It isn’t often that you get to use the words chronic and crisis in the same sentence. The frequency occurs annually with the Mohawk Trail school budget. At Town Meeting people speak to the budget. The reply all too often is if you’re opposed to the budget you’re opposed to education. I’m all for education and responsible spending.
The School Committee wrings its hands and doesn’t get it arms around cost. The glaring cost is transportation. Four times a day a school bus the size of an aircraft carrier passed my house with two kids on it. How is that cost efficient? The committee reports its hands are tied by state mandates. The state throws crumbs in response to the cries in the western Massachusetts wilderness. If the state continues to mandate a one-size-fits-all transportation policy then let the school district go into receivership and let the state figure it out.
My children did well as a result of the education they received at Mohawk. With the current trajectory I’m uncertain that I’ll be able to say the same for my grandchildren.
Leo Ojala
Kennebunk, Maine