some very aggressive goals. 

     The answer to Joe Magno's question is the same personal answer Roger Mudd 
gave for his "schools that work". People cared enough to make a difference. 
This is the issue our school systems must face. For some that decision will 
come later. For Maynard, it comes on May 20th.



                                               Tom Konetzny
       
                                               Maynard School Committee Elect

.105>	re:92
.105>>	Last year, only 58% of the graduates of Maynard junior High School 
.105>>	chose to attend Maynard HS, 
.105>	
.105>	Can somebody clarify, or expand on, this statistic?  What percent
.105>	attend the voc school, what percent go private?  

Here's three years of statistics.  The Maynard figures are taken from a 
handout Principal Frank Hill distributed at a presentation to the Long Range
Planning Committee this January.  The Assebet Valley Voke figures are from
their superintendant.  I don't have figures for private schools, but we
can see a difference in the June and October numbers each year.

		8th grade	9th grade	9th grade	number different
		at Fowler	Maynard HS	Voke		(moved, private)
		---------	----------	---------	---------
June 1988 	102
Oct 1988 			78		30		-6

June 1989	79
Oct 1989			52		25		2

June 1990	100
Oct 1990			65		21		14

A couple of things jump out.  First, Share's figure of 58% for 1990 is wrong -
with 65 out 100 kids, the calculation is pretty easy.  Also, note that the
statistical sample is small enough that it is very easily perturbed - all the
numbers vary widely year to year.  The extreme is that over the summer of 1988,
it appears that a net of 6 kids moved into the system, a "loss" of -6.

If you look back over the decades, it used to be that nearly 100% of the 9th 
graders went on to MHS.  There were two big reasons, compared to now:
(1) the Assabet Valley Voke 
(2) St. Bridgit's Catholic school used to run 1st through 8th grades, and the
graduates tended to go to Hudson or Marion Catholic schools.  When St. Bridgit's
stopped teaching upper elementary grades, many of these kids went to Maynard
a few years, then went to Catholic High School.

In 1990, the system lost 14 kids.  If I were the parent of an 8th grader,
one serious factor in the selection of a school would be that I would want
my kid to start 9th grade and finish 12th in the same school.  With the prospect
of regionalization looming over them, I suspect that some of these parents
decided to ensure that happened. Plus, we have had a School Committee which is
unremittingly negative about the High School system they manage - other parents
may have believed them. 

.105>	Does this mean that 58% of 71% = 41% of Maynard's reach post 
.105>	secondary ed via the MHS route? (Note: this says nothing about
.105>	the overall percentage that continue their education.)

We know the 58% should be 65%, and that's 1989 8th to 9th graders.  You
can't really say how many of them will go on to further education after
high school. The 71% (12th graders to 2/4 year school) is from Share's summation
of SOS's position, in note .92.  I can't find which year that figure describes
(we have a room *full* of paper) and it's late in the evening. However, since
Share (and the School Committee) want Maynard High to look as bad as possible to
justify regionalization, I suspect that more MHS grads went on higher education
in other years. 

There are also kids who go to the Voke for a year, and then back to Maynard,
or vice-versa, to muddy the figures.

.105>	This statistic is not encouraging to me.   Can someone clarify? 

I'm perplexed.  What is unencouraging?  The number of kids at the Voke, the MHS
grads content with a HS diploma, the kids going to Catholic school, or the kids
in private school? 

-Steve

    I had an interesting phone call over the weekend.  Robert Schleelein
    who is a member of SHARE contacted me concerning some of my
    counterpoints to .92's entry.  I asked if either he or his wife were an
    employee of DEC.  He stated he had been laid off, but was fuzzy on the
    date.  He was given some of my replies to this topic by someone who 
    has been involved in the discussion here.  Without naming names, I'm
    warning you now.  In the future, please DO NOT take anything from this 
    notesfile and give it to a non-DEC employee without my permission! 
    Even though I enjoyed debating him, it is highly illegal to do what
    was done, if he indeed has been layed off.  I'll leave it at that.
    
    We spoke for roughly 45 minutes.  My understanding was that he was part
    of the negotiating team representing Maynard.  I asked why we had no
    legal representation and Acton did.  He said his latest job with DEC
    was negotiating licensing agreements with customers.  Nice try, Bob,
    but I think we're getting in a bit over our heads with this form of
    rationalization.  (btw - everything I'm saying here was said to him)
    
    We debated SHARE's claim that the remaining town departments could
    possibly become part of a pool for health insurance purposes.  This is
    based on talks *with A/B's business manager*.  I asked why Mike
    Gianotis has not even been made aware of this possibility.  He had no
    answer.  I asked if this were possible, why didn't every other group of
    towns that are regionalized do this very thing.  He had no answer.  I
    extrapolated further and asked why the entire Commonwealth didn't pool
    town/city employees and he had no answer.  I know this means little to
    some of you in here, but it means a great deal to many, many other town
    residents.
    
    Then we went on to my biggest beef.  The 25% fixed cost figure.  We
    both agreed that here and now, today, this is a good deal for Maynard,
    but what about 20, 40, 80 years down the road?  This is where I felt
    our negotiating team failed us.  He said that we can attempt to
    renegotiate that figure in the future.  Well, to be perfectly frank, I'd
    sooner expect to see a dozen pigs flying over my house, than to see
    Acton agree to lower that figure at anytime in the future.  
    
    					Steve

    To respond to Frank's note on .123.  I know that there are no start up
    cost of the charter, but there will be a new position of town manager
    and the town administrator will be removed.  If I am correct the new
    postion will cost more then the exsisting town admin position.  When I
    said the charter was not funded by not voting in the overrides that is
    what I meant.
    
    Sorry for the confusion.

		<<RE:  COMMELLA REQUEST 261.125>>

Mr. Commella, with all due respect......My wife (Cindy Parker) or her 
comments have not been a part of this conference.  My comments are my own.

As for me answering the question around why school committee voted not to 
accept the teachers' union proposal, I am not qualified to respond.  I don't 
think I had a vote in the matter.  Since you are still in office, I stronlgy 
urge you to respond based on your official public position.

Regards,

Julian

Re: .105 and 130

Here are the data given to the school committee by Bob Brooks, principal of
the Fowler.

                                                    Number    %
Total enrollment Fowler, HS Class of '94:  - - - - -   94   100

Fowler Students who went to Assebet Valley Voc:  - -   21    22

Fowler Students who live in Maynard but attend
  other (than MHS or Assabet) high schools   - - - -   13    14

Fowler Students of class of '94 who have moved
  out of Maynard  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -     6     6

Fowler Students who attended Maynard High - - - - -    54    57.4468
                                                    -----   ---
                                       Totals:         94   100

Steve, you're right; it isn't 58%.

Last fall the school committee asked Mr. Cranson and Mr. Brooks to find out
why 13 kids went to other high schools (other than Assabet).  The data (from
11 of the 13) which he provided to the school committee mentioned the word
"regionalization" exactly once in the following sentence: 

4.      "Family fears regionalization budget cuts and does not want to
	lose programs" 

I believe there should be a comma after the word "regionalization", but 
there is none in the origional.  The number at the left is the order in 
Mr. Brooks list.

The other coments were:

1.	"Siblings attend private schools, felt Maynard High School could
	not offer everything, some of the staff inflexible, feared
	budget cuts." 

2.	"Most siblings addended catholic school, family prefers a
	catholic education." 

3.	"Wanted to play hockey 

4.	Above.

5. 	"Wanted to play hockey and feared he would not be successful in
	math at MHS 

6.	"All family members have attended schools other than MHS 

7.	"Wanted a school with strong drama and music programs. 

8.	"Parents not satisfied with the school system, need better
	curriculum, should "crack the whip", too many free periods,
	Special Education services abused, teachers do not stay after
	school."

9.	"Child's choice, parents not sure why, parents would have
	preferred MHS" 

10.	"Wants to play hockey." 

11.	"Felt he could receive a better education elsewhere."

The two other people could not be reached.  One person's phone was 
disconnected, but that person is NOT one of the 6 listed as moving out of 
town.  If someone wants to change that number to 7 and reduce the "other 
schools" category to 12, be my guest.

The only changes I have made to the text above is to remove all references to 
specific people and schools and to change all "she"s to "he"s.

Mr. Brooks later sent home a newsletter in which he said that students were
going elsewhere because of a fear of regionalization.  However, the data he
provided to the school committee seems to indicate otherwise.   

When asked about this, Mr. Brooks said that 22 students had "investigated"
other schools and that regionalization was a common concern of the 22.  You
can decide for yourself whether it was a concern of the 11 who voted with
their wallets. 

The school statistics of the 11 above are 

     Other public          2
     Private, non-Catholic 1
     Private, Catholic     8
                         ---
                 Total:   11

:-)

John

Re. Note 261.116, by VIRGO::KAHANE, "And Coleman too..."

>Coleman's research found that social class mix was the most important 
>intervening factor affecting academic achievement of all youngsters.
>Hence a poorer child improved academically when studying with a mix of social 
>classes--less likely when poorer kids make up more than 60% of the school. In 
>Sunday's Globe, another study expanding on Coleman was cited that stated the 
>quality of teachers was a critical factor in achievement.  Since better 
>teachers cost more $ the report demonstrated, school systems that could spend 
>more get better results. My conclusion: class and money count.

That's not quite the Globe's conclusion.

The Globe saw a different relationship between the reports: The Globe article
centered on a study by Dr. Ronald Ferguson of Harvard which found that teacher
quality was the best indicator of student success. He also noted that the
districts with the best results paid their teachers well. They cited the
Coleman report at the end of the article.  The Globe described the Coleman
report as saying "there was no link between School Resources and school
achievement, and placed most of the impact on the background of the student"
(which clearly disagrees with Ferguson on this point). 

The Globe said while the Coleman report had merit, it had "missed the teacher
link". 

My intuition is that teacher quality should certainly correlate with student
success. 

But is teacher pay the only key?  And does better pay necessarily increase
quality, or is are other factors needed?  My mother taught elementary school
from about 1935 to 1980.  Since then, she gives lectures and workshops to
teachers. Her opinion is that the most important determining factor in the
quality of teachers in a system is who gets tenure: the principal has to have
enough nerve, and backing from the superintendent, not to tenure a teacher who
is merely adequate, but to try again for an excellent candidate. 

Pay certainly matters - low pay will prevent good, young teachers from
considering a job. But I think that my mother's experience shows that the local
administration, the superintendent they work for, and the school committee who
sets hiring policy for make a critical difference, as well. 

That is a strong argument for retaining local control of your schools.
You, the Maynard voter, can direct a local school committee, where an
Acton/Boxboro/Maynard board will just go its own way. 

There is also extensive research recommending small schools.

I have an Education Week article "Small is Often Better than Big" by Stuart
Rosenfeld, Jan 14, 1987, which cites a number of supporting studies.  It
quotes Barker & Gump's book "Big School, Small School": 

	"The best school is the one which is sufficiently small that all of
	its students are needed are needed for its enterprises. A school
	should be small enough that students are not redundant." 

Does that sound like Maynard or Acton-Boxboro? 

>Then the quote from one of our selectman who believes that Maynard is 
>different from Acton & Box., we were more like Hudson. My translation of his 
>remark: there is a class difference and Acton's got a higher "altitude". 

Selectman George Shaw can go jump in a lake.  I like George a lot - he has a
good heart, he's honest, but he doesn't always know when to shut his mouth. 

In fact, at the Rotary Club benefit at the Elks last weekend, George was
seated at the dunking booth - you throw balls at a small target to collapse
the chair over a water tank. I financed my daughter's efforts, and she got him
on the second try. 

-Steve

261.125

John, don't you dare attempt to put the breakdown in talks with the MEA back
on the teachers.  The facts are that since February, my husband and other
representatives of the MEA have trudged up to meetings with the School
Committee evening after evening.  The MEA would place before the Committee
terms that they believed to be equitable to consider a salary freeze and each
and every time the Committee flatly refused to budge.  The three
terms we are down to now are the absolute minimal requirments that it would
take for the MEA leadership to even bring this proposal back to the membership
for consideration.  They are the same three terms that the School Committee
flatly refused to deal with on April 8.  These three terms are NOT
negotiable.  They are the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM.  The MEA membership told the MEA
leadership that it was obliged to bring back nothing less than an 
agreement to all three terms by the School Committee before they would
consider the salary freeze. Therefore, there is no reason for the MEA
leadership to meet with the Committee. The only reason to meet would
be because the Committee agrees to all three points. They do not.  

