Q & A - continued (live reporting)

Q - Are Marini's apartments or condominiums?
A - Condominiums. Condos are actually a good deal for the town, they are taxed upon their value. They generally have less children.

Comment from a resident who teaches in Wellesley. She would love to teach here but with the cuts so frequently, she would be one of the first out the door.

Q - Why is the override only affecting the schools?
A - Jeff answers that the 1.8 million in new revenue was split and the town managed to use their portion. The safety (fire and police) got their overtime cut.

Jim Roche
The safety departments were looking for additional folks but they did not get approved in the budget. The town will suffer but it won't be as visible.

Comment: You have a bad rap, you didn't ask for enough so you don't know what you're doing. I am not hearing the buzz that I heard last year. I am hearing a lot more negative this time.

Wayne Ogden
Q - How does the charter school funding work?
A - It is a state formula but the dollars per student that the district pays is what the charter is eligible to receive. So if our funding goes up, they will benefit. If ours go down, theirs will as well.

Q - What about out of town students?
A - We only use school choice to fill spots that would otherwise be empty. Therefore there is no additional cost for us but there is additional revenue.

Q - Can we talk about re-districting?
A - It is highly likely that this will happen sometime. The large majority of the new development coming is in the Keller-Sullivan district. You already tight for space there. As the new construction comes online, this will increase the pressure to re-district and balance the school population amongst the existing facilities. One other factor is the 17 modular units that would need to get replaced in the next several years. Would we replace them or add on to an existing elementary school. There is a space needs committee working on this issue.

Q - Is the Brick school open or closed?
A - It is still in currently but it has not been fully funded. There are open classrooms at Davis Thayer that could easily absorb the classroom.

Q - The Newcomer's group is looking to use space for the meetings but the town facilities are not generally open or under consideration.
A - Jeff Nutting says that this could be discussed.