Voters say no to Prop 2-1/2 override; Schools manage level funding.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Bradford L. Miner

NORTH BROOKFIELD - "Make do with what you've got."

When the 414 ballots were counted at the special town meeting last night in the Elementary School auditorium, that was the unequivocal message to the School Department.

By the time Town Moderator Eugene V. Caille gaveled the meeting to order, the overflow crowd had to be accommodated in the adjoining cafeteria, taking part in one of the largest town meetings here in recent memory.

The one-article meeting, to see if voters were willing to supplement the $5,163,565 fiscal 2012 school budget with a $460,464 Proposition 2-1/2 override, rejected that notion by a paper ballot vote of 359-55. The article came before voters as a result of a petition signed by 130 voters.

Robert Smith, chairman of the Finance Committee, not only informed voters of the year-after-year significance of a yes vote on their tax bill, but also said the reason for the override had largely been eliminated during a budget workshop Monday when the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee unanimously supported a patchwork proposal by School Superintendent John A. Provost to restore art, music, the elementary school library and athletics at current fee levels at a cost of $137,618.

That sum would come from nearly $50,000 in unspent grant money from the prior school year, $53,000 that parents and booster club members had pledged to raise, and $17,332 in savings from a furlough day that would be matched with an equal amount from the...