Dear all Newtown Families,
Our understanding is that the Board of Education Chairperson raised questions about the possibility of closing an elementary school, specifically Head O’ Meadow, at the September BOE meeting. A study was requested to see if it’s possible to move forward. While this only mentions Head O' Meadow, please understand that this will impact all elementary schools as they would need to send these students across town to other elementary schools. Who benefits here? Please attend the Board of Education meting on Tuesday (10/2) and show your support for all of these Newtown families. Let them know that this is unacceptable.
The study is on the Agenda for the BOE Meeting on Tuesday, October 2nd. Public participation on the topic will be held at the beginning of the meeting and the end of the meeting as outlined below.
Board of Education Meeting * October 2, 2012 * 3 Primrose Street * 7:30 p.m.
A G E N D A
REVISED October 1, 2012
Item 1 CONSENT AGENDA
· Donation to Newtown Middle School
· Personnel Item(s)
Item 2 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION*
Item 3 REPORTS
· Correspondence
· Chair Report
· Superintendent’s Report
· Current Budget Report
Item 4 OLD BUSINESS
· Report Requested by Board on Reed School Schedule
· Transportation Update
· Discussion and Possible Action on Process of School Facilities Study
· Approve Minutes of September 18, 2012
Item 5 NEW BUSINESS
· Discussion and Possible Action on Board of Education Budget Goals
· Mandates on State Waiver
· Possible Early Retirement Package
Item 6 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION*
Item 7 EXECUTIVE SESSION
· Possible Litigation
Item 8 ADJOURNMENT
Item 9 NON-MEETING REGARDING NEGOTIATIONS
*BOE Public Participation Rules: During Public Participation, the Board welcomes commentary from citizens regarding agenda items. We request that speakers be concise and respectful in their comments, do not make reference to specific persons, avoid repetition of comments made by other speakers and limit comments to no more than three minutes. The first Public Participation will be confined to agenda items only. The second Public Participation will be for agenda items as well as issues the public wishes the Board to consider in the future. The Board of Education does not discuss personnel items in public. If you desire more information or answers to specific questions, please complete the Citizen’s Request for Information form located on the table.
http://www.independentpartyofnewtown.com/doc_library/planemetrics-buildout-study/Planimetrics%20%20%20REPORT%2020080625%203.pdf By 2030, Newtown could add another 2535 housing units. We will need these schools and these schools must be updated. Newtown has a habit of making short term decisions all the time. It will cost us more in the long run. I urge all the parents of young children to form a coalition to fight for long term planning and stand up for quality education in Newtown. I am sure most of you moved here for the Blue Ribbon schools. There has been an attempt by the Republican-led boards to dismantle the solid foundation of the Newtown School System. They have cut over $10MM from the. BOE budget requests in the last ten years and they have delayed and delayed school improvement capital projects. Meanwhile they are beefing up their rainy day account and spending millions on their pet projects. Some of these board members have been on the town boards forever and they are anti-education. We fought and fought for years for them to properly address the HS overcrowding. They were more interested in building a new town hall. Their behavior is exactly the same-No long term planning, anti-schools & pro-rainy day fund.
In your opinion, what should the school budget be right now?
The BofE needs to understand that you have to give people a reason to vote for the education budget. For example, moving from the OO's to All Star just pissed off a lot of those people who would ordinarily vote for the budget. Closing HOM and spending big bucks on fixing up Hawley would cause a taxpayer revolt to the extent that I don't think Newtown would be able to pass any budget.
Hawley School is no user friendly.
Can a great teacher, teach anywhere? It all comes down to money, which in these hard economic times, money is very hard to come by.
I suggest that all parents get involved now. Closing a school, redistricting or whatever suggestion the consultants provide (in 18 to 24 months time) will impact us all.
there aren't that many zeros...what a multi-talented individual; now she's an urban planner also! INCREDIBLE...
The parade is not funded by the town. The closure of Hawley may seriously impact the Mary Hawley Trust, plus the HVAC would still need to be done. Some people like parks...sounds like Hawley might just be your personal choice and not with supporting data either :-)