Using scare tactics to get people to vote for the override makes me want to vote for it even less. Saying they will cut ALL paraprofessionals,(which are horribly paid and always have been even in good budget times) gym, art, music, etc from the schools is far-fetched. Pretty much amounts to bullying and manipulation tactics that the Democratic Party has come to be famous for. Do as we say or you’ll be punished.

You had me totally in your corner until this: "Democratic Party has come to be famous for...." No, no and no! This Melrose governance issue has nothing to do with partisan politics.

Melrose so-called "Dems" are anything but, so please stop with your silly labeling. Melrose Dems could give lessons to Trump in how to obstruct justice and spin their Alternate Facts. Ironically it's Melrose Republicans (the old-fashioned kind with actual values) who have stood up against lies and deceitful practices, brave representatives like Don Conn and Monica Medeiros. After yesterday's shameful and mockworthy Republican conduct in the White House and by Repuglicons in Congress (claiming that committing felons is really no big deal, etc.), along with the crushing defeat of the R party in the mid-terms, no one should be brandishing the R as if it were anything to brag about. By the same token, the shameful conduct of many Melrose Dems is also nothing to be proud of.

Otherwise, agree with you totally that the fear-mongering is stupid and ultimately self-defeating. The locals engineering this override boondoggle just don't get how misguided they are. There might even be some actual justification for asking voters for more tax dollars, but this is not the way, nor would we even know the truth based on the garbage this contingent keeps insulting us with.

I agree it's not a partisan issue, in the *both* parties, when accustomed to long spans of control of City Hall, have strongly tended to deeply indulge self-serving cozy insiderism. The GOP did it for a long time, then Dolan was - for a while - a breath of fresh air, eventually following suit.

It's not an uncommon problem in small municipalities lacking critical journalistic coverage.

Faced with a Recession, what part of "We Can't afford It" do they not understand ?

The Melrose Patch just posted average salaries for Massachusetts cities and towns. The details show why many people will vote against the Override BECAUSE they can’t afford it! Love all the “One Melrosians” pushing for the schools but stating clearly that they will vote against a Debt Exclusions for Public Safety Buildings when it comes up because they will not be able to afford it after supporting the schools. it’s all about the schools. Some Melrose politicians have even admitted the Public Safety Buildings will not have a chance, if this Override passes. My unscientific survey says neither will pass because most people cannot afford it and even more importantly voters do not trust the folks running City Hall.

Teaching in America now appears to have reached a tipping point. Low wages have driven some teachers out of the profession entirely, and fewer people want to become educators. Teachers will be the first to tell you they never got into the profession for the money.

"My unscientific survey says neither will pass because most people cannot afford it and even more importantly voters do not trust the folks running City Hall."

I have to say that among my bluest of neighbors and local acquaintances, there does not appear to be any more appetite for this override proposal than the most recent attempt. Many folks realize that a correction to the local housing bubble is likely, and that the nature of property taxes is that the taxes they pay will increase for two more cycles after a bubble begins to burst and the effect of that falls hardest on the most recent buyers who borrowed money to make their purchase.

CT "is the female version of President Donald Trump"

Absolutely true. She's a racist, bully, illiterate, arrogant, incompetent. She can't write or speak intelligently ("I will tell you..."), and yet Melrose parents and that ugly Ed Foundation (those people are self-important and very NASTY!) think she created sliced bread. They think that paying her $180,000+ is just fine, when in fact it's a travesty. She demands her teachers have advanced degrees, and she has no doctorate but expects the respect due a true educated educator. She has temper tantrums and says incredibly inappropriate things about her staff, the students, parents, and comports herself with the nastiest expressions publicly when she doesn't like the views being offered.

People seem so opposed to the override. there is a distrust with City Hall. Then get out there and starting letting people no. the Yes group provides an aggressive almost bullying approach to make things like an override pass. Start speaking, giving information and facts because the Yes is etched in emotion and not truth and preference and not fact.

SPEAK UP!

We don't have enough space on this website to post the answer to your question.

