To the Editor:

As a parent with a child attending Head O’ Meadow, I am concerned about the governance of our Board of Education. The Bee’s article “Finance Board Concern Prompts Pause” nicely captures an example of my concerns.

I encourage taxpayers to listen to or watch the recordings of the June 2 and June 25 Board of Education and Board of Finance meetings, respectively. The BOE’s recent decision to prepay $375,000 in lease obligations with no interest or other financial gain for taxpayers is debated. The BOE seems to argue that unnecessary and partially wasteful spending today is good for taxpayers because it makes room for even more spending tomorrow. For property owners with mortgages, this decision is equivalent to going to one’s lender and paying the entire loan balance right now along with the entire amount of interest owed over the normal life of the loan. Prepay all the principal. Get no interest relief. Get no other financial benefit. This is a spectacularly curious decision and reflects questionable stewardship of taxpayer money. Hopefully, after the pause, the more logical thinking of others will prevail and the BOE’s dubious decision will be permanently reversed.

Newtown taxpayers have been steadfast in their support of our school system. Many are struggling with un- or under-employment in these unstable times and yet have received no relief on property taxes despite a million dollar plus BOE budget surplus. Nonetheless, we pay those taxes, the majority of which goes towards faithfully supporting our administrators and teachers and enables Newtown to avoid the layoffs and furloughs that other school districts around the country have regrettably been forced to implement.

If this prepayment is to be the BOE’s thank you gift to taxpayers for that support, can I please exchange my share for something else? We need change now. Time for BOE to get off its high horse and quit behaving like taxpayer money is limitless. Honestly, the distrust between the BOE and BOF is palpable and troubling. Sadly, only one BOE board member had the apparently uncommon good sense to vote against the prepayment.

To an outsider looking in, Newtown appears extremely partisan, where politics overrides common sense. I for one will vote against every BOE member who supported this decision come election time. I will do that regardless of the political party those members represent. In my opinion, they should not be managing $78 million in taxpayers’ money.

Living and working in NYC while achieving a level of success in our respective fields, we looked at several towns as possibilities in CT. We chose Newtown as our forever home largely because of the school system. That was 2011, back when Newtown was considered a Blue Ribbon School District. For those of you unaware, this is no longer the case. Newtown test scores and rankings have dropped significantly. What are our school taxes going toward? It’s time for a difficult discussion that nobody seems to want to have.

Kersti Ferguson

Taunton Hill Road, Newtown July 15, 2020