Time To Address School Budget Issues    

To the Editor:

Over the past several years there have been many issues facing the Town of Newtown. The Legislative Council has heard the needs for school buildings and operations, recreation fields, the library, repairs and expansion to town buildings, and other needs of a growing town. We seem to never get past these issues because the town has been deferring these issues rather than funding a solution. So the list grows each year and now we add the challenges related to Fairfield Hills.

We need to start addressing these needs and in my opinion the one issue that we cannot ignore is the school system. We don’t get a second chance to educate our children and they should not bear the load of the town’s budget concerns. We have heard about the issue of the need for additional classrooms but it is also important what resources are available to run the schools.

The Board of Education met this week to act on the school operating budget for next year. The school budget will now go to the Legislative council for their review and vote. I am sure many residents are shocked by the size of the increase unless they remember the significant cuts that the Legislative Council has imposed on the school budget in recent years. Like the other needs of the town, this issue will not go away until we fund the solution.

The school budget proposes a 14.7 percent increase over last year. It takes into account a projected 6 percent increase in the number of students. Approximately 4 percent out of the 14.7 percent is for health coverage costs for employees, a challenge facing all employers. There are also many needs that are left over from prior years.

To put the increase in perspective, I think that we should look at some of the items that the Board of Education cut from the school budget before they submitted it to the council.

The Board of Education cut $1,075,554 from the school operating budget. According to my summary of these cuts, approximately $267,000 was cut from teaching positions, $280,000 for technology teachers and technical support, $279,000 in maintenance and $68,000 in technology. The remainder is in administration, athletics and changes in grants.

If tradition continues, the Legislative Council will try to reduce the budget further. The result of further cuts will be to continue the pattern of pushing off problems to tomorrow. I hope many people will attend the council meetings and urge them to start addressing our school budget issues and the needs of our children.   

Jim Manville

15 Timbermill Road, Sandy Hook         February 9, 2000