MOVE Member: Yes Vote a Step in the Right Direction

Letter to the Editor:

This coming Tuesday, April 23 is the second referendum vote for our 2013-2014 budget. I encourage all townspeople who want what is best for this town to vote YES. I speak as a parent who sees the school system first hand; we moved here for quality schools. We're not asking for them to be vastly improved with this budget; but we do ask that we provide what similar systems, including our neighbors, provide for their students. A YES vote is a step in the right direction.

This budget provides full day kindergarten, SRO's and necessary security upgrades to our school buildings. If this proposed budget goes down for a second time, the First Selectman will have no choice but to cut a significant amount, not only from the town but from the schools. If this is done, we will potentially loose full day K as well as staff.

Declining Enrollment:  Speaking of staff, there is a lot of talk that enrollment is declining so why are we not losing staff. Actually, in the past we've lost staff faster than our enrollment would dictate.  In the last five years we've lost 30 teachers to our system. This year, even, we have 15 retirements happening.  Not all of those will be filled. How many? Well, that likely depends on what happens on Tuesday.  Right now we're slated to fill 12 of those 15. If we do not pass this budget we may be in jeopardy of losing more.  

Class Sizes:  Losing more staff increases class sizes. I personally have seen how devastating this can be to educational performance, with my own children, at Fawn Hollow. In fact, at Fawn Hollow and Stepney upper elementary class sizes are still larger than ideal. More cuts to teaching staff will only make that situation worse. 

Full Day K: If the budget fails, Full Day K may be in jeopardy of being cut. Not only is full day K beneficial to all of those children who will get the learning time they need to meet the coming Common Core Standards, but it benefits everyone in town. We want young families to move into town, without full day K, a young family will choose any of the other towns surrounding us that offer it.  Studies show early learning contributes to less intervention, higher literacy rates and fewer incidents with the law later in life.

Full day K IS NOT a babysitting service provided by the town. Having a child who recently went through kindergarten, he rarely had recess or play time because the curriculum is so rigid now. These kids are reading when they leave (or sooner) kindergarten. As a country, our kids need this to compete in the global market.  

SROs:  SROs do not sit in their police cars all day. They are specially trained for this position, woven into the fabric of the school, and run many beneficial programs for students.  They end up performing many functions other than just providing safety for our students; they end up providing other services akin to social work that we do not currently provide to our elementary students.  Ask most middle or high school parents whether or not the SROs provide value to a school beyond providing security in a physical sense. They help stop problems before they happen by being part of the school community.

I hope you will trust all the hard work our ELECTED officials have put into this budget and vote YES on Tuesday.

Jen Aguilar

MOVE member