Before you stop reading and close this post; first, ask yourself a few questions:
-Do you or your children check out books, movies or other items in circulation at Patten Free?
-Does your child participate in the Patten Free Summer Reading Program (last summer, over 200 Woolwich children did just that)
-Does your child participate in the RSU's Battle of the Books and use the Patten Free collection/inter-library loan to achieve their reading goals for this event?
-Does your family enjoy the myriad of free offerings at Patten Free? (Read aloud, author's visits, movie night, reading clubs, chess and/or lego club and more?)
-Would you be willing to personally pay $50 or more, per person in your family for a library card?
In February, 2015, the town received a petition signed by over 180 Woolwich Residents, asking the select board to move the approval of the Patten Free Library Budget from the May town meeting, to secret ballot in June (the same evening we will vote on the RSU school budget). You may have signed this petition. This letter by the Woolwich select board does a good job of explaining the result of that petition. http://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/woolwich-town-meeting-chance-voters-decide/52356
The PTA was asked to learn more about this issue, as our mission includes advocating for children and furthering the educational advancement of students in our school and community. On one hand,
Earlier op ed pieces have suggested that citizens who opt to purchase a library card (should the municipal funding not continue) would be "paid back". The warrant, as currently written, is requesting zero funding to help off-set any reimbursement program. It simply does not exist. Here is the link to the warrant.http://www.woolwich.us/resources/pdfs/town_warrants/Warrant-15-4.pdf
Currently, a family of 4 would pay $200 per year (expected to go up should municipal funding cease) thereby limiting only those children whose families have the financial means for continued full access to the Patten Free collection and beyond.
The cost per capita for this year's funding request from Patten Free is $16.50. Other op eds have compared this to the cost of a large pizza - for me, my weekly coffee habit.
$50,688 is a chunk of change. No question. If other cost centers in the Town are being short-changed as some suggest, then certainly, democracy must work is course and look deeper into "why".
Even our PTA has been known to be fairly conservative on some Financial Requests; we did not approve $50 for playground toys last autumn (it should be noted we approved over $7000 in other requests during that same, and subsequent meetings- and members opted to donate the playground items) The point is that as an organization, acting as custodian of funds raised by our Woolwich school community, we understand the need to debate where the money is allocated. Sometimes the results of those votes are not popular. But this is democracy as well.
The message we hope to relay here is to not assume that there is another mechanism in place to assure our students (and siblings) continued use of Patten Free in the future. Be informed, be comfortable with your decision, and attend tomorrow night's town meeting if at all possible.
Thank you for reading, and, as always, emails are welcome: woolwichptc@yahoo.com