Though my husband's letter was clear, I'll review the points one more time.
I want to make it very clear that this is MY response to your comments and
should not be considered an official position statement of the MEA.

A NO Vote to Regionalization at Town Meeting
============================================
The MEA sees no good reason to agree to give up an already contracted salary
increase for a town that has no confidence or support for the Maynard
School System. 

Tuitioning Out the Student Population
=====================================
There has been no trust between the current School Committee and the MEA.
If the Committee had demonstrated an honest committment to the Maynard
School System, perhaps this term would not have been necessary.  Sadly,
that has not been the case.  Therefore, as a matter of protection, the MEA
needed this term.  It would not be outside the realm of possibility to
see this School Committee agree to other terms and then turn around and
screw the whole system by tuitioning out the entire student population.
Sorry, if you find this offensive, but that is the image the posture of
your Committee projects.

Retaining Programs and Not Instituting New Programs
===================================================
During one of the very unproductive meetings with the School Committee, adding
a new administrative position to the staff and funding this position with
the returned teacher salary dollars came out as a plan the Committee was
considering.  I am not a teacher, but as a rational human being I find that
incomprehensible.  Further the Committee wants to spend money next year
on curriculum development which could be done without spending additional 
money. There are other projects and programs that the Committee plans on
instituting. These new programs would be nice to have, however, not at the
expense of current programs and certainly not to be funded with teacher's
salaries.


My comments to Linda's letter:

"the School Committee's strong interest in discussions..." 

This Committee has NO strong interest in any such
discussions.  This Committee has deliberately dragged its feet. The
Committee did not want to face Town Meeting with $300K - $350K windfall
because that would take some of the starch out of their Chicken Little 
approach to this problem. The MEA wanted to finalize any salary freeze proposal
    prior to Town Meeting because it would give Town Meeting participants a
    choice.
You could vote to regionalize or you could see that the cuts for next year
would not need to be as extensive as the Committee was promising and there
would be hope for continued improvement in our own system. You can say anything 
you want, John, but my husband sat there with you people
meeting after meeting and to quote him:  "He never saw a bunch of people
more unwilling to take back $350K in his life."  You don't have to be
a rocket scientist to figure out what you people have been about.  


    

    I AM PRETTY SICK OF HEARING ABOUT THE CLASS DIFFERENCE IN THE THREE
    TOWNS. 
    
    There are rich and poor people in all three towns.  I do not
    care about the per capita earnings of either town.  I have coached
    T-Ball for two years and I have never heard a 7 year old boy say to
    another player that he is better because his dad makes more money.  
    The class difference is fabricated by us adults.   
    
    There are good people in the towns who want to educate the students.  
    This issue should not be about any class difference but should be what
    you feel is best for the students and the town. 
    
    This issue is very emotional.  We must put the emotions aside and vote
    the issues.
    

I wrote the following letter with every intention of having it published in
the Beacon last Thursday.  Unfortunately, the Beacon's policy was not to
publish letters related to the regionalization issue the week prior to Town
Meeting.  Therefore, I'll include it here.




   The citizens of Maynard will finally have a School Committee who's majority  
   enthusiastically supports continued improvement to the Maynard Schools.  
   We need to support these three individuals in any way we can. We should
   not be moved by the scare tactics of a lame duck School Committee. 
   We need to turn out for Town Meeting on Monday, May 20 and
   vote NO to regionalization. Cindy Parker, Tom Konetzny, and Cindy Ruzich 
   will be very good for the image of education in Maynard. They are interested
   in Maynard's schools and the children of our community. They do not support 
   the AB Regionalization Plan because they know its a bad deal for Maynard 
   financially and certainly not in the best interests of Maynard's children. 

   I hope the members of the current School Committee get the
   picture. Gary Farrow believes in freedom of speech only as long 
   as no one uses the First Amendment to ask any intelligent questions about 
   the Committee's decisions. We are allowed to question your motives, Mr.
   Farrow and we will continue to do so. How dare you presume to 
   chastise members of the Community, its teachers or other officials for 
   holding the Committee accountable.  John Comella promises to send 
   his children to private school if we do not regionalize. I'm not sure
   what that is suppose to mean to me.  Quite frankly, I'm not all that
   concerned about John Comella's children.  I do worry about my child's
   future, though. I firmly believe that the atmosphere of a small,
   caring high school is far more beneficial to the nurturing of young souls
   and minds than a large over-populated institution.  Perhaps that's the
   difference between the SHARE and SOS groups - one is interested only in the
   mind while the other knows that without nurturing the soul as well, it
   is all for nothing.

   As a community, we ought to be outraged at the behavior of the School
   Committee.  Their arrogance is incomprehensible.  They were elected to
   office to see that the wishes of the general public, with regard to 
   educating our children, were followed.  They were not elected to office
   to destroy our schools and offer up the remains to Acton-Boxboro.

   Equally despicable has been the behavior of the Regionalization Committee.
   I haven't seen this level of effete snobbery since the days of Spiro Agnew! 
   Who do these people think they are?  Their contempt for the general populace
   of our town is insidious.  We must be careful. These people used 
   the Acton-Boxboro legal counsel to negotiate the terms of the plan.  Does 
   that give you a lot of confidence in Maynard's interests being protected?  
   Sure doesn't do it for me.  They try and sell you this bill of goods based 
   upon all the wonderful opportunities they say Maynard students will benefit 
   from in Acton. These are the same people that are not able to tell you 
   anything about the Maynard Schools.  If you have ever attended a meeting
   where they were presenting, you would have been able to hear at least one 
   of them say "Well, I don't really know about Maynard, but Acton...."

   Wake up, people.  Acton wants our children for the same reasons that they
   want our sewer pipes. They want our kids for the dollars that they will gain 
   or save them, and that is all. Think about this. When a salesman calls your 
   home to sell you a product, does he say: "Buy my product because if you do 
   I will make money and my life will improve."?  Of course not. He says: "Buy 
   my product because it will be good for you and your life will improve.".  
   But the underlying reason is always that it will be of primary benefit to 
   the salesman.  So when Acton says, "Buy this regionalization plan, it will 
   be good for you.", remember the underlying reason.

   It is very sad.  We have a group of people, like those who sit on the
   School and Regionalization Committees, that have no appreciation for the
   history, character and makeup of our town.  If we do not turn out for
   Town Meeting, they may be able to restructure our community to suit 
   themselves.  No matter what the outcome on May 20, May 21 will not be 
   business as usual. Maynard may never be the same again.  
   
  
    

Re: Note 261.138 by CSSE::SYMES 

>>  John Comella promises to send his children to private school if we
>>  do not regionalize. I'm not sure what that is suppose to mean to me.

	"Let me make one thing perfectly clear.  My wife and I have
	reluctantly decided that our younger daughter will not attend
	Maynard High School.  Our goal is that she attend ABM Regional
	High School; otherwise she will attend a private high school..."

			Maynard Beacon sometime earlier this spring.

The above is NOT an exact quote; I don't have the text with me.  But it 
does convey the sense of what I said.

What it was supposed to mean is that when I announced my candidacy to the
school committee, I wanted any potential supporter to know what we were
planning to do.  Better that than have someone feel "betrayed" after he/she
voted for me.  A number of people told me that it would cost me votes.  So
be it. 

Why does that cause such anger?  The worst reaction it should cause is one 
of "Well, if you want to spend your money that way, it's your privilege."

Actually, I may have an idea why it causes that anger.  Three years ago 
Barbara Wagner told my wife and me that she was sending her son to Concord 
Academy.  I remember the feeling of fear that I was short-changing my older 
daughter by sending her to MHS.  That feeling changed to anger in part 
against myself because I wanted my family to have nice vacations, a new 
addition on the house, etc.  

My daughter attended Phillips Academy's summer session last summer.  She got
the shock of her academic career.  There are some very good people out there
and some teachers who demand a lot.  She survived, but had a very rough
time. I was glad she hit "the wall" before she went off to college.  She is
going to Milton Academy this summer; she will hit another wall, but she'll
know it's coming and she'll get up faster this time.  By the time she gets
to real college, she'll be ready for a much bigger wall. 

One other student from Maynard High went with her to Phillips and one 
(different) student will go with her to Milton.  That means that three of 70 
members of the present junior class will have felt the wall before they get 
to college.  The rest of the class has a shock in store for them.  Many of 
them will recover from that shock and go on to be successful in college.  
But some won't.  That is tragic.

ABMRHS is a little wall.


>>  Quite frankly, I'm not all that concerned about John Comella's
>>  children. 

I'm sorry that you feel that way.  I am concerned about yours.  

If I thought that regionalization would be bad for others' children, I would 
not support it.

You can choose to believe that or not, as you wish. 


>>  I do worry about my child's future, though. I firmly believe that
>>  the atmosphere of a small, caring high school is far more beneficial
>>  to the nurturing of young souls and minds than a large
>>  over-populated institution.  Perhaps that's the difference between
>>  the SHARE and SOS groups - one is interested only in the mind while
>>  the other knows that without nurturing the soul as well, it is all
>>  for nothing. 

Ann, do you seriously think that AB teachers care less for their students
than Maynard teachers?  Have you ever talked to any of them or seen them in
class?  I have; and I think that they care just as much as Maynard teachers.
I believe that they demand more out of their students than Maynard teachers
do, and they get it.  I think that we sell our children short when we act
like they can't manage in that environment. 

>>     As a community, we ought to be outraged at ....
>>     Their arrogance is incomprehensible.
>>     They were not elected to office to destroy our schools ...
>>  
>>     Equally despicable has been ...
>>     I haven't seen this level of effete snobbery...
>>     Who do these people think they are?  Their contempt of our town 
>>     is insidious.

Ann, I'm sorry that you are so angry.

John

    
    My apologies for not typing in part three of the regionalization
    agreement.  It would have taken another 1 1/2 hrs. to do so.  
    
    I had a class today so could not do during any free time such as
    lunch.  Most of the controversal stuff was covered.
    
    I hope no matter what the outcome of the town meeting vote that we
    all will reconcil and work for the common good of our children's
    education.  Let's not let any barriers that have been built over this
    very important issue, stop us from trying to work togethr and do 
    what is best.
    
    					Regards,
    
    					Darlene

    What a letdown. :-(  But, I feel that the Town Meeting order for each 
    of the towns is the way it should have been all along.  Why did we, the
    Town of Maynard, have to beat the hell out of each other to only find 
    out we're not accepted by either Acton or Boxboro?  Unfortunately, the
    damage has already been done and it will need to be rectified ASAP.   
    
    For those out-of-towners who have been following this discussion, last
    night's Town Meeting was cancelled, due to the lack of ballots/seating
    arrangements.  I believe the largest town meeting prior to last night's
    was somewhere around 900.  There were over 2000 people who showed up
    last night.  The Fire Chief put a limit of 1550 for safety purposes.
    It was like going to a wedding and having either the bride or groom not
    show up.  The rescheduled meeting will be held outdoors at Alumni Field.
    
    Acton will vote on June 4th.
    Boxboro - June 10th.
    Maynard - June 11th.
    
    					Steve

    Is this a classic case of poor planning, or what?? With all the
    controversy over the regionalization plan, I feel that the folks that
    make the necessary arrangements for the Town Meeting should have
    expected a record breaking crowd!!! There should have been
    precautionary measures taken to avoid a postponement of such a critical
    Town Meeting. Measures such as announcing that there was going to be a
    1500 seat limit, so first come first serve.

    Nothing like dragging out an issue!!

    It is against the law to limit the people at an "open town meeting".
    
    I do agree that someone should have realized we had a good chance of
    going over the 1,500 - Someone suggested opening the courtyard - but 
    it was tooo late to start thinking of alternatives last night - I
    hope someone has an alternate date "in case of rain".  Trying to pick
    and alternate date at the last moment obviously has drawbacks!
    
    

    I too was disappointed over the cancellation of the meeting.  But I do
    not agree with Steve M. about Maynard not voting first.  I would like
    to see how the people of Maynard feel about regionalization.  If we
    vote first will know how the town feels one way or the other.  If the
    other towns vote againest it we will never know. I do not think anyone
    could have planned on that many people.
    
