As 2008 comes to a close, I find there’s much to celebrate and be thankful for, despite the economical uncertainty.

North Andover United continues to advocate for honest answers to honest questions. We’ve cultivated strong relationships with elected officials and community activists, both within and outside our own community. Don Romano puts exceptional effort into delivering NAU emails and running the www.northandover.org community website. We’ve seen a steady increase in readership, registrations, and postings this year. With Michael Reed’s significant talents, we’ve increased our postings of valuable video content on the site - check out the NAU/League of Women Voter’s forum with guest speakers Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and Senator Bruce Tarr, or School Committee Member Chris Nobile’s recent speech regarding the teacher’s contract and the need to reduce municipal health insurance costs. This website offers such an incredible community resource, hosting thoughtful interchange on everything from politics to local events. Please take a moment to check out the content and recommend us to your friends.

For me, 2008 marks a year of improved government management. Under Chair Barbara Whidden’s leadership and Superintendent Marini’s guidance, I’ve watched the School Committee become very organized, focused on setting clear, written policies. This year, they are well-aware that their managerial and financial decisions have a profound affect upon the town as a whole, not just the school community. I believe the importance of unified government was a contributing factor to their selection of Mr. Christopher Hottel as their final candidate for the Superintendent’s position.

Likewise, I’m encouraged that the Board of Selectmen and Town Manager are starting to look well beyond the current fiscal year when they make major decisions. I have yet to see regular, open reports of up-to-date financials at Board of Selectmen meetings, but I do see us moving in that direction. I look to the Finance Committee to be the catalyst in making it happen. And I am very optimistic each time I hear about Town Manager Mark Rees’ participation in regional efforts to find efficiencies in purchasing, public safety, and energy alternatives.

I encourage all boards to foster relationships with similar communities, and participate in organizations like the Suburban Coalition and Stand for Children. Most importantly, I encourage them to work very closely with State Representatives L’Italien and Torrisi, and State Senators Tarr and Baddour, to support preservation of local state funding. I see a lot of cost-cutting, reform measures that should be taken first at the State level, long before any legislator turns to cutting local aid. For the minority Republican view of state budget issues, check out http://www.scalingthehill.com/.

2008 also marks a year of changing access to public information. The Eagle-Tribune’s major job layoffs and the Citizen’s loss of Sarah Wolfe resulted in a severe deterioration in newspaper coverage of North Andover. One could argue that’s also because we’ve repaired our image and become less controversially interesting [a good thing!]. Hats off to Brian Fraser, our new cable station manager, and Sean O’Brien, for prioritizing community access to government proceedings via their cable coverage of public meetings. Brian has some great ideas to add live streaming of meetings and archived video of meetings to the cable station website in 2009. He’s also working on adding programming from Boards, such as the Finance Committee, to explain local government and town meeting warrant articles to the community. The cable staff already added live Election Day coverage this past year. You can support Brian’s efforts by purchasing cable station memberships and by volunteering to do some camera work [very fun - my kids and husband helped Sean film the NAU/LWV forum]. Email Brian at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Looking ahead to 2009, there are three issues worth considering: local elections, fiscal understanding and restraint, and how best to support our local non-profit organizations.

Elections:

There will be two seats open on the School Committee: Dr. Chuck Ormsby and Chair Barbara Whidden are not running for re-election.

There will be two seats open on the Board of Selectmen: Dan Lanen is up for re-election and Mark Caggiano will not run for re-election.

We need citizens with leadership and decision-making experience, supporting a unified approach to local government, with an eye on preserving future high caliber services for North Andover, to run for public office. Any one of North Andover’s current board members would be happy to discuss their roles with you, both the rewards and the challenges. The League of Women Voters is sponsoring a workshop on how to run for office on Wed, Jan. 7th, 7:00 pm at Andover Town Hall, 3rd floor conference room. North Andover’s Town Clerk, Joyce Bradshaw, and School Committee member Chris Allen will be speaking at the workshop. For more information, contact Peggy Kruse, LWV Voter Service chair, at 978-474-0176.

