To the Editor:

At this late stage of the education budget review process, everyone is focused on the cost of transportation, gasoline, heating oil, medical plan savings, etc. Long forgotten by the Superintendent and the BOE is the $2.6M of resources requested by school principals that were denied in January.

Certainly there were many other requests. Some are included in this budget. Some will instead be “fixed” by creative and desperate staff like the Middle School teacher I met at Home Depot buying an air conditioner for his classroom.

Has our new superintendent already become complacent about the shortcuts our students and teachers are forced to live with? Does this mean my son’s HS Spanish class will continue to be taught by rotating “substitute” teachers; three so far this year?

Does this mean that it’s acceptable for teachers pulling double-duty to overlook grading homework and class work?  In one example, for the first half of this school year, a HS honors class led by a very talented teacher with added responsibilities outside of the classroom, received 17 grades for quizzes and tests while other classes at the same level were graded an average of 44 times including home work and class work. It’s a fact, and not an opinion, that less measurement and less feedback means less learning.

“We are maintaining current programs” is only effective as propaganda during budget season.  What it really means is that while programs survive, they do so with less instruction, less supervision and at an overall lower quality. These are things that take a heavy toll on our students, yet cannot be described in budget line items. 

I want to believe this is not the quality instruction the district intended, but I know my son’s circumstances are not unique. There are far more examples like it and no shortage of parents willing to share them. Shortcuts like these are forced on all of our schools and many have become so “accepted” that they often go unnoticed.  

And so teachers get less professional development, educational assistants are eliminated, higher-cost, experienced teachers are encouraged to retire, class sizes increase, programs are deferred and the inspiration to excel is lost. There is no “pause” button. Our children become less prepared for a competitive world.

From the BOE website: “The role of the Board of Education is to set policy that guides the direction of the school system that is then implemented by the superintendent of schools, acting as the CEO of the district.” So the question then becomes, is it a misguided policy or a failed implementation that allows students to suffer by a thousand cuts, unrealized until it’s too late to repair?   

It’s time for the leadership to deliver on the commitments they made to the people of Newtown. Helping the town to pass a budget on the first try, at any cost to education, is not one of those commitments.

Kevin Fitzgerald

24 Old Farm Hill Road, Newtown    March 18, 2015