Claremont
Incumbents Brian Rapp, a Claremont firefighter, and Rebecca Zullo, the board’s vice chairwoman, are on the ballot for three-year seats, as are Dave Pacetti, Kelly Mulloy, Steve Horsky and Jason Benware. The top three vote-getters will win spots on the board. Alex Herzog’s name will appear on the ballot, but he is not eligible to serve as he recently was hired as the new director of the Sugar River Technical Center.
Running for the one year remaining on a vacant seat are former School Board Chairman Richard Seaman, James Allen and former City Councilor Carolyn Towle. The Claremont School Board has seven members in total.
Zullo supported the budget presented to voters at the annual deliberative session and said it was the right course of action by the board to scrutinize spending and look for reductions.
“Some felt that the School Board should not have requested a decrease (from the Administration) in the budget and some (myself included) felt that this School Board (and any other School Board) is well within their right to ask for a closer look in the way that we manage and spend,” Zullo said via email. “I supported the view of looking closely at the budget because it has been quite some time since a Claremont School Board has taken the time and initiative to actually ask questions and take a deeper look at spending as opposed to taking what they are given.”
If re-elected, Zullo said she will continue with that approach and be ready to ask questions. “Anything other than that I believe would be irresponsible,” she said.
Rapp was the most vocal of the minority in opposing the budget adopted by the board. The cut was nearly $330,000 less than this year’s before voters added $307,000 back at the deliberative session. He argued for including many of the items requested by Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin, including money for technology and staffing, and his fellow School Board members voted, 5-2, to replace him as chairman in late January.
Though the cuts in state aid have made it harder for the district to fund its needs, Rapp said, the budget cannot be slashed in response to annual reductions in state aid.
“Even with a couple of years of no increases in the budget, the rate still went up because of declining state revenue,” Rapp said. “I support putting more money back into the budget so we can continue to support our teachers and students. One way to do this is to increase revenue by becoming a receiving district. Any investment needed to achieve that could be paid off quickly.”
Benware, 41, is a self-employed antiques dealer and a frequent attendee at School Board meetings. He called the $34.9 million budget adopted at the deliberative session a “nice compromise,” one that he found to be acceptable.
“I think where we ended up was a fairly decent compromise,” Benware said of the $307,000 added to the budget by voters.
He argued that the numbers reached by a majority of the board were not “off the top of their heads” but were driven by data, such as the proposed elimination of an English teaching position at the high school based on lower enrollment.
“I am data driven and if it makes sense to me, I am for it,” Benware said.
But he added that cuts to technology, staffing and supplies cannot continue year after year, or they will adversely affect the district over time. He points to the Legislature, where state aid to Claremont is projected to drop about 4 percent a year, as where the problem needs to be addressed.
“We need to go back to Concord and probably back to the Supreme Court,” Benware said, referring to a 20-year-old ruling that said the state was not meeting its obligation to adequately fund education for all students.
Benware also wants to explore a facility to bring in the district’s out-of-district placements, which cost $2 million a year, including $300,000 for transportation, Benware said. “If we bring half of them back, we save $150,000.”
Pacetti, 51, is employed by Whelen Engineering and previously has run unsuccessfully for the School Board. His position would be to look more closely at cutting administrative costs.
“The way I feel, the Claremont budget is top-heavy in administration,” said Pacetti, who said he would not have supported adding money to the budget. “The budget needs to have cuts in administration. It needs to come from the top.
“They are cutting technology and equipment. You can’t keep cutting out things for kids and pay salaries for administrators.”
Horsky, 36, works in sales and estimating at Flat Rock Tile & Stone on Washington Street.
He said he supports board members who back in September demanded the administration produce a budget with $1.2 million in reductions from the current year as a starting point for budget discussions.
“I believe the School Board did not make an unreasonable request from the administration to find cuts,” Horsky said. “I believe that the administration tried to strike an emotional chord to find savings for the taxpayers. The compromise that has been made and the warrant articles will leave many taxpayers dissatisfied.”
Horsky further said he does not believe students are getting a good return on their education from the investment by taxpayers.
“The voters of this city who want change need to come out and get their voices heard by voting. If elected, I intend to be part of the change this district needs,” he said.
Mulloy, 42, is a stay-at-home mother who believes the board is committed to doing what is best for the students and community and wants to help it resolve some of the disagreements that characterized the budget process this year.
It will be a challenge, due to reduced state aid, but one that should be addressed through a long-term plan, rather than “an emotionally charged, reactive approach,” Mulloy said. Her husband, Josh Mulloy, is the school district’s technology director.
