The High Price To Be Paid

To the Editor:

I am writing to express my genuine concern [to Mr Rosenthal and Mr Mangiafico] and surprise regarding [their] vote against funding the Newtown High School expansion project.

When my wife and I chose to purchase our home here ten years ago, we made our decision first and foremost because of the quality of the public school education in Newtown. Over the past ten years, we have added two children to the town’s rosters and witnessed a steady and unrelenting decline of the school system as a result of Newtown’s local government’s unwillingness to make necessary investments in our school system to, at a minimum, maintain the resources necessary to keep our children competitive in an increasingly globalized economy.

Now, our school district is on warning status with NEASC due to overcrowding and lack of technology and facilities. As faithful taxpayers in this town, my children deserve a place to have lunch at tables in the high school cafeteria — at lunch time. They deserve to take the classes they’d like to take — not the ones that are simply available. They deserve the opportunity to play volleyball and basketball tournaments in their own gymnasium. They deserve access to technology that will give them the skills they need to become effective global citizens.

And, to put it bluntly, my wife and I deserve the opportunity to vote on this expansion bond ourselves.

Mr Mangiafico, you are quoted in the March 19 Danbury News-Times online saying that this project is moving the town toward “indebtedness,” and that “if we move forward, there may be a very high price to pay in the future.”

The high price we pay will be that of our children’s education — Newtown is, at heart, its people. Families. Children. If we do not fund education, and everything that goes into it, there is no point in funding any effort in improving our town, as our value in the eyes of everyone outside the town will decrease exponentially. We will have effectively sacrificed our own, and that is indeed a high price to pay.

Sincerely,

David J. Ledina

33 Old Bethel Road, Newtown                                     March 20, 2008