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School Busing
(and more of)
"Last night at the Advisory Board meeting the Selectman offered the School Committee an additional $30K of the expected $90K that the bus fees would have generated for the schools. This $30K represents the amount of money that would be generated from the anticipated bus fee that presently offsets our operating budget. The School Committee accepted the Selectmen's offer and rescinded its vote to implement a bus fee in FY'08."Keep it up, SM... will you EVER get your stories straight??
On a separate note I was pleased to see last night that the SC decided
not to implement the bus fee. Kudos go out to the BOS and Selectmen led
by Jim Lehan for kicking in $20k towards the [school] budget so that the bus
fee will not be implemented in FY 2008. Just because SC's of other
towns have implemented bus fees to enhance their revenues doesn't make
it right. We have an obligation as a community to make sure our kids get
to school safely and we don't have the sidewalks in place so that kids
can walk safely to school. Also the costs of running the school should
be the responsibility of all taxpayers and we should not be unfairly
burdening those parents with kids in the school, especially those with
large families.
[I have a problem with the term "Trojan Horse" candidate. Trojan Horse implies that something is not as it would appear, for the sole purpose of gaining trust, and will change in nature once accepted. However, the opinions on Talerman have cited extensively from the record, and in fact are asking us to vote based on the record! My quandary - if it's part of the record, can it be said to be deceptive? Can any candidate who is running on and is being challenged on their public record be said to be a "Trojan Horse" candidate?
Put another way, we're being asked to choose a candidate based on their
public record. If we do, and they get elected, and they act, as we are
cautioned, in a manner consistent with that record, how is it meaningful
to suggest that we will have been deceived? - Wm.]
The School Committee will attend a
meeting with the Advisory Board on
Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 7:30 PM
At the Norfolk Town Hall - Room 124
As I understand it, the SC will be discussing with the Board alternate
ways of dealing with the bus fee as it has previously been proposed. I
will be attending the meeting an encourage others to as well.
Also, I have contacted the person at the MA Board of Education who
oversees safety concerns and am waiting to hear back.
Regards,
To state that the looming
townwide fiscal crisis in FY09 is due to the teacher contract is
downright silly. First of all the contract is up for negotiation
next year so we do not know what the increases will be beyond FY08.
Second, I urge you to look at the school bugets and town warrants
as voted by town meeting for the past few years. Look at the salary
line item for the schools (which includes the teachers' salaries
as well as the Superintendent's, and all others, and any staffing
cuts or additions). On average this cost has increased 2.4 percent
year on year. Compare that to the town (all non-school related
departments combined) of 6.0 percent year on year increases. It
is clear the contracts called into question aren't bankrupting the
town. Anticipating your next comment, the above figures do not
include any benefits costs on the school side or town side. When
you add those costs in and move the schools portion of the benefits
to the salary line items (comparing salary and benefits costs for
the non-school employees to the same figure for Norfolk Elementary
employees) the schools increase from FY06 to FY07 was 3.9 percent
versus the towns 9.7 percent. I agree with you that this is a very
important election. The town finances are in dire straits and
we all need to work together to solve the challenges we face. I
have heard similar sentiments from others in town and urge everyone
to vote on Tuesday.
JPB, Providing safe transportation for our children to school is,
and always has been, a goal of the School Committee. Buses will
remain available for all children to use next year (unlike what
Franklin is proposing), and remains the safest, most efficient
method of getting children to and from school. The only change
will be families that live within 2 miles of school will have to
pay a portion of the cost if a fee is imposed. To characterize the
introduction of a bus fee as putting children at risk is using scare
tactics to cloud the issue, and simply not true. Also stating that
this is suddenly an issue for the Board of Selectmen at the 11th
hour is incorrect. The School Committee has been in discussions
with town hall since early last fall on the issue and the financial
need the fee will fill, if we decide to charge one, was known to
all parties the first week of January.
Regards,
Based on my interpretation of the interviews, Lehan believes that the
Selectmen's job is to balance the budget with the goal of no reduction
in services. In order to do this Selectmen must have strong
knowledge of finance and they must have the leadership skills so they
can effectively push back and get each department to give something up
and share equally in the pain. Lehan stated that "the town only has one
checkbook" and that we collectively work together through the process.