    

    Acton postponed their vote on regionalization once before.  What's
    stopping them from rescheduling again?

    About planning. 
    In the past except for last year the ave town meeting ran 120-190
    people. 1500 people is about 1000% we knew it would go over 1000 but
    not 1500.
    
    Lets see how many people show up tonight. I'll be surprise if we get
    150
    

    
    
    Re. 145:
    
    I can understand how you would want to know how Maynard feels by voting
    about Regionalization first.  And last night I really wanted to vote.
    But it would have been unfair to the other voters.
    
    There is a flip side to this too, however.  If Acton and Boxborough
    vote to accept Maynard, then some of those Maynard people who are on the 
    fence and don't want to be rejected by either town, may decide to vote
    Regionalization.
    
    If Regionalization is passed, then there is a set plan in place for 
    our kids.  If it is not, then Maynard still has to put in place some
    type of plan to make sure our kids are not short changed educationally.    
    We certainly won't do that if we can not pass overrides that will at
    least maintain the same level of services we currently have.
    
    I don't blame the high school kids last night who were encouraging
    people to vote against regionalization.  I am sure a lot of that has to
    do with that they don't want to be at another high school in their last
    year or two.  Also, I don't believe that anyone is saying that the
    Maynard school system has not done well in the past.  
    
    But to ignore that the faith in the school system seems to be deteriorating
    and Maynard is not going to continue to have problems of this sort until
    some change is initiated is living in a fish bowl.  We need to rise above 
    the emotionalism, examine the facts and options and make the best
    possible decision.
    
    
    					Darlene   
    
    

                    <<< Note 261.148 by TOTH::HILDEBRAND >>>
                           -< Maynard's Voting Last >-
    
    Darlene,
    
    While I agree with 3/4 of your reply, I'm somewhat disturbed by your
    last paragraph.  It isn't only you, as several people have expressed 
    these same fears.  Do you think the current school committee has had 
    anything to do with the lack of faith in the school system?  I believe 
    they have played a major part in what I consider to be scare tactics, 
    resulting in a sense of fear in parents and grandparents of school aged
    children.
    
    Believe it or not, waste does exist in the school dept.'s budget.  For 
    instance, we know the teachers association has expressed a willingness 
    to freeze their salaries, resulting in a $300-350K savings.  After all 
    the hullabaloo we went through a year or two ago with excessive admin-
    istrative positions, do you know what the school committee wants (or 
    should I say wanted?) to do with part of that 300K?  Hire another 
    administrator!  Now, wouldn't that money be better spent elsewhere?
    
    Did you know that the school department's allocation of salaries
    includes (or did include) one person who is retired and another who 
    is dead?
    
    Granted, we do still need the override, make no mistake about it, but
    the sky is *not* falling as we've been led to believe.  Some people can 
    cut through the smoke and some don't even try, unfortunately.
    
    My wife and I have been very involved and very impressed with our first 
    child's education to date.  We will continue with our involvement should
    regionalization come about, but, quite frankly, I believe our kids can
    receive just as good an education provided they have the necessary 
    *support* that is needed from the entire community.  That support
    starts at the top.  Namely, the Maynard School Committee.
    
    					Steve

Hi all,

Whew, things have gotten a bit hot at spots in here lately, eh?

I've been *swamped* at my real job, and haven't really been keeping on top
of everything in here.  For that matter, I'm not an expert at moderating 
conferences.  

I'd like to ask folks to cool it.

This conference is a great place to share information about Maynard.  

Make that "share non-controversial information that is not easily confused
with solicitation".

It's *NOT* a great place for an argument about something as emotional as the 
proposed regionalization agreement.

According to section 6.54 of DEC's "Personnel Policies and Procedures" manual, 
it's against corporate policy to use company resources (the computer/disk this 
conference resides on) to "solicit" other employees.  I'll post the relevant
section as a reply to note 1.0 of this conference.  You can peruse this manual
for yourself by saying "VTX ORANGEBOOK" from any friendly VMS system that has 
VTX installed.

Look up the word "solicit" in any dictionary and you'll probably find a 
definition that matches at least some of the notes that have been entered
here.

Now, how rigorously is this policy supposed to be applied?  I've got enough of
a headache from "real" work to not want to think about this, but I *think*
the conference "moderator" is supposed to review all information and delete any
that does not meet the spirit of the policy.

So PLEASE.  For my sake.  NO MORE SOLICITATIONS.

and PLEASE, for safety's sake NO MORE DEROGATORY COMMENTS ABOUT ANYBODY.

I don't care if it's George Bush or George Shaw.

Any further notes had better be pretty darned tame!  If any of you feel like
apologizing to one another publicly, fine.  If any of you feel like taking
over the responsibility of hosting this conference, that's fine too, just
send mail.

thanks,

Pete, with his moderator's hat on, which doesn't feel too comfortable right now

    Well, I enjoyed the debate while it lasted.  I had already gone through
    the Orange Book this morning for another reason, so I could see this
    was coming.
    
    My apologies to anyone I may have offended in this discussion.
    
    					Steve

Re: Note 261.140

**The following was written yesterday, prior to Pete's plea for reason and
sanity.  Not to worry, Pete, my dictionary says that solicit means to "entice"
or to "tempt" and that is not the nature of this reply.**  



John,

I decided to take some time to consider our discourse and to evaluate the 
situation before I responded to your note.  I now am ready to share my
appraisal with you. I hope you will take it in the spirit in which it is
written. We all have something to learn here.  Once this is done, I plan to 
remove myself from the discussions in Note 261.  I have a job to do 
here and Digital does not compensate me to defend the honor of my community. 

I have read and re-read the entries in Note 261.  Why?  Well, actually, it
was you, John, that inspired my critical analysis of what was happening
here.  You asked more than once about anger.  So, it was the anger on which
I chose to focus.  What was causing such anger?  Afterall, I am normally a
pretty reasonable individual.  I can accept differing points of view.  So
what was the real reason for my anger?  

There is, of course, our polarized views on how to raise and educate our
children. You and I will never agree on what is right for them. I do not feel
a need for my son to "hit an academic wall" during summer vacation in order to
be successful in college. You do. And I do not necessarily believe that you 
have taken a really broad view of what is good for all our children, though
you say that you have. God willing, they will all turn out just fine and grow 
up to be happy, well-adjusted, productive members of society.

I was raised and educated here and you were not, so our attachments to the
community are very different.  However, I certainly do not think that what
was good enough for me ought to be good enough for my kids. I do think that
Maynard needs to create a school system of which they can be proud. There is
no question that the image needs work. It will take money and lots of hard
work to make that happen. I believe that this is still a viable option. You
do not. But, that's not what makes me angry.  Well, maybe a bit.

My husband has been a school teacher for over 20 years now.  He entered the
teaching profession because when he was growing up, the adults that made a
difference in his life were school teachers.  He deeply believed that by
teaching school, he, too, could make a difference in the lives of children.   
This is not an "Apple Pie and Motherhood" statement.  It is exactly what was
in his soul when he chose to teach.  It obviously was never the money because
there is no real money teaching.  It was never because he could have an
extended summer vacation.  The fact is, until I returned to the workforce 11 
years ago, we had never before taken any vacation.  Summers were spent shoveling
cement or filling vending machines 10 to 12 hours each day. But that was OK
because teaching was important to him.  Amazingly, it still is.  When the
opportunity arose for him to come back to his hometown to teach, we were very 
happy. It was a chance to be near family and friends and to give back something
of value to a school system that had given so much to him.  So, I guess, when
I hear or read statements that degrade the schools and belittle the teachers
of Maynard, I do get angry.  However, after 20+ years of hearing people 
speak with contempt about teachers, I've been able to control my knee jerk
response to such comments. Or thought I had.

You may be surprised to know that I am not completely opposed to regionalized
schools.  My older son did not attend Maynard High School.  He graduated from
Assabet Valley Vocational High School and is graduating from SMU in a couple
of weeks. We chose what we believed to be right for each of our children. 
I simply do not think that the proposal before us offers the Town of Maynard a
good deal.  I think it is an act of desperation which translates to rushed and 
ill-conceived. I, also, do not agree with the choice of district.  I have
serious reservations about ABRHS that you do not share.    

So then, what is the real reason for my anger?  I think I finally understand.
You see, I can discuss the issue of regionalization with some people without 
becoming angry. Though, I may not be very happy with their desire to 
regionalize, I accept that they have come to this decision based upon what they 
feel is the right thing to do.  They have weighed all aspects of the situation 
- facts and emotion. Further, they respect the fact that I, too, have an 
opinion and will consider my opinion as part of the decisionmaking process.
You, sir, do not afford the opposition that kind of respect.  None of this is
being said as an attack, but rather as constructive criticism. You truely seem 
not to understand what it is about you that causes such anger.  You have 
presumed that it is all caused by the issue, but after analysis, I don't think 
so.  I would say that the anger is 30% issue and 70% John Comella attitude, 
body language, turn of a phrase - whatever you wish to call it. The image you 
are projecting in your words and keystrokes is "You poor misguided fools.  I am 
so much more enlightened than you are, that I will have to make all your 
decisions for you lest your children all grow up to be common laborers." I hear
the same undercurrent of contempt when John Meyn, Linda Bretz or Gary Farrow
speak as well.  If you are not aware of this, I think it is important that
somebody point it out to you because it is having a serious affect on getting
your message across.  

I said in the beginning, that we all had something to learn.  Hopefully, you
will listen to what I have told you here and be able to tolerate why some of
us are so opposed to the issue.  I, also, have learned something or rather
relearned something I have always known.  That is, allowing your emotions to
rule the words you say can cause serious harm to your credibility.  I am not
sorry for what I have said because I believe it all to be true, but I am sorry 
that I allowed myself to be brought to that level.  

One thing that we can agree on, John, is that we wish this were all over and
resolved.  Whatever happens on those three days in June, we all want the 
best for our kids and we will all have to find a way to make that a reality.

    

    Did anyone else read the article in the 5-22-91 issue of the Middlesex
    News concerning the town meeting and regionalization?  The paper talked
    to some ABHS students.  They did not say too many nice things about
    Maynard students or teachers.  If their views of Maynard are the
    majority view it is another reason to vote againest regionalization.
    

    Yes Paul, I did read that article. The AB students made Maynard
    students sound like a dreaded disease!! 

    Why all this fuss about regionalizing with a school that has that type
    of attitude?

    Let good old Maynard High stay good old Maynard High, only with some
    improvements! Oh! I better add that this is just MHO.

    For some strange reason, I am under the impression that Maynard can
    have all that AB has, only on a smaller scale. Evaluate the whole
    system (teachers, admin,. etc) and do what is necessary to give our
    children what they deserve... An A1 education!!

    Norma
    Norma

    What happens if we regionalize and then the state funding for
    regionalization goes away?  
    

    Maynard pickup up the tab (out share will increase and more thinks in
    the town could close or be reduced) There is no saving with
    reionalization.
    
    I wonder how many people who are for regionalization actually read the
    agreements?
    
    art
    

    Aside to Norma:
    
    I have re-read your comments on the Charter distribution (243.15)
    and your comments on regionalization (261.5, .77, .143, .154, etc)
    and I think you should get involved in this thing we call the
    Town of Maynard.  There are openings on the Finance Committee,
    and two special committees established by the recently approved
    Charter: the Special By-Law Committee and the Ethics Committee.
    
    As you have mentioned many times, you are a fourth generation 
    Maynardian and it's time that you showed your pride in Maynard 
    by offering your expertise in helping us to make this a better
    Town.  
    
    Don't be a face down welcome mat!  WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
    
    Frank

    I read the Acton edition of the Beacon concerning their regional
    meeting.  Lee Stuntz Acton School committee chairman said" If they
    (Maynard) had voted positively, we'd have spent the next two weeks hard
    out on regionalization. It politically makes a whole lot harder in all
    three towns".
    
    At the regional meeting in Acton which about 60 people attended, the
    only issue that brought any strong reaction was the split in
    construction cost of the regionalization.  Acton would pick up 75%,
    Maynard 25% and Boxboro still 5%.  The existing agreement between Acton
    and Boxboro can not be change leaving boxboro still only picking up 5%.
    This was explained by Stuntz "We're extending an existing problem that
    we have recognized".  This can not be changed unless Boxboro votes to
    change it.
    
    Overcrowding was mentioned but these concerns seemed to be answered
    with little problem per this article.
    
