Catherine Guisi is the architect and biggest cheerleader for Hopkinton’s high taxes. As chairwoman of the Chariho School Committee, she knows, perfectly well, that Chariho’s budget is the highest it’s ever been. She also knows that enrollment has never been lower. Yet, she pushed for a 6% increase in the budget last year – this would have set another record – for the largest one-year increase. On Tuesday, Guisti signed off on a 3.4% increase for Hopkinton that you will soon see in your tax bill. And she is the biggest proponent of tearing down all of the elementary schools and rebuilding them, with YOUR money, utilizing a $150 million megabond, which is nothing more than a giant government boondoggle.

Chairwoman Guisti has only gotten this far by assembling a team of school committee members who almost all have direct ties, current or past, personal or familial, with the education-industrial complex. She has maneuvered, behind the scenes with the educrats and legal counsel, to ensure that her agenda moves forward with little discussion. This is not good for you, the Hopkinton taxpayer.

If a private business loses 1 of 4 of its customers, it doesn’t keep demanding more money. It can’t. Consumers wouldn’t allow it. But because decisions are made by a school board of 12, the “expand-at-any-cost” government schools do not know how to adjust to changing circumstances. Chariho has lost 1,000 students from its 4,000 student peak, yet the district asks for MORE money EVERY SINGLE YEAR.  We should NOT be blindly funding the propagation of bureaucracy.  While every private business was shuttered from the Covid lockdowns, the school district received a windfall of grant money. 

There is a giant incentive for like-minded big spenders to seek school board seats. These seats are intended to represent YOU the parents of the students, and YOU the taxpayer. Instead, they quietly scheme to keep the money flowing despite the local taxpayers being crushed with high grocery, oil, and electric bills.  Long term residents on a fixed income and young families are hurting – but does Catherine Giusti care?  

Last year, we were told that if the school budget didn’t pass, Hope Valley School would close. Well, it passed, and less than 100 days later, there were plans to close the school anyway. Enough of the emotional manipulation. The words from the Superintendent and Giusti cannot be trusted. I was the first school committee member to greet Superintendent Picard in her office after she was hired. She made it clear to me that it was her job to get as much money as possible from the member towns. Well, it’s time for Hopkinton to reassert itself and stand with the three other Hopkinton School Board members that opposed the FY25 budget. Guisti was the deciding vote for this budget to proceed. YOU must be the deciding vote to defeat the April 9th budget, defeat the megabond bond on May 7th, defeat the continued closed-door discussions, and defeat Guisti on November 5th.