After the poorly attended town and school deliberative meetings in March, we called for a change in town government from SB 2 to a town council.
And after only 1,219 voters cast ballots at the polls in April, newly elected planning board member Mark Hounsell made essentially the same suggestion to selectmen.
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(1) comment
I think the editor needs to look at the approved state forms of local governments. I do not believe moving to a Town Council will allow control over the School District, and nor should it. They are two very different organizations, and have very different missions. In order to do this, you would need the State to allow the Town control over the Schools. And you would first need to form a charter commission, and that can go in many directions.
Having said that, i do agree, SB2 is a terrible form of government. It was designed to encourage more participation at the ballot box, but it ignored the effects of the deliberative session.
My opinion, you want to move to a form of government where the Council and School Board have control of the operating budget and other articles. This too may need State support, but it puts the power of operations to those who were giving the responsibilities.
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