Gardner Magazine downloaded the Budget Hearing notice and Meeting Agenda last night about 10:30pm. At that hour, the complete packet had not been posted. We thank Gardner Mayor Nicholson for getting the packet posted today. We post the complete agendas and packets as a public service to keep you better informed.
Publisher’s Editorial Opinion: As the public did not have access to complete budget materials in advance of the hearing and the vote is in limbo until confirmed anyway, we have suggested that another Budget Hearing be scheduled so that public input could be heard. Yes, a do over. Note, however, that the budget gap is at $0 with this budget and no override has been contemplated.
Gardner MA School Committee passes Budget, but vote in doubt
Gardner Magazine was waiting to publish an article with regard to this meeting until we had a complete packet with budget information to share with the public. Here is the complete Agenda and Packet, CLICK HERE. Listen to the entire meeting on any device, CLICK PLAY.
The School Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget, but only with a voice vote. We asked Mayor Nicholson if the vote was valid because a roll call vote was not taken and he responded “I will be checking the video of the meeting today. I believe the vote required a roll call, however, the open meeting law has a remedy for this when things like this happens. At the next meeting, the Committee will have to vote to confirm the vote taken at the 4/8 meeting. This has happened before on a few occasions with the City Council as well. It does not invalidate the vote, but puts the vote in limbo until the confirmation is completed. I’ll reach out to the school department about the packet materials as well.” Note: The Mayor had to view the video as he was absent from the meeting.
School Committee member Anne Hurst went on a self described rant about the public not showing up at the meeting, “I wanted to thank Dr. Pellegrino and Mark Hawke for their presentation tonight on the budget. It’s kind of a sad state of affairs throughout the Commonwealth. I do find it a little disappointing when no one shows up to listen to it but everybody seems to have an opinion on social media about how things should be run. You know, it’s so important to be involved and to understand how big of a budget this is, how it works. People should be here at this meeting advocating or at City Council, you know, I don’t know, that’s my rant. Listen yourself on any device, CLICK PLAY
Mark Hawke commented on the migrant influx stating, “Because of the migrant influx, there’s a $104 a day per student, I guess we call it a grant. It’s funding from the state. So we’re budgeting $160,000. We anticipated to be higher than that, but that’s a safe number to budget.” Listen on any device. CLICK PLAY.