A Letter to Vernon Residents from a School Board Member

Editor's Note - Democratic Board of Education member Kyle Percy has submitted the following letter to Vernon Patch:

To the Residents of Vernon,

I have faithfully served my elected position to the board for almost three-and-a-half years.  It took me a little bit to get the hang of being a board member, but think that overall I have been an informed and contributing member of the BoE.

The BoE accepts donations from companies and individuals regularly.  In this economy, it is difficult not to.  A few weeks  ago, I voted against a donation of $1,000 made by a sitting member of the town council. I felt - and still feel - that this was inappropriate. I received many e-mails and phone calls from upset parents and citizens. Some people let me explain my position, others just yelled and shamed me. I wish the passion shown for the declined donation was the same passion for the budget cut.  Mayor Apel cut $1,500,000 out of that budget and five parents went to the first town council budget hearing - that's right five. Your children's education and the future children's education depends on the budget the BoE sent. With the Mayor's cut of $1.5 million, the BoE cannot even meet the contractual obligations, which means that other programs that currently exist or teachers will need to be cut.

Over the years, our budget has barely grown. The average over the last four years was 1.3 percent. (1.51, -.2, 3.76, .3). The 3.76 year was a tough year because the medical insurance went up around 22 percent, which affected the overall budget 4.6 percent.  So that year,  the BoE needed to reduce elsewhere to find almost a 1 percent cut.

The Town Council will be reviewing the BoE budget on Thursday, March 28th at 7:30. There will be a chance for public comment at this meeting. I hope the parents will come out to show the council that they want the original budget - that was sent to the mayor by the BoE - reinstated so the Vernon Public Schools can start to get back on track. If you have had children go through this system or currently have children in the system, you owe it to them to keep supporting it. With a great school system, our town will only get better and people will want to live in Vernon. Now we are in the bottom 30 in the state of Connecticut and these are not the schools I attended and graduated from many years ago. This system needs our support to get it back there.

The common core curriculum written by the state Department of Education for kindergarten is based on all-day kindergarten. Also, in a couple of years, our students will be taking a form of standardized testing, like the Mastery Test now, on computers, per state law. We need to have our students ready to take this test on computers.  This school system has computers that are 11 years old and still in use.

Although it has been a difficult and thought-out decision, I do not plan to run for re-election  in November. I thank the residents of Vernon who voted for me many Novembers ago and who have supported me throughout my term. There were many hours spent away from my family and for that, I thank them.

Kyle Percy