Fiscal Understanding and Restraint:

To say that Fiscal Year 2010 (the budget we’ll be asked to approve at May’s town meeting) will be a challenge is an understatement. Preliminary predictions from the Revenue & Fixed Costs Committee show a $3 million deficit [shortage]. That will likely mean layoffs of public safety, library, senior center and youth center employees, as well as teachers. The very same jobs restored by the override and more. For the schools, it will be particularly devastating, given that most of the school budget is personnel... we may be cutting principals as well as classroom teachers. Whether such cuts become a reality is very much dependent on state aid and local efforts to reduce major budget-busters like health insurance costs. The deficit number is based on the worst-case scenario. While we wait to see numbers solidify, I’m asking us all to reflect on the decision we made two years ago at town meeting to leave our stabilization funds intact. We have approximately $1.2 million in reserves, far below the state-recommended level of $2.28 to $3.8 million [3 to 5% of our annual operating budget]. Reserves are one-time-use money - once you use it, it’s gone. If you use it to pay for staff, the same staff will be laid off the following year. In the meantime, there would be no backup funds for community emergencies... like a fire in a municipal/school building, a lawsuit or an unexpected major equipment failure. And there would be a ripple effect of increased debt service costs on higher interest rates on our bonds, because our bond rating would be downgraded. Click http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/chicopee_others_benefit_from_r.html
to read a comprehensive article on the use of municipal stabilization funds.

I’m hoping that we have the wisdom during this next budget season to put our effort into reducing costs, finding efficiencies and consolidations of service, and finding the fortitude to accept required belt tightening without creating new problems by grasping at exceedingly short-term solutions. I’m asking us to listen carefully and weigh our options, respectfully, with an eye toward what’s best for the long-term future of our town.

And finally, North Andover’s Non-Profit Organizations: Our Non-Profits have already seen sharp declines in donations. The PTO/PTAC organizations, the Friends of the Library, the Friends of the North Andover Senior Center, the Youth Center, the North Andover Foundation for Education, the North Andover Schools’ Enrichment Council, the Peoples’ Pantry, the North Andover Historical Society, the North Andover Music Association, the North Andover Drama Guild, the North Andover Scholarship Foundation, the Andover/North Andover League of Women Voters and the North Andover Improvement Committee all need your help. These organizations provide valuable, essential services our local government lacks the funds to support. Every one of them needs help from people generous with their time, as well as from people able to make monetary contributions. If you are unable to donate either one, then please support them by attending their events with your family and friends. For instance, the Enrichment Council is sponsoring a fun January event to create a new community tradition that supports enrichment presentations in our schools. Click here for more information on their Knight Lights event on Sunday, January 25th. The North Andover Citizen also published an article about the event.

I wish you all the peace and comfort of loving families, good friends, a supportive community with fine traditions, and a sense of humor to guide you through the challenges of the New Year!

And thanks for listening!

Sincerely,
Sandy Gleed, Pres.
North Andover United, Inc.

Dear Friends,

I hope this message finds you enjoying some fun and relaxation during the last half of summer vacation! My own family visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, we spent a few days exploring Niagara Falls, and we’ve just returned from a very fun canoeing & kayaking weekend trip with several other North Andover families [who were very good sports about some very heavy rain!].

• In between some great fun, I’ve been keeping up with North Andover municipal matters: 
• I’ve attended and/or watched Finance Committee meetings, Board of Selectmen meetings, School Committee meetings; 
• I’ve met or talked with not only our own leaders, but also with elected officials from other communities interested in the way NAU is working to unite our community; 
• I’ve met with leaders of advocacy groups outside of North Andover who share philosophies and goals closely in tune with NAU objectives; and 
• I’ve kept up with your discussion postings on www.northandover.org.

If you’ve visited our website, you’ve seen the intense interest in whether Thomson Elementary School will meet the Adequate Yearly Progress goals under its MCAS scores, required by No Child Left Behind. I strongly urge parents of both Thomson School students, and students attending the other four elementary schools, to attend the School Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 19th. It is currently listed on the Town’s website with a start time of 7:00 pm at the Town Hall; watch for either a shift to a 6:00 start time or even a shift in meeting place. It is not clear whether this meeting will be televised. School Choice is on the agenda. If Thomson students are offered a choice of schools, it affects not only Thomson school, but also the receiving schools. And since practically ALL of our elementary school MCAS scores leave something to be desired... parents should be concerned, regardless of where their children attend. I know I’ll be listening for specific information on what steps will be taken to improve both leadership and instruction at Thomson, but also at the other schools too.
 
Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Sincerely,

Sandy Gleed. Pres.
North Andover United, Inc.

Dear Friends,

For the second year in a row, I worked up enough courage to get up to the microphone at Town Meeting.  Two different years, two very different results, and yet I’m equally satisfied that I’ve done the right thing.

