Slots and Our Schools

Posted by Bruce Panilaitis, August 06, 2013

 

As you know from my previous blog, I am against the proposed slot parlor, and am working hard with many others to defeat it at the August 20th Special Town Meeting. One aspect that I didn't talk about before is the impact this will have on our school system, and our school budget.

As my 6 boys have gone through the Tewksbury Public School System my wife and I have been very involved in PACs and School Councils. I also spent a year on the Budget Advisory Committee to the School Committee where we spent a great deal of time talking about the nuts and bolts of our school budget. First of all, let me say that the vast majority of teachers and staff we have worked with are high quality professionals that put the children in our district above all else. Whether it is Mrs. Morrissey at the Heath Brook or Mr. Molloy at TMHS, we have seen great teachers. However, as our two oldest have gone through TMHS over the past 4 years, we have seen a school culture that was focused more on "checking off the boxes" than excellence in education. This manifests in many ways, from full length movies being shown regularly in classes, to discipline problems, and failure to meet some curriculum standards as set forth by the state. Apparently we are not the only parents to notice this issue, as the attrition rate for our 8th graders has been 41.4%, 47.1%, 38.8%, and 35.9% over the past 4 years. Some may argue that this was due to the terrible state of our previous high school, and it had to be a factor. However, when you look at Wilmington, who also just recently tore down their high school, their attrition rate was significantly lower (26.5%, 25.8%, 24.6%, & 29.8%). That being said, I believe our recent change in administration at superintendant and principal have the potential to make significant improvements to that culture at TMHS, and they are working hard to do so. Dr. O'Connor and Mrs. Reagan are instituting change. It is a slow process but they are dedicated to the goals of excellence in education, and our professional, dedicated faculty at all of our schools are up to that challenge.

So what does this have to do with that Slot Parlor you ask? Well a significant portion of our school budget comes from the Commonwealth in the form of Chapter 70 Aid. While the formula for determining the amount of Chapter 70 a school system receives is complicated, total enrollment is a significant factor. When a student goes to a private school or moves to another town for a better school system, we lose school funding. When families decide to leave the town because of the passage of this slot parlor, we lose school funding. When a family looking around Middlesex County for a good community to settle down in avoids the "Slots Town", we lose school funding. We already have an issue at the high school level with students and their families choosing alternatives to TMHS.

 

A near 40% attrition rate is not good, and we do not need to exascerbate that issue with a casino that will drive families from Tewksbury and prevent others from settling down here.

Let's defeat this ill-conceived plan for a slot parlor and let's instead reinvigorate our school system.

 

Let's support our teachers and administration, challenging them to continue to improve the educational environment here in town. Let's not hamstring them with further cuts to their budget which is already cut to the bone.

The short money promised by this slot parlor is a bad bet for our schools.

 

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