During the upheaval budget season of 2010, I walked into the meeting room of town hall early for what I expected was a Board of Finance meeting. I was surprised to find the room filled with a meeting in progress. It was standing-room-only. I picked a spot against the back wall and tried to figure what was going on.
It was the tail end of a town meeting to vote on a $3 million road bond. I scoped out those in attendance; the majority I knew from previous budget meetings. A tough group. I thought, "This bond won't pass."
The town meeting passed the bond issue with one dissenting vote.
The town meeting was adjourned to the regular board of finance public hearing. All of those attending the first meeting stayed. One by one, citizens got up and gave their reasons for not supporting the board of education’s budget proposal. They were met with the now familiar blank stares of the BOF.
It took me days to figure out what transpired that evening.
An obviously conservative group that voted unanimously for a $2 million road bond wouldn't support the education budget. Why?
It’s simple. The voters trust the highway department.
History tells us other bond issues have been approved and the results of the highway department have been satisfactory. We know that we are getting a good product for what we are paying for.
On the other hand, the board of education has not fulfilled its promises. As a result, we lack trust in the board of education.
Students have been short-changed for life. Families have left Windham in search of better schools. Yet, still the board of finance insisted that more money should be poured into a mismanaged and failing school system. The board of finance refused to listen as they pulled every trick out of their bag to get an over-inflated school budget accepted by the taxpayer.
The voters stepped up to the plate. The voters saved the day during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 budget seasons.
Nine times the education budget came up; seven times it was turned down.
Rough economic times and a failed school board was not the foundation for another school budget increase. The town voters told the our leaders time and again they were dissatisfied with our failing schools; time and again the board of finance ignored them.
The board of finance-playing-education-God pronounced time and again they were education authorities because they attended BOE meetings. In fact, they were being fed a bill of goods by the BOE they were defending.
If they had only devoted a few hours with a calculator to the State Board of Education Web Site, they would have found that, in fact:
- Windham students received on average $800 per year more than the average school district in Connecticut (2001-09).
- Average number of students per class in the Windham district was fewer, by half a student, then the average school district in Connecticut for year 2008-09.
- Windham has lead the state in teacher absences for 20 years.
- Truancy in the past three years was twice the state average.
- Graduation rates keep falling. Currently 37.2% of Windham students fail to graduate on time, if at all. (2010)
That’s unacceptable. And someone had to hold a mirror up and say, “Look, Board of Finance, this is unacceptable.’”
The voters did. Democracy worked.
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