Letter: Budget Commentary from Council Member

To the Editor: 

I feel the need to respond to the events of Wednesday night’s meeting. I was asked to be on the Town Council and felt it an honor that I might be able to have a voice for all Vernon taxpayers.

Even with my reluctance of public speaking, I felt that I am a good listener and would not put politics before real life issues. I along with the other Town Council members am charged with looking out for the best interest of every tax payer, and not spending all of our hard earnedmoney recklessly. If you think it’s easy up there, as Adam said, “I strongly encourage you to run for the Town Council in November”.

I am a proud Vernon resident, a parent, and a small business owner, who happens to think conservatively. By doing so, we were able to weather the recession and still have our home and thriving business. I voted against the increases not along party lines but after many hours ofstudying the budget numbers, listening to the Superintendent’s presentation, talking with other parents, and I still have concerns about how the Board of Ed monies are being allocated.

I agree with Mr. DiDio that the Board of Education approved the Alliance Plan to fund teacher coaches, among other items. The money should have been spent where it would do the most good-directly on the students through all-day kindergarten.

The Republicans are no more responsible than the Democrats for increasing the magnet school enrollment or low property values. We all know that one huge reason enrollment increased was due to the massive marketing campaign by the magnet schools. The banking subprime market and the Great Recession were major contributors to the decline in property values nationwide.

I happen to love the Town of Vernon. The town has so many amenities to offer; Historic Rockville, Rails to Trails, Fox Hill Tower and its breathtaking views, RHS Girls 2012 Softball Champions, 37 RHS Scholastic Arts & Writing Award winners (the most awards won in the state!) Bolton Lake, Camp Newhoca, the Civil War Museum, I could go on. I think the parents are being misled about the quality of education due to a small number of the school population that placed us in the Alliance District. We need to come up with a solution to address that subgroup.
RHS has graduated many brilliant, hard working, successful students. Many who graduated including my daughter have gone onto very good colleges, trade schools, and careers.

I encourage parents to take a step back from viewing this as some want you to, - political. I know all my fellow Town Council members and I have spent countless hours grappling with the information they had and are deeply concerned for everyone in Vernon about how to best educate our children, attend to the road improvements, keep people safe, and ultimately notburden them with higher taxes that are not well spent. It is a no win situation given the State’s unfunded mandates and shortfalls from a reprehensible State budget.

All of us have a “do something” attitude. We are not hiding our heads in the sand. We are tortured by the incredibly difficult circumstances of this budget year in light of the situation we are in, due to the current economy. But we can do something and it’s not too late to worktogether as neighbors and friends and come up with a solution. We are not the bureaucratic federal government, we are the Town of Vernon; people that are smart and capable to solve this together.

I am not giving up on this warm, friendly, neighborhood community of Vernon. The assets of this town far outweigh some ranking by the state on the test scores of a few. We can resolve this issue together. It’s just not going to be easy.
Vernon is a town where all my friends instantly ban together to help other families; Putting together fundraisers for those in need or who have lost a family member, starting phone trees for dinner deliveries for homebound cancer survivors, going to their friend’s softball or soccergames to cheer their children on, and answering calls to their friends in need. That is a town to be proud of living in and raising a family.

So maybe it’s time to ask our Board of Education - What can the Board of Ed do with the 1.4 million of Alliance money?What can they do with the medical insurance surplus of $130,000?What can they do with the 2 mil.budget increase monies?

Just because it’s not solely coming from the budget but from different sources (almost 3.5 million), how can we best apply these funds?

And maybe this whole situation brought us to the one town-wide major conclusion- we’ve now got to take action as a town and Board of Education and petition the State to address the lack of funding for magnet schools since it affects such a large percentage of our budget.

Let’s put our heads together and solve this together. We are Vernon, we are “The Rock”.

Julie Clay
Town Council