School Board Needs To Rethink

It Bus Contract Decision

To the Editor:

I attended last night’s Board of Education meeting, my first. Even though the owner-operators were not on the agenda, the board allowed us to speak about them. I believe there were three of us (the others who would have spoken arrived after the public participation part due to the open house at Reed, work, etc) and, as usual, all of us spoke in favor of keeping the owner-operators.

I told them that I wanted them to reverse their decision, at least until all of the unanswered questions about the bidding process were cleared up, and until after the lawsuit brought by the O-Os has been decided.

There are many unanswered questions, such as why was Mr Bienkowski allowed to “adjust” the All-Star bid, but couldn’t give the O-Os the time to work on their bid to become more competitive. To me, that smacks of the favoritism that the board keeps saying they want to avoid.

And what about this lawsuit? What if it is decided in favor of the owner-operators? What kind of a mess will we have on our hands then?

Why the rush on this whole thing? All-Star isn’t going anywhere. There is no reason that we, as a town, couldn’t take our time to make certain that all is done properly and fairly, and that we will truly end up with what is best for Newtown.

The Board of Ed says that the decision is made and that’s final. Well, I disagree. They have attempted to ram this down our throats, and I believe that they are totally wrong and need to be stopped before this situation gets any worse.

I had sent an email to Senator Richard Blumenthal about this mess and he said “the board members are elected by the people of Newtown and therefore are responsible to them.” 

If any Newtowners agree with me please shout it out at the tops of your lungs! Letters to the editor, letters and phone calls to the board (their contact info can be found at Newtown-CT.gov under Boards and Commissions; Education, Board of) and anything else you can think of. Send me an e-mail at bseaman2000@yahoo.com. If enough of us raise heck then maybe we can stop this travesty until all questions can be answered.

Sincerely Disgusted,

Bridget Seaman

Hanover Road, Newtown                                     September 21, 2011