Deceived By The School Board

(The following letter to the members of the Board of Education has been received for publication.)

Dear Elaine McClure, Lillian Bittman, Kathryn Fetchick, David Nanavaty, Anna Wiedemann, Richard Gaines, and Kathleen Chrystie:

I emailed you all on 06/30/2009. Not one of you had the decency to respond.

I owe many people in the Town of Newtown an apology. I rallied friends and neighbors to vote Yes for the budget. This was a terrible mistake. The board deceivingly led me and many others to believe that the budget was extremely lean. This was not the case. I never imagined that the Board of Education would take our money and put it directly into town workers’ pockets.

I was especially disturbed by Kathleen Chrystie’s justification of the board’s actions. She felt it was warranted to hand out all these raises, bonuses, and car allowances simply based on good performance. Kathleen, where do you think this money came from? Let me remind you. It came from the taxpayers.

Taxpayers that are working more hours at their jobs because of other payroll deductions.

Taxpayers that have recently lost their jobs.

Taxpayers that received excellent reviews, yet still received no raises.

Taxpayers that trusted you to do the right thing with their hard-earned money.

I received a very good review and my store performed well above district average last year. I am a salaried employee, working more hours, paying more for medical benefits, and I did not receive a raise this year. My company is doing what they have to in order to stay profitable. My husband was told he could not replace three key positions in his business in an attempt to save payroll. He has been working very long days, often six or seven days a week. He also did not get a raise this year. This has taken a toll on our family. Many families are in the same situation or worse.

Members of the Board of Education: How do you sleep at night? How do you look at yourselves in the mirror each day knowing you deceived the taxpayers into believing there was no money for their children’s education? Many of these taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet and you gave away their money. There is absolutely no justification for this.

Janet Robinson, Ronald Bienkowski, Gino Faiella, Kathy June, and other town workers who accepted these raises, bonuses, and car allowances:

All of you could have said, “Thank you, but during these extreme economic times this bonus, salary increase, and car allowance is not appropriate.” “There have been cuts to our children’s education that may have been prevented if this money was properly assigned.” “There are families that could really use this money.” “Please put it back into the budget and do the right thing.”

Instead, you are all putting our money in your pockets.

Any way I look at it, I can only describe it as stealing.

I am disgusted.

To those town workers that have made sacrifices — Thank you.

Sincerely,

Cory Watson

11 Pond Brook Road, Newtown                                          July 7, 2009