West Tisbury School Debate a Focus of Meeting

By CHRIS BURRELL

The line-up for next week's annual town meeting in West
Tisbury is about to test voters' political stamina, math skills
and tolerance for spending sprees.

The raging debate over whether the town should withdraw from the
up-Island regional school district is expected to drive much of the
discussion - but make no mistake, the annual town meeting that
starts Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the West Tisbury School gymnasium is going
to be a whopper for more reasons than school secession alone.

Voters are looking at more than $1.6 million in tax overrides and
borrowing measures to pay for roadwork, sidewalks, a tennis court and a
bush-busting firetruck. They'll have to decide whether to pass a
strict new bylaw dealing with wetlands [see separate story on Page
Eight] and if they want to defy a federal law called the Patriot Act.

The meeting could well flow over into two nights of action,
selectmen chairman John Early predicted yesterday.

"It's rare and it seems like ancient history, but
I've been involved in some two-nighters," he said. "It
very definitely could happen with three big-ticket items: the wetlands,
the withdrawal and the Patriot Act."

The warrant is 41 articles long. On Thursday between noon and 8
p.m., voters head to the polls in the public safety building in North
Tisbury for the annual town election. Voters will decide two contested
races - for selectman and tree warden - and 11 ballot
questions, asking for approval of a $242,000 general override plus
another $1.3 million in spending.

"It's a fairly substantial shopping list we have, but
all of the proposed expenditures . . . are things the town needs,"
said Mr. Early. "There's not anything frivolous or
unnecessary."

Money is at the crux of what will likely be the most time-consuming
debate at town meeting: the question of whether withdrawal from the
up-Island school region will make the town richer or poorer.

Finance committee members have argued that the cost-sharing formula
forces West Tisbury taxpayers to pay more than their fair share of
educational costs up-Island. The committee, sponsor of one of two
articles calling for secession from the region, believes that pulling
out would save the town about $200,000 in the first year.

School leaders, who prepared five fiscal scenarios for breaking up
the regional school district, forecasted an entirely different result: a
loss of at least $300,000 to the town.

The obvious problem is which set of numbers to believe. And while
finance committee members are adamant about their calculations and
pushing hard for withdrawal, a new approach calling for a third party to
do the math is in the works.

Call for More Study

"We need some kind of outside entity to do this
number-crunching, to look at these analyses with off-Island eyes,"
said Kathy Logue, West Tisbury treasurer and the chairman of the
up-Island school committee.

"That would help us to arrive at numbers that everyone could
agree on," she added.

Mr. Early said the finance committee, which sat down with selectmen
Wednesday, was open to the suggestion.

But finance committee member Peter Costas told the Gazette yesterday
that the board still wants to see the vote for withdrawal. Without it,
he said, "the pressure will be off and nothing's going to
happen."

Ms. Logue said she would urge voters not to make any decision on
withdrawal, given the sketchy data on the table.

"What is clear at the moment is that we don't have clear
information on which to base a decision, and that is not prudent public
policy," she said.

Selectmen agreed this week to ask moderator Pat Gregory to support a
secret ballot on the withdrawal proposal.

If West Tisbury residents vote to withdraw, one of two things
happens next. If Aquinnah and Chilmark, voting at a town meeting, grant
West Tisbury its exit papers, the district is dissolved. Barring that,
West Tisbury citizens would have to vote a second time to make it
happen, waiting at least six months after their initial vote.

Two Towns Wrangle

The reverberations up-Island have already been significant

West Tisbury finance committee members have pressured Chilmark
leaders to kick more money into the regional school budget because their
small kindergarten through fifth-grade school has such high per-pupil
costs.

Last week, the finance team from West Tisbury even suggested to
Chilmarkers that they should consider leaving the regional school
district if they don't want to pick up more of the tab for running
the Chilmark School.

But the wrangling came back to the calculations. Chilmark finance
committee member Doug Sederholm said point-blank he didn't believe
either set of numbers.

Ms. Logue tried to steer West Tisbury off the collision course with
its neighbor. "It seems to me, talking to people, that Chilmark
and Aquinnah have shown a willingness to adjust the formula if it can be
demonstrated there's actually an inequity here," she said.

In Mr. Early's view, the anger around West Tisbury's
share of school funding in the region also has its roots in unkept
promises that a school task force would devise a fairer sharing formula.

"The traction the withdrawal movement has now is at least as
much the result of the inaction and failure to proceed with commitments
made [by the task force]," said the selectman.

"It's been a difficult fiscal year for the schools.
Enrollment is falling, and cuts in state educational aid forced cutbacks
in the budgets. The up-Island region is also lobbying legislators to
roll back the tuition reimbursement rate paid by the school district
when residents of the region opt to attend the Martha's Vineyard
Public Charter School.

The complicated debate around withdrawal could also overshadow this
year's general override question asking for $242,000 to help cover
school and government costs.

As part of the effort to reach out to taxpayers, the West Tisbury
School is hosting an open house Tuesday, inviting people to visit the
school and watch classes in action for the day.

Patriot Act Caution

In other town meeting action, voters will be asked to back passage
of a new town bylaw that would indemnify town employees who refuse to
cooperate with federal and state agents conducting investigations of
people under the Patriot and Homeland Security Acts.

Opponents of the Patriot Act believe the law violates civil rights
and civil liberties, but yesterday Mr. Early said town counsel has
cautioned selectmen that the bylaw could land the town and its employees
in hot water with federal powers.

"It's going to be another intensely debated
article," said Mr. Early. "And it's quite possibly in
contravention of federal law."

Spending articles could also arouse voters, depending on their
fiscal moods. Override questions ask voters to pay up: $70,000 for
financial software; $32,000 to boost ambulance service to the paramedic
level; $65,000 to repair the tennis courts at the school; $75,000 to
extend the sidewalk in North Tisbury all the way to the intersection of
State and North roads; $70,000 for a brush-breaking firetruck; and
$14,000 for the regional housing authority.

If voters approve all nine tax overrides, it would add $157 on to
the annual property tax bill for a house valued at $450,000, according
to a tax impact analysis prepared by the town treasurer and assessor.

Selectmen are also supporting a $1 million borrowing proposal as a
new way to pay for road reconstruction. Taxpayers would pay back the
money over ten years.

Mr. Early said that the practice of waiting for state funds to
repairs roads means the town can't do a thorough job.
"People lose track of the fact that the town has a substantial
investment in this infrastructure," he added.