Jim Lehan is Chairman of the BOS and they have balanced the budget
without the need for overrides for two years in a row. Second, they have done
it without reaching into savings (free cash), so in my book hats off to
Lehan and the BOS because they have gotten the job done.
Talerman's approach, on the other hand, is what I would call the lawyerly
"Socratic" approach. In Talerman's view nothing is off the table and
budgets don't matter ("Policy dictates budgets") and all departments
should make their case to the BOS as to why they need additional money.
If Talerman believes that the department made a compelling case for more
money and the money is not available in the overall budget, Talerman
would put the question to the voters in the form of a "pocket override"
for that department. Talerman made the statement "Overrides are a way of
doing business." Talerman's definition of a pocket override is that
rather than have one large override, there would be separate overrides
for each department. Thus each department and Town Board would make
their case and then the voters would decide "a la carte" which override
to support. Sounds kinda good on the surface, democratic and all.
However, as you think it through, pocket overrides could be devastating
because the process would pit special interest groups and Town Boards
against each other; all of them fighting for limited resources. The end
result would be one department cannibalizing resources from others and
we would have a situation where essential public safety services would
be compromised.
Thus it swings full circle back to the role of the Selectmen. In my view
the Selectmen's job to take a business approach to the budgets and
derive the greatest value of service possible from the given
expenditure. (Yes Mr. Talerman, the business analogy does apply - we
the taxpayers are the Towns' shareholders and it's the Selectmen's job to
get he greatest value of services possible for our tax dollars.) After
completing this process, if an override is necessary then the BOS should
propose an override that takes into account all of the public services
required by the public and recommend one override that covers all of
these needs.
Imagine for a minute a Talerman-led budget process where
the Schools got their money but the fire department did not and as a
result they can only have one ambulance on call. Then some day they
receive two 911 emergency calls at same time and can only respond to
one and as a result a resident dies. I know the example is extreme, but
it points to how important the Selectman's job is and why Jim Lehan is
the better candidate. Rather than abdicate the Selectmen's
responsibility to the voters via the pocket override, Lehan understands
that we are all in the same boat together and that its Selectmen's job
to make sure that all essential services are provided to residents.
Thus voters shouldn't be fooled by the Talerman's [Deval] Patrick type
campaign; promising nothing, dreaming of everything.
Perhaps one solution would be to eliminate Spanish, or computers. Would that
be desirable? Probably not, at least not to many... but in terms of which
services are most important to elementary schools, I would say that busing
is more critical than either Spanish or computers. The fact that we are
referring to elementary schools should not be lost in this argument. If we
were speaking of high school students, my opinion might be different. For a
high a high school student (old enough to walk or ride safely and
independently... and being mature enough in their education/career path to
actually determine whether or not a foreign language might be beneficial to
them), I would most likely side more on funding foreign language or
computers, rather than free busing. But that is a separate argument, not
completely relevant, given the fact that we have a regional high school.
Now when I spoke about eliminating safe transportation, I was not creating a
misconception. I said, in fact, "safe, free transportation". We (you) are
suggesting we eliminate safe, free transportation... all the while, still
finding money for Spanish and computers. Nothing has changed that. That is
simply a fact. Please correct me if any part of that is wrong.
But DM, while I have your ear (eyes), and in all seriousness: Would you be
able to share your thoughts on a couple related points? I realize that your
thoughts are your own, and I really do appreciate your participation in this
forum.
I do want to clear up a misconception that the opponents of this
proposal like to spread. We are not eliminating safe transportation
to school for any child. We agree with Chief Stone that the best,
most efficient, safest, and most environmentally friendly method
of getting children to and from school is to use the bus. I realize
household budgets are tight-it is no different in my home-and that
charging a fee of any amount may cause some families to stop using
the bus. I hope that our efforts to work with town leadership
(which we initiated last fall on this topic
and only last week gained traction) bear fruit and we are able to
avoid having to charge a bus fee next year.
Regards,
On another note, it looks by the photo and your comments that your
served our country in the past. Thanks to you and to all our troops
that serve our country. Any disagreements about the war are not
directed to the troops that are serving. Our family has a young
relative in Korea on his way to Iraq or Afganistan.
He, like all volunteers that make up the School Committee, are
consistently trying to do what is best for the children attending
our two elementary schools and the town as a whole. Personnally I
think you should lay off picking on John, he's a good man with a
pure heart.
