Peabody school board joins funding coalition

PEABODY – After regularly attending meetings for the past several months, School Committee members have decided to make their membership with the North Shore Coalition for School Funding official.School Committee member Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne brought the idea before her peers Tuesday night, and it was welcomed with open arms.”I recommend we join for two reasons,” she said, before rattling off a list of much greater length. Dunne said the group is “run very well” and serves as an advocate for both special education and charter school funding. And, it also would unite Peabody with other surrounding communities, creating more connections, and thus, greater regionalization.”It’s really sharing of ideas,” she said.The Coalition was formed in October by volunteers with a passion for education. With a great understanding of the financial crisis facing today’s public school system, the group’s mission is to offer solutions to funding. According to their Web site, such solutions include pooling resources, suggestions for legislative action to control costs and assessments of current costs and adequacy of Chapter 70.”Some of their positions might be out of step (with ours),” said School Committee member Dave McGeney. “There are more issues that will unite us than divide us.”Although McGeney believes the name of the group to be misleading, considering there’s more on their agenda than funding, he thinks joining forces 100 percent “could only lead to good things.””This will give us a regional voice,” he said, adding that collaborating will “make a greater impact” on legislature.Mayor Michael Bonfanti agreed.”I believe it’s better to have a place at the table than not,” he said.The Committee voted unanimously in favor of Dunne’s request.Beverly and Swampscott are the only other Greater Lynn communities that have officially joined the group.