Seymour Board of Education members wanted communication — and they got it.
For more than two hours Wednesday night, Seymour parents weighed in at a public forum designed to help improve communications with residents in hopes of passing the district’s 2011-12 school budget.
On a lot of points, the parents and school officials are on the same page.
Many people spoke of the need for full-day kindergarten — an initiative the Board of Education is currently discussing.
Other spoke about the need to improve music and art curriculum.
Those things take money — and when school budgets get rejected by voters, that money often diminishes.
The Board of Education planned the forum to get feedback from residents, but also to communicate to voters that they have a responsibility to vote ‘Yes’ on the schools budget if they’d like to see initiatives funded.
This year, the district is working with a $29.1 million budget — which is the same amount the district was allotted for each of the two previous years.
Board members Wednesday said they need $1.3 million more in 2011-12 just to keep school services level.
Timeline
The budget vote is a ways off. School officials are preparing a proposal now. The Board of Education will look at that proposal in the coming months. And that proposal goes before the town’s Board of Finance in February.
From there, it will be a couple more months of workshops and tweaking before a spending plan is presented to voters.
Feedback
About 30 people showed up to the forum Wednesday.
They spoke about various topics, including the apparent lack of focus on both the elite and struggling students, excess paper costs, cross country as a middle school sport and transition programs to aid new ninth graders in adjusting to Seymour High School.
Jennifer Harkey, a parent from Seymour, believed that all-day kindergarten should not be the budget’s top priority.
“Not to downplay all-day kindergarten, but we need to improve on what we have now,” Harkey said.
She also encouraged parent involvement with their children’s education.
“I know what classes [my children] should take and what teachers they should have. That’s what it takes to have a successful education here [in Seymour],” Harkey said.
More Engagement Needed
Tony LoPresti, a citizen who no longer has children in the school system, said he was not happy with the lack of effort by the town’s parents in trying to ease the budget process.
“How do we convince the people who vote every year to pass budgets? The people who aren’t here don’t really care,” he said. “We need to get people involved. We need to have a plan. What can we do with our students [and parents] to get them involved with senior citizens?”
Board member James Garofalo questioned parents who felt that the board of education were not being active enough in gauging the public’s attention, and asked the parents themselves to help be the messengers.
“This board does not generate money to provide for the education of children. If each and every one of you that is in attendance tonight were to go to a neighbor who has not come here this evening, and tell them that the board continually solicits community input,” Garofalo said. “We are continually trying to provide the best education for everyone’s child. […] Right now, I would say to you, help us. You had the interest to come out tonight. Now take that interest out there and deliver the message.”