Regards,
I don't think I called anyone the "m word" (I can't believe I just
phrased it like that) directly. I just went back and re-read my
postings, and I can't find the case where I did. I use the term
"moonbat" to generally address people (and their rambling) who are so
pre-occupied with hating George Bush, that everything else falls by the
wayside when they confront almost any subject... Certainly any political
subject.
All of this arose because, when I posed questions about allocating the
limited monies which we have to one program (busing) over another
(Spanish or computers), the responses I received (from you and from SO)
were not at all related to the bussing issue, but rather to George Bush,
and his lack of visiting Canada before being elected. Where did that
come from? I never mentioned Bush, or Canada, or Ambassadors.... I
simply was asking about the priorities of spending limited funds on
bussing versus other programs such as Spanish or computers.
[Very well, here are a few cases where it was pretty clear to me from the context that people were being called "moonbats" or worse:
``LD: You very well may be a moonbat, I don't know. Your inclination to
follow the lead in these posts... [...] might qualify you'' and
``So simple in fact, I'm sure even a lost
moonbat could understand it. But, for those who strive for moonbat
status, ''
(4/13 5:18pm)
``the standard moonbat talking points: George Bush this.... Iraq that....''
(4/13 5:09pm)
``Sounds to mean like a moonbat talking point.''
(4/13 9:57am)
In my book, creating an inference that a comment or an opinion voiced
by someone is tantamount to a "moonbat talking point" or calling those who
have chosen to ignore a particular question stupider than a moonbat
is the same as calling them a moonbat and calling them stupid.
And only a moonbat wouldn't see that.
(I'm making a point, I didn't call anyone a moonbat! But it aptly
illustrates the point :-) - Wm.]
Specifically, I use the term is the same light as a local Boston Herald
columnist, Howie Carr.
Boston commentator Howie Carr has been using the term in his Boston Herald columns and on his radio show since July 2005. In September, 2006, Carr ran a number of segments called "How do you spot a moonbat?" on his daily radio show, and described a moonbat as "A left-wing nut who probably suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome." [Having listened to Howie Carr's program (he always struck me as a liberal hosting a conservative show -- he seemed to be laughing at some of his callers; it could be quite amusing), I gather Moonbat is a term of derision and insult. So how about cutting back on the Moonbat-isms? - Wm.]
One more time... I did not bring up George Bush, or Iraq, or any other
such nonsense. SO did and MGD did and you did.
I raised a very simple question. So simple in fact, I'm sure even a lost
moonbat could understand it. But, for those who strive for moonbat
status, but aren't quite there yet, let me pose it one more time.
Faced, as we are, with limited funds... Faced as we are with having to
cut an expense, if funds can't be found....
Does it make more sense to cut safe transportation, or Spanish for first
graders?
You see...that is, after all, what we are doing: cutting a service
(free, safe bus rides), for lack of funds.
Simple question folks!! And guess what? Your answer will surely
reflect the state of your moonbatness, or not.
Jay has just recently used his municipal legal expertise as a Conservation
Committee member to prevent the town pond from being built, ignoring the
will the taxpayers who liked the idea of building a recreational faculty
and approved the construction of the pond at the last town meeting. Jay
Talerman [...] unilaterally filed a lawsuit with the
Commonwealth of Mass to block this project without even first consulting
the Recreation Department and attempting to work out their differences This
sort of divisive power play comes right out of the SC's playbook. We are
tired of the SC and Talerman's divisive power plays and expect more out of
our elected town officials.
Put aside your own hidden personal agendas and
work together for the common good of the town. We don't need more power
plays such as when the SC cancelled a long standing Library Shared Services
agreement without any discussion or even having the courtesy and decency to
inform the Library Trustees before they made their decision. I have been
around town long enough to see candidates like Talerman get elected based
on fancy slogans and it's only after they are in power that we learn about
their hidden personal agendas. So I repeat again beware of Talerman the
"Trojan Horse" Candidate. This analogy has more levels than just his
strong affiliation with the SC and their common ideology.
On his web site, Mr. Talerman boasts that he was responsible for securing
$440,000 in funds for the town from the 40B condo project being built in
the town center. Note however that the $440k can only be used for
affordable housing. I can recall at last year's town meeting there was a
stealth warrant up for vote to establish a special fund to hold the $440k.
