Representative Town Meeting Annual Budget Meeting Materials - Day 4 (linked)

5/14/20
Mr. Campo and RTM members:
| am writing this letter not only as a tax payer of Waterford but as a concerned parent of my
two children who attend Quaker Hill Elementary School, and a teacher in the District. | was
extremely disappointed as | listened to the RTM debate on the BOE budget. | want to voice my
concerns and am asking that the RTM reconsider their vote to reduce the BOE proposed budget
by $470, 000.
One of the many reasons my husband and | moved to Waterford was for the excellent schools
that Waterford has to offer. Waterford is known for a great educational system and, as stated
at the meeting, our district is increasing test scores and moving in rank among the CT schools.
With a decreased budget from the BOE, you can expect to see this data impacted. Scores will
not continue to increase by themselves; we need to continue to invest in education to promote
the academic excellence that our children deserve.
[ have attended previous BOE meetings prior to the proposed budget; therefore, | know that
the BOE had already completed a thorough and careful investigation of line items to amend the
budget and had decreased the budget so it would not interrupt academic growth and
negatively impact learning. The BOE had proposed this budget because with additional cuts it
would negatively impact our education system due to the elimination of programs and staff.
Stating it that further cuts would not impact staffing is absurd.
As expressed during the RTM Meeting, these are unprecedented times, and we are unsure of
the direct impacts it will have on our community. Our young children need an education
regardless of the pandemic that now exists. Now, more than ever, our young children need
continued academic instruction and additional social/emotional support for the stress that has
been put on families during this time. Therefore, this is not the time to make additional cuts to
the school budget as it will detrimentally impact children’s academic growth and achievement.
As the district prepares for the uncertainty of educational guidelines that will need to be in
place for our children to safely attend school next year, it will be necessary to have the
educational funding. As we are going through these trying times of distant Learning, there will
be additional impacts to our educational system that are unknown and the likelihood of
additional educational needs will be necessary. It is clear that students will need: more
intervention, appropriate protective equipment to ensure the safety of staff and students,
reduction of class size due to social distancing recommendations, which could increase the

number of teachers and technology needed to be updated to handle distance Learning needs in
the future. Quaker Hill’s technology had already been previously cut from the budget for next
year, and | as well as colleagues, are using personal technology to provide instruction for our
students because the district laptops are outdated and can’t perform necessary functions to
provide our students’ lessons online.
The voting procedures are unfair, the three members, who are Waterford teachers, were
required to abstain from voting due to a conflict of interest. It seems that this will greatly skew
voting.
The budget needs to continue to invest in education, and it needs to include a reserve fund for
expenses incurred from this pandemic. The children of our community should not be the ones
to suffer because the budget had already been reviewed and revised to ensure that the
education of our youth would not be impacted and affect instruction in the district.
Thank you for letting me voice my concerns as a parent, taxpayer, and educator. | look forward
to hearing your discussion on Thursday.
Lindsey Grgurich