Schools, Budget the Subject of GOP Candidates Night

School overcrowding, deficient infrastructure and budget concerns were the big topics at Candidates Night, hosted Thursday night by the Newton GOP of Ward 5 at the Bishop MacKenzie Center.

About 50 people attended the event, and listened to 15 hopefuls speak about their reasons for running and hopes for the future of Newton. Most are running for positions on the Board of Aldermen or the School Committee, although one speaker, Anil Adyanthaya, represented the newly formed Newton Upper Falls Area Council.

Gloria Gavris, who emceed the event, urged the audience to help make Newton a two-party town through "friend-raising."

"A lot of our wards are trying to reach out to new members of the community, to let them know that we exist," she said. "We feel confident that building a Republican party in the city of Newton, it only betters and benefits all of us, creating more debate, more dialogue."

Although the night was mainly focused on Republican candidates, Ward 3 Alderman at Large Greer Tan Swiston emphasized the non-partisan nature of the local elections.

“It’s wonderful that we have so many new candidates as we did in the last election cycle and, even better, that we have so many contested races,” Swiston said.

Two Democrats – Charlie Shapiro of Ward 6 and Mitch Fischman of Ward 8 – also had the opportunity to speak to the crowd.

“I’ve been in office for about 16 months and have learned a lot about what makes Newton run,” said Shapiro. “Sometimes it runs real well, sometimes it’s a little on the dysfunctional side, but everyone’s heart is in the right place.”

The night’s speeches were widely varied in tone and subject. Jack Porter, running for Ward 2 Alderman, advocated reducing the Board of Aldermen from 24 members to 16.

“There are too many egos,” he said. “Too much of the board is taken up with regulation.”

He also proposed doubling the pay of both the aldermen and school committee members.

Tom Scheff, who is running in one of the more contested races – for Ward 8 Alderman at Large against Mitch Fischman and David Kalis, said the board needs to be more assertive with the mayor’s office.

“Now that we have a mayor who is running for Senate, it’s up to the Board of Aldermen to be the checks and balances for the mayor’s office and administration – something they have never done before” Scheff said. “It’s time to get some independent voices in there and make sure things are done right. The Board of Aldermen allowed the previous mayor to change positions three different times over the course of 11 years that caused us an extra $100 million.”

Other speakers had a softer approach. Brian Yates, seeking reelection as Ward 5 Alderman at Large, spoke of fighting to protect the city's values of the past. “I’m trying to be the defender of the Newton I knew as a kid.”

Carleton Merrill of Ward 1 also spoke of “maintaining the residential character of this community.” Merrill has been an alderman for 16 years, and served the city for 30 years before that.

He joked that he often gets asked, “How long you going to keep running?” to which he said he responds, “I’ll run until someone beats me!” He is particularly interested in the issues of education and of veterans and senior citizens, because, as he said, “I am one.”

For those running for the School Committee, overcrowding of classrooms compounded by too many short-term fixes in the form of modular classrooms and teacher contracts were the two major topics.

Running for Ward 5, Steve Siegel offered innovation, efficient space use and virtual teaching technology as potential solutions for overcrowding.

“We have to be able to evaluate whether we should be looking at replacement versus renovation on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “I do that in my work (as a structural engineer), and I think I could do that for the School Committee.”

Margaret Albright of Ward 2 brought up the rising health benefits in teacher contracts.

“Every penny that has come to us in state aid for education, the additional money that the governor has a allotted, has gone straight to teacher health care benefits. None of it has gone to the classroom,” said Albright. “It’s essential that we get the growth curve of our teacher health benefits – and all our employees’ health benefits – under control.”

Two guest speakers also took the floor near the end of the evening. Emily Norton introduced her website, www.VotersCount.org, which aims at getting information online about how officials are voting.

Representing the Newton 9-11 Memorial Committee, Ginny Gardner made a moving speech about eight victims from Newton who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Gardner honored each of the victims by name and asked the audience to consider donating to the committee, which is striving to build a memorial at Newton City Hall.

Candidates Night was the third event for the Newton GOP this year, following a New Year’s social and an installment in a speaker series, and there are plans for a fourth event closer to the election in November.