Last week, I attended the Board of Education meeting and listened as several parents and students gave testimonials in support of providing funding for full year music and art programs in the Ansonia school system. They spoke about the positive impact of music and art on all our children and provided the board with studies and statistics proving the effectiveness of music and art therapy for children with special needs.
The Board of Education President, Mr. Nimons, and the Superintendent, Dr. Merlone, graciously thanked our residents for bringing their concerns to the table and reassured them that based on the budget they were given and taking all aspects of education into account, they believe this was the best decision on how to use the funds.
Attending the meeting and learning how little the State of Connecticut provides in funding for the City of Ansonia, I have to applaud Mayor Cassetti in all his attempts to provide funding to the Board of Education: he increased it by 4 percent this year. Although there are some who may say this amount is not enough, this is the largest increase toward education that Ansonia has seen in years.
In stark contrast to what our city has been trying to provide its residents with, our state has fallen short. Every school district receives funding from the state to use toward education and this year, Ansonia was underfunded by $5 million. I truly believe that our board and faculty members have tirelessly advocated for our city in order to receive more funding from the state but unfortunately it has been to no avail.
The issue that I am having at this point is with our city Aldermen and their lack of communication with their constituents. They are our representatives and speak on our behalf, addressing our concerns and needs. In the same token, when there is an issue that directly affects us, they need to make more of an effort to reach out and inform us. I addressed this issue to the board saying that we as parents would have gone to the capitol to demand more funding for our children had we known it was so desperately needed. What I think so many of us are upset about more than anything is that we were not informed of these cuts until June.
First Ward elected Alderman, Mr. Charlie Stowe, responded by saying that all the minutes of every meeting are available to the public and had we wanted to know, we could have easily found out. Tell me which one of us has the time after coming home from work to get ready to volunteer at our kid’s soccer, basketball or baseball practice or to attend an event at our kid’s school or any other obligations we as parents have to read over pages of minutes? How difficult is it to reach out to us? Many of us follow the City of Ansonia on social media. Why not use that outlet as a form of direct communication with us?
Please don’t underestimate the powerful impact that parents and children can have when advocating to improve our quality of life: these are issues that directly affect us. So many of the parents in this city would have taken the trip to the capital without any hesitation to request more funding from the state had we known. This is a message to all of our elected aldermen — open lines of communication are absolutely essential if we want to make any changes toward improving our wonderful city.
Regards,
Sal Hanaif
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