School Board Hears Pleas For Pool And Buses

By Tanjua Damon

Public participation during the Newtown Board of Education’s Tuesday night meeting was full of comments to keep the pool open and not change the bus schedule when it comes time to making more than $1 million in cuts to the 2003–2004 budget.

The town budget has failed twice already. A town meeting is planned for Tuesday, May 20, at 7:30 pm at Newtown High School unless petitioners come up with the almost 800 valid signatures needed to bring the budget to a third referendum. The education portion of the budget has already been cut $1.375 million — $400,000 by the Board of Finance before the first vote, $775,000 by the Legislative Council after the budget failed the first time, and another $200,000 after the second budget vote was defeat.

Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff presented a “Gradient of Potential Cuts” list requested by the Board of Finance early in the budget process totaling $1,225,700 million. The school board has continued to say that everything is on the table for consideration when it comes time to making the cuts once the budget is passed.

“Obviously we have our work cut out for us,” Board Chairman Elaine McClure said. “Obviously we will make it work. We will have serious discussions. It will be a difficult year. We don’t want to but we will be forced to cut.”

But students and parents want the board to look at every side of every issue before making cuts, thinking about the real impact that it will have on students. Everyone in the audience Tuesday night thanked the board members for their volunteer service and the job they do. Many realized the decisions will not be easy, but the audience asked that the impact to be felt by students be as minimal as possible.

Maureen Remitz felt it was unfair that the board was targeting one sport with the possibility of the high school pool being closed. It almost caused her to not vote at all, but she realized she needed to support the budget.

“As a voter you understand some of the reactions,” Ms Remitz said. “But when we come down to cutting we need to do it fairly.”

Ken Moliver felt closing the pool would not just hurt high school swim team members, but the community at large.

“It’s one of the few things that is open to the public. It is something that is open to the town,” Ms Moliver said. “It is a full town, full recreational area. I understand it is an expensive proposition to keep it open.”

Ed Marks from the Parks and Recreation Commission spoke to the board seeking support for the pool to be kept open. He said that programs held at the pool by Park and Rec like open swim, swim team, swim lessons, and lifeguard training are self-funding programs that can bring money to the board. He said approximately $6,200 is expected to be given to the board this year from the open swim pass fee and it would probably increase next year because the fees will be raised.

“We know the difficulties you folks are facing,” Mr Marks. “We are very much in support of maintaining the pool for uses of Park and Rec and the high school.”

Students also spoke during public participation explaining that the use of the pool for swim team is fun and an opportunity to exercise and socialize.

“It’s really important to me,” Lauren Kotwicki said. “I’ll speak for the young kids here. I know a lot of these kids are looking forward to their high school swim years.”

“My social life revolves around swim team,” Abby Atkinson said. “It would be a shame if it was cut.”

Mike Gates explained to the board that after doing some research he found that there are not enough pools in the area for high schools to use that need them. He said that several high schools including Bethel, Brookfield, and Joel Barlow in Redding are looking for pools to rent for their teams. He also told the board he thought the savings would be under the estimated $80,000 given on the cut proposal list.

“To close the pool you risk terminal cracks and buckling if it is closed for a long period of time,” he said, “ruining the pool.”

Parents also want the board to keep the four-tier busing system instead of changing to a three-tier system, which would cause middle school students to ride the bus with high school students for a 7:30 am start time and be home around 2:30 in the afternoon. The parents said the younger students would experience sleep deprivation. It is opposite of teenage biological clocks to be able to concentrate and be focused that early in the morning, they said.

Mr Gates also discouraged the board from changing the bus schedule.

“I am a police officer. It’s crazy. The most dangerous time for middle school students is between two and six pm,” Mr Gates said. “It would be a disaster. Parents aren’t home. They are looking for people to watch their kids. I think the board would be negligent.”

One parent told the board he moved from California and selected Newtown for the very things that are being considered for the cuts.

“It’s sacrilegious, quite frankly, to cut the things that actually attract people to the town,” the parent said. “[If it continues] there won’t be as many people to pay the bills.”