Where Did All These Children Come From?

To the Editor:

I ask Superintendent of Schools John Reed: Where did all these children come from to cause an enrollment boom?

I came to Newtown in 1977 and the population was about 21,000. Today it’s about 23,000. One of your soldiers claimed that Newtown families have four or five children. The national average is less than two. What happened to your plan to import children from other towns at $8,000+ per student? Are you money oriented or should you be planning on how to increase the level of learning for all our students so they can excel? How can you ask for a 10 percent increase in the budget? You and your crowd say you are doing this for our children. Where is the evidence?

What has developed in the last five years or so is that we have the fox guarding the chicken coop. The budget keeps increasing and the town gets nothing in return. Why can’t the town vote on Board of Education proposals? We are the ones who pay the tax. The fraud that is perpetrated on the town is unconscionable. The debt and mill rate keep increasing and a small group keeps enriching themselves. It appears that fear has been permanently installed.

Mr Reed why don’t you publish the salaries of all your people and show how they increase, including pensions, medical, etc. Greed!

Paul J. Fortugno

44 Philo Curtis Road, Sandy Hook                March 27, 2000