Nahant override friends, foes aim to educate public

NAHANT – Both opponents and proponents of the proposed $260,000 override are gearing up for the Special Election on June 25. But while their desired outcomes may be different, both groups cite misinformation as a common foe.”It’s incredible how much misinformation there is,” said Pan Manadee, one of the co-organizers for Yes for Nahant, a group supporting the override. “We tried to do all the research, go to all the school committee and PTO meetings?I don’t see if they know about the issue, how they could not support it.””They’ve got a lot of people really worried without knowing the facts,” said Pete Rogers, who distributed a letter outlining his opposition to the override. “I’m not part of some campaign organization or anything like that. I’m just sort of annoyed about what happened and the way it’s been presented?I don’t see the justification for the override.”School officials said that the $260,000 override would fill a budget shortfall due to a $113,000 reduction in state and federal funds coupled with a dramatic increase in special-education costs. The proposal will add approximately $189 or $3.50 per week to the average tax bill, according to numbers from Town Accountant Deborah Waters and based on a median home valuation of $540,000.In order to be enacted, the override had to pass both the Town Election, which would authorize raising the money through an override, and Town Meeting, which would allocate the raised funds to the school. Town Meeting passed the measure 184 to 43. The ballot question was defeated by 52 votes, however, 417 to 365. Citing confusion over the fact that both votes occurred on April 30, selectmen voted at their May 5 meeting for a special election to reconsider the override.With that election scheduled for June 25, there’s lots of talk in town. But the override is certainly a controversial issue.Asking pedestrians whether they supported the override or not for an hour on Monday afternoon revealed three people in favor of the override.”I don’t know how many real choices we have, the school has been quite clear about how tight their budget is,” said one supporter, Patricia Long. (To meet the state-mandated special education costs, the school’s approved 2012 budget eliminates art, music and physical education classes, for instance). “The bottom line is our choices are very few, we have to do it?there’s our responsibility to care for all our students and their particular needs.”But many more people – on both sides of the issue – were willing to share their opinion but not their names.Reached separately, Rogers cited several reasons why he opposed the override.He said he disagreed with supporters’ claims that not passing the override would lead to layoffs for 15 staff members. He said he also disagrees with a Yes for Nahant brochure saying that not passing the override “may be the crippling blow that devastates our school.””The notion that the failure of the override could lead to closure of the school in two years doesn’t make any sense,” Rogers said. (The brochure says “the Johnson School will not close next year if the override does not pass?but if enrollment falls off drastically next year due to the override failing, we may have to close the school”). Rogers continued, “nor does it make any sense that you would cut 38 percent of the staff for an amount that represents 2.6 percent of the total municipal budget.”He also said that the amount that the school committee said it has to spend on outside special-education costs actually represents less than the average spent on these costs over the past 11 years.Furthermore, he said that he was “incensed” over the selectmen’s vote to reconsider the question.Resident Deborah Barnes agreed, noting that she became “really angry” when she saw and heard of signs on the front lawns of selectmen Richard Lombard and Lainey Titus, who both voted in favor of the special election, as well as an email from former Selectman Jim Walsh that offered the wrong date for th