So I took the meeting floor to find out why we needed a special fund in the
first place and the surprising response was the restricted fund was
required because the legal agreement (we now know this was drafted by
Talerman) specified that $440,000 could only be used to build affordable
housing. I pressed George Hall the town counsel and he affirmed that the
money could not be put back into the general fund therefore the town needed
a special fund. So picture this, the town is on a real tight budget with
many needs; the $440,000 could have been used for the schools or to
establish a vehicle stabilization fund but instead the town is being forced
to spend the money to build affordable housing for those that can't afford
to live in Norfolk. The taxpayer is already sufficiently funding affordable
housing through the Community Preservation act and the CPA fund has around
$3 million in it. So I don't know why Mr. Talerman and the other powers to
be made the decision to divert $440k of taxpayer money and give it away to
others
In my book Mr. Talerman's actions represent a form of creeping socialism
that unfortunately is all too prevalent at the town level. Boards such as
the CPC have giving away your tax dollars to others in the form of outright
grants. So before you cast your vote, I would caution voters to look
beyond Talerman, the slick well spoken candidate and really study his
political ideology and prior actions.
"I hope everyone will take the time to find out more about Jay Talerman: His
municipal experience, his long range vision, and his global understanding of
all of these issues would make him a huge asset to this community, be you
old, young, with children in the school system (or not), concerned about the
moonscape and its frustrating lack of progress, or concerned about Norfolk's
dwindling open space.
Other towns pay lots of money for Jay's expertise; you know that old saying
about the cow and milk?
Please take the time to learn more about Jay Talerman.. "
Agreed... I find it very amusing to picture Jay Talerman as anyone's "Trojan
Horse" (SM). If anyone has ever met Jay or heard him speak intelligently
on how he wants to improve Norfolk for everyone, they would know that no
one is "using" Jay Talerman. There is no conspiracy, SM. Jay is an
intelligent, experienced individual and, IMHO, the best candidate for
Selectman. Things need to change in Norfolk, and not just in the weeks
before an election. Vote for Jay Talerman and Norfolk will surely benefit.
I find comfort in my argument, when my opponent's best recourse is to divert
the subject away from the critical points at hand (grin), and so I must
ponder what these thoughts have to do with the proposed busing fee, or
first grade foreign language instruction:
Look, I could go on and on, but having the Wm slice my post in half (linking
to another page) is frustrating, so let me get back to the subject at hand:
the busing fee.
The school department has a budget.The school department has many costs.
One of the costs is teaching Spanish to first graders.One of the costs is transporting children safely to school.
Given a budget which is not sufficient to cover the costs, which of these
two costs (above) would be more important to fund?
Which, then of those two costs should be more dependent on the school
departments ability to raise additional fund?
It is as simple as that!
And you know, I have to ask (since you have such an obvious exposure to
language diversity): At what age/grade did you first encounter a structured
language instruction? Was it first grade? Was it Junior High? High school?
Was it a public or private school.
Seriously, I would be interested in your answers, unless your blood pressure
now is begging you to cede the argument. ;)
(Wm: I know this is long... but please, at least initially, leave it intact,
so that they have a chance to read it without having to leave the page.
Thank you :))
The taxpayers have no idea of what the other departments have come in
at, as the Selectmen have yet to publish any other Department's budgets.
And SM, it's no secret that Jay Talerman supports the schools; it is
right there on his website for the whole world to see at
jaytalerman.com.
Jay is campaigning with the following goals:
1) An efficient Town Hall
2) A Healthy School System
3) Preservation of Open Space and Smart Development
4) Housing and Tax Abatement for Seniors
Jay Talerman's contact information is on his website, so I am sure
anyone with any questions can contact him for more information. There is
also Candidate's Night where questions about any of the above can be
asked of either candidate.
I hope everyone will take the time to find out more about Jay Talerman:
His municipal experience, his long range vision, and his global
understanding of all of these issues would make him a huge asset to this
community, be you old, young, with children in the school system (or
not), concerned about the moonscape and its frustrating lack of
progress, or concerned about Norfolk's dwindling open space.
Other towns pay lots of money for Jay's expertise; you know that old
saying about the cow and milk?
Please take the time to learn more about Jay Talerman..
Maybe with a change the Selectmen would actually produce some revenue
for Norfolk for a change. And by the way, Jay Talerman can't raise
anyone's taxes more than 2-1/2%, same as Jim Lehan. The difference is,
Jay Talerman might actually allow us the right to VOTE again on
important matters in this town!
