Your vote matters on March 10
Claremont’s school district election on March 10 may be the most consequential in a generation. Eight warrant articles will appear on the ballot, and every registered voter should weigh in.
Start with Article 1, the election of school board members. Five of the seven people currently serving bear varying degrees of responsibility for the crisis we now face, as does virtually everyone who has served over the past decade. Audits fell years behind. A $5 million deficit exploded into public view last August. Bluff Elementary was shuttered, and forty staff members lost their jobs. When candidates tout their “experience,” ask yourself: experience doing what? A sane voter does not reward the people whose watch produced this disaster.
Articles 5 and 6 ask whether to authorize the sale of the vacant Bluff Elementary property and the former Masonic Temple at 52 Maple Avenue. Vote yes. The district needs cash, not illiquid real estate, and the maintenance, insurance, and liability costs that come with empty buildings. Selling these properties also returns them to the tax rolls.
Article 7 proposes open enrollment that would welcome outside students while barring Claremont families from sending their children elsewhere. The district wants to collect tuition revenue from incoming students while denying our families the freedom to choose. That turns children into revenue streams. Tax money spent educating children should be directed by parents, not by the district’s bottom line.
Article 8 is the citizen-petitioned budget cap. Every current board member signed this warrant without having read it. That tells you everything about the institutional culture that allowed per-pupil spending to climb 41% in a decade while proficiency remained dismal. Board terms are staggered so that voter discontent takes years to produce turnover. Strong guardrails are required to prevent the people who created this crisis from creating the next one. Vote yes.
Polls are open March 10, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Claremont Middle School (Wards 1 and 2) and Disnard Elementary (Ward 3). The people who created this crisis are counting on low turnout. Prove them wrong.