Stu Sklar. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

The Harvard schools face a funding crisis, and Stu Sklar is not willing to stand by and watch the quality of the schools go downhill without a fight, he said in an interview this week. Sklar has put an enormous amount of time and energy in the last six months into the volunteer group SOSHarvard, and as he attended numerous town board meetings and learned more about the schools’ financial struggles, he became convinced that the way the schools are currently funded “is not a sustainable model.”

Sklar is particularly upset that Harvard is not receiving a fair share of state aid for its schools, noting that the state only pays 15 percent of Harvard’s school budget now. In order to help remedy this, he not only convinced the selectmen to join the Suburban Coalition, which lobbies state officials about the problems and concerns facing suburban towns like Harvard, but also became the town’s representative to the coalition. “I will have more clout [on the coalition] if I’m an elected official. We should work with others to get Harvard more state aid,” Sklar said.

Having the school budget so dependent on property taxes means the town needs yearly overrides, and that makes it hard for seniors to stay in town, Sklar pointed out. He favors trying to pursue programs like one in the town of Wayland, a senior tax abatement program matched by the state. Harvard also needs to keep up the level of senior services here, so older residents don’t move away, to be replaced by even more school-aged families requiring costly schooling, he believes.

Sklar has first-hand knowledge of the schools, having volunteered for the past several years at the elementary school, where he has children in the first and fifth grades. The family has lived in Harvard for six years, and before that lived in Bolton for seven years. Sklar worked for 25 years in medical sales until the last three years, when he became a full-time at-home dad and now a political activist. “People work hard in Harvard—most don’t have the time to get involved. I have the time to get involved,” Sklar said. When asked what he sees as the schools’ most pressing need, Sklar was quick to respond, “both overrides passed!” He noted that even if the overrides pass, school spending per pupil for regular education will be barely above the level it was in 1993, even though there has been 45 percent inflation since then. Sklar also complained that there is a very small range of classes offered at Bromfield, though that problem could be helped by offering online classes with the Virtual High School program, whose $16,000 cost would be funded in the second tier override. “It’s the most bang for your buck,” he said.

Sklar attended all the tri-board meetings, and all but one or two of the Finance Committee meetings during this year’s budget build, and is clearly frustrated by what he saw. “The FinCom is doing a lousy job,” Sklar said flatly. He complained that five out of the seven Finance Committee members never tried to determine just what level of funding the schools really need to provide an excellent education for the students. In frustration, Sklar ended up helping put on the warrant for Annual Town Meeting an article to have the members of the finance board elected rather than appointed, so they would be more accountable to voters, he said.

Sklar also thinks the boards “started off badly” during the current teacher contract negotiations, by being so fixed on the share of health insurance premiums paid by teachers being 30 percent, rather than the 20 percent the teachers offered. “It’s not a lot of money,” in an overall $10 million budget, he noted. In fact, because the contract hasn’t been settled, the provisions of the previous contract are in force, so the town has continued paying 90 percent of the teacher health insurance premiums this year, costing the town money, he said. “What makes a school system is the teachers—having this much animosity is disturbing,” Sklar said.

Town officials just can’t keep doing business as they have been, with yearly overrides and service cuts, Sklar argued. He insisted parents, townspeople, and, most of all, the elected board members have to fight for the funding the town needs. Sklar said he is organizing to get several busloads of townspeople to go to a rally on Beacon Hill in April to advocate for more state funds for education. He also wants town officials to attend a breakfast for state legislators, to lobby for more money. “There are no easy answers anymore. People need to get involved. I’m going to fight. If you want to have a society, kids are the future,” he concluded.