Few vocations matter more than educating a child. It humbles me that Wayland has three times seen fit to provide me the opportunity to contribute as a School Committee member to such a noble endeavor. I ask for your support in April so that I may continue to serve the town in this capacity.
The challenges facing public education continue to be formidable. Just as our first-rate educators renew their energy and enthusiasm each year, we too as citizens must renew our support.
Educationally, there is much that we do well and on which we must continue our focus, including three intertwined areas that are most important to me.
- Teacher quality and professional development
- Program in general and differentiated instruction in particular
- Educational technology
In light of the financial constraints affecting not just Wayland but all towns in the Commonwealth, the School Committee recommends a budget that does its best to preserve services. I support this operating and capital budget, and I support the tax-neutral debt exclusion that provides for both the schools (e.g., technology) and the town (e.g. facilities maintenance, Advanced Life Support equipment). You may find details of the school share of the balancing act on the Committee's site here and on the Wayland Public Schools site here and here.
The aforementioned financial constraints merit elaboration. Salary makes up the vast majority of our budget. Of late, our salary account has risen at approximately the rate of inflation. Increases in health insurance, pension, and utility costs, however, have not been so well-behaved—double digit growth has caught up with the Finance Committee’s extraordinary efforts to keep Wayland’s taxation in line with that of our peers.
Adding further injury to injury, the Commonwealth fails to provide the fair educational support that would help us to balance our budget. Apparently mistaking towns with affluence for being universally affluent, the Commonwealth--not without its own constraints--has not even kept State Aid at the level it was earlier this decade.
The FY10 Ad Hoc Budget Advisory Committee, created last year by the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee, and on which I serve, continues to explore opportunities to slow the growth of health and pension expenditures, find new sources of revenue, and in general consolidate and improve services with an eye towards cost-efficiency. This FY10 effort follows on the heels of a similar one for FY07 on which I also served, with one-time and recurring savings to date of over $3 million. Projects such as the proposed Town Center promise to generate revenues considerably in excess of expenses. To complete the slate, actions that we as a School Committee can take include the following: creative implementation of educational programs, ongoing diligence with respect to salary negotiations, attention to potentially declining enrollment, and application for high school building fund reimbursement, to name just a few.
For those seeking reassurance that we as a town possess the skill and resolve to navigate these difficult paths, I direct your attention to our past performance. Educationally, Wayland’s continued successes in the classroom, on the stage, in the studio, and around the playing fields speak for themselves. Financially, we deliver these successes at a cost that remains a constant share of our overall budget and that stacks up well against our peers.
For these successes, we also benefit financially. Schools constitute the town’s most important asset. Our schools make Wayland attractive to buyers, undeniably driving the increases we have seen in our property values over the long run and that we look forward to again as the general economy recovers. If we fail to support our schools adequately, we embark on a plainly self-destructive course that will strike our most vulnerable residents the hardest.
Each of you has a child or a grandchild or a neighbor’s child enrolled or soon to be enrolled in the Wayland Public Schools. Please stand with me in making a continued commitment to the education of these children. I ask for your vote on Tuesday, April 7 in support of my candidacy. Thank you.
Jeff Dieffenbach
Class Size | MCAS | METCO | Special Education
If you have any questions or comments, call me at 508-353-3175 or
send me email at dieffenbach @ alum.mit.edu.