    What I got from reading the Acton Edition was that Acton's committee
    wished Maynard had voted first, which would have made selling
    regionalization easier and that Acton is really just starting to sell
    regionalization to the general public.  These  two articles were on the
    top of the front page.
    
    

Re: 261.135 Helix::Ruzich comments about 261.116 virgo::Kahane

This issue is a large elephant sandwich. I appreciate your addressing and 
responding to some of the system/educational issues. They were good comments.

It's difficult and painful to argue this issue because each conflicting 
perspective, I believe has right answers that meet their criteria of 
correctness..passing canoes [gunships?] in the Assabet. There are different 
criteria in use about what constitutes a good decision.

For myself, regionalization still seems the right choice because my criterion 
is the best educational system. What "best" means for me is higher test 
scores, academic choices, national recognition for the system, etc. This does 
not mean that Maynard schools or its graduates are lesser and its teachers 
less able; it just means Acton's system has exceptional resourses.   From 
this "consumer reports" and "juki" perspective, small school vs big school, 
is irrelevant. Also, I think regionalization will make Maynard a more 
attractive community to homebuyers. 

I acknowledge it's not clean-cut.  I went to a nationally-recognized small 
high school (not AB) and it sucked eggs. Research (Goodlad) shows that 95% of 
what goes on in classrooms is teacher talk. That's too high if you're into 
problem-solving, critical thinking...isn't that the real crisis of excellence 
in schools??. If higher standards in AB mean just tightening the screws, I'm 
not a big fan.  

I've really appreciated arguments like Steve's that contend that we can have 
or can reach our own levels of excellence via our quality of teachers, 
through our school committee, parental involvement, and the long range plan. 
Yet, IMHO I don't see much of the SOS materials or the standard debate making 
an educational argument about achieving higher standards of "excellence".

However, perhaps this excellence stuff is "cake", when we're having a tough 
time finding "bread" e.g., funding overrides. I hope not.

In any case, how one defines "excellence" and its attainment, has much to do 
with  whether you feel held hostage, rather than entering a valuable 
strategic alliance; losing control rather than potentially gaining economies 
of scale, diversity, and resources in a perceived "best" system.

I hope the debate about "excellence" will continue regardless of the vote.


Ernie


A small point re: Coleman /Ferguson. Your statement is correct, but they are 
not incompatible. Though Ferguson rightly says "inputs" i.e. quality teaching 
is important (and Coleman didn't); Coleman's view that social 
class/background is a key predictor for academic achievement is accepted by 
Ferguson, "Ferguson said his study showed that in addition to a teacher's 
literacy level, the other best predictor of student performance was the 
education level of the parents". There are important reasons for Ferguson not 
to undercut Coleman because the impact of Coleman's argument is to say that 
"input" views of equality of educational opportunity are not enough.

          

    
    
    RE:  .149 by Steve Morgan
    
    Steve,
    
    I'm not sure you fully understood my opionion in .148.  You said that
    you agreed with 3/4 of it but the last paragraph disturbed you.  I
    believe my comment about faith in the school system is what bothered
    you.    
    
    Let me clarify this.  Like you and your wife, we have been very happy 
    with our son's education to date in Green Meadow.  I have the utmost 
    respect for our son's teachers.  He is learning at a reasonable rate
    and he can not stand to be late for class.  This is the type of motivation 
    most parents pray for.    
    
    As for the faith declining in the Maynard School System...
    Approximately two years ago, I had heard that the amount of kids that
    don't go to Maynard High School was historically 30%.  True I don't know 
    how many years "historically" is.  This statement was, however, said in the
    presence of one of Maynard's Vice Prinicipals.  He did not discount it.
    
    I have to wonder what motivated these 30% not to go to Maynard H. S.
    I have a hard time believing 30% are going to Vocational School.
    Because of this, it is not difficult for me to believe the statistics 
    mentioned in a previous reply.  I also want to know why after most kids
    go through Green Meadow and possibly Fowler, they do not go on to the 
    High School.  If anyone can further enlighten me, I would appreciate
    it.
    
    I am not saying that Regionalilzation is the only way for a quality
    education.  I am just saying that if it passes, a plan will be in
    place.  If Regionalization does not pass, I still believe that Maynard 
    may have a serious problem at the secondary level which needs to be
    addressed. 
    
    Thank you for making me aware of some items regards the school budget.  
    This is one of the reasons why I read this notes file:  to gather more
    data to help make an educated decision.  Please, however, allow me to
    have opinions which may differ from your own.  
    
    Everyone who entered this particular topic probably wants the best 
    education we can get for our kids even if we don't agree how to go
    about it.   Just think, whether regionalization goes through or not,
    if we harnessed all the energy which has been expended on this issue,
    and applied it toward the schools, what an unbeatable school system we 
    would have!  
    
    		
    					Darlene
    

    The Acton Edition of the Beacon said Boxboro is going to vote on
    regionalization June 10th at their town meeting.  Acton school
    committee is going to motion to have the regional warrants voted on
    during a special town meeting after Maynard votes.  Lees Stuntz said "
    it makes sense for Maynard to vote first.  It was them who petitioned
    Acton to come into the region.  And we feel this way especially after
    Maynard voted in two anti-regionalization school committee candidates
    and defeated an override."  She also said the regional school aid
    figures have not been determined and "that's important because the
    terrific advantage for Acton would be monetary".  The town meeting
    would still have to decide when to vote on this issue.
    
    Harry Hersh Boxboro school committee member said voting first makes it
    more complicated for the voters because they will have three options
    not one. He also said " I think it is unfortunate that ACton chose to
    put off their vote.  I think they chose to put the focus on the other
    towns.
    
    

    Hi Darlene,
    
    >As for the faith declining in the Maynard School System...
    >Approximately two years ago, I had heard that the amount of kids that
    >don't go to Maynard High School was historically 30%.  True I don't know 
    >how many years "historically" is.  This statement was, however, said in the
    >presence of one of Maynard's Vice Prinicipals.  He did not discount it.
    
    I don't have any definitive answers on why 30% of Maynard's students do
    not attend Maynard High.  I don't even know if that's an accurate
    figure, historically speaking.  Like you mentioned, what entails
    "historically" speaking?  I do know that a good chunk of that
    percentage probably attend Assabet Valley Voc. to learn various trades.  
    Several go to parochial schools because of their hockey programs after
    Maynard had to drop theirs, due to an insufficient number of players.
    MAYBE, once the enrollment of students interested in hockey rises again, 
    and we continue to draw 2500 people to Town Meeting (with the Booster Club 
    selling refreshments), we'd have no problem funding a hockey team! 
    This is said in jest, of course.
    
    It is possible some may have shied away because of the turmoil
    concerning the position of the principal over the past decade.  If I'm
    not mistaken A/B has this very problem now.  Maynard now has a very
    energetic principal who has a great rappaport with the kids, which is 
    an extremely important factor in a small school system.
    
    >Everyone who entered this particular topic probably wants the best 
    >education we can get for our kids even if we don't agree how to go
    >about it.   Just think, whether regionalization goes through or not,
    >if we harnessed all the energy which has been expended on this issue,
    >and applied it toward the schools, what an unbeatable school system we 
    >would have!  
    
    A terrific way of putting it.  Hopefully, we call ALL pull together
    when all is said and done.  I can say with sincerity that my family will 
    do all that we can, to make the necessary improvements (should we vote no) 
    or ease the transition (should we vote yes) for the kids of Maynard.  I
    hope we can all do the same.
    
    					Steve

    
    RE: .162
    
    Hi Steve,
    
    Thank you and your family for trying to the do the best no matter the
    outcome. 
    
    Glad you recently joined the FinCom.  Please keep us informed in that
    area as well!
    
    
    					Darlene

    Steve,  good to see an old townie on another town committee.  Good
    luck.
    
    Paul

    Thanks, Paul.
    
    I found it interesting that of the 9 or so letters written to the Maynard 
    Beacon yesterday regarding regionalization, that the 6 that were for 
    regionalization, none mentioned anything regarding the override, while 
    the 3 authored by pro-Maynard school individuals did.
    
    Once again, I was disappointed to hear that signs have been destroyed.
    I guess people don't realize how bothersome this is to most of us.
    
    A point was brought up to me by an upstanding workmate of mine.  :-)
    The Maynard edition of the Beacon has a policy that no letters will be
    published next week regarding issues to be discussed at Town Meeting.  
    Yesterday's Acton edition did have letters relating to articles which 
    are on the June 4th, Acton Town Meeting warrant.  Does anyone know if
    there is a uniform policy, or is it strictly up to the editor of each
    newspaper?
    
    					Steve
                                             

    I have a question since the overrides in Maynard did not pass and 
    it looks like we will not vote for another one until September.
    Will Maynard still offer Summer Recreation as well as swimming
    lessons for this year?
    
    It will be ashame if we do not have some activity for those youths
    who want to attend for the summer.  It breaks up the day as well
    as providing some socializing for the yun'uns.
    
    Brigit

    I understand that the recreation program will still be offered, but the
    fee that will be charged is the question.  If a budget is passed at
    Town Meeting that will fund Recreation then the fee will be the same as
    last year.  If a budget is passed that excludes funding Recreation the
    fees will increase considerably because the program will be funded by
    these fees only.

    Hi Bill,
    
    Thanks for the info, but excuse me for my ignorance.....
    Does this include the swimming program as well??
     
    Brigit
    

    The Acton voters agreed to postpone their vote on regionalization 
    last night.
    
    					Steve
    					

Why doesn't it suprize me that Acton agreed to postpone their vote on 
regionalization?

To me it now feel as if this is and has been a poker game dealing with 
finances and politics and having very little to do with education?

I call!

Julian

The reasons presented by Lees Stuntz last night as to why Acton should postpone
the vote included the following (from memory, so I may have a few details
wrong):

Maynard petitioned to join the region in the first place, so it seems only fair
that Maynard should vote first.  [As it stands, Boxborough will vote first.]

There is already a meeting planned for 6/17, so there is no extra cost in
postponing.

There are several school items on the 6/17 meeting agenda.  Some of these items
will be significantly affected by the outcome of the regionalization vote.

Boxborough has an item on its 6/10 meeting agenda to revoke the home-rule
section (provision for three-town meetings in the event of disagreements over
funding) of the proposed regionalization plan.  The outcome of this vote may
alter how some people decide to vote on the overall plan.

Various publications (the Globe, the Beacon, and the Lamplighter (A/B school
district newletter) had published the date for the vote as 6/17.  Consequently,
there may have been large numbers of people who wanted to vote on the issue who
were not present.

						Brian

    Refence reply .171.
    
    Could you explain the Boxboro plan to revoke the home rule amendment
    and what it means to the three town regional plan?

re: 261.172 by 21007::LESAGE  Refence reply .171.
    
>>    Could you explain the Boxboro plan to revoke the home rule amendment
>>    and what it means to the three town regional plan?

As of Monday night (Boxboro open forum on regionalization) Don Wheeler
(Boxboro rep on the Regional Planning Committee) said that the Boxboro
selectmen had agreed to withdraw that article. 

Rejecting that part of the agreement might well induce some Acton people to
vote against the agreement (and some Maynard people to vote for it??).

One reason why Acton wants to vote after us is that they have a proposal to
convert their heating system from oil to natural gas.  If the K-12 region is
approved, the region will do it (for the elementary schools), with Acton
paying 70% or something like that rather than 100%.  By the way, regardless 
of who pays for it, it pays for itself in about 3 years anyway.  It takes 
money to save money.

Before anyone gets too outraged, we have a similar situation with the
asbestos in the MHS boiler room and all the other maintenance we have NOT
been doing over the last couple years. 

I don't know the details but I think that everyone has to pull their
underground oil tanks within a few years.  Where are all Maynard's tanks?  I
think they are underground.  Anyone have more details on this? 
 
No rose gardens, either way. 

:-)

John

    I have been reading all the SOS and SHARE replies and I know folks
    on both sides, and I can understand most of the pros and cons of 
    the issue.     
    
    However, can someone on the SOS side explain the reason why SOS has 
    been picketing in Acton the past few Saturdays?
    
    Frank
    
    
    

.174>   However, can someone on the SOS side explain the reason why SOS has 
.174>   been picketing in Acton the past few Saturdays?

When I was at band practice last night, I had a conversation with a friend
from Acton which ties in well with this.  