I’m President of a larger organization now with 14 talented, dedicated board members, and quite frankly, our fourteen board members really struggled hard on how to approach the police and preschool building project articles this year.  Click here to read our statement - this is the statement I read during the public comment on the police station article.

As author of this newsletter, I get to tell you my personal perspective.  How did Sandy Gleed vote?  I voted "NO" on the police station, and I did not vote on the preschool. 

Why did NAU recommend citizens vote "NO" on the police station?  NAU believes in honest answers.  We have done our homework, attended far too many meetings, talked to more than our share of both politicians and townspeople, personally toured Bradstreet and the existing police station with the Town Manager and Finance Committee, and wholeheartedly agreed that the Credit Union was the least expensive, most appropriate space for a truly needed police station.  The police station should have been replaced years ago; it’s disgraceful and unfair that we allowed our employees to work in those conditions.  And NAU said that, right up front, in every one of our communications. 

However, both the Town Manager’s and the Finance Committee’s financial forecasts left considerable doubt about our ability to shoulder new debt.  Of all people in town, NAU knows how hard it is to pass an operational override.  If our town had trouble passing a $1.65 million override less than a year ago, are voters likely to pass a $2 million override?  A $5 million override?  NAU stood firm with its mission to "ensure the availability of high caliber municipal and school services"; our position was based on solid financial principals and a concern to preserve those positions just restored with the override.  Additionally, we’re concerned about the risk of even deeper cuts over the course of the next few years.

So why did I abstain and not vote "NO" on the preschool as well?  Fair question.  Don Stewart also asked why people voting no on the police station the first night didn’t also get up and urge voting "NO" on the preschool the following night.  Also a fair question.

Here’s my honest answer: 

• First, for NAU, the two projects needed to be treated equally.  We were prepared to vote no on both projects - yet when a 2/3rds majority of town meeting attendees voted to build the police station without regard to the financial risk, it made no sense to pass one project without the other.  The economics of the preschool are very different from the police station.  The Police station was needed, not because it would save the town money, but because it represented unacceptable working conditions.  The preschool, on the other hand, has some real cost savings/cost avoidance built into it that makes it more cost neutral. The cost of not building the preschool could ultimately be more expensive, especially when we consider the cost of out-of-district placements, actual cost savings (buses, portables), and the possibility of additional grant monies.  So although there’s an initial hit to the operating costs, the preschool building ought to pay for itself in future years and even return money to the operating budget.
  
  
• Second, I stood by my original position:  Town Meeting should never be asked to vote for major expenditures in the operating budget without sufficient financial information to assess the tradeoffs in services.
  
  
• Third, since Town Meeting had already decided to shoulder the risk of cuts in services presented by passing the police station, I decided not to support - but not stand in the way of - the second project that would pay for itself.  Again, for NAU, passage of the projects had to be treated equally.
  
  
• Finally, I had already made the NAU position on both projects crystal clear the first evening.
  

NAU never questioned the need for these buildings - it has consistently been "how do we pay for them?"   So although we are pleased that our police officers will finally be able to work in acceptable working conditions and the preschool will alleviate some congestion and potentially free up operating funds once it’s complete and accredited, NAU continues to be very concerned about the impact these projects are going to have on our future operational budgets.

The true fiscal reality probably resides somewhere between the Town Manager’s forecast and the Finance Committee’s forecast.  That still means operational overrides will be necessary.  Let’s hope that our elected leaders and union employees come to affordable terms on both their employment contracts and the financial necessity of joining the state insurance plan, the "GIC".  In order to make these two new buildings affordable, they’ve got to either trim approximately $600,000 in annual expenses, or find $600,000 in new revenues to offset the new debt service. 

NAU sincerely hopes they achieve this objective!  It’s in the best interests of us all.

I’m now looking forward to catching my kids’ last games, spending my summer vacation enjoying time with my family and in my garden, and being able to have dinner together again without running out to attend meetings! 

Hope your summer is equally enjoyable! 

Sincerely,

Sandy Gleed

Dear Readers,

I received an email today that posed an excellent question:  what does NAU mean by the term "Honest Questions"?  Here’s my response:

I have spent 17 years attending town meetings, and 10 years attending and/or watching way too many BOS/School Committee/Fincom/Planning/Zoning/PTO/etc. meetings where people get up and ask questions intended to stir the pot, cast aspersions on the skills or effectiveness of the boards, or to intentionally plant seeds of doubt in the minds of the townspeople.  "Honest Questions" are questions that seek accurate information, clarification of details, or call attention to an issue not previously considered.  They are questions that do not already assume an answer, and they are questions that do not attempt to color the answer with political overtones.
 
