Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Westport Schools
Unless there is change in the next few weeks, the superintendent, Dr. Carlos Colley, will be forced to lay-off teachers within the Westport Community Schools as of the beginning of February. As of now the town is showing little sign that it will help with the deficit ($170,000) within the school District. The town has a 'rainy-day fund' that has 1.5 million dollars ( which is less than it should be ) but none the less, they have stated that at this time they can not fully support the schools going forward to ask for this money from a special town meeting. We as a community need to show that the education of the children within our town is a priority, and that we will not allow our children to pay for the mistakes made by those before us, who only ever cared to level fund our schools, and never pushed for anythings better. Our kids deserve better!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Letter from Russ Kleber:
ReplyDeleteThe Westport Schools are facing a potential budget shortfall this fiscal year. This was not totally unforeseen. Our new Superintendent Dr. Carlos Colley has done a great job making cuts and transferring money from other areas. These savings total over $327,000. The fiscal year 2010 budget is already $150,000 below FY09. Add to that unexpected Special Education expenses, the reduction by Governor Patrick of Chapter 70 money and by President Obama of Federal grants, this totals almost $500,000 in additional expenses and lost revenue for the Town of Westport. The Westport Schools are looking for approximately $174,000 in additional enhancements to make it through FY10 without layoffs or the loss of Spring activities. I urge the Board of Selectman to support whatever means necessary to fund our schools. I look to the Finance Committee for guidance and support in covering this shortfall. I especially look to all parents, grandparents and taxpayers to stand up and support our educational system. We have been let down by unfunded mandates, our state legislature and federal government with promises un-kept. We only have ourselves to rely on. Our children need and deserve all we can muster, to give them the best possible education, because they are in fact, our future.
Russell T. Kleber
Chairman
Westport School Committee
Info from Jeanne Girard:
ReplyDeleteYou can view the Superintendent's Letter and Budget on the home page of the schools: http://www.westportschools.org/
The comment about what is the issue is important. This letter helps outline some of the current issues and signals the crisis ahead. In a nutshell, we are at a budget shortfall for this current school year and the superintendent went to FinCom to ask for funds to cover this year's shortfall. If they do not agree, he has to either lay off teachers immediately or put that debt onto next year. This "robbing Peter to pay Paul" philosophy is typically how we handle school deficits.
What will have to happen is a town wide recognition of the larger problem-lack of sufficient funds for the schools. To resolve this, a proposition 2 1/2 override will have to occur to allow us to go over the allowable 2 1/2 tax increase. In essence, we need to raise taxes. Of course, historically Westport has never passed an override and the last override brought people from out of town on planes to vote against. It was defeated by app. 250 votes. If 1,500 people had voted in favor it would have passed. The citizenry of Westport is in majority against raising taxes but we have one of the lowest tax rates in the state. If you look at the demographics of high performance districts, you will see higher taxes and higher allocation of school funds. Our schools cannot perform at the desired level without more allocated funds. Level funding is simply not enough.
Karen Maxwell Powell wrote on January 18, 2010
ReplyDeleteI am writing to express concern about the budget shortfalls of the Westport school system, and the apathy with which some town decision makers seem to approach this crisis. Like any town, our residents are divided over the issues we care most about. None of these issues, however, will be resolved if we cannot work together to develop creative solutions. Many parents attended the Selectmen and FinCom meetings this year, and were either witnesses to or the recipients of comments such as, “why am I responsible for your child,” “if you’re so concerned, put your child in private school – I did,” and a FinCom member wondering aloud whether Westport is a “magnet” for children with special needs.
It is frustrating when people argue against town services they do not personally use, but are needed by others in the community. Young parents do not typically go to town meetings to vote against funding projects we neither need nor enjoy, but our tax dollars are still allocated to them. Let’s examine the reality of a community where parents fund 100% of education. First, the public school system is not legally able to collect “tuition” from parents, so 2,000 students would need to be admitted to private schools. A family with two children could conservatively pay $15,000 per year. Simultaneously, they need to save for college. According to SmartMoney.com, parents with two children, ages 1 and 3, need to invest $880 per month for a public college and $1883 per month for a private college. Assuming these parents send their children to private school and save for a public college, this family is spending $2130 per month to educate their children. Those figures are simply out of reach for many of our families. Are we saying this is a community where hard-working people who want to enjoy all the gifts of parenthood just cannot afford it – and are we proud of that? Should some parents have to look across the dinner table at their children and wonder if they will have the same opportunities as other kids? Plenty of parents who can afford the private school option want their children to be part of the community schools, making friends with local children, in diverse classrooms with certified teachers.
Our town is a system and the investments we make in every part of it impact everyone. The preschool children of today may someday develop a medicine that saves your life, or fight to conserve precious land in our town, or open a business that generates tax revenue. Conversely, that child could become bored in a school system with over-crowded classrooms and few interesting programs and get into trouble – burdening our police department.
Our schools are faced with the possibility of laying off staff and teachers in the middle of the school year. Imagine a situation where a little child is shuffled to another classroom – now 5 or 6 children larger – in the middle of the year. You don’t have to be the parent who waits for the school bus and tries to reassure that teary child to care. Please – whether you are a parent or not – contact our town’s decision makers to ask questions and urge them to do the right thing. Look at the school budgets and make suggestions – the school department would welcome them. If we work to find those creative solutions, we can all be proud of the future we’re building – together.
As a parent of child with special needs, I'm extremely frustrated with a comment made at yesterday's (Feb. 23) FinCom mtg by a committee member, which was something along the lines of, suggesting that a good SPED program could adversely affect Westport. He went on to ramble on about how it could attract other parents of children with special needs, therefore increasing the population and monetary problems of the town. This an appointed official showing, in such a public way, a complete lack of respect and sensitivity for the parents and especially to those children in need. I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that some people will never (nor care to) understand the everyday challenges that parents of SPED children deal with when it comes to fighting for the necessary services for their children. SPED is expensive. I understand that. I wish it wasn't. Setting that aside, being that his duties as a member of FINCOM is to give suggestions/make decisions in regards to finances in order to help the town, it is scary that he only views one side of the coin and doesn't consider the positives (i.e., Property Values) that comes along with having a quality school system including the SPED program. Furthermore, how that attraction to Westport could result into some satisfactory financial gains. I know we should focus on one battle at a time, but moving forward, we as a community should really take a closer look at who we allow to represent and make decisions on behalf of our town. I'm not trying to suggest that every time we have a difference of opinion with a public official that we call for their resignation or replacement, as I understand they have to make difficult decisions at times and I respect and appreciate their service to the community. But, when we have individuals who clearly are making decisions and/or suggestions based on how they feel it will effect them personally rather than a town as a whole and we continue to allow them to do so, than this EDUCATION battle we find ourselves in today could be an annual event.
ReplyDelete