To the Editor:

The Board of Education has the reputation of being one of the most difficult town positions (if not the most difficult) available to Newtown volunteers. Board members need to gain at least a cursory understanding of curriculum, teaching, special education, diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI), contracts, facilities, transportation, food service, budgeting, etc, to cast informed votes on motions presented in their meetings. They also need to understand the extent and limits of their responsibilities — and how their responsibilities mesh with those of the district administration and other town boards. My sincere thanks to all five candidates who are willing to shoulder such a workload.

Since December 2019, the current board has continued its support for the administration’s efforts in curriculum, teaching, school climate, staffing, and special education, along with its focus on overall meeting civility. Over the last 20 months, the board’s scope has expanded to COVID-19 remediation and additional scrutiny on DEI, especially as related to race and ethnicity. The current board has done a great job by supporting flexibility when needed and crafting a resolution and new policies to help guide the district through these complex times.

While we have a good start, more needs to be done before we can claim success. For example, we’ve just taken some initial steps toward expanding transparency and oversight, two key factors needed to ensure that the community and other town boards understand our motivations, direction, and expenses. As we build on these factors, we will also be better able to understand and improve our impact on the overall education of our students.

Thus far, we have expanded the BoE Newsletters (available at https://newtown.campuscontact.com/BoardofEducationNewsletters). These Newtown-wide newsletters have included issues specific to both COVID and DEI. We have also added explicit reporting requirements within policies related to special education and DEI. Reporting, based on data and experience, is instrumental to ensure that policies are having the effect that the board intended for our students, e.g., racial/sexual harassment is being addressed effectively, leading to a reduction of such events.

This is the state of affairs that awaits our next board. Some areas of focus are very strong and well-developed while others need more work. What is clear, though, is that we need to ensure that our next board has, collectively, the talents, tenacity, and time to continue to move the work forward.

Please, get to know the candidates. You can start by reading their bios on the town committees’ websites (www.newtownrepublicans.org and newtownctdemocrats.org). Also, please read The Bee’s candidate profiles this week and next and attend or stream the PTA’s BoE candidates forum on October 28. Even better, reach out and talk with them at kuzmalarkinramsey4boe@gmail.com, dancruson4newtown@gmail.com, or jennifer4newtown@gmail.com. And then, please, cast an informed vote on November 2.

The views presented here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Education.

Deborra Zukowski

Newtown