My friend's impression was that regionalization was mostly to Acton's
benefit.  Financially, they would gain because of the extra state aid
Maynard would bring in to the system.  Acton would retain control of school
policy and finances.  He has heard the arguments that the Maynard kids are
lower class, and they'll start fights, and push down the real estate
values, and he discards all that as rubbish.  He sees little that Acton
would lose in regionalization.  He said his kids are opposed to
regionalization, but for the wrong reasons.

In order to decide how he will vote on regionalization at the Acton Town
Meeting, my friend asked me this:  Do people in Maynard want regionalization?  

Obviously, Maynard has a lot to lose, and it's a much more complex question
than in Acton.  If you believe the AB School Committee, and the Maynard
Regionalization Committee, the answer appears to be unequivocally yes.  If
you see the few letters from Maynard residents that the Beacon has chosen
to print in the Acton edition, then it appears that the answer is yes.

In truth, the citizens of Maynard are deeply divided; that's what I told
my friend.  Newcomers, old townies,  people with kids in the upper grades,
people with kids in the elementary grades, people active in town
government, people unfamiliar with town government: there are all sorts of
groups, all sorts of reasons, and some people with atypical opinions in
every group.

People in Acton don't know that.  They have been told that we're all in
favor of regionalization, that we want to get in.

This isn't true, and the people in Acton should know it.  That is the
primary reason why SOS went to Acton, carrying anti-regionalization signs.

The secondary reason was to poll Acton - what kind of response would 
anti-regionalization signs get in Acton?  Most people driving by who
reacted gave a thumbs-up, to agree.  A couple of people stopped to talk -
there are people in Acton who think that their kids get lost in a big
system, and that education is better in a smaller system.  They think that
the system is too big already, and they certainly oppose regionalization. 
And there was one fellow who was absolutely incensed that SOS would oppose
regionalization, and not let the increased state aid bail out Acton
financially.

So, I told my friend that Maynard was divided: that I was opposed, though
obviously very partisan, and that there were plenty of people in Maynard
who could give him fifty reasons why they wanted to join the region.

He said he'd vote against it.

-Steve

    The Beacon reports the School Committee is going to re-vote on the
    regional plan on their next meeting 6-10-91.  You can guess which way
    the vote will go if the new members vote according to their campaign
    and the existing members vote the same way they did earlier this
    spring.

There are interesting articles in both the Sunday Globe and the Middlesex News 
about regionalization (June 9).

The Middlesex has a front-page article surveying a number of regional
schools, written by Bob Tremblay.  The opening sentence is makes a good
point:

    "For regionalization opponents in Maynard, the recent budget brouhahas
    that have bedeviled four other MetroWest communities could provide
    additional ammo to fire at a proposal to regionalize its school
    system."

The article describes budget wars in Algonquin Regional, Concord-Carlisle, and
Mendon-Upton. 

Acton-Boxboro, on the other hand, presently has a reasonably harmonious school
budget process, which will result in an average increase of $172 in taxes for
an average house (of $250,000). 

The point I get from this is that budgeting is easy if everyone is in favor
of large tax increases.

The Globe West Weekly contains a thoughtful opinion piece by a Globe writer
from Chelmsford, Christine McKenna, titled "Maynard Voters should not be
blinded".  

The article does not come out and endorse either position on regionalization,
but it is very, very positive about the good education at Maynard High School. 
You might say that the choice is between learning Russian at AB and
self-confidence at MHS. 

    "The glitter of extra electives and a seemingly easy way out of a
    temporary budget jam hold real value, but Maynard residents should 
    not be blinded to the disturbing trade-off they are contemplating." 

-Steve

Re: 261.177 by HELIX::RUZICH

>>    "For regionalization opponents in Maynard, the recent budget brouhahas
>>    that have bedeviled four other MetroWest communities could provide
>>    additional ammo to fire at a proposal to regionalize its school
>>    system."

That is true. 

>> Acton-Boxboro, on the other hand, presently has a reasonably harmonious 
>> school budget process, which will result in an average increase of $172 
>> in taxes for an average house (of $250,000). 

>> The point I get from this is that budgeting is easy if everyone is in favor
>> of large tax increases.

Education costs money and those who support education will support the cost.

Thoughts like these must be causing some people in Acton and Boxboro
problems because they clearly support education and they may be reluctant to
get into the kinds of problems C/C, etc seem to be having. 

The same thoughts (flipped around) may be causing some people in Maynard
problems because they are afraid that they will have to support education
every year.  I think SOS's "Just Say NO" is at least honest. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

>> The Globe West Weekly contains a thoughtful opinion piece by a Globe writer
>> from Chelmsford, Christine McKenna, titled "Maynard Voters should not be
>> blinded".  

>> The article does not come out and endorse either position on 
>> regionalization, but it is very, very positive about the good education 
>> at Maynard High School. 

>> You might say that the choice is between learning Russian at AB and
>> self-confidence at MHS. 

One man's meat is another's poison.  I thought the article was completely
deviod of thought and strongly against regionalization.  And the "choice"
was completely misstated. 

I would say that the choice is between developing self-confidence through 
effort and challenge versus staying in as small a pond as possible as long 
as possible.  The latter isn't self-confidence; it's lack of experience.

I want my children to be as ready as possible for what they have to face in
their futures.  To get them ready, I intend to keep moving them into a more
challenging environment as soon as they are ready.  That means elsewhere 
than MHS.

Is there some risk?  Sure (in both schools), but you can't learn to swim in 
a bathtub.

Steve, we just have different goals for our children.  Too bad.

I'm ready to vote.  Let's get this over with.

:-)

John

    Whether regionalization passes or fails in the next coming weeks, we
    must look at this as a new begining of the Maynard school system not an
    end.  All the people in the town who fought for their point of view
    must come together to continue to work to improve our school system. 
    If regionalization passes the SOS people must not just throw up their
    hands and say it is the regions respopnsibility  to educate
    Maynard's kids and if it fails then the Share people and the regional
    committee must not abandon the school system.  There is plenty of work
    to be done to make Maynard the best it can be and that's what we all
    wanted from the begining.  We just all took a different view of how to
    get there.  

    Boxboro's town meeting voted to regionalize 7 thru 12 and voted not to
    regionalize k thru 6.  This leaves Maynard to vote 7 thru 12 with Acton
    and Boxboro and k thru 6 with Acton.
    
    How did the Maynard School Committee vote go last night?

There are now two votes on record: One endorsing regionalization, and another
that does not endorse regionalization.

- dave

.180>    How did the Maynard School Committee vote go last night?

The Maynard School Committee voted 3-2, passing a recommendation to reject
regionalization.  As Dave points out in .181, the previous committee
voted in favor of regionalization.  

RE .180, the Boxboro vote:

	7-12 ABM won 155-117
	K-12 ABM lost 256-30
	K-12 AB was passed over

The Regionalization Committee recommended passing over the K-12 vote after
the K-12 ABM article lost so badly. 

What does this mean for Maynard? 

Maynard has two regionalization articles on the warrant: 

	#5 K-12 Acton/Boxboro/Maynard regionalization
	#6 K-6 Acton/Maynard region, plus a separate 7-12 ABM region

These articles are owned by the Regionalization Committee; the School
Committee vote last night against regionalization just states their opinion.
I presume the Regionalization Committee will have a different opinion, and
will keep one or both articles on the agenda. 

Article 6, the K-6 AM, 7-12 ABM regions could occur, if approved by Maynard
and Acton. 

Because of the Boxboro vote, the K-12 ABM regionalization cannot occur.
However, we could still vote on the K-12 article, number 5.  The vote would
amount to an opinion poll, a chance for the citizens to tell the town what
they want, without being legally binding. 

Note that the state aid to regional schools is much higher for a K-12 system
than any partial system.  Article 6 proposes two partial systems. 

We have heard all along from pro-regionalization folks about the money we
will save from K-12 regionalization - a regionalized system actually costs
much more than what we have now, but the increased state aid is reportedly
larger than the cost, resulting in the savings.  I've always had a problem
with the expectation that the state will necessarily agree to come up with
another 2.3 million dollars, to fund this regional system at past rates. 

But the important factor is that now, we can't get K-12 regionalization. The
K-6 AM, 7-12 ABM plan would give us two regions, two school committees, and
far less state aid. 

How much less aid?

The regionalization committee has not produced financial figures on this
plan, to show whether it would save money, or cost more than our current
system (even assuming state aid exists). 

-Steve

.177 is mine, and .178 is John Comella's response to it:

.177> Acton-Boxboro, on the other hand, presently has a reasonably harmonious 
.177> school budget process, which will result in an average increase of $172 
.177> in taxes for an average house (of $250,000). 

.177> The point I get from this is that budgeting is easy if everyone is in
.177> favor of large tax increases.

.178>  Education costs money and those who support education will support the
.178>  cost. 

Note there's a difference in the last two sentences.  I use the term
"large", to highlight the possibility that we in Maynard might decide that
1st rate education might cost something less than "large" tax increases,
while John's point of view appears absolute: education costs, and supporters
will pay it.  Of course, with regionalization, we no longer have much to say
about exactly what kind of education happens in the schools, or what it
costs.  We just get the bill. 

Now, who pays for the overrides in Acton?  This seems like an obvious
question, but I want to highlight how a split tax rate works.
In Acton (and Maynard), business and residences pay taxes at different
rates.  The ratio is called the residential factor.  In Acton, they
have kept changing the ratio in the last years, to shift more of the
burden to business.  Acton business has seen taxes increase much more than
homeowners.

There are two points to make from this, if we regionalize:

    (1) If both Acton and Maynard keep going the way they have with the tax
	rate, homeowners (i. e., voters) in Acton may not be hurt as much by
	tax increases as in Maynard, because of the different residential
	factors.  It's easier for them to override, with business taxed more.

    (2) Conceivably, if Acton businesses get to a point where they can't
	take repeated increases in their rate, and the Acton residential
	factor stabilizes, or even shifts back, more on the homeowners, then
	homeowner's taxes could increase greatly.  Perhaps enough that an
	Acton override would fail. 

	In that case, if we regionalize, we could see a situation where
	Maynard and Boxboro want increased funding for the schools, and Acton
	does not. According to the agreement, *Acton always gets their way*,
	so the ABM schools would have a smaller budget than Maynard wants. 
	I'm not saying it's likely, but it could happen.  But that's what
	happens when you give up control. 

Could we change the Maynard residential factor, to shift taxes to business?
I don't know at all enough to comment on the practicality of that. 
Obviously, the big business in town is Digital, and DEC has been in court
with the Town over tax rates in the past. 

While we're talking about taxes, let me reiterate that the current budget
calls for a 1.3% decline in school funding, compared to last year due to
increased costs (like health benefits, and new HS roof repair) and the state
reducing their aid.  That is not quite catastrophe, but it's certainly bad
news.  We need more bucks for the schools next year.  I hear that someone is
going to ammend the budget at town meeting, to require an override, and I
hope that succeeds. The override will just restore level funding, at
something less than $100 per average household. 

This is pretty modest, and quite necessary.

.178>Thoughts like these must be causing some people in Acton and Boxboro
.178>problems because they clearly support education and they may be
.178>reluctant to get into the kinds of problems C/C, etc seem to be having. 

.178>The same thoughts (flipped around) may be causing some people in Maynard
.178>problems because they are afraid that they will have to support education
.178>every year.  

I think that by far the majority of people in Maynard want to support 
education every year.  I do *not* think that is the same thing as agreeing to
whatever the past school committee has done.  That's why the balance on
the committee just shifted a great deal from the election.

Now that we have a committee which is more representative of public
opinion, and inclined to listen to the public, and work with the other town
boards, I think that the voters will be more inclined to trust the
committee, when they say the schools need money.  I also suspect that
the tone of the committee's communication with the public will change.

.178>I think SOS's "Just Say NO" is at least honest. 

As we all know, the signs say "Just say NO to regionalization".

.177> You might say that the choice is between learning Russian at AB and
.177> self-confidence at MHS. 

.178> I would say that the choice is between developing self-confidence through 
.178> effort and challenge versus staying in as small a pond as possible as
.178> long as possible.  The latter isn't self-confidence; it's lack of
.178> experience. 

