By Abi Wood

GALWAY–The current fiscal situation, cuts and the budget proposed by the Board of Education have left many people in the community disheartened. Students feel as if the board has given up on them, and some taxpayers feel that the school will not be able to fulfill its role in educating students while it loses so many programs.  Different groups such as SOS (Support our Schools) and the different stakeholder councils have taken initiative by working together to find alternate solutions. One community member wrote a petition and worked to get signatures in order to present it to the board to convince the board to raise the tax levy to 10%. There are currently 272 signatures on the petition.

Nicole Clarke, the writer of the petition was inspired when she learned the Board of Education was only planning on increasing the budget 3%, “This shocked me.”

“In early March, after speaking to the school tax assessor, Tracy Killeen, I had already confirmed that the BOE actually needed closer to a 21% increase in the levy to meet projected budgetary expenditures.  Notwithstanding that fact, at the end of March, when the BOE floated their two current budget alternatives, the higher of the two sought only a 7.5% increase over last year’s levy.”

She decided to create the petition as a last plea to the BOE that the community supported a “higher (and necessary) levy hike to save the school from decimating the course offerings and to protect the school from a perceived threat of closure in the foreseeable future.”

The Board of Education has deferred any comments and questions about the possibility of closing the school, however many community members are worried that it is a serious possibility. “If the school did close, I believe GCSD taxpayers could easily see their school taxes double,” said Clarke.

“After speaking to a few people I know who have been closely following the budget process, I thought it might be possible to obtain at least 600 signatures on the petition,” stated Clarke. The magic number is 600, due to the 60% approval needed to increase the tax levy by 10%.

“I wanted to demonstrate to the BOE that the community supports paying higher taxes to defend and protect the education being provided at the school. Although the petition did not garner all of the signatures I had hoped for, I still think it was a success, because it showed how fervently people want to see Galway’s students succeed.”

“I still think a 3% levy increase is too low.  Nonetheless, I think the BOE took a positive step at its last meeting, on April 26th, when it passed a motion allowing Alyson Bingham, a Galway CSD parent and volunteer, to initiate a partnership between the school and community which will enable community members (and, perhaps, corporate sponsors) to make donations that can be directly applied to provide school programs such as music, art, and enrichment (to name only a few).”

Clarke and her husband have two children who are currently enrolled in Joseph Henry Elementary School and have no plans to send their children elsewhere and “hope it will not come to that in the future.”

http://signon.org/sign/save-galways-school-build?source=c.url&r_by=2570296