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

David Campo
From: April Brown <aprilmvb@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 8:57 PM
To: David Campo
Cc: . Jason Adler; Andre Hauser; Billie Shea
Subject: Against the BOE Cuts
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Hello Mr. Campo,
tam a Waterford teacher and parent of a kindergartener at Great Neck School. | wish to express that cuts in education
are not a good idea as it short changes our students, Our education system and schools, as teachers know but that the
public has recently seen with the recent pandemic, is more than a building or about tests or grades. It’s about
connections and relationships. it’s about the school being the stable factor in students’ lives. it is a place that not only
feeds a child’s intellect but also his/her body and spirit. We needed more services with regards to mental health
supports for students even before the pandemic. In the aftermath of this crisis, we will need even more resources and
services to help students deal with things, adjust and recover. So instead of cutting services we should be adding
services such as psychologist, nurses, counselors, paras, sped teachers and arts to better support our students. Cutting
the education budget is a disservice to our students and all the people who interact and service them in our schools.
The people caring for our students need staff, resources and support in order to be effective in their roles in the
Waterford School District. Cutting the BOE budget will make our school system less effective as well as our school
personnel less effective. Particularly, this year, at this moment, it seems short sighted not visionary. Perhaps there are
less important places to cut in the town budget, or new revenue streams to tap or maybe we raise taxes. Our students
are worth the cost of highly effective school system and they deserve it.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
April Verdun Brown
Sent from my iPad