Override Looking Like A Red-Headed Step Child

If success has a thousand fathers, the forthcoming $1,067,157 Proposition 2 ½ override vote appears to be heading for an orphanage.

The Norfolk School Committee voted 3-1 with one abstention this week to recommend the override to voters.

That’s a majority, but in the vast majority of communities in Massachusetts a school committee unanimously endorses an override and at least informally helps organize a campaign for it. A split result is unusual.

The Board of Selectmen never discussed the override during its meeting this past Monday night, eight days before the special town election. Neither is it on the agenda for the selectmen’s meeting this coming Monday, the day before the special town election, although selectmen could still choose to discuss it.

To be sure, the selectmen voted 3-0 to put the override on the ballot earlier this spring and have spoken in public meetings about the need for it in the past.

Just not the recent past.

It isn’t that town and school officials don’t think they need the money. It’s just that they don’t think they’re going to get it.

Boards always make contingency budgets, so they have an idea of what direction they’re headed in if an override fails. But in recent weeks key boards have discussed their no-override budgets as if they are Plan A.

Therefore, police are expecting to lose one officer. The Fire Department is preparing to make do with no training budget and reduced room for overtime pay in case of emergencies. Elementary school officials are scrambling to put together a package of cost reductions and fees, though it’s not clear what it will end up being.

The reason is that town officials think the economy is in tough enough shape that many voters won’t support an operating budget override even if they would prefer to preserve localgovernment services.

But why the reluctance to recommend an override?

Thomas Doyle, the member of the Norfolk School Committee who voted against recommending the override, said in an interview after the committee meeting Wednesday night that he struggled with the decision.

But he noted that the School Committee is already increasing the school bus fee and fees on prekindergarten and kindergarten and may implement a band fee; and that the voters in December approved a $36.9 million Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusion for a new elementary school to replace Freeman-Centennial.

“I guess I then just have an issue with going back to the parents essentially a third time. They’ve paid their freight. … Just philosophically, the parents have done their fair share, if you will,” Doyle said.

John Olivieri, the School Committee member who abstained, said he doesn’t believe the committee should try to sway the voters.

“I think it’s got to be up to the people, without influence,” Olivieri said in an interview late this week. “It should be a clear decision one way or the other, by the people, and that’s why I abstained.”

Shawn Dooley, chairman of the School Committee, supports the overrideand has argued that the school district needs it just to minimize the impact of spending cuts — which will be necessary even if the override passes.

But even Dooley backed off a plan he announced during the School Committee meeting this week to argue for the override n a letter to The Norfolk Boomerang.

Dooley sent the letter, which appears in this week’s issue. But as he notes in it, he decided to let readers know how the School Committee is trying to reduce its projected budget gap rather than arguing directly for approval of the override.

The override did receive some support from parents during the School Committee meeting this past Wednesday night. But there has been little buzz in town about the override and no overt campaign for it.

Privately, many local officials say they don’t expect the override to pass, which may explain the lack of a concerted effort to support it.

At this point, if the override passes it would be an upset akin to Switzerland defeating Spain in World Cup soccer. (Which happened, incidentally.)