But please understand - honest questions can certainly question the status quo, and they can absolutely express disagreement with prior answers and/or the positions or decisions adopted by elected officials.  It's just that honest questions can accomplish that with respect and without causing further divisiveness, something our town just can't afford to tolerate anymore. 
 
NAU encourages you to contact us with questions like this one - we’ve got a whole discussion forum area on this website provided for any topic you’d like to discuss. 

--Sandy Gleed

In Case You Missed It...

Town Manager Mark Rees has released his recommended budget for FY09, officially opening up our annual spring budget negotiation season. The basic budget formula is: Revenues & Other Financing Sources, minus Fixed Costs, equals Amount Available for Operating Expenses. For FY09, Mr. Rees currently estimates that $53.3 million or a 2.4% increase over FY08 will be available to split between the municipal and school departments, on a roughly 2/3rds to the school, one third to the municipal side basis.

The School Committee had submitted a budget increase request of 4.8% to the Town Manager. The recommended 2.4% increase means the Superintendent will now work with his administrative team to cut an additional $800,000 from his requested budget.

Dear Friends,

First, I want to thank all of you who watched and/or attended the forum!  Don’t forget to fill out the online questionnaire!  The questions were great, and we’ve posted them on www.northandover.org so you can read the full text of all the questions received.  I’ve also sent the full set to all of our panelists, with the request that they answer the ones we didn’t have time to address.

Next, North Andover United and the local non-profit citizen group, "ABC" - A Better Community of North Andover, have merged to form a new non-profit corporation: North Andover United, Inc.  As Chair of our new corporation, I’m so grateful to be working with a spectacular group of dedicated volunteers, and I am confident that our financial, marketing, business and volunteer skills will combine exceedingly well to support our commitment to advocate for accuracy and accountability in municipal government. 

Our next project is to launch a state-wide citizen coalition, armed with accurate facts and figures, to focus Massachusetts legislative attention on critical issues such as increasing funding for special education.  Reaching out to all 351 Massachusetts communities requires funding.  A very generous corporate donor has pledged to match, dollar for dollar, the first $2,500 that NAU can raise from now until the close of December.  Please  send donations to:  North Andover United, Inc., 81 Prescott Street, North Andover, MA  01845.  Publicizing our coalition goals and contacting legislators will cost money - think of it as a gift to the future of your town!

Dear Friends,

October has certainly been a busy month for meetings, and November promises to be equally so!  It’ll mean several pizza nights at my household (a good thing according to my kids!).

Here’s what’s been going on, since my last letter.  The lifting of the High School accreditation warning status was wonderful, although surprising, given that many of the conditions that put us on warning status continue to exist.  The NEASC spokesperson said that the $1.65 million Proposition 2 1/2 tax override was one of the reasons the group lifted the warning. He also said that NEASC credited the school and the town for reducing class sizes, increasing funding and creating the new special education program. 

Here’s my perspective:  first, the Finance Committee and Mark Rees, the Town Manager, as well as Mr. Rees’ department heads and staff are to be thanked and congratulated for budgeting carefully and finding the additional $800,000 in the municipal side of the budget that they were willing to transfer over to the school department in order to restore several teaching positions.  That’s what lowered class sizes at the High School, not the override.  Second, Joyce Laundre, her special education staff, and the School Committee deserve thanks for recognizing the potential for savings by implementing new, in-house, special education programs to further address the needs of our students; this WAS paid for by the override.  Third, the voters of North Andover deserve thanks for passing a modest override that told not only NEASC, but surrounding towns as well, that we value municipal and educational services.  It wasn’t just the dollars - it was the positive change in attitude that helped lift our accreditation warning status. 

Welcome, friends, to a new feature of the www.northandover.org website, a column called “In Case You Missed It…”  There’s so much that goes on in our town each week, yet the demands of normal family life make it difficult to attend or watch many meetings.  I try the best that I can to keep up with meetings – it’s a bit easier for me because my children have grown older (15 and 11), and my life is fairly flexible.   Through this column, I’m going to try to update you periodically on meeting highlights, newsworthy events, and maybe add a few political musings.  Let’s grow this column together – let me know if the information is useful to you, feel free to send suggestions, and please do comment and lend your own interpretation of current events.