What are you doing on Monday, March 24 or Wednesday, April 9 at 7 PM? I'm hoping that you're planning to tell the Town Council to fully support the Board of Education's budget.
Fortunately our arguments have already been put forth by Superintendent Rabinowitz and her staff. They have done an amazing job of reaching out to the local legislators, educating them about what's in her budget. She's made a very strong case for why the Council needs to trust her and give the Board of Ed what they're asking for.
So let's give her some back up, shall we?!
The Hamden PTA Council has been working hard to make our collective voice heard all through the year, not just at budget time. However, if there is one time when we need to get up and speak truth to power, this is the time.
Not only does the Town Council need to hear from us, they EXPECT to hear from us, and have added an additional hearing date (Monday, March 24th, 7 PM).
We have many issues that we'd like dealt with, most of which have to do with laws and funding from the state (as talked about in previous posts and more to come). Here's what we need to focus on at these hearings (that is also being distributed via backpacks):
- The health and reputation of a school system is important to all Hamden residents. Preserving the quality of our schools is imperative to our local economy.
- If the Board of Education is underfunded and the school system falls into disrepair, property values go down.
- Small class size is a key factor in keeping students engaged and productive. This is a priority in the current budget and needs to remain a priority.
- Wintergreen Inter-District Magnet School is an asset that we should protect.
The proposed Board of Education budget needs to be fully funded in order to:
- improve student to teacher ratios.
- improve state testing scores (which qualifies Hamden to KEEP Federal funding).
- attract and keep quality teachers and staff.
- maintain enrollment of Hamden students at Wintergreen.
- invest in the future by teaching students the skills they need for the 21st century.
I predict that the Town Council is likely to hear and struggle with this mantra: "I want the best education for my kids but I don't want my taxes to go up."
Nobody, including the Council members, want their taxes to go up. However, that's totally unrealistic. Your utility bills go up, your grocery bills go up, the price of a movie goes up, and so does the cost of giving children a quality education in a safe and beautiful town.
The Superintendent and the Hamden state delegation are doing all they can to bring more education dollars, as well as property tax reform/relief, to Hamden.
In the meantime, we may have to pay a little more, but it's still a bargain. Currently, our household pays around $7000/year in taxes. Compared to private school, for two kids ($30,000 would be cheap), receiving public education and all the services the town provides for $7000 is an amazing deal.
When our kids are gone it will still be a bargain because investing our tax dollars in other families' kids will keep our town competitive with area towns, thereby making our economy thrive. We'll still need garbage pickup, snowplowing, a great library and town parks, as well as first responders.
The Town Council has a really hard job ahead, and those members I've spoken to say they "don't want to cut the education budget, but..."
Your job is to show up, with your 2nd, 4th, and/or 11th grader, and have them tell the Town Council what they love about their school and what would be missing if the Council asked the BOE to get by with less.
Fran has said that staff is the first thing to look at for cuts. We fought hard for media center specialists, art teachers, IT personnel and lunch aides. We need to keep our excellent staff intact, as well as add a few new crucial members in reading and math. We need to keep our class sizes reasonable.
You know the drill - unfortunately it is a drill. I look forward to the day when we don't have to push so hard for something that makes so much sense: fund the BOE, invest in the future.
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