April 2012 upcoming dates

If you can, please come to the town budget meeting on Monday, April 16. If you can't, try to alert somebody else to the date. If we don't want the education budget to shrink and even want to ask for it to grow, we'll need to show our faces. If you feel you have something to say, you'll have an opportunity to say it. We have a small community with few tax opportunities, true. But we also have an obligation to educate the children of our town, and we are not letting them have enough opportunities. Cuts could include the following:

• Cutting one first grade teacher, ending the MultiAge program and putting 77 first graders in three classes next year. Twenty-five six-year-old children per class is too many. The MultiAge classes are amazing and effective. They have not been at a loss for students--they almost had a "waiting list" this year! The students are given opportunities to learn in non-traditional ways and all four grades interact well together.
• Cutting out or cutting back on foreign language classes at the middle school. If that happens, students will not start learning a language until they are fourteen years old. Research says it's better to start earlier, and the state of CT is going to require HS credits in foreign language for graduation in two years (if memory serves).
• Middle school clubs and activities. I know they are not the reason we send our children to school, but for some kids, these are the only reason to be there. 

And more. There have been cuts in the past that have not been reinstated. Middle school music, freshman basketball for boys and girls, middle school family sciences (home-ec for those with long memories), department heads at the high school, a curriculum leader to help guide the teachers and students into the future. The future--where our children are landing, ready or not.