Disappointed By School Budget Cut

To the Editor:

I was sadly disappointed by the Board of Finance meeting of last Monday, March 8, where the vote was to further erode an already sagging education budget by yet another $250,000. I have three serious concerns:

1. The education of our children must be a higher priority than any other item on our budget sheet. It was clear to me that this board sees this issue as merely one of dollars and cents, checks and balances — purely business. If expenses out-total revenues, they must be cut with little thought given to priorities. Is education really not as important as any of these other items? The Board of Finance doesn’t seem to see our children as the top priority in our town. This scares me as a parent.

2. Several key points were brought up for the board’s comments by concerned parents and they never were addressed, i.e., why is affluent Newtown only 139th out of 169 towns in per student spending in this state? Why is education a smaller percentage of total expenditures than in any of the towns around us? Why is that percentage consistently going down year after year? Why did the board not answer these compelling questions? This scares me as a citizen.

3. Lastly, to have someone on the board actually say that “cutting one or two days of teacher professional development will not affect our kids” is just plain ignorant. Teachers learn how to teach our kids at these seminars. It makes me wonder if any of the members of this board has ever sat in a classroom or talked to a teacher in Newtown. If they had, they could never have voted the way they did on Monday night. They seemed completely unaware of how seriously affected our children are already.

I worked for many years in business, managing and balancing budgets composed of tens of millions of dollars. I understand the importance of fiscal responsibility in our town and applaud the board for their efforts to do a difficult and, I’m sure, thankless task. However, I also understand that our kids are the foundation for the future of Newtown, and the way we spend toward that end ensures just what kind of a future Newtown will ultimately have — are we moving toward continued excellence or toward mediocrity? Which path does this board honestly think this vote represented?

It seems to me obvious and undeniable that with more and more kids coming into our schools every year, and less and less money going to support them, we are already on that slippery slope so many of us spoke of on Monday night, and it’s time to put on the brakes.

Lynn Hungaski

29 Valley View Road, Newtown                                   March 14, 2004