The Process

Needs To Be Fixed

To the Editor:

Last Thursday night [February 25], the Newtown Board of Finance Committee sat in the Lecture Hall of Newtown High School debating the merits of the proposed Board of Education budget. A 100 feet away, at the 40-year-old main entrance lobby of NHS, a gaping hole in one of the ceiling tiles dripped water into a large waste basket sitting next to a (no doubt) OSHA approved yellow warning sign. I am sure most of the board members parked near the area of the building where the lecture hall is located. They probably didn’t see the leak, or the hole, or the remedy.

Ironically this simple leak illustrates the fault in the budget process. The Board of Education now proposes a budget which is based on “making it through the Board of Finance process” without additional cuts. Isn’t that similar to placing a waste basket out to fix a leak? Shouldn’t the Board of Education propose a budget which addresses the needs of the school system? Unfortunately, not one member of the finance board asked this simple question: Does this budget meet the requirements of the school system?

I would suspect the answer is No based on how the budget was presented. It was referred as a “bare bones” budget. Is this a budget will meet the education goals of the town? Again, no one on the finance board asked this question. Instead, the focus of the finance board is to find some fault — some mistake — in the budget.

And isn’t it refreshing to know we are hiring a science teacher in the high school — not because it will help educate our students — but because the state mandated a certain student to teacher ratio in labs. (The “we have to” syndrome — we have no choice.)

 It seems we ask the Board of Education to become experts on electrical generation and spend time trying to find lower health insurance costs. Shouldn’t the Board of Education be focusing on the educational aspect of the budget and shouldn’t the Board of Finance committee be the ones researching how to save money in those other areas?

Yes, the economy has hit everyone. And the teachers appear to be doing their fair share by forgoing any raises or promotions, a fact which the taxpayers of Newtown should be made keenly aware of at referendum time.

I do not understand how anyone could have sat in the meeting last Thursday night and not come to the realization this process needs to be fixed — along with the hole in the ceiling in the high school main lobby.

Mark Mockovak

3 Nelson Lane, Newtown                                         February 26, 2010