Bob Forcellina is the co-founder of We the People of Fairfield, a taxpayer advocacy group. He submitted this letter to the editor regarding the townwide vote on school spending on June 14.
The referendum on Tuesday, June 14, will be significant, but not because in and of itself it will dramatically effect either spending or taxes one way or the other. In the past year the Representative Town Meeting began making much needed and long overdue course corrections for the town of Fairfield. They have pushed back on union contracts and taken a long hard look at spending during the budget cycles. For too long, proposed spending, especially by the Board of Education, had gone virtually unchecked, and regrettably a rubber stamp had become business as usual. In the last year, the RTM has set a new direction in the name of fiscal responsibility. In keeping with that direction, this spring they identified excess in the BOEs proposed budget for 2011-12 and voted to limit the amount of the increase over last years school budget to 3 percent. It is specifically on this vote that the RTM has been challenged.
Proponents of the June 14 referendum want to return the 0.5 percent by which the RTM trimmed the school budgets increase. They want to return to business as usual.
During the budget meetings held throughout March and April it became very evident that our school system was long on resources in a number of different areas, whether compared to school systems in surrounding towns or nationally accepted standards. Psychologists at the elementary school level and curriculum leaders were among the most noteworthy in this regard. In some cases, Dr. David Title and others passively acknowledged the excess. More often than not, however, the BOE defended its decisions to sustain the levels of excess resources in non-teaching positions, and therein lies the problem. Board members have lost objectivity; through their words and actions they have demonstrated their inability to differentiate between needs and wants. Moreover, they have not demonstrated a willingness to embrace many of the process changes suggested in the summation of the independent audit. But to their way of thinking, why should they embrace change? Change is hard, change is difficult. Nobody likes change, and sustaining established processes by simply demanding more tax dollars to support them represents, for them, the path of least resistance.
This is precisely why the budget process is important. Giving department heads budgets to which they must manage creates a sense of urgency to be efficient, to work smart and to change how they do business. Dr. Title, our new School Superintendent, has a solid business acumen and is well-respected. We share that respect for Dr. Title and we do not doubt that he intends to put his house in order over time. But as we have seen in other school systems and municipalities across the state, when it comes to spending reductions, good intentions and initiatives like focus groups dont work. Budgets work.
The vote on Tuesday will be significant, as I said. It will have precious little to do with education, as those little red lawn signs around town might suggest; this referendum is about our resolve to keep excess spending under control. It is about showing our elected officials that we support them when they exercise the fiscal discipline that we expect from them. The vote on this referendum will send a message as to the direction in which Fairfield taxpayers wish to proceed. The question is whether we will follow the lead taken by the RTM, or follow the direction of those who believe that the answer to each and every new challenge is simply throwing more resources at it.
Voting is both a right and a privilege. Make yours count on June 14.
Bob Forcellina
We the People of FairfieldCo-Founder
(203) 256-5936 or wtpfairfield@gmail.com
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