Let me get this straight.  The kid who find a niche in Maynard, who
excels at WAVM, or the kids in Winnie Dinitto's creative writing class whose
work looked so good in the Beacon and in The 21st Century (a Boston area
student publication, circulation 70,000) or the kids who get lots of
attention in the small AP history class, or the fair student who stays in
school because he barely made the football team - don't these develop
self-confidence?  I don't see how they would be better off in a big pond. 

There are far more kids competing for the positions of leadership in
a larger system.

Effort and challenge are great.  We can do that locally, we *have* done that
locally, and the kids accepted at Dartmouth, Columbia, Tufts, Rhode Island
School of Design, etc., show it. This is not to be complacent, but with a
new committee and a new superintendant, we can make real progress, the
progress that you (citizens) want, because you can influence the system
here. 

.178> I'm ready to vote.  Let's get this over with.

That I agree with.

-Steve

    After tossing and turning for 3 hours, I said screw it, and decided to
    come to work.  Should be in fine shape for the continuation of town
    meeting tonight.
    
    After about a one hour rain delay, Maynard was finally able to settle the
    issue of regionalization last night.  For simplicity sake, I'll state
    that this issue was pretty much all that was voted on.
    
    Two thousand and twenty four people showed up before the rains came. 
    Approximately 100 did not return following the storm.
    
    Article 6 (regionalize K-6 w/Acton; 7-12 w/A-B) was approved by the
    voters.  There were 997 in favor of this article, while 928 opposed it,
    resulting in a difference of 69 votes.  A recount taken later had 984
    in favor, with 930 opposed, a difference of 54 votes.
    
    Now this is where it gets a bit strange.  Article 5 was voted on for
    the purpose of completeness.  This called for a K-12 regional school
    district for Acton, Boxboro and Maynard.  Seeing as Boxboro voted this
    proposal down Monday night, the vote was taken only as a formality.  It
    was defeated 952 to 807.  The only explanation I could think of was
    that many people had left after the passing of Article 6.
    
    The remainder of the 27 articles will be voted on tonight at Maynard
    High School.  (Do they really have to read all of Article 30!)  :-) 

    I'm not a very good loser, but, congratulations to the folks who worked 
    diligently, for the passage of the regionalization agreement.  I'm
    trying hard to convince myself that there are no losers in this
    controversial issue, but it's a pretty difficult time for a lot of
    people.
    
    My heart goes out to the kids in high school who will be affected by 
    this merger more than anyone, should Acton vote their approval. 
    Hopefully, they will be as accepted in Acton as the Acton kids would be
    in Maynard.
    
    I think this proposal would have been defeated had the recent
    override(s) passed.
    
    I also feel a tremendous loss of identity.  WAVM will no longer
    exist as we now know it.  The Maynard Tigers will no longer compete
    on the playing fields with their renowned pride, enthusiasm and more
    importantly, school spirit.  Not that this was a factor in my decision 
    making process, but I was just thinking last night, Gary Greenaway and 
    Ronnie Martel in Acton?  
    
    What will become of the football and baseball/field hockey fields?
    
    What will become of Don Cranson, the high school principal, or Dr.
    Ciardi?  Should they be employed by the district, is this what you call
    streamlining, or efficiency?  There are a many, many more questions to
    be asked.  I can just imagine how the kids feel.
    
    On the brighter side - after my son read a few pages of his book to me
    before bed one night last week, he asked what would happen should
    regionalization pass.  (he'll be attending 1st grade next year)  Keep
    in mind that I've been pretty active against regionalization, but my 
    wife and I have tried our best to not bring the subject up in front of 
    the kids.  I explained to him that he'd still be attending school in
    Maynard until the 6th grade with his friends.  Then he'd go to Acton
    to attend school from the 7th grade on, still with his friends.  He
    turned to me and said, "then I'll meet new friends, right Dad?"  It
    kind of put everything into place.
    
    Let the healing process begin.
    
    					Steve
    

    The following is not a statement that is representative of the Maynard
    Finance Committee, as I'm probably in the minority on this issue.
    
    I urge everyone to attend tonight's town meeting at the High School.
    As you heard last night, the $350K override question will again be
    brought to vote.  If it passes, a special election will be required at 
    some point in the future.  Without it, the library will close, the Council
    on Aging's budget will be eliminated, the recreation dept. will be cut, as 
    well as cuts in the school department.
    
    					Steve

    I've already spoken to Carole over the phone, but, in case anyone else
    is wondering, students will not be attending schools in Acton until 
    September of '92.
    
    					Steve

I forget the actual percentage of the electorate that showed up (in excess of
30%, I believe).  I am still baffled, mystified, and a little disappointed at
such a low level of participation in such an incredibly important and
controversial decision.  30%+ is significantly higher than the usual turnout,
but: 

    
    
    
    
    _set_flame_on_

it is pathetically low for something so important.

    _set_flame_off_




    

    Congradulations to the pro-regional supporters, they came out to vote. 
    Rob Gelhart did an excellent job presenting the pro-regional side of
    the issue.  I am disappointed in the out come, but I can live with the
    decision because Maynard had the chance to vote.  It is up the Acton
    now.  
    
    The next time someone says their vote doesn't count, show them the
    results of this town meeting vote.  The margin of the vote was less
    than 3% of those attending the meeting and less than 1% of Maynard
    registered voters.

Thanks for your note, Steve. I was impressed with the logistics last night.
The town officials, who usually see a few hundred town meeting attendees, 
planned and ran a very smooth, fair event. Kudos go to the town moderator
who led a potentially explosive discussion in an even-handed, professional
manner. Sidenote: It was interesting to see Donald Hyde, Stow moderator,
in attendance.

I am hoping, actually expecting, that we will work together to develop one
of the best transition plans ever. And I hope that the kids who end up
changing high schools in their last year or so experience as little 
discomfort as possible when they move.

See you all at town meeting tonight, and I'm looking forward to a long
sleep when it's all over.



Peace,
Liz

    There is a petition circulating around the town and it was at the town
    meeting last night to try to rescind the regional vote and vote on it
    again at the special town meeting next fall.  Does anyone know if this
    is allowed or legal? 
    
    I also heard more alarming talk that some people were going to contest the
    town meeting because of the rain delay.  Apparently when the rain came
    and we all went to the gym or boys club, some people left altogether.
    Their ballots might not have been collected and since nobody checked
    the people who re-entered the meeting, the meeting might not legal.
    
    Some anti-regional people are planning to hold a rally Monday night at
    the Acton town meeting.  I do not think this is a good idea.  It passed
    in Maynard, although by a small margin, I think we should let Acton
    vote on regionalization based on it's own merits.  
    
    
    meeting the meeting might have not meet all the legal requirements. 

    It is really a shame that this issue couldn't be resolved once and for
    all. The situations that have come up with the town meeting are just
    unforeseenable events. Unfortunately, this issue will not rest until
    the dust settles and we are ONE TOWN again.

    True, some ballots may have been left behind and submitted by devious
    pro-regionalization folks. On the other hand, there may not have been
    as many anti-regionalization folks there to begin with. Who's to say
    what actually happened. The vote was taken, recounted etc, etc.

    I'm just sitting back, waiting for the next exciting episode!

    Same time? Same channel? 

>    Some anti-regional people are planning to hold a rally Monday night at
>    the Acton town meeting.  I do not think this is a good idea.  It passed
>    in Maynard, although by a small margin, I think we should let Acton
>    vote on regionalization based on it's own merits.  
 
    I hope this isn't true.  Whether you like the outcome of the vote or
    not, the Maynard voters have said they want to regionalize.  Why try to
    convince the Acton voters to vote it down?  All this will do is to show
    the Acton voters that we are bitter and resentful.  This will confirm
    the negative press between the towns.
    
    Let's unite and make the transition a positive experience for our
    children.  If we continue to fight this we will all be losers. 
    
    Maybe there needs to be a group called Citizens for a Smooth
    Transition!

    I agree with .194.  Enough is enough.
    
    If anyone out there has access to the SOS folks or whoever, please 
    ask them to stop all this foolishness!
    
    
    Frank

    I have to agree with the general consensus, here.  As Bob said in .196,
    who's to say these extra ballots weren't cast by the anti-regionalization 
    folks?
    
    I think we may have learned something, though, with this outdoor meeting. 
    The whole process of leaving en mass and using your ballots as a
    "ticket back" should not have been used, as it wasn't striclty enforced.  
    This is not a personal attack on the people responsible for running the 
    meeting, by any means.  As the saying goes, you learn by your own mistakes.
    
    I think if something like this were to happen in the future, people
    should be signed out, using a different colored pencil and signed back
    in with the original color, unless the security process of "your ballot 
    is your ticket", is more strictly enforced.  Whenever I saw people
    returning from the Boys Club and entering the field by that gate, with 
    nobody there to check ballots, I had a bad feeling.  In a way I wish the 
    vote were more decisive, because people on the losing end hear all these 
    cases of people voting X times and it makes them more bitter.
    
    Here's something to think about.  Should regionalization be accepted in
    Acton, where would a three-town meeting be held, if necessary?  It would
    surely be a highly attended meeting.
    
    Regarding the citizens petition to rescind the vote on Article 6:  the 
    required 200 signatures were gathered and the petition was presented to 
    the Selectmen, upon the adjournment of last night's meeting.  About 20 
    SHARE folks were aware of this and immediately questioned its validity to 
    Town Counsel, Joe Vrabel.  He, being previously made aware of it, had 
    contacted the Attorney General's office prior to last night's meeting.  
    He was told the petition was legal. 
    
    Town Meeting laws require that you post a meeting notice 14 days in 
    advance.  Should Acton approve of the contract on Monday night, the 
    agreement goes into effect "forthwith".  So, the bottom line is that 
    the citizens petition is an exercise in futility.  I had been under the 
    impression that the agreement would take effect on July 1, not Monday night.
    
    For those interested, the dialogue at this scene was far more explosive
    than anything we heard Tuesday night.  A member of the SHARE group, from
    the law profession, showed his true colors in berating the Town Counsel 
    and Selectmen.  He also had a few derogatory statements for a couple that 
    were trying to voice their opinion that the Maynard school system isn't as 
    bad as it's being made out to be.  Describing his behavior as arrogant
    would be an understatement.  I only hope that he is as energetic in trying 
    to reunite this town.
    
    One last thing.  I'd like to make a request to those that will be
    demonstrating before Acton's meeting.  PLEASE be civil so that our town
    will not be further tarnished.  I know the intention of some is to
    purposely stereotype Maynardites as delinquents.  This will only
    further divide the town, and make it tougher for our kids, in a time 
    when we clearly have our work cut out for us to become one again.  And I 
    also hope that people don't get the impression that this is a line of 
    strategy approved by S.O.S.  It is not.  Our civil rights allow for the
    process of demonstration.  If it is going to happen, then let it not
    result in a horror show.
    
    					Steve

    I think we should clarify that the "extra ballot" theory is just
    speculation at what could have happened as a result of a less than
    perfect system.  Personally, I would not speculate on this.  After a
    few re-statements, speculation tends to turn to "fact", which turns to
    fuel for mis-spent emotion.

    Regarding Steve Morgan's reply (sorry, I forgot the number):
    
    I had a chance to talk to Bob Geldart tonight at the Middle School
    Awards Night (I can't seem to stay away from the High School
    Auditorium!).  Bob's opinion matches Steve's.  If Acton approves
    the regionalization, it's a binding agreement and takes effect
    immediately.  The agreement can only be recinded or amended by a 
    vote of each town at their own town meeting.  This is the process 
    FOREVER.  
    
    By the way, there would never be one major town meeting involving 
    all three towns in one location.  I don't think you can have a town
    meeting in another town anyway.  Even if you could, since each
    town has to vote separately, you'd have to partition off sections
    for each town's voters (or hand out different colored tee-shirts).
    Each town would have to recognize the other towns' residents as
    guests and each town would have to approve another town's speakers,
    blah, blah, blah.  Each town has a different town meeting process.
    Maynard uses a secret ballot, Acton and Boxboro do not.  How much 
    would it cost to rent the Centrum?  Suppose...never mind.
    
    Regarding other replies and conversations:
    
    The issue of Maynard people picketing at the Acton Town Meeting
    is both disturbing and embarrassing.  I have heard the following
    in the past two days:
    
    1.  That some people are thinking of dressing like bums to show
    the Acton folks what they will be getting if they regionalize.
    
