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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">to
more than 60 parents who came to attend the Cabot Community
Conversation meeting last week. We hope you found the evening
informative and </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">helpful
in understanding the current situation regarding the three issues -
strategic planning regarding the schools of the future, long-range
facilities planning, and the most pressing issue of school budget for
FY'09. <br>
<br>
There are three budget being discussed right now - Allocation Budget,
Maintenance of Effort budget, and Override budget. Allocation budget
is the one that Mayor has allocated based on the money available
currently, Maintenance of Effort is the budget needed to maintain the
current programs in the schools, and the Override budget is the one
that is needed to to keep all the program where they should be.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If an additional funds
are not obtained through override, there will be deep cuts and these
changes will effect Cabot school and your children. </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Based
on the public comments and concerns, the School Committee and School
Superintendent, Dr. Jeffrey Young, is working together to reach a
compromise.<br>
<br>
There is a lot of information out there to understand. We will make
every effort to get this information to you. For this reason, we will
do the following:<br>
</font>
<ul><li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Attend relevant meetings;</font></li><li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Keep you up-to-date, via
emails, with all the information that we receive from the City and the
School Committee(these emails will have "BUDGET RELATED" as the subject
matter;</font></li><li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Create a thumbnail on Cabot PTO website for these issues; and <br>
</font></li><li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Post the </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">letters</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> parent that have been sent to the Alderman, and/or to the press;</font></li></ul><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You may have many questions about </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">the budget and the override. </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Please stay informed, try to get information to make an informed decision and ask questions.<br>
<br>
Please </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">feel free to contact </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sarah Ecker,</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Co-chair of Move Newton Forward, and </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Cabot's Move Newton Forward Cabot School field coordinators, John Kett (<a href="mailto:johnakett@gmail.com">johnakett@gmail.com</a>) and Sarah Hemphill (<a href="mailto:sarahhemphill@rcn.com">sarahhemphill@rcn.com</a>), as we make our way through this process this spring.<br>
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As we discussed </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">on February 28th, from some Aldermen </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">have
informed us that every Board member needs to hear some communication
from the public about the override. So far, they are just hearing from
the folks</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> who are against the override.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For effective communications and your voice to be heard, please do take a moment to send a quick e-mail stating that: </font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Wingdings;">q<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>You attended a meeting at Cabot School about the override and have serious concerns about next year’s operating budget;</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Wingdings;">q<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>You believe Newton needs a realistic, winnable operating override;</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Wingdings;">q<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>The amount </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">of funds that need to be raised through override needs to be determined soon; and</font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Wingdings;">q<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span>The plan should address the core needs of our city and schools, including funding to start work on a new Cabot School.</font></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4">Your
e-mail message should go to all of the Aldermen. You can do that by
sending your message to the Board's Clerk, David Olson and he will
forward it to the full Board. His e-mail is: <a href="mailto:dolson@newtonma.gov"><font style="color: rgb(0, 43, 240);" color="#002bf0"><u>dolson@newtonma.gov</u></font></a></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4"> </font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;"><font style="font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="4">Thanks again for your support.</font></div>
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<div style="clear: both;"><a href="http://presence.webmail.aol.com/IM/?sn=auvpto&locale=en-us&pd=0" style="font-family: Verdana,Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: lighter; font-size: 10px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img src="http://presence.webmail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=auvpto" align="absmiddle" border="0"></a> Archana Vahalia<br>
Cabot PTO Co-President<br>
auvpto@aol.com<br>
617-244-1435</div>
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