Your Vote Counts

Your Vote Counts

 

You probably don’t realize it, but there are few dates on the calendar more quintessentially American than May 15th.

Mickey Mouse made his first cartoon appearance on May 15, 1928. The first McDonald’s opened on May 15, 1940. One year later, Joe Dimaggio went 1-for-4 against the White Sox, kicking off what would become his unapproachable 56-game hitting streak.

On May 15, 1776, Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution for Independence was passed by the Virginia Convention, setting into motion a series of events that would lead to the signing of a somewhat more famous Declaration roughly six weeks later.

This May 15th — next Tuesday — our community gets to flex one of the core muscles of American democracy: the right to vote. On May 15th, we vote on the 2018-2019 School Budget (polls are open from 7:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. at your local elementary school). Exercising that right, however, is like a lot of other exercise plans. The intent and the opportunity may be there, but the follow-through not so much.

There are roughly 3,300 families with children who attend our district’s six schools. That’s about 25% of our overall community. And yet only 2,215 voters participated in the School Budget Vote last year . . . and that was a good year.

Until last year, participation in the process had been plummeting. Voter turnout between 2011 and 2016 dropped 47%. The uptick in 2017 was encouraging, but it still represents less than 12% of the registered voters in our community.

Such a degree of voter apathy is problematic. In many ways, the decision not to vote can be as damaging to our schools as the decision to vote no. Make no mistake . . . the consequences of a Budget being defeated are significant.

Take the 2018-2019 Budget. Because this Budget exceeds the tax cap levy limitations — as last year’s did as well — it requires 60% support to pass. If it were not to hit that threshold, the Board of Education and District superintendent Dr. Robert Shaps might have to consider cutting $1.4 million to bring it under the cap before a second community vote would be held. That would make it impossible to achieve the educational goals that the current Budget accounts for — priorities like adding 20.9 teacher positions across the District to address our growing enrollment.

If the Budget were to be defeated a second time, our District would be forced to operate under a Contingency Budget during the 2018-2019 school year. A Contingency Budget would require nearly $4.8 million to be cut from the Budget that we’re voting on next Tuesday. If that were to happen, forget growing or even maintaining the educational programming we enjoy today. We’d be looking at cuts to every department at every school, and that’s a prospect too devastating to consider.

That’s the glass-half-empty way of looking at the Community Budget Vote, a doom-and-gloom scenario we really hope will not come to pass. We prefer to look more positively at the way our community views our schools.

The 2018-2019 Budget proposed by Dr. Shaps was approved unanimously by the Board of Education. The Budget was endorsed overwhelmingly by the PTA memberships at all six of our schools, as well as by SEPTA and PT Council.

And while turnout historically has been low, support for the Budget has not. The last six Budgets have passed with support ranging from 77-85%. That says a lot about the community’s trust in our District’s education plan and track record of financial stewardship.

Is it okay to have questions or even concerns about the Budget? Absolutely. That’s why Dr. Shaps and the Board have been out in the community for months, attending PTA meetings and hosting coffees, addressing our questions. It’s why the Board recently posted a series of answers to frequently asked budget-related questions, providing context on everything from staffing and class size considerations to the arcane tax cap formula to the impact this year’s Budget would have on the average taxpayer’s property taxes (SPOILER ALERT: it’s projected to be about $111 for homes valued at $1.25 million).

We know we live in a community of busy people. We know School Budget Vote Day isn’t circled on everyone’s calendar or even on most people’s radar.

But we also know how much our schools mean to all of us who live here (and, in many cases, moved here for the chance to send our kids to these schools). Which is why we hope you appreciate that your vote really does count, and why we hope you’ll find your way to your local elementary school next Tuesday for the few minutes it takes to participate in this vital community vote.

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