1939-04-17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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School Com. re: 1940 budget aries. He stated that they wanted to talk about partially reducing annual increases and among them- selves they thought they might make some other savings which might not be for the best interests of the schools but which could be done. He said the School Committee wanted to know what was going to be done in other departments as there was no reason why the teachers should have their annual increases taken away if it was not going to be done in other depart- ments. Mr. Merriam said that the only other departments that had step rate increases were the Police and Fire Departments. Mr. Rowse asked if the teachers they would have to let go would be because of the reduction in the number of pupils and Mr. Houghton replied in the neg- ative. He said that this was not something that should be done, but what they would propose in order to make a reduction for the town. The School Committee was In favor of this rather than in favor of taking away the annual increases because if that were done, Lex- ington was liable to lose some of its best teachers to other towns. Mr. Merriam said he thought that if the majority wanted a $30. tax rate, they should realize what services they would have to do without in order to have that $30. tax rate. Mr. Russell said his idea would be to send out a printed questionnaire to the Town Meeting Members asking what services they would be willing to do without and to request each member to return it over his signature. The Chairman suggested that Tessrs. Merriam, Hough- ton, Russell and himself get together and decide upon something to be put before the people in order to get a sense of the Town Meeting Members. Mr. Yerriam said he thought that unfair replies might be received. He thought it would be better to send the questionnalte out to all registered voters. Mr. Merriam questioned whether this was the time to poll to try to get a binding opinion for something that would not be put into effect for another year. It was finally decided that the Appropriation Com- mittee would meet and work out a course of action to be taken. The group retired at 10:20 P. Pd. Letter was received from George E. Ham relative to alleged damages to his property as a result of the Vine Ham claim Brook project. The Clerk was instructed to give a copy of the lbtter to Mr. Raymond and to request him to re- port on the matter next week. 1 1 1