5kOURway: Participatory Budgeting

A Note From Mayor Brodeur:

If you're a Melrose High School student, I want to give you $5,000.

Ok, not exactly, but I do want you to decide how to spend $5,000 of government money! Why?

1. I want to encourage students in Melrose to actively participate in their community.

2. Your ideas and voices matter; you deserve a say when it comes to decision making in your community. At the end of the day, no one knows how to spend this money better than you do.

That's why my office set aside $5,000 for this concept called Participatory Budgeting, but you can call it 5kOURway: What that means is, you, Melrose High students, will get to come up with ideas on how to spend that money. Then, all students at MHS will get to vote on which idea is the best, and then my office will make it happen.

You can propose anything as long as it’s legal. I’ll get to decide which proposals move forward after the first round, but after that, the decision is all yours. I encourage creative, out-of-the-box ideas. You don’t have to submit a proposal to vote, and you can do this project as an individual, or gather a group of friends to submit a proposal. 

Melrose High School Students can submit proposals to 5kOurWay@CityofMelrose.org until March 27, 2023 at 8 p.m.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Key Dates: 

March 13: 5kOURway Presentation during Crew.

March 13: Proposal submissions open!

March 15: Virtual Info Session with Mayor Brodeur from 2:15-2:45 p.m.

March 27: Proposals are due!

March 28: Mayor will review the proposals, and once each group receives the 'okay', they can begin campaigning their proposals to fellow MHS students.

April 24: Campaigning ENDS.

April 24: Voting begins!

April 25: Voting period closes.

April 25/26: The winner will be announced!