“We need to avoid the only option being a yearly discussion on what programs and what staff members might we eliminate. If we can’t afford to do things the way we have been doing them, we need to come up with a solution that is going to work for our school and our community as a whole. The final budget represented some, but not all, cuts. I think that’s a good place to start,” she said.
One-Year Seat
James Allen is the director of library services at River Valley Community College and previously was at Vermont Technical College.
With budgeting as one of its main responsibilities, the board is tasked with balancing student needs with those of taxpayers, while the school administration’s job is to advocate for its own perceived needs, he said.
“In this case, I was comfortable with the ‘compromise’ (budget) prior to the deliberative session because it seemed to bring some balance to the situation,” Allen said. “I am hoping that in the future, this process can be marked with civility and respect rather than the acrimonious and divisive nature that we have witnessed these past six months.”
Allen said he believes his experience working with adults and children in both academic and recreational settings make him well suited to the position. “I can make a difference in the overall quality of education that the school is providing,” he said.
Seaman, 59, is the director of finance and operations with the Windsor Central Supervisory Union in Woodstock. He served on the board for seven years before losing a re-election bid a few years ago.
Seaman is critical of the approach to the budget this year, which began in September, when the board gave the order to the superintendent to come up with proposals to cut $1.2 million from the current budget.
“That does not do anyone any good and leaves everyone floundering,” Seaman said. “The budget is reactive. There is no logic to how it was put together. We have to get our focus back and work together.”
If elected, Seaman said, he would push to have the board look at updating its strategic goals.
“Once we know what we want and how to measure it, then the budget falls into place,” Seaman said. “Taxpayers can then agree or not to agree to support it.”
Seaman said the key is having three or four goals and guideposts to measure them over time. “If you can’t measure them, they won’t get done”
Towle, 71, served 4½ years on the City Council and did not seek re-election last November. She works as a legal secretary in a Claremont law office.
She also wants the board to work on strategic goals for the short and long term and do a better job of establishing a capital improvement plan for the school facilities.
But one of her main goals is to put pressure on legislators to increase funding to cities and towns, instead of reducing it.
Claremont is not the only community that is “suffering this wrath,” Towle said. She said she would like to see a “group effort” in cities and towns across the state to force lawmakers to look at ways to increase state aid to education.
“It is just wrong, but there has to be a concerted effort by groups,” she said.
Arming Teachers?
Allowing teachers to have guns has not been discussed in Claremont following the school shooting last month in Florida, but it has been a subject nationally, and if it were to come up, Rapp, Mulloy, Allen, Seaman and Towle all said that under no circumstances would they support allowing teachers to carry guns.
“Worrying about bullets coming from one direction is bad enough without the concern of them coming from multiple directions,” Rapp said. “Simply put, militarizing our schools is not the answer.”
The way to keep “kids safe is to keep guns out of schools,” Seaman said.
Towle said she would like to see the police department get more involved by updating its “active shooter” drill in the schools.
Zullo, Horsky, Benware and Pacetti said they would want to study the issue, but if a teacher had the proper training, they would consider it.
“If a teacher is willing, well-trained, and qualified, I support them having a weapon to defend our children,” Horsky said, echoing the sentiments of Benware and Pacetti.
Zullo said it is a complicated and divisive issue with wide-ranging views. She said she understands some teachers may never want to carry a gun, while others, with the proper permits and training, see it as the best protection against a would-be shooter.
School Warrant
Security upgrades at all district schools and a proposed budget of $34.9 million, which includes the operating portion of $31.47 million, highlight this year’s warrant with four articles.
If voters approve $141,000 for the upgrades, the district will receive a state grant of $561,475, which is 80 percent of the total cost of $702,000.
The money would provide surveillance cameras to monitor the interior and exterior of the schools, including all hallways and common areas inside the school as well as parking lots, blind spots, avenues of approach to the building, areas where parents drop off students, entryways, and the bus drop-off locations, McGoodwin said. Additionally, there will be an electronic access system that relies on an identification card for staff to enter any school and security shades on classroom window and doors.
The operating budget represents a $22,000 decrease from this year and includes $307,000 for the first year of a two-year contract with teachers.
“Our goal will be to focus on student learning, so we will look at instruction and curriculum,” McGoodwin said in explaining how the administration would use the money added to the budget by voters.
If voters approve the budget and all warrant articles — the security upgrades and middle school roof repairs have no tax rate impact — the estimated school tax increase is 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, or $16 in additional taxes on a $150,000 property.
The default budget of $35.11 million and warrant articles have a school tax rate impact of 38 cents.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@ gmail.com.
