Marblehead override a hard sell

MARBLEHEAD-School Committee members know the odds are stacked against them this year if the School Department tries to pass a general override of Proposition 2 ?.That possibility arose during the spring when Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac warned that he may have to present the committee with a non-balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2010.After two years of level-funded budgets – about $26 million – Dulac faces operating cost problems in the next two years. Class size is growing at the Marblehead Village School and the Marblehead Veterans Middle School.The committee must also deal with collective bargaining with the teachers this fall – but committee members pointed out how much work it took to get two debt exclusion overrides passed for the schools in June.”I’ve got to believe that there will be zero tolerance for a general override in the next two years,” said committee member James Dearborn.School Committee Chairman Amy Drinker pointed out that there will be another bonded indebtedness override before the voters next spring.The Health Department is scheduled to seek approval of an estimated $13-$15 million dollar capping of the town landfill and reconstruction of the transfer station. The debt exclusion override funding the $1.01 million design for the project was approved in 2007. “I don’t see any tolerance for a general override,” Drinker said.