I'm against extravagent spending from the schools to the Taj Ma Library to
the DPW, and I'm supporting Jay because I've had the pleasure to work with
Jay both in town, and in his professional life, and I've found him to be a
straight shooter who tells it like it is and has a wide breadth of
experience in other communities to draw from which will help him avoid many
of the mistakes other towns have made.
It's the grand conspiracy theories and balkanization of town government
that's dysfunctional, and I think Jay is the best candidate to break through
that.
Thus it would seem that Mr. Talerman is the School Committee's "Trojan
Horse" candidate for the Selectmen. This is very disconcerting because we
need fiscally prudent selectmen that will make the tough decisions.
Otherwise we will be facing overrides every year. Can you imagine what a
financial mess we would have if the "Senior Members" of the SC were using
Talerman as a surrogate and were secretly running the town government?
Instead of cheering another year of no overrides we would be suffering
through another year of our annual overrides. Talerman has made it already
made it known - spend more money on everything and then send the bill to
you the taxpayer. This guy Talerman and his School Committee puppeteers are
scary.
Prior to Feb 6, there had been a lot of talk about potential bus
fees. But the Selectmen never offered to bring it into the town
side of the budget for all those months. And like I said, implementing
or not implementing bus fees does not change the fact that Boardman
St. has been unsafe for cars, buses, children, seniors, pedestrians,
neighbors for years. Why didn't the Selectmen improve Boardman St.
before? Why are they suddenly now concerned with safety? ... right
before the election... hmmmm...
How did we get here? Obviously the economy in 2002 was a huge factor,
we also have MCAS and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates. NCLB needs to
be funded better from a Fed'l level and the state needs to put it's
money where it's mouth is. Also, the formulas for funding such things
as Special Ed are seriously flawed. Consider a child at KP who needs to
be educated out of district at say $150k to $200k. We, the district,
must pay $30k and then 28% above the circuit breaker. That is say $150
k minus $30k times 28%. We all must pay for the education of all
students and the formulas put too much of a burden on individual
districts.
What do we do? We all need to get involved and start lobbying our
representatives. A number of us who comprise a local chapter of Stand
for Children recently met with Rep Ross and Sen Brown. We've also been
talking to the superintendents and school committee members of the
regional district as well as Norfolk. Both committees have legislative
liasons who are also tackling the issue with the reps. A number of us
have written letters to various members of the senate and house as well
as Gov. Patrick. We are asking that formulas be reviewed and the fat
taken out of the spending so money can be devoted to education.
There is a rally at the State House on 4/25. We'd love to fill the bus
from Norfolk. I think we have 25 so far and have space. We'd love to
have you join us not only at the rally but working at the local level to
bring more money into the district.
Please note, all statistics have been gathered from the DOE web site or
provided to us by Stand for Children a nat'l as well as state
organization.
But you know what? Maybe I'd be a lot less cynical if Mr. Hathaway and
the Selectmen showed the town the other Department's budgets. Why is it
that only the school budget is public at this point?
And how 'bout certifying the free cash? Hear they still have yet to
comply with the Commonwealth. And the Selectmen talked about how "Jane
Wall really burned the midnight oil" to comply with these requests. If
Jane Wall has a year to complete the process, and needs to "burn the
midnight oil" to get the job done six months after the fact, maybe the
taxpayers deserve someone more qualified, no? And where was Jack
Hathaway through all of this?
How can you defend this administration?
On
another note with the cost of the software. Hypothetically speaking, if
you need approval for capital outlay for a purchase above (lets say)
$5000, one might tell a vendor to invoice us now for (lets say) $4000,
and over the next couple of years add the additional purchase price,
interest and maintenance fees into a yearly contract (62% of the
original cost). Typically a business would not incur an expenditure
until there was a need for it (busing software). Now it looks like we
own software and a maintenance contract and there are second thoughts
about charging a busing fee. Where does that leave us with our
software. School Committee, your responsibility is to The Children of
Norfolk. Nobody Else.
SM - the Selectmen have not
offered anything, so don't jump to any conclusions. Watch the meeting.
Are SM and DM related? Find other ways to bring in 16K in revenue to
the schools.
