On Monday of last week, our School Committee voted 3 to 2 to extend the superintendent’s contract to 2012. The request came from Dr. Jefferson on the previous Thursday. The School Committee was already scheduled to do his review at the Monday meeting. Now they were also given the task of determining whether or not to extend his contract without any time for either side to process the results of the review or for the School Committee to fully process the impact of adding another $140,000-plus to the town of Harvard’s future expenses. Was the Finance Committee even consulted on this matter? Why was it so important to rush this through without the transparency of process? In addition, it seems the town deserves the time to consider and research the financial impact we taxpayers will now have to deal with. We did just extend this contract last October to 2011 amid a fair amount of controversy, and our economic picture has certainly gotten worse since then. The School Committee is responsible for making the best decisions for our children, the schools, and the town of Harvard. I sincerely hope that our new School Committee operates with more transparency of process and concern for the financial future of Harvard.
Cindy Buhner
Stow Road
