school budgets (Boston, Newton, Lexington: construction, school district, live)

[puffle]

I was reading the Newton Blogs today, trying to get a better idea and feeling for Newton when I stumbled on an article about the proposed new budget for Newton which includes an $11 million dollar increase primarily for the reconstruction of Newton North High School. Bloggers were complaining about the mayor, calling him a thief and robbing the commercial areas their money to improve buildings and from the other schools in the district. Can someone clarify this for me? Is Newton fiscally unsound and has a crooked mayor? Is there any school district in the Boston/Metro West area that is fiscally sound and not firing teachers and cutting valuable school programs? How can I find out about this myself? How can I find out which schools, high schools only, are cutting programs and teachers. The bloggers were complaining about the poor conditions of the street in Newton but that no money has been allocated for improvements, but when I lived in Lexington it was the same thing. I have never seen such poor conditions of streets. What do you say? Parsec?? Anyone??