Is there a reason why the Mayor proposed and BOA voted on the override amount prior to the Collins Demographic study being completed in December. The Demographic study from the Collins was dated December but yet the BOA had a vote to determine override amount on 11.19.18. What is the Superintendent’s plan to deal with enrollment increases going forward if override passes and plan if it fails? During the BOA appropriations meeting on 11.13.18 superintendent suggested neighborhood school concept could be brought back if override passes. Really? Or was superintendent just shooting just shooting from the hip. I would love to know what their plan is?

The paras are menaced for failure after the two year contract is up. CT had already manage this with the fake paras and teachers union. So long paras if the override fails in April you will know who to thank.

Why is she still the superintendent of schools... Ask the school committee that question they know the story too...!


Then an audit should be done along with where is the money being spent. She has no reason not to tell the tax payers like myself with no children in the schools who, what, where and when.

If you want a better school system, move to an affluent community. Melrose is middle class, nothing more, nothing less.

Melrose has always thought the "we" are Lynnfield and Winchester, when we've always been Wakefield, Stoneham, and Medford, and there's nothing wrong with being middle class.

Don't be obtuse. Melrose kids would get a quality education if the administration wasn't totally incompetent.

That's true. Melrose had a chance to get a quality administrator with a proven track record, and instead opted for Taymore. They were were warned she would be a problem, but they ignored all advice not to hire her.

The Mismanagement lack of Transparency and Coverups. No on any Override.

My kid was on an IEP at the middle school. The first week of class, the English teacher told her "I'm not going to follow your IEP, I am treating you just like everyone else." That cost the tax payer $50,000 a year till she graduated high school. Multiply that by about 30 times per graduating class and you get the idea how the superintendent's thoughtlessness for children is costing the tax payer multi-millions of dollars per year. That does not even account for the multiple civil rights violations per year costing the Melrose taxpayers millions more for their incompetence. The superintendent and the city solicitor think they are smart asses, illegally retaliating against families with kids that have educational needs thinking they will just leave the school district. The Melrose taxpayers think they are just incompetent asses who are costing the taxpayers millions. Dig a little deeper, if the "One Melrose" lemmings will let you know where your tax dollar is being wasted (they won't). And to top it off, the current SC chair nominates an ex-con, convicted of stealing well over a million from clients to oversee a $30 million + budget?? Wow, just wow. How did we vote in such incompetents into office? Sad to say but we get what we deserve.

Do we deserve Paul Brodeur as the next Mayor?

The Mismanagement lack of Transparency and Coverups.

Very long discussion on MCG about the override. Someone always brings up how Melrose taxes are lower than comparable towns. A woman commented that she is paying $7500/year. I thought mine was high at $6400 for my 6 small rooms on slightly over 4000 sq ft. The average lot size in Melrose is between 5 and 6 thousand square ft. $7500 is outrageous. Maybe someone in Reading is paying $8000 on a similar house (doubtful) but I’m sure their lot size is probably close to double a Melrose lot size. Also the amount we pay in water in sewer definitely brings us up to par with what those is those towns pay for both. I’m sick of being duped. All the apt buildings were supposed to help. Reality is they’ve overpopulated the city and still want us to pay for it.
The yessers also use the argument of better schools, increased property values. Well the schools have not changed in years yet my property values have almost quadrupled in 19 years. I grew up here. I rented half a duplex for $750/mo before buying my home for $220000. Now you can’t even rent the same size apt for triple what I rented for. I would I’ve for my teens to be able to buy here but with the home prices and rising property taxes there will be no way. One wants to be a firefighter and one a nurse. Both admirable, hardworking professions yet they won’t be able to afford Melrose, unlike their predecessors in the same fields could 25 years ago. So stop talking about continuing rising property values AND taxes as if it’s a wonderful thing. Not at these rates anyway.

Seems that those who are buying now are all leftist types who had college funds, were coddled by their parents, have little to no student debt, were given $100000 for down payment but realized living in cities like Cambridge and Somerville wasn’t quite worth the money and decided to pay astronomical amounts for tiny homes in Melrose, it doesn’t have the crime or, at least not yet, the traffic. So they move to Melrose and are transforming it into their own little progressive, hip, slice of heaven. Well I have 15 or so years before I can retire, sell and move. I’m a blue collar union worker who works hard and thankfully has a pension plan and an annuity because I can’t afford to save much otherwise. I will not be forced out before I’m ready because of tax and water rates. I will vote NO and there’s not an argument in the world that will change my mind.

