Comments

• On the article Two School Budgets Possible at TM

  Paul Courchesne

  11:42 am on Thursday, December 13, 2012

  i was at the meeting (my 1st ever) and was really disappointed the meeting closed without a Q/A session. The past meeting's minutes are not posted and we are not allowed to ask direct questions and get answers? How are we supposed to come up to speed on the facts and options? Per the Bus Fee-- i am opposed on many levels--but i think it is shameful to ask 40-50% of the school families to pay this to support a budget shortfall purely on geographic location. This fee, plus activity fees will mean families will pay $1,000 directly to the schools, on top of of $19.21/1,000 tax rate. Come on? Bring the $ we need to the TM and let's do this right without all the mess this proposed fee will make.

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• On the article School Transportation Fee Being Considered

  Paul Courchesne

  8:41 am on Friday, December 7, 2012

  I am very concerned about this for several reasons. The thought of opening up ANOTHER revenue stream to the schools scares me. It may be $200 now, but once it is in place it could easily become a progressive fee. Additionally, most of the other towns used to justify this do not pay the tax rate we pay here. If this is a school budget problem the fix should focus on ALL school participants, not just those who need to use bus to transport. (think of Mass Pike tolls supporting the entire state highway system 'taxing' those of us in the west---but nobody else). Our very high taxes should provide for this service and we need to cut from someplace else...not sure where. Maybe funnel some of the excess from the Fire Palace.

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