The Override Battle Returns

School Committee member James Connors proposed a debt exclusion override for the School Department last night, targeting school building upgrades, technology and textbooks.

Connors was a proponent of the operational override proposed last year. There was no solid price tag put on this one, but Connors is putting together a plan. The Superintendent says building upgrades would cost $5 million. There was no price tag on technology and textbooks.

Our thoughts:

• For years, the state threw money at communities to build school buildings and do renovations, reimbursing up to 90 percent of the cost. Fitchburg let that run pass by, although there's hope state school building money is freed up again next year. The city should wait to see if it can get that state aid next year before barrelling into an override.
• What, exactly, is "technology?" What would this "technology" be use for? Are we talking computers? Something else? Why hasn't "technology" been kept up in past budgets? What got us in the "technology" hole?
• Finally, an override on textbooks is an inexcusable lapse on the part of school leaders. Textbooks are as fundamentally a part of school as teachers and desks. To let textbooks lapse to the point of needing an override is horrific.

We're not going to dismiss this override out of hand, only because there are a lot of questions to be answered. However, we're pretty sure we're not going to like these answers, and we'll oppose this thing.

School buildings -- any city building -- needs upkeep. Try the state aid first. We want details on "technology," and we want an accounting for why it hasn't been gradually built up. On the textbook matter, you can pretty much forget it.

What we have right now is the classic overheated override discussion. Safe buildings, shiny computers (if that's in fact the deal. Details, please) and new books for kids. How heartless can you be? Mismanagement, bad choices, and skewed priorities have gotten us to this point. School officials need to provide not just a detailed reason for this request, but also have to outline how we got to the point and what mistakes were made along the way.

What we'd rather see is a detailed, long-term plan that fixes all these problems. In a lot of ways, our opposition to this is similar to our opposition to the operational override. Bad decisions led us here. Overrides are an easy answer for administrators, but it's the tough way for taxpayers. If the School Department wants our investment, they need to prove it's necessary, and they're capable of handling it. Right now, they fail on both counts, particularly the second.