Greetings!

Thank you to all who went to the polls and voted in support of maintaining Needham's quality schools and public services. Although the loss of Question 1 for the schools means that some painful cuts must be made, we are fortunate to have a wonderful school system with dedicated teachers and administrators who will do all they can to continue providing an excellent education for our children.

It took the hard work of approximately 75 Campaign for Needham volunteers to win passage of Question 2 for the Town. But one extremely dedicated individual deserves our accolades. Karen Price, Chairman of the Campaign for Needham, worked tirelessly for two months to make sure Needham's residents had access to the information they needed in order to make an informed decision on the ballot questions. She wrote most of the campaign literature, played a large role in designing the brochure and motivated the entire campaign committee to give all they could to the effort, and to leave no stone unturned.

From all of us at CNS, thank you so much, Karen!

Thanks to All Who Contributed to the Campaign for Needham

The Campaign for Needham would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped us in the campaign:

• Citizens for Needham Schools for the use of its website and email newsletter
  
  
• The Get-Out-The-Vote team of Amy Goldman, Michael Greis, and Clifford Hayden
  
  
• The 60+ Volunteers who made calls to identify supporters and to remind them to vote
  
  
• Liv Nash for serving as treasurer and ensuring we followed all the campaign laws
  
  
• Marianne Cooley for maintaining the website
  
  
• Individuals and organizations who donated to the Campaign
  
  
• School Committee members Michael Greis and Marianne Cooley, and Selectman Jerry Wasserman who reviewed and helped assemble voter information
  
  
• The Superintendent and Town Manager and their staffs who provided clarification and information when requested
  
  
• Jennifer Kagan, Caroline Sabin, and Susan Bonaiuto for their work on the brochure and other distributed information
  
  
• Anne Braunstein and Doug Spink for donating their professional services for designing and mailing the brochures
  
  
• Carla Small, Les Kalish, and Bill Okerman and all the sign holders for campaign signs
  
  
• Campaign committee volunteers not already mentioned including John Bulian, Maureen Chamoun, Connie Barr, Michael Diener, and Kim Marie Nicols
  
  
• The PTC presidents at all of the Needham schools
  
  
• Everyone who wrote letters to the Editor in support of the ballot questions
  
  
• David Kalish for designing the endorsement ad
  
  
• Mimi and Jim Segel for hosting the post-election party
  
  
• And especially all of the YES voters who continue to support our schools and town!
  
  

Karen Price
Chair, Campaign for Needham

	Rally the State House for Increased School Funding
Something is very, very wrong in Massachusetts. In our state, especially in communities like Needham, property taxes must support an inordinate proportion of public school funding. Couple this with the fact that when Massachusetts Chapter 70 Aid (the financial aid provided by the state to local public school systems) is adjusted for inflation and enrollment, it has actually gone down by 10.5% from Fiscal Year 02 to Fiscal Year 06. Massachusetts led the nation in cutting the largest percentage of state aid to education in 2002 and we have never recovered. We now rank 34th out of the 50 states in education spending as a percentage of personal income. We cannot continue to ask our schools to do more with less. We cannot continue to rely on overrides of Prop. 2 1/2 to adequately fund our local schools. But we can take action! Citizens from thoughout Massachusetts will rally the State House on Wednesday, April 26th from 12:30-1:30 pm to demand restoration of state aid to public schools to 2002 levels adjusting for inflation and enrollment. We expect over 1,000 students, parents, grandparents, teachers, school committee members, people of faith, and others to attend. This rally is being organized by Stand for Children, a grassroots political group that advocates for children. CNS urges concerned Needham residents to attend this rally to demonstrate to our legislators that public education MUST be a priority. If 40 Needham residents sign on for the rally, Stand for Children will provide a complimentary bus. For more information about the rally, please go to the Stand for Children website at http://www.stand.org/ma/rally If you are able to attend, please email Liv Nash from the link below. Email Liv Nash if you can go to the rally! »