Related: I thought that I had read in the Boomerang that tonight the
subject will be discussed again in a follow-up meeting. Now, having
re-read the article, it looks like the meeting I was thinking of is in
fact a budget subcommittee meeting. Is that correct? Does anyone know
here and when that meeting will be, and if it is open to the public?
Beyond some other large influx of funds, such as commercial
development which has its own problems, money for running the town and
schools must come from the state or our pockets. The current model that
Norfolk has chosen to adopt is to cut and cut and when the finances get
completely desperate (after 2-3 years of tightening already razor thin
budgets) ask the townspeople for an override. Such a cycle at best
restores the town to an acceptable level of funding for that one year
and then the slide towards financial crisis starts all over again.
Regarding the bus fee, contrary to some posts I am not looking
at this as a source of funds other than to offset a huge liability that
we are not legally obligated to pay for. I have said this before and
will do so again here: I do not want to charge a bus fee, however we
cannot continue to fully subsidize over a quarter of a million dollars
for bussing every year that we don't have to at the expense of classroom
instruction. This is the case whether the budget is part of the school
line item or moved to the town in my opinion.
Regards,
DM, a SC member, recognizes this and to his credit in his last post he
stated "I'm glad that Jack and the Selectmen have taken up the
proposal discussed at the School Committee public hearing on 4/3.
Several parents suggested this, and we requested that Jack bring this
back to the Selectmen for them to discuss and decide upon. This recent
interaction is a great example of how we can work together to solve
tough problems we face as a town."
The way the school system is setup, they need 400K-500K every years to
keep the same service level. This model is essentially flawed, the town
revenue doesn't grow this amount every year, and with the real estate
market in the slump. The town would be lucky to pull current level of
revenue for next few years.
So my question for DM is where we go from here? The current model is
unsustainable, every year we spent six month wondering how we will fill
the budget gap, perhaps we should also start thinking about long term
solution to this chronic problem.
1) As WB pointed out, it is no secret that Selectmen
and the school committee have been at odds for a long time now.
The Selectmen have stated that the school committee should cut
programs and increase class sizes to maintain a zero increase in
the school budget this year and years past. Thus, the Selectmen
failed to see the busing issue as a community issue and preferred
to pin busing costs on the school committee as their responsibility.
2) Why is there no money for the school committee to maintain the
programs they have and avoid bus fees? Because the Selectmen have
failed to bring in any real revenues to Norfolk. They have failed
to work hard to bring in grant money and find significant revenue
generating ideas to alleviate the funding crisis for all our
departments, not just the schools.
3) If the Selectmen are so
concerned with safety, all of a sudden, why has Boardman St. in
front of the school been so dangerous and poorly maintained for
many years? People on that street have complained about the safety,
bad sidewalks, pot holes for years. It fell on deaf ears with The
Selectmen. (Maybe inaction is what the Selectman consider responsible
town government and fiscal prudence.)
Now suddenly, three weeks
before the election, they see the light! Come on! School busing
should be a community responsibility. The roads and sidewalks around
our schools should be safe and well-maintained. The Selectmen should
act as leaders and rise above conflict instead of getting mired in
it. These things are what we demand as a community and the Selectmen
should have stepped up to the plate a long time ago to act on these
concerns. Don't be fooled by their sudden magnanimous gesture, after
all, there is an election right around the corner...
Don't get me wrong, I find it adorable that my little seven year old can
count in Spanish, and I understand completely how such a skill will
undoubtedly become more and more of an asset to her as we lose our
national identity to ever growing waves of illegal immigration...
But I digress.
My point is only this: Old as I am (44), I never experienced foreign
language education until I was in the 8th grade. Do I find it helpful to
offer it sooner? Sure. But to do so cost money, and if we are saying
that, given limited funds, it makes more sense to cut busing than it
does to cut Spanish (or computers) for our elementary schools... well
folks, if that is the case, I'm afraid our priorities are askew.
My belief is that the new "fee" has nothing to do with busing, but
everything to do with finding new and creative ways to suck a little
more blood out of the tax payers of Norfolk. The ridiculous expenses for
software, related to the busing, bears this fact out.
I missed the first SC meeting, but I will be attending tonight. I hope
that every concerned taxpayer in Norfolk is there as well. Even if you
have no children in school, or no children impacted by the fee, your
real estate taxes are by and large directed to the school system. The
fact that the SOC is attempting to institute this fee simply means that
your and my tax dollars, formerly used for busing, can now be spent in
other ways.
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