Voting No Will Send The Wrong Message

To the Editor:

Why did I vote Yes for the budget? Unfortunately, there is no mechanism to identify why people vote Yes or No. Historically, the Legislative Council has reduced the budget by making assumptions that a No vote is a message that the budget is too high.

If this budget is approved, the Board of Education must reduce its budget by $1,456,000. Despite my opposition to these cuts, what choice do I have but to vote Yes? Voting No will send the wrong message to the LC and the children, the seniors, and homeowners will pay the price. The town leaders continue to ignore other messages being sent by their constituents. We will have an opportunity to elect town leaders that better represent us in November.

It will be a challenge for the BOE to reduce $1.456 million from their budget and at the same time address the recommendations made by the NEASC organization to avoid being placed on probation. In addition to the recommendation made to address the high school overcrowding, the NEASC recommendations also included the need to provide for more opportunities for courses, more staffing to allow for more course offerings, to lower class sizes, and to provide more computers with support for maintenance.

In 2003-2004, the voters finally approved a budget that was $1.4 million less than the BOE’s requested budget during the third referendum by 137 votes.

Here is a list of some changes resulting from $1.4 million reduction (from the Superintendent’s Community Update “Mid-Year Report to the Community” from February 2004):

“Class size — the Board has guidelines of no more than 20 in a class through 2nd grade and up to 25 in a class from 3rd through 8th grade. We currently have 1st and 2nd grade classes of 23-24 at Sandy Hook school, 5th grade classes of 25-26, and many classes at the High School have 30 students.”

“Gifted and Talented Program — Two Discovery Teaching positions were eliminated”.

“Bus Tier Consolidation — The bus schedule was changed from a four tier to a three tier system.”

“Plant Operations and Maintenance — Many projects to maintain the buildings were eliminated or deferred.”

“Fourth Grade Orchestra — The fourth grade orchestra program was eliminated, cutting the teaching position.”

“Swimming Pool — The high School swimming pool will be closed for part of the year, saving heating and maintenance costs.”

“Student Fees for Sports, Activities, Parking — Students fees for sports were raised from $50 to as much as $200. Students are required to pay an activity fee of $40 to participate in club and activities at the high school, $30 at the middle school, and $20 at Reed. Student parking fees were raised from $25 to $65.”

We have still not recovered from many of these changes resulting from the $1.4 million reduction to the 2003-2004 budget. The current $1.456 million reductions will make it that much harder to recover. I believe years of reductions have contributed to our high school being placed on warning.

History Repeats Itself! Please vote on Tuesday!

Po Murray

38 Charter Ridge Drive                                                     May 16, 2007