SOUTHAMPTON — While residents consider how they will vote on two Proposition 2½ override questions this month — one for $1.9 million and one for $2.5 million — they may have seen a word of advice from a lawn sign or two placed around town, urging them to “Choose Southampton.”
The lawn signs are part of a pro-override campaign called Choose Southampton, a group asking residents to vote “yes” on both override questions at the annual Town Meeting on Saturday, May 2, and the town election on May 19.
While leaders of the group want residents to say yes to both options, they prefer the $2.5 million request to pass. Both questions need a majority vote of more than 50% to pass, and if both reach that mark the $2.5 million override would be enacted. They need to be passed at both the Town Meeting and election.
“We were shocked when the override failed last year,” said Kelley Labrie, one of the main organizers of Choose Southampton. “The turnout for voting was abysmal and the main goal for Choose Southampton is to increase voter turnout and combat misinformation.”
Labrie was one of several parents who sparked the beginning of the grassroots movement in the middle of the March 11 School Committee meeting, saying they want to help get an override passed this year. Upon learning about further cuts that would be made to Norris at the meeting if an override fails again, Labrie along with several other parents banded together.
Since that meeting, the group has grown to more than 20 individuals who have been holding signs outside of busy locations around town and going door-to-door asking people to support the override.
“I have a daughter who is kindergarten this year, she was in the Norris preschool program last year so I got to see firsthand the impact of that vote,” said parent and Choose Southampton organizer Ashley Stone.
There is not a formal group organizing against the override requests.
After the failed override last year, Norris lost the school’s only art teacher, a first-grade teacher, a kindergarten teacher, two paraprofessionals and one math interventionist. Hours were reduced for a school nurse, a reading specialist, an administrative assistant and several other positions.
If the override fails again this year, Norris would lose a reading interventionist and a paraprofessional. This scenario would also mean reduced hours for several preschool paraprofessionals, the vice principal, a custodian and speech paraprofessional.
“I cannot even imagine it,” if further cuts are made this year, Labrie said.
With two children who attend Norris, Labrie said she feels that cuts last year impacted her kindergartener the most, losing a teacher for that grade and the school’s art teacher. Labrie’s son also benefits from services of the school’s speech pathologist, a position that would be cut if both overrides fail.
But Stone and Labrie said there is much more at stake this year than just school funding. Nearly every department in Southampton would have to make cuts if the $2.5 million override fails and less severe cuts would still be made if the $1.9 million override fails.
Along with Choose Southampton signs, “Save the Library” signs have also been popping up around town. Convy Stahl, a member of the Edwards Public Library board of trustees, said the public library would be “decimated” if an override fails.
The library would lose approximately $152,000 and would be reduced to having one employee, which Stahl said would result the facility losing accreditation and effectively closing.
“No one wants to increase our taxes, I certainly don’t, but I also want our town to remain as good as it is,” Stahl said. “No matter what your position is, you need to vote. The ability to vote is sacred in our country.”
Stahl said she has lived in Southampton for more than 40 years and part of the reason she moved here was for the school system. She has seen the town go through tough times but said she has never seen as bad of a situation as this year, which is why she said it is crucial that an override passes.
For more information, visit the Choose Southampton website and for more information on this year’s budget, visit the town website.