    2.  That some High School Students are planning to disrupt the
    Acton Town Meeting.
    
    3.  That the Acton Police has said that they will allow a peaceful
    demonstration.  
    
    4.  That if the demonstration gets out of hand, arrests will be 
    made for trespassing.
    
    5.  That there are rumblings of a Recall petition against any elected
    official who supports or encourages any disruption of the Acton Town
    Meeting.
    
    Folks, let's get real here.  If any of the School Committee members
    or their spouses are reading this reply, please be sure that the
    High School makes a serious effort Friday morning to discourage any
    disruptive activity during the Acton Town Meeting.  The kids did
    a very good job of voicing their opinions at our Town Meeting on
    Tuesday, while not interferring with the actual Town Meeting process.
    We're not talking about simple hijinks here, we're talking about
    a very serious offense of attempting to interfere with the American
    democratic process.  The thought of fighting a war in the Middle
    East to protect the rights of a country to govern itself, and then
    mobilizing to screw up someone's right to hold a town meeting just
    fries me!  (I didn't swear).
    
    As for the adults, let's not live "down" to our own expectations of
    ourselves by acting like jerks in front of the good people of Acton. 
    The process of regionalization was very long and emotional, and it's
    completely natural that some "venting" and second guessing occur.
    (If only Bill Buckner had fielded that ground ball in 1986....)
    The fact is that we voted to regionalize.  In my mind, it's a done
    deal, regardless of whether it was by two votes or two thousand
    votes, regardless of whether it rained or didn't rain, regardless of
    whether the ballot book process was botched up or not.  The ballot
    book process is a by-law feature of Maynard's Town Meeting.  It
    is NOT related in any way to the State's Election process, and as has 
    been said, any speculation on "extra ballots" is, as noted in .200,
    a result of a less-than-perfect system.  Maynard is the only Town
    around that uses a secret ballot process and even if it's not perfect,
    can you imagine having this kind of decision being decided by a show
    of hands??
    
    Let's act like the adults that we hope our children will be someday 
    and let Acton have their Town Meeting.
    
    I'm very proud to say that I am a Maynardian.  I hope I'll feel the
    same way on Tuesday morning.  PLEASE LEAVE THE ACTON TOWN MEETING
    ALONE!
    
    Frank Ignachuck
    Graduate,
    Maynard High School
    Class of 1966 
    

.197>    If anyone out there has access to the SOS folks or whoever, please 
.197>    ask them to stop all this foolishness!

We did, though I don't know what effect it will have.  It's not SOS.  

Cindy and I think that an unruly demonstration at the Acton Town Meeting
is an extremely bad idea.  People in Acton would remember it for generations.

As for just peacefully holding signs at the Acton TM, well, I'm personally not
so hot about the idea, but I'm not going to condemn anyone doing so. 

Share held pro-regionalization signs at the Boxboro TM.

By the way, after Town Meeting, some of the high school kids were proposing
drastic measures in Acton, and they were talked out of it. 

The petition for another Maynard TM will probably end up being only of
symbolic, rather than practical significance, to the regionalization decision.
    
.194> True, some ballots may have been left behind and submitted by devious
.194> pro-regionalization folks. On the other hand, there may not have been
.194> as many anti-regionalization folks there to begin with. Who's to say
.194> what actually happened. The vote was taken, recounted etc, etc.
.199> 
.199> What a remark, I guess the anti-regionalzation people are such
.199> upstanding individuals, that they would not do such a thing, nor
.199> would anti regionalzation people tear down signs nor would
.199> anti regionalzation harrass my kids nor would anti-regionalzation
.199> people egg my car.

Well, I'm sorry somebody egged your car, tore down your signs, and harassed
your kids.  I don't know who did it.  I'm also sorry that SOS signs
disappeared, and my blood boils at what another 5th grader is fond of telling
my daughter.  No, nobody on Thompson Street - we're all pretty civil.

It is possible that anti-regionalization people committed vote fraud.  It is
also possible that the pro-regionalization people did so.  If there was any,
it should be dealt with.

-Steve

    REFERENCE .201
    
    Frank, I agree with totally (you sound like a man running for
    selectman).  You got my vote!  Tuesday morning let's start doing
    everything we can to make regionalization work or start supporting the
    Maynard school system like never before.  The time and energy that both
    sides of this issue committed in the last two years should now be
    combined together to make whatever schools sytem we are in on Tuesday
    the best system for our kids.

.194> True, some ballots may have been left behind and submitted by devious
.194> pro-regionalization folks. On the other hand, there may not have been
.194> as many anti-regionalization folks there to begin with. Who's to say
.194> what actually happened. The vote was taken, recounted etc, etc.
.199> 
.199> What a remark, I guess the anti-regionalzation people are such
.199> upstanding individuals, that they would not do such a thing, nor
.199> would anti regionalzation people tear down signs nor would
.199> anti regionalzation harrass my kids nor would anti-regionalzation
.199> people egg my car.

    re: .202   Steve, I'm glad you posted this in your response, as I
    didn't get to see reply .197 before it disappeared.

    The only reason I implied that the pro-regionalization folks "could"
    have "stuffed the ballots" is because they won the vote. Yes, of
    course, anyone there had the opportunity. I don't know who wrote the
    reply, but I'd say they have attracted alot of negative force their
    way. I NEVER ACCUSED anyone of doing ANYTHING, I stated that COULD have
    happened, not that it DID. I even stated "Who's to say what actually
    happened.", didn't I?? 

    My deepest apologies to any one who may have been offened by my
    statement.

    NOW, the real issue today is the fact that the town of Maynard HAS
    voted to regionalize with Acton/Boxboro. FINIS! The best thing we could
    do right now is to wait and see which way Acton votes at their town
    meeting. We have no right to interfere with their meeting. They didn't
    interfere with ours, did they? Well, now, maybe THEY caused the down
    pour just so the vote would be shaken up!!!  What do you think?  :-)

    With all joking aside... Just imagine what we could have accomplished
    with the mega-force that has been brought out during these trying
    times. Who knows, if we had come together regarding the Maynard school
    system years ago, we may not have to be dealing with this situation
    today. Maybe Acton/Boxboro would be asking to join OUR school system??

    What ever the out come, the most important part of this scenario is the
    CHILDREN of our community. We will do them more harm than good, if we
    continue to act as kids ourselves!!

    Norma

    Things are getting more and more complicated by the minute.  With the
    petition having been submitted, the Selectmen are required to call a town
    meeting unless the person(s) that took out the petition withdraw it. 
    There is also another possible scenario.  If the petitioners continue
    with their request for another town meeting, and in the meantime Acton
    votes "yes", then the petitioners could legally make an ammendment to
    the article and ask that we withdraw from the region.  This would also
    have to be approved by Acton and Boxboro and the $1.6 million buy-in
    cost will still have to be payed.  The most likely place for this
    special town meeting would once again be Alumni Field.
    
    This whole business could result in a viscous cycle.  Should the
    article at the special town meeting pass (resulting in Maynard's
    withdrawal from the region), the pro-regionalization folks would most
    likely take out a petition of their own, calling for another town meeting!
    
    I just returned from the Town Hall after speaking to the Town
    Accountant, Harry Gannon.  He's had three phone calls today from people
    in administrative positions at the High School.  They asked questions about
    the possibility of their retirement.  Who would pay for this, the Town
    of Maynard or the regional district (i.e., who are they working for?)?  
    This is an extremely complex issue and there are many questions that need 
    answering.  In regard to the school department, who is going to pay the
    bill for health insurance in the coming year, the Town of Maynard or the 
    regional district?  When does the $1.6 million buy in cost kick in? 
    Does the town have to borrow money for this, then get reimbursed by the
    state?  Is it payed on a yearly basis, or is it payed in one lump sum?
    
    Is there anybody out there that can answer these questions?  This is
    getting more and more confusing, the deeper you dig into this.
    
    More food for thought.  The Friends of WAVM have a decent size sum of
    money in the bank that they use for scholarships.  They will have to
    make a decision soon on what to do with that money, should the school
    systems regionalize.
    
    					Steve
    

Ugh. Messy situation. For some of your questions, Steve, you might
consider calling Bob Geldart. He should be able to either answer you
or point to someone who can.

Have the 200 signatures on the petition been verified? Wouldn't they
have to belong to registered town voters with no duplicates? 


Liz

    My understanding is that there were over 500 signatures, Liz.  Don't
    know if they've all been verified as of yet, though.
    
    At this point in time, I'm treating Tuesday's vote as if it were a done 
    deal.  How else do you explain it to your kids, especially the younger
    ones, when we don't even know all the answers?
    
    It's really kind of a shame.  The dissapointment slowly fades and you
    then gear yourself up for the next step of trying to make this transition 
    go as smoothly as possible.  But, now there are all kinds of potential 
    problems to be dealt with regarding special town meetings, etc. 
    
    The decision is now up to the voters of Acton.
    
    					Steve

    According to the Acton Beacon it seems the Acton people are more
    surprised by the outcome than many Maynard folks.  I said this before,
    but I do not think the majority of Acton's residents have thought about
    this issue in great detail, because I do not think they thought it
    would pass in Maynard.
    
    What issues are facing Acton at this point? 

The $1.6 million is over 20 years.  If we were to pull out from the regional
district, now or in the future, it remains a question whether we are required
to pay in a lump sum or over the duration.  According to the Selectman's
Office, this would require a legal opinion best addressed to Maynard's Town
Council, in writing.  Should Acton vote for regionalization on Tuesday, it
remains a question also what Maynard's buyin obligation would be if Maynard
were to withdraw from the regional system, either now or in the future.  Again,
Maynard Town Council can best provide a legal opinion to these questions.

The Board of Selectman's office number is 897-3873.

RE: Note 261.205 by BUILD::MORGAN 

I like your header: "It is time to become one" >>>
    
>>  I just returned from the Town Hall after speaking to the Town
>>  Accountant, Harry Gannon.  He's had three phone calls today from people
>>  in administrative positions at the High School.  They asked questions about
>>  the possibility of their retirement.  Who would pay for this, the Town
>>  of Maynard or the regional district (i.e., who are they working for?)?  

Bob Geldart has answered this at least a dozen times, the latest being at
town meeting, if I recall correctly.  Although the AGREEMENT becomes
effective as soon as Acton's town meeting adjourns (assuming a YES vote), 
the region does not become effective until 1 July 91 (two weeks from 
now).  

	And for the FY91-92 school year, no money crosses the town
	border, either way.  The Maynard part of the region runs on the
	budget which Maynard voted on Tuesday and will (hopefully)
	authorize in the Sept ballot. 

A personal opinion:  The town accountant has a big mouth.  I would expect 
such calls to be very confidential.  There are not many administrators
in the high school.

An academic question:  Who is the third administrator at MHS?  I count two: 

	1. Cranson = principal
	2. Lent    = (.4 or .6) Dean of Students

	Ciardi has a contract which we/the region must live up to.  I
	would be VERY surprised if Dr. Ciardi was one of the people who
	called. 

Ah, three phone calls does not necessarily imply three people, does it?
Personally, I think that anyone who called about retirement today is jumping
the gun by about 3-6 months at least. 

>>  This is an extremely complex issue and there are many questions that need 
>>  answering.  In regard to the school department, who is going to pay the
>>  bill for health insurance in the coming year, the Town of Maynard or the 
>>  regional district?  

See above.  This year coming (FY91-92), Maynard pays it.  Next year or
beyond, the region. 

>> When does the $1.6 million buy in cost kick in? 

The buy-in kicks in when the state reimbursement starts flowing in about 2
years (most likely case) or when our request is rejected (Maynard would be
the FIRST town to have it rejected; therefore highly unlikely.). 

>>  Does the town have to borrow money for this, then get reimbursed by the
>> state?  Is it payed on a yearly basis, or is it payed in one lump sum?

See the remark about Geldart above.  Payments are spaced out the same way as 
the reimbursement (usual case = 20 years).  How we get the money is up 
to us.
   
>> More food for thought.  The Friends of WAVM have a decent size sum of
>> money in the bank that they use for scholarships.  They will have to
>> make a decision soon on what to do with that money, should the school
>> systems regionalize.

See the remark about jumping the gun above.  Both Bob G. and the reps of the
regional planning committee from the other towns have repeatedly said that
groups who have scholarship money will have the opportunity to stipulate
what conditions their scholarship(s) will carry as they come under the
region's auspices.  

