A Premeditated And Arbitrary Cut

To The School Budget

To the Editor:

I attended the Board of Finance meeting last night and my disappointment in their decision to cut the Board of Education’s budget by $250,000 is overwhelming. Many people were in attendance and all who spoke were in favor of leaving the proposed budget as is. Fathers, mothers, teachers and grandparents all spoke eloquently and articulately, airing their concerns about cutting the budget further. However, despite all the heartfelt concerns, the board, in my opinion, came to the table with an agenda of cutting the budget, period.

In my opinion, how the board dealt with the education budget when it was time to vote was staged and rehearsed. If you weren’t there, this is what transpired. Michael Portnoy started and suggested to reduce the education budget by $1 million! Then it went to $500,000 and then finally $250,000, which was then agreed to. I think we were supposed to feel lucky that we got a real deal there. The concerns Mr Portnoy gives for the need to reduce the budget are these: health insurance premiums in his opinion can be reduced significantly; private busing to replace owner operators; reduce teacher development days by one day; and reduce salaries. I’m not sure whose salaries in particular.

I’m not going to rant about how our schools are suffering (which they are). I will just say this: Dr Pitkoff, the superintendent of our schools, knows more about how to run a school system efficiently and effectively than anyone on the finance board. I respect him and the board and when he proposed this lean budget to just maintain, not improve, our school system the finance board should have deferred to him! I feel the $250,000 is a slap in the face to the board and Dr Pitkoff. How could the Board of Finance go from $1 million so quickly down to $250,000? Would $100,000 have been ok too? $50,000? Where did $250,000 come from? It seemed like an arbitrary number where the need to cut any amount was the objective.

Please, every parent, get out and vote on April 27, show the Board of Finance that schools are important to you. A large part of this mess is because of the trend of the budget being voted against for the last couple of years. It’s a trend the Board of Finance has taken note of and they cut the budget considering that this is how the town wants to go. If you moved to Newtown because of the school system, because of all the glowing reports that your realtor gave you about Blue Ribbon schools, Discovery Program, school orchestra etc. etc. etc. please know that it’s already a farce! What you moved here is fast approaching a sweet memory.

Linda Watson

51 High Rock Road, Sandy Hook                 March 9, 2004