Category Archives: The Budget

The budget, Newburyport, MA, an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time.

Newburyport, Future of our Schools

I have heard a lot of information recently about the future of our schools in Newburyport. I would first like to discuss the rich history of Newburyport and it’s commitment to education.

I have worked and lived in this community as a social worker for almost 20 years. Many Newburyporters born and raised here have shared with me the importance of their neighborhoods. This has traditionally been a close knit community. Southenders have talked about the Brown School with deep affection. Downtowners have talked with love about the Kelly School. North and Westenders have talked about the warmth of the Bellville School (now known as the Bresnahan). It appears that some of what has knitted this community together is its neighborhoods and the schools where parents meet on the playground waiting for their children.

I know times have changed and the people that have lived here. I’ve been here long enough now that I grieve missing buildings, businesses and people. Nobody likes too much change. We can guarantee this change with the redistribution of children from community schools to city wide schools.

I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Lyons. I know that these changes are due to the lack of financial support on a Federal and State level, not just a community level. I don’t think it is productive to blame any one community group for this.

I also am a graduate of public school education and my son has had the benefit of an incredible education here in Newburyport. I don’t want a private education for my son. I believe some of the most dedicated educators are those in our own community.

I know the teachers purchase the majority of supplies on their incomes. I know that if we averaged the income of those in our community today, they might not reach the income of our teachers. I also believe that part of what makes a community great is its dedication to education.

I recently read a book about Newburyport History, “Newburyport: Stories from the Waterside” by Liz Nelson. I was not aware that in 1843 Newburyport established the first female high school in America. “A newspaper article fifty years later describes….efforts as being “bitterly opposed by the citizens…who could not tolerate…so vulgar a notion” …..The school committee presented a highly favorable report to the town meeting” and it was voted in!

I think that we need to consider as a community what will be said in future generations about us. Will we have established a precedence of caring about education or will it be bitterly opposed? Will we have a close knit community?

I ask you to give citizens of Newburyport the right to vote on the future of our community and its schools. 1) on an override that would only last three years, and 2) if we want a community wide school versus a neighborhood school.

I think that we all should have the right, just as they did in 1843, to decide what our future holds.

Lindamae Lucas
Newburyport

(Editor’s note: The quotation above is from “Newburyport: Stories from the Waterside,” Liz Nelson, Commonwealth Editions, Beverly, MA, 2000, pages 54 and 55.)

Newburyport, Elementary School Sweeping Recommendations

Wow!

I’m a (former) Kelly School parent, but (as I think I mentioned in an earlier post) I think it’s time say “adios” to neighborhood schools, (weep) close the Kelly and get on with Superintendent Kevin Lyons’ recommendations. And sweeping, they certainly are.

I think maybe I can say this because looking back, it is my very firm belief that what made a difference in my son’s Newburyport Public School education were all the guardian angels within the system all the way along (they still exist), and concerned and supportive parental involvement.

I listen to worried parents who say, “but it’s different now” and no one seems to want to hear about the guardian angel stuff, but it’s true.

To quote The Newburyport Current, March 9, 2007:

“Obviously we’re concerned,” (City Councilor Tom Jones ) Jones said, “but it’s what I’ve said before – Dr. Lyons is a pragmatic person; he’s thinking outside the box. I’m encouraged by that zero sum look at the budget.”

“I’m glad we’ve gone away from discussing shiny new buildings to discussing shiny new students,” Jones added…”

(Me too.)

“I’m ecstatic that we have Dr. Lyons here to take us through this,” (City Councilor Steve Hutcheson ) Hutcheson said. “He’s made the best of what was given him; I’m glad we hired him!” ”

(Yup, that’s what I think also.)

I don’t know, now that it’s warmer out, and the shock of Superintendent Lyons’ recommendations wears off, maybe there will be a citywide stoning of the gentleman in question. I hope not.

Leadership calls for making tough and innovative decisions. Superintendent Kevin Lyons has certainly made really tough and innovative decisions on this conundrum.

But this is Newburyport, MA. Who knows what could happen in the coming weeks and months.

Cool heads. Hope so.

Wild Newburyport Elementary School saga. Very possible indeed.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport

Newburyport, MA, Capital Improvement Plan Needed

A while back I was on one of the mayor’s “transition teams.” It was quite a while back, and I really couldn’t figure out why in the world they wanted me on there. (I later concluded it was to “shut me up,” which worked for a while, but I gotta say, not forever.)

I don’t know how or if I ever did help the transition team (the group of people put together to give the new mayor information on the state of the city so he or she can make a smoother “transition” into the Office of Mayor of Newburyport, MA), but I learned a whole lot about the city of Newburyport, MA. And some of it was pretty discouraging.

I remember sitting around the table and listening to the different reports that were being summarized for the incoming mayor and my jaw was dropping. Financially, (and this was a while back when, mind you) it seemed as if the City of Newburyport, MA was in really, really bad shape in almost every department.

And yes, one of the things that came up way back then was that the Fire Department of Newburyport, MA desperately, desperately needed new fire trucks. And also, it didn’t appear that there was any capital improvement plan in place for the City of Newburyport, MA.

So I guess I wasn’t really surprised to read in the Newburyport Daily News, February 20, 2007 that low and behold, the Newburyport Fire Department trucks from 1968 and 1979 (I mean we’re talking ancient here) had finally given up the ghost.

It sounded to me that the Newburyport Fire Department trucks had given up the ghost way back whenever, when I was sitting around the table listening to the “transition team.”

And that the two newest Newburyport Fire Departments trucks were made in 1993. That’s not exactly young, brand spanking, sparkling new.

Well, Yikes.

I was very glad to read in that article in the Newburyport Daily News that Mayor John Moak has been working on a capital improvement plan for the City of Newburyport, MA, “work that includes funding repairs to schools, fixing sidewalk problems and buying a new firetruck.”

And I am sure that Mayor John Moak got the same bad news that I had heard so many moons ago, but even worse, since those Newburyport Fire Department trucks, and everything else, were/are that many more years older.

And this is one of the many, many reasons that I would never want to be mayor of Newburyport, MA. And think that being on the Newburyport City Council is not exactly a picnic either.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport

The Newburyport City Budget

This is why I wouldn’t want to be mayor of Newburyport, Massachusetts or on the Newburyport City Council. It’s the budget. Not to repeat myself, but there are a lot of things in the City of Newburyport that I might possibly be able to arrive at some sort of solution to, but not this one.

Thank goodness for people who have the talent and the knowledge and the will to begin to be able to figure this one out. It would most definitely keep me up at night.

Looking at the choices that the schools face, it’s heart breaking. I can see why the Newburyport School Committee just could not bring themselves to cut anything more than they already have. Wow.

I’ve always felt that there were no easy answers when it came to the budget, and this year is obviously no exception.

So a very sincere “good luck” to Mayor John Moak and the Newburyport City Council. And “thank you” for all the time and effort and hard work that it takes to tackle something of this magnitude.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport