“Where is all the budget money going?” Asks junior Alyssa Stone. “That’s my question.”

As the school year wraps up, the student body is asking questions that nobody seems to have an answer to. Triton Voice has decided to take readers’ questions and bring them to the superintendent of schools, Mr. Brian Forget, in the hope of us find out answers.

To Stone’s question, Mr. Brian Forget responded with, “Yes, indeed it does seem that we are short on money, as we are! The problem boils down to the state not ‘living up’ to its promise to fund public education in Massachusetts. We are receiving less money today than the year you were born!!! I think you would agree that things have gotten more expensive over your lifetime, and that is true for education. Those new costs haven’t been supported by the state, so the local towns have to ‘pick up’ those bills, which is very difficult, and why they are always struggling to fund our budget!”

One of the most talked about issues here at Triton is the lack of money. It seems as though every month, there’s a new budget issue. If you can’t tell from the mumbles in the hall “The ceilings are leaking again,” or “I’d die for AC,” the student body is sometimes frustrated by where the budget money goes.

“I don’t know what good this will cause by me asking,” states senior Maggie Oliver. “Since I’m leaving, but my question is, why haven’t we done any lockdown drills? Last year they mentioned we’d have ALICE training, but we haven’t done anything this year, and it’s the fourth quarter. Do you remember what happened last year when we made it to the fourth quarter without a lockdown drill?”

Forget replied saying, “We have spent the year training all faculty and staff in the ALICE Protocol. We had a community meeting back on April 9th, and are planning a full school drill the first week of June. Between now and then, schools will be rolling out processes and protocols to students, in a developmentally appropriate way depending on the school and grade level. As of next year, these will become more routine.”

It should be comforting for students to know that Triton’s faculty knows the drill when it comes to ALICE training. It is important that the student body knows that they are in good hands here at Triton.

Another question, asked by junior Erin Power was, “When do you think we will need to completely reconstruct our school?”

To this question, Forget responds saying, “I do not think we’ll need to completely reconstruct our school for decades. The structure is solid. That said, the renovation in 2000 did not remedy all the issues of the original 1969 building, so we continue to have leaky windows as an example. We are in the process of selecting an engineering firm to do a facilities assessment to identify all the needs. We should have that report by the fall. We will then establish a 10-year plan for capital improvements, and that could range to fixing issues one at a time, or doing it all at once and applying to the Mass School Building Authority for funding, as they would likely pay for about half of the cost of a large project. Any remedy would likely keep the building/structure, and replace the roof, windows/doors, flooring, ceilings, etc. So it’s the same layout, but updated aesthetics and infrastructure to meet 21st century learning needs!”

The school is slowly but surely fixing problems left and right, and as time goes on, the school hopes to keep improving its’ conditions. “Even though I’m graduating,” says senior Jonathan Woodbury. “I still wanna ask him for the kids staying here ‘why don’t we do anything for the arts kids’? You could be blind and still see how much this school prefers the athletes, even though the arts department reels in tons of awards.”

A frequent complaint, many kids in the arts department believe there’s a certain preference of student athletes to student artists. There’s far more recognition for the athletic department, though the arts department bring in just as many awards.

To this question, Mr. Brian Forget responded “I will have to defer that question to the High School, whether that is Principal Dawe or others in those departments.”

Though there are many questions Triton students have been eager to know the answers to, these are only a couple we gathered from the student body. If anyone has any questions to ask administration, don’t be shy, as they’re only one e-mail away.