School Board Remains

Out Of Touch With Reality

To the Editor:

The Newtown Board of Education and school administration have once again shown they are out of touch with reality. A look at their past financial management of the budget, bonuses paid to select administrators, and now a staff development recess on the first Wednesday of each month clearly shows they have wandered off the charts. This is not an enviable record.

Does any member of the Board of Education read a current newspaper? Does any one of them or the administration understand that this country and our state face their greatest economic threat since the Great Depression?

In this economic climate we have an employers’ market. If the staff needs development, then tell them to undertake the necessary programs on their own time. Why should the taxpayers fund staff development?

I understand this may be a state mandate. But for the individual teacher the development they realize as a result of the program they pursue makes them as an individual more marketable. That is how the real world works.

Each teacher could stay later in the day, come to work earlier or simply enroll in a self-study course that is web-based. But giving time off at public expense is not a reasonable solution.

On top of the cost we have, the impact to families who have double wage earners (in part to pay the tax to fund the schools) who now must adjust their plans to deal with early release of students. Not factored into the cost of this decision is the potential some that families may see one or more wage earner alter his or her hours at work to deal with the residual child care issues that this misguided policy has created. That has an impact on tax as well. Specifically, fewer hours worked means less income tax collected.

And, what about the students? How do they develop when the teachers are not teaching? Seems like a Catch 22 to me.

The Board of Education needs to rethink this policy and show the residents of Newtown they are making reality based management decisions.

R.P. Gottmeier

13 Antler Pine Road, Sandy Hook                               August 2, 2010