Just don't assume that progressives are pro-override and unnecessarily alienate them. The progressives in Melrose I know personally all appear to be strongly inclined to vote against the override, as they are aware that Melrose's school committee and city hall cultures are strongly self-protective and opaque, which are not pluses if you want accountable popular government.

"Don't negatively generalize people like me because of political differences, and I won't generalize people like you.

And your side thinks the yes voters are being too mean. Ridiculous."

Likewise, don't negatively generalize all opponents or skeptics of the override. Many of them are also progressives. being a progressive doesn't necessarily entail support of this override as proposed. If that surprises you, so be it.

Our water rates are out of control. I get anxiety if I hear someone running the water for more than 5 seconds or flushing the toilet twice.

"But more than that, I don't want my kids going to underfunded schools."

Throwing more money at the schools will not really help them where they need help: regime change in the administration. If anything, withholding more coin is more likely to further what needs to be done first. I lived in this city when the decadent GOP insiderism was a costly problem, and we have the same thing now just under the successor regime.

One of the paras retired after she accomplished what she was set out to do by union and CT. The other was to leave when her child graduated.

I am so disappointed in the city of Melrose with the new hires. No more BC or BC hires from this administration.

Prove that the schools are underfunded. The increased MCAS scores? The size ratio which is still under state average and if I heard correctly under what was agreed upon in the contracts? Can we please look at other schools and SEE that Melrose is so far from under funded. Appreciate what you have. Every time someone with a question of from the No side is looking for clarity, no answer from One Melrose, the Mayor and the Alderman. They will block you, take your questions down or name calling. bring fact to the subject for ONCE! Every override is the same... So disappointed in Melrose. I bet kids in schools that are truly underfunded are still going to Harvard because they now what it means to overcome. Try to buy success, never works.. Please ask question if you plan to vote yes because I want to know are you leaving me hind the police, the fire department, the elderly and disabled in fixed incomes, private sector workers who don't get 6% increases of gauranteed increases like school workers. Over $700 in increased taxes with the other added garbage and then the override. You willing to leave the 99% behind for the 1%? Will you leave my family behind?
Will you tell my daughter her piano lessons are over because Melrose increased the bill over $700 for a year without any facts. The lessons are part of her therapies. When the Yes say for the kids, whose? One Melrose of One Percent of Melrose?

Don't worry about these idiots. This override will fail.

That repulsive response is so typical of the holier than thou Yes brigade. It's not surprising, since they were all Dolan supporters and learned it from him. If you you don't agree with them, you will be insulted, marginalized, and ostracized. They don't care about you. They only care about themselves and their own agendas. You are just a means to get what they want. Quite honestly, they make me sick.

Much of the talk in Melrose of late has centered on the upcoming tax override vote, with each side of the debate making their presence known and stating their respective cases to all who will listen.

Thank you! You are right this would be the THIRD time they have attacked my kids or poked at them, one was a teacher who didn’t realize what she had said and tried to apologize after.. I’m sure she’s sticking around to get her 6%. This town is aweful.. we have been called names had our kids insulted all over a tax bill. The intimidation of the yes people is an embarrassment to melrose.. I wasn’t even a no to start I wanted Info and fact but it was just venom. These people patrolling around the holidays for money to push their agenda and when you say not it’s you don’t like the kids.. sorry I’m worried about how I’m going to give a holiday to my family.. suck ignorance ruins towns and they are doing a great job.. im curious if teachers are voting yes because of the large raise they stand to gain? This is such garbage..whatever happened to nobility in your job but I guess money solves all problems in some people’s minds.. who would want to stay in melrose with people and parents like this.. bullies..

Those who fear for their political survival should be finding a way to jump ship and line up with the voices of truth before the inevitable happens.

So city employee retirement is based on their last 3 years salary. Are we going to be able to pay additional monies for more retirement pay with the override money? Hopefully there will be enough