Chip In And Make The Town Better

To the Editor:

I would like to start by saying, I love this town. I love the fact that everyone is so helpful. I love the fact that I know everyone, and every time I go to the grocery store, Starbucks, the library and Andrea’s bake shop, people know my name and ask me how I am. This is a special town, with small businesses, and local owners. This is a town where people care about each other. The principal of our school, Hawley School, genuinely cares about all her students and parents and knows everyone by name. Our kids can walk home after school, in a relatively safe environment. These are the things that make our town wonderful and desirable. Our job as a community is to protect that.

The budget did not pass. People don’t want to pay more taxes, and they definitely don’t want McDonald’s where Mobile used to be. However, we can’t have everything. Nice roads, competitive schools, community and charm, combined with reasonable taxes are the things that make a town desirable. One can’t think solely of individual need, because each aspect of this town in interlinked, like a chain.

There are people writing in that full-day kindergarten has no benefits and that studies prove that half-day students do just as well. This is simply not true. There are many studies that support the opposite.

Here is a study that proves otherwise and offers ways to recoup the costs of full-day kindergarten:  http://school.elps.k12.mi.us/kindergarten-study/Full-Half_U_of_M_study_V_Lee_et_al.pdf

People need to understand that if we want to be a desirable town, and we want all these nice things, that we all need to chip in and make it that way. Unnecessary spending needs to be addressed and trimmed down. If Derby, Seymour, Ridgefield and Bethel can afford a full day kindergarten, then so can we.

Joanna Zachos

Glen Road, Sandy Hook                                                  April 25, 2012