Poet, students say ‘Yes for Nahant!’

NAHANT – A local poet teamed up with school children and local opera singer Ute Gfrerer recently to sing in support of their school.”It was so beautiful,” said poet Polly Bradley. Her piece”Yes for Nahant” was set to music by an anonymous Nahant composer and performed Saturday night by Gfrerer and a chorus of children as a prelude to the Ellingwood Chapel Concert Series.”I feel very fortunate to have [Gfrerer] sing my song. She even brought along instruments for the children to play.”Bradley said she wrote the poem in support of a proposed $260,000 override for Johnson School.School officials proposed the override to 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 a year or $3.50 per week to the average tax bill, according to numbers from Town Accountant Deborah Waters.In order to be enacted, the override had to pass both the Town Election and Town Meeting on April 30. 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 the same day, selectmen set a special election for June 25 to reconsider the override.Although the poem never mentions the override, its refrain “Yes for Nahant!” is the slogan for the proposal’s supporters.Bradley said she couldn’t recall which came first, the group or the poem.The poem also repeatedly asks for “teaching,” particularly in the arts. Because the override did not pass, next year’s school budget eliminated art, music and physical education programs.”Teach us to sing to the ocean’s rhythm, / Teach us to paint the beach and the dock. / Yes for Nahant,” the lyrics state.But Bradley said the intention was not to inspire angry protest. Rather, she said she wanted to celebrate the community of Nahant.She said that she tells people to “vote your love, not your anger.”Yes for Nahant co-organizer Mary Jo Mitchell Angersbach said that the performance represented “the epitome” of the group.”We are a group of Nahant residents of all ages, from all walks of life who have one thing in common: Love for our community and for the values that make Nahant such a special place to live, to work, and to raise children,” she wrote in an e-mail.