Letter: Before we spend half a billion dollars, ask the right questions

As a Weston resident, I am alarmed by the 80% property tax increase our town is facing — and equally alarmed that our Finance Committee is rubber-stamping projects without reckoning with the consequences. History has shown us what happens when taxes reach a tipping point: residents leave, property values fall, and towns get caught in a cycle that is hard to reverse. My friend overheard older Weston residents at Heirloom saying they would leave if taxes rose by 80%. Can we afford to dismiss that?

The projections deserve scrutiny. The Observer reported estimates project a 27.7% enrollment increase to 2,586 by 2034 — Weston had nearly 3,000 students during the baby boom years and 2,416 in 2007-2008, before the Field School was even built. Importantly, each building currently operates at 40% to 70% capacity. There is room to grow without creating a fiscal crisis. I would also like to understand whether 27.7% is the upper bound — and if so, what the lower and most likely projections are and what are the assumptions behind the analysis. These are the questions our Finance Committee should be asking.

Education is a service business. School quality is determined by the people inside, not the buildings. MIT and Harvard operate out of buildings hundreds of years old, and no one questions the education delivered within those walls. Bricks don’t teach children. Teachers do. With half a billion dollars, we could hire Harvard professors to teach at Weston High School for the next hundred years. Where is the money better spent — on walls, or on the people who deliver the service?

I hope our leaders will distinguish between what is truly needed and what’s a wish list. I hope they commit to protecting the character, affordability, and long-term health of this town. I would hate for Weston to become yet another “educate and evacuate” community.

Rachel Stewart, Sudbury Road