Town and school officials in Wayland are hopeful that voters will approve an override of the state's Proposition 2 1/2 tax limits April 8 and the $1.86 million tax increase it would bring to avoid drastic staff, program, and service cuts in every facet of town government.
"If you choose not to vote for the override, you're making a conscious choice to live with lower quality and lower value of services," said Town Administrator Fred Turkington Jr. "I think it's a fairly easy choice to make."
Without an override, schools in Wayland would be hit extremely hard, officials say, since $1.3 million of the proposed tax increase is earmarked for the school system. Without an override, that money would have to come directly out of the $30 million budget for the schools.
"Schools would drastically change from the manner in which they're operated right now," said Superintendent Gary Burton. "There would be school here but not the type of school or student services that we've enjoyed in the past."
A $1.86 million override is expected to raise property taxes by about $323 per year for the owner of a $544,400 home, the average in town, Turkington said. Wayland approved tax overrides of $2.3 million in 2006 and $2.1 million in 2005.
The town and school budgets are to be be finalized at Town Meeting on April 10. If the override fails, Town Meeting will have the chance to make decisions on the cuts. If a majority of residents at Town Meeting do not wish to lose two police officers or freshman sports, for example, they can vote to fund them with money from elsewhere in the town or school budget.
Not every official is for the override. Selectman Alan J. Reiss said he opposes it for two reasons.
"First, since 2002 in Wayland, this would be the fifth override in seven years, and I have people telling me, writing me letters in ink, scribble, and e-mail and screaming out their car windows telling me that they've got to move out of town," Reiss said. "They're struggling and taxes are too much of a burden."
Reiss said he also does not like the method of voting on the override as a whole package with a single yes or no vote affecting the entire town. "It's a tactic that is used to try to get overrides through, and I don't appreciate that tactic," Reiss said. He said he would prefer to see each item that would potentially be cut get its own vote.
Burton said that if the override fails, five elementary school classroom teachers would be laid off, increasing class sizes across the board. A librarian would be lost, leaving the one remaining librarian to service all elementary school pupils. Funding also would be cut for music education and teaching assistants in the elementary grades, he said.
Last month, in an effort to save $250,000 to $300,000, the School Committee decided to convert the Loker Elementary School into a kindergarten-only school, and send all the town's pupils in grades 1 through 5 to the Claypit Hill and Happy Hollow schools.
At the middle school, the entire interscholastic sports program would be lost as well as more than half of the after-school clubs, including its newspaper, the play at the beginning of the school year, and several subject-level clubs, like the math team and science clubs. A total of 5.5 faculty and support staff positions would have to go, leading to cuts in English, math, social studies, science, band, guidance, and library faculty.
At Wayland High School, 17 clubs, including language clubs, Model UN, the literary magazine, study abroad, Amnesty International, mock trial, Students Against Drunk Driving, and the academic decathlon would be dissolved. The annual high school musical would also be lost.
Also gone would be freshman sports and there would be coaching reductions for junior varsity and varsity sports like cross-country, swimming, wrestling, and track. A rejected override also would mean that physical education classes in grades 10 through 12 would be lost.
"We would see an increase in class sizes at all three levels and [fewer] student opportunities outside the classroom to be creative or demonstrate skills and interests or pursue extracurricular opportunities," Burton said. Wayland schools have had to make cuts over the past five years despite the tax increases that have been approved.
"Often it's like trying to decide which child you love the best - $1.3 million from budget, and to think you can do that without impacting students is foolishness," Burton said.
"Taking that much money out of the budget is going to have an immediate impact on the schools."
Other departments also would be asked to make significant cuts without an override. Two police officers and a firefighter would be laid off. Also some park and highway maintenance workers would go, and the library would operate under reduced hours.
The proposed town and school department budgets, including the overrides, assume level funding and make no noncontractual additions, Turkington said.
"Just to put it simply, the cost of healthcare and retirement costs and utility increases alone without raises or inflationary costs exceeds the 2.5 percent we're allowed to raise property taxes by," Turkington said. "Every town starts out needing an override, given that state aid has been flat. State aid was dramatically reduced in Wayland over the past decade."
But Reiss said it's time for Wayland to make cuts, especially in the school budget. "Times are tough. The state money is not coming in; real estate taxes are going up and up at a relentless pace since 2002, and people are hurting.
"I'd rather have larger classes and have people be able to live more comfortably and not be thrown out of town. Do you want ambulances or ski clubs? Do you want police and fire response times, or do you want library hours?"
