Brookline Town Election 5/2/23

Posted: 5/1/2023 12:55 pm

As a nonprofit, the Heath PTO is a nonpartisan organization. But core to our mission is to promote excellence in education at Heath and to communicate to our parent community about issues that impact our school. The town election this Tuesday will impact our school. Traditionally, voter turnout among parents of school-age children is very low - given the important school-related items on the ballot, we encourage you to show up and vote. So please take a look through these resources so you can better understand the issues. And then make a plan to vote on Tuesday.

General Information

• The town election is Tuesday, May 2. Polls are open from 7am - 8pm.
• Find your voter registration status and voting location - All registered voters can vote in local elections, regardless of if they own property or are renters.
• Sample Ballot - See what the ballot will look like.
• League of Women Voters of Brookline Voters Guide

The Ballot Questions

• Question 1 asks if the Town can assess a temporary property tax increase (a "debt exclusion") to fund the Pierce School renovation project, which includes constructing a new PreK-8 school and improvements to the Town Hall and Pierce School garages and the Town Park across School Street.
• Question 2A asks if the Town can assess a property tax increase (an "override") to fund the operating costs of Brookline Public Schools and Town municipal departments for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023.
• Question 2B relates to the same tax assessment as Question 2A, but also includes funding for a municipal composting collection service. 2A and 2B are not mutually exclusive / voters are asked to vote for both; the option with the higher number of votes will be chosen.
• Question 3 asks whether the Town of Brookline should limit the number of Storefront Marijuana Retailer licenses to no more than four, consistent with the passing of Warrant Article 15 of the November 2022 Special Town Meeting.

More Context

• PSB Pierce School Building Project
• Town Clerk’s FY2024-26 Override Central
• Operating Override and Debt Exclusion Calculator - the Town has developed a calculator for residents to estimate the impact of the debt exclusion and override questions on their property tax bill.
• Brookline.News newsletter archives - local reporting on the election in a series of newsletters.
• Town Ballot Question Information Mailing - compiled by the Town, includes 150-word arguments for and against each ballot question.

Campaigns

• Yes for Brookline
• Spend Smart Brookline
• Yes on Three

Pierce School Renovation

• Pierce Building Project and Town Override, a resource provided by the Pierce PTO

Impacts of a Failed Override (Question 2)

• Superintendent Guillory's presentation (video and slide presentation) to the Brookline School Committee on 4/10, laying out impacts of a failed override resulting in “unprecedented budget cuts”:
  • $3.25 million in cuts immediately (Year 1) plus $3.11 million more in Years 2-3.
  • Equivalent to 43 teacher FTEs (full-time equivalents) in Year 1 plus 40 more in Years 2-3 (10% of current teacher FTEs).
  • Will result in substantially increased class sizes and cuts to any programming that is not state mandated, including athletics, libraries and ed tech, performing and visual arts, and world language.
• ‘Tremendous and Devastating’ - PSB Superintendent presents on impact of failed override, a summary by Mariah Nobrega, Brookline School Committee Finance Chair - 04/11/23 (https://bit.ly/PSBbudget)
• Heath teacher/staff perspectives on the override vote.

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