To The Editor:

I was disappointed to read Bruce Walczak’s recent Letter to the Editor, Our Students Deserve Better, which attacks my fellow Republican colleagues on the Board of Education for exercising a modicum of fiscal discretion in evaluating the Town’s educational budget. Strong schools and thoughtful fiscal management are both critical to Newtown’s future.

Without having polled my Board of Education colleagues, I can confidently say that we are all proud of the accomplishments of the district. In addition to those accomplishments noted by Mr Walczak, I also wish to highlight the District’s recent “A” rating from the Niche education ranking service. These accolades are the indicia of our shared commitment to educational excellence in Newtown.

While the Board of Education’s primary goal is to set policy that facilitates the District’s stated mission of academic excellence, we must also carefully scrutinize how taxpayer money is spent. In the 2025/26 school year, 64.8% of every tax dollar received by the Town will go towards public education. Given the magnitude of the District’s budget on the public at large, especially seniors and those on fixed income, the Board has a duty to carefully consider how the educational system is funded, while also balancing the downstream financial impact on taxpayers. Fully funding schools is essential, but that desire must be balanced with the need to avoid exacerbating affordability challenges for our community.

There is no doubt that many of our most vulnerable neighbors and residents have felt the pain of increased costs in recent years due to unchecked inflation, increased municipal spending, and local property reassessments.

While I will be stepping away from the Board of Education in November, I look forward to applying the same level of fiscal scrutiny on behalf of the Town if elected to Legislative Council in the upcoming election.

Brian Leonardi

Newtown