Look at a copy of ABRHS's handbook; all their current scholarships are
listed there.  A FEW are reserved to either an Acton or a Boxboro resident
exclusively.  Some require that a student have been a member of a certain
club, have an interest in a certain profession or have worked in a certain
business, etc..  I think there are even a few which specify an average
(academically) student. 

So, if the Friends of WAVM want to specify that the recipient be a Maynard
student, they can. However, it would be wise to think a little before
deciding about that.  As time goes on, there will presumably/hopefully be
Acton and Boxboro students involved and Acton and Boxboro contributors to
the fund.  Once the pure Maynard money is awarded, it would be good for the
Maynard stipulation to go away. 

Let's start acting like our kids CAN pull down their share of the goodies
without special protection.  They will live up to our expectations, whatever
they may be. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can appreciate how the opponents of regionalization feel.  I went to the
meeting expecting to see regionalization fail.  In the several seconds
between when Gerroir announced the Y = 997 and before he got to the N = 923,
I was sure that it had lost.  We all did. 

I wish you well in dealing with your feelings.

I think that I speak for many proponents of regionalization in saying that
if Acton is allowed to make their decision, whatever it may be, in peace,
then we will accept Acton's decision and work for whatever that means for
Maynard. 

However, if some unsavory incident by Maynard people precedes a negative
Acton vote, then it will be MUCH harder for us (or me, at least) to get over
our/my anger.  The petition is already pushing the limits of unsavoriness as 
far as I'm concerned.

Peaceful, dignified, non-aggressive expression of free speech is quite 
acceptable.

:-)

John

    I'd like to post that I'm very happy that regonalization passed in
    Maynard.  I personally see it as a very positive step in Maynard's
    history!
    
    Note:  Personal quirps follow:
    
    
    Set flame_on:
    
    I cannot believe how many people in Maynard have such *severe* resistance
    to change!!  Chalk one up to "small town attitudes" I guess?!
    
    also...  RE:
    
    >WAVM will no longer exist as we now know it.  The Maynard Tigers will 
    >no longer compete on the playing fields with their renowned pride, 
    >enthusiasm and more importantly, school spirit.  Not that this was a 
    >factor in my decision making process, but I was just thinking last night,
    >Gary Greenaway and Ronnie Martel in Acton?  
    
    Maybe not a factor in YOUR decision, but definitely a factor in other
    anti-regionalization people I spoke with.  Personally, I cannot
    believe people would base a decision of such magnitude on such "values".
    
    Buck, jaded in Maynard

.211> I cannot believe how many people in Maynard have such *severe* resistance
.211> to change!!  Chalk one up to "small town attitudes" I guess?!

.211> Maybe not a factor in YOUR decision, but definitely a factor in other
.211> anti-regionalization people I spoke with.  Personally, I cannot
.211> believe people would base a decision of such magnitude on such "values".

Hey, there are people how voted for regionalization because they think Acton's
prestige is going to gain them something.  How about looking at education and
money instead?

Of course, Maynard kids have smaller classes, and they can get into an
impressive list of colleges, and of course, the agreement will require us to
pay 25% of school expansions in the 7-12 region (despite the fact that we
currently would be 21% of the 7-12), when all the future population increase is
going to be in Acton and Boxboro because they have lots of land to build
houses, and we don't.  I can't imagine how anyone can understand that and
say, with a straight face, that the agreement is in Maynard's favor.

I guess looking at the detailed consequences of regionalization is just
a "small town attitude".  

My point is that both pro- and anti-regionalization people are capable of 
having small-minded reasons underlying their point of view.  Or substantial
reasons: if someone says that they realize that regionalization gives up
a great deal for Maynard, but they honestly prefer the educational philosophy
implemented in the Acton schools, I can respect that.  As long as they stick
around to pay the taxes.

-Steve

    Acton normally broadcasts their town meetings over one of the public
    access cable stations (ch. 29, 61 in Maynard).  The woman speaking on 
    the phone this morning "thought" tonight's meeting would also be broadcast 
    in Maynard, but suggested calling the Programming Dept. after lunch.
    
    The number of the Programming Dept. is 562-2510.  I would think that
    if a good number of us call, there will be a better chance of it being
    shown here in Maynard.  As soon as someone gets a definite answer,
    please post it here (with the channel # if possible).  Thanks.
    
    					Steve  

re .214


Huh? Are you saying that some members of the school committee rent 
rather than own, so that they end up not paying taxes to the town?
Are you saying that they should not be allowed to serve the town
unless they own property? Or are you implying something completely
different? Please elaborate.


Liz

Re:  Note 261.212 by HELIX::RUZICH 

>>  Hey, there are people how voted for regionalization because they
>>  think Acton's prestige is going to gain them something.  How about
>>  looking at education and money instead? 

If by "prestige", you mean the reputation of quality of the AB schools, it
IS going to gain us something very important: better education for our kids.

>>  Of course, Maynard kids have smaller classes, and they can get into
    an impressive list of colleges, 

Why do people focus on smaller classes at the high school and no one seems
to worry that we are close to exceeding the class-size guidelines at the
Green Meadow (elementary school)???

<IRONY_ON>

Of course, The Green Meadow kids have been well prepared for the rough and
tumble of academic life whereas the MHS kids are untested unknowns who have
to be treated with kid gloves, aren't they? 

<IRONY_OFF>

Education?

There were people who wanted the school committee to fully fund athletics at
the expense of that new Green Meadow teacher, ACT, etc.   Can someone quote
in any of the blue-ribbon studies concerned about America's future
competitiveness where they claim that the ability to play soccer, field
hockey or football will contribute to our economic competitiveness?  I
recall words like SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS, etc. 

I don't oppose athletics; I ran track in high school and enjoyed it. My
daughter played JV field hockey, quite creditably, for MHS last year and
will try out for the varsity this year.  We need athletics!  But in a
push-comes-to-shove situation, academics come first.  And Maynard has been
in a push-shove condition for several years. 

If the small classes resulted in Maynard kids scoring higher in SAT's and
CTBS tests, getting better grades and getting into as good colleges as AB
graduates, then I would be happy with the Maynard schools. But it doesn't.
Would the SAT's and CTBS scores be even lower with larger class size? 

I think that there are several simple (partial) reasons for the lower SAT's
(about 120 points compared to AB) at Maynard. First, statistically, the
better kids leave Maynard because their parents want them to be challenged
more than will happen at MHS. 

This has two effects.  The first is that those kids contribute to the higher
averages of other schools, including AB.  Second, the very students who
would most likely challenge the MHS faculty aren't there so the academic
level slides down.  The second effect is more important and serious than the
first.  It is also a factor for which money is NOT an immediate solution. 

The top student at Assabet Valley Voc this year was from Maynard; he's going
on to a good college in engineering, I think.  I thought the Voc was for
kids who wanted "voc" training.  Why are Fowler graduates going to the Voc
for academic preparation for college? 

And I think that Maynard has a National Merit Scholar (can't remember if 
finalist or commendation) this year, but he attends Marion High.

I know personally that 4 of the (14-16) Presidential Academic Fitness
(trophy given to 8th-graders at Fowler for 3 years of solid honors) winners
are going elsewhere.  My daughter (8th grade, Fowler) thinks that the number
not going to Maynard High is closer to 8.  She is one of them, so my decision 
"biases" the statistics a little. 

Another reason for lower scores is tight scheduling and low enrollment.
Because of low enrollment an honors course is populated by the top half of
MHS's population whereas the same course is populated by the top quarter or
fifth at AB.  Also, because of tight scheduling, there is probably mixing of
levels where it is inappropriate.  If someone can't schedule college English
at MHS, he/she HAS to take honors or basic English or not graduate on time.
That slows down the entire class because "no one falls through a crack". 

Don't tell me it doesn't happen.  The preliminary schedule for next year 
shows a conflict between physics and French IV.  That will hopefully get 
resolved but at the expense of what else?

>>  and of course, the agreement will require us to pay 25% of school
>>  expansions in the 7-12 region (despite the fact that we currently
>>  would be 21% of the 7-12), when all the future population increase
>>  is going to be in Acton and Boxboro because they have lots of land
>>  to build houses, and we don't.  I can't imagine how anyone can
>>  understand that and say, with a straight face, that the agreement is
>>  in Maynard's favor. 

I agree that the contract could have been better in spots, but not much.

However, MAYNARD HAS 26% of the K-12 school population; but we are ONLY 21%
of the 7-12). 

So guess what!  That means that we are MORE THAN 26% of the K-6 to make the
26% K-12 average.  So in the next 10-12 years WE are going to contribute to
our fair share of growth to the region.  If DEC's situation doesn't improve
more than anyone expects, no town around here will have much growth from
outside. 

>>  My point is that both pro- and anti-regionalization people are
>>  capable of having small-minded reasons underlying their point of
>>  view.  Or substantial reasons: 

I agree with that.

>>  if someone says that they realize that regionalization gives up a
>>  great deal for Maynard, but they honestly prefer the educational
>>  philosophy implemented in the Acton schools, I can respect that.  

I don't personally think that regionalization gives up much for Maynard. 
The desire for OUR school, reduced opportunity notwithstanding, is a 
manifestation of a siege mentality which I am overjoyed that Maynard is 
breaking out of.  And local control of a too-small, underfunded system is 
worthless unless you are only concerned about your short-term tax bill.

And it's not the educational philosophy that makes AB look better (except
insofar as the "community spirit is more important than academic excellence"
attitude may exist in Maynard schools); it's AB's execution of the
educational mission.  AB can do it better because they have more resources
applied to that mission.  And they work hard at it, just like we do.

>>  As long as they stick around to pay the taxes. 

Our taxes will be lower (and so will Acton and Boxboro's) than they would be
with properly-funded, local schools.  Only inadequately-funded local schools
would be cheaper for Maynard, and then only in the short-term.

One of the beauties of regionalization is that Maynard will HAVE to plan
ahead.  This year our sage selectmen didn't decide about the overrides until
three weeks before the election.  Is that good long-range planning?  I don't
think so.  

Admittedly, if we continue to plan poorly like we do now, then our police
and fire may be devastated.  But don't blame regionalization for our town
management! 

May Acton vote in peace.

:-) 

John

It seems there have been more than an acceptable amount of offensive statements
made in here lately.  

I haven't seen them all, but I've gotten some complaints, and since I can't 
sit here pressing the NEXT-UNSEEN key all day waiting for folks to reply so I 
can be the first one to read the note to see if its acceptable or not, I'm
setting the note /NOREPLY.

If you must discuss regionalization further, please do so via mail, phone,
or in person, but not in this conference.

Please don't start up another note to discuss/reply to regionalization issues,
because if folks continue to complain about notes in this conference I'm just 
going to have to pull the plug on the conference.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Pete

I'm posting this for folks' information, NOT to encourage discussion.  

regards,

Pete


From:	TOOK::VMSDEV::WIBECAN "Cheese in the kitchen everywhere  18-Jun-1991 0859" 18-JUN-1991 09:11:58.30
To:	TOOK::DITMARS
CC:	WIBECAN
Subj:	MAYNARD Moderator request

Some folks may not have heard about the result from the Acton Town Meeting last
night.  If you find it acceptable, please post this note in the MAYNARD
conference.  I will also post this in the MASSACHUSETTS conference.

						Brian (Acton resident)

The Acton town meeting voted yesterday to REJECT the regionalization proposal. 
The vote was tallied about 11 pm.  The proposal lost by close to a 2-to-1
margin, 1400-something to 700-something.  Another proposal, to appoint a
regionalization planning committee to explore possible K-6 regionalization with
one of the surrounding towns, was also rejected.

The meeting itself was very orderly.  Some time after the tally was announced,
a comment by a resident on a different article turned into a standing ovation
for Lees Stuntz, A/B Regional School Committee Chairman, in spite of her
unsuccessful efforts at promoting the proposal.

Some Maynard residents held a very civil demonstration outside the A/B high
school entrance.  They were simply standing there holding signs.

Although the note remains write-locked I thought you should be aware of an 
error that exists in the Regionalization notes conference.  

It has been brought to my attention that there was a reply in the 
"Regionalization" note that said:  "The Board of Selectman's office number is 
897-3873."  THAT IS NOT THE SELECTMAN'S OFFICE NUMBER.

THE SELECTMAN'S OFFICE NUMBER IS 897-1001. 


Thanks to Toni Demars for catching this error.

Julian