Budget Cuts In Education Fills House, Simon Lake On Cutting Block

Last night at 7:00P.M. Acting Superintendent of schools Cummings, put on a public presentation to an auditorium filled with with parents. Usually these events are at city hall, but this year there was so much anxiety over over kids being affected with moves, busing issues, mega schools and the like the event had to be put into the auditorium.

Sadly I arrived a little late, and for the first time in my memory I was told by the Fire Marshall "the auditorium is full you must go upstairs to the overflow area." The overflow area had about 20 people there, and after Mr. Cummings presentation I was able to gain access to the auditorium where Steve filmed some of the highlights of the meeting.

In attendance were all the major media networks, all the local papers and about 1,000 people from our community most of which were teachers, community leaders and parents. The tone of the audience was mostly directed to the Board of Education who was on-stage taking public questions.

The general public balked at the continuous problem of year after year cuts in the school system due to the education budget going up each year. Some parents just wanted stability for their kids and felt the school board was not doing enough to deliver on the promises they made during their campaigns.

Mark Stapleton said "that the Board of Education is at the Mercy of the Board of Alderman and can only work with the money they approve," he directed the audience to "take their concerns to the Board of Finance and the Board of Alderman to have the funds restored."

Under the present budget Mr. Cummings recommended his Fourth proposal that would result in closing Simon Lake School. This notion, or idea irked many kids and parents who said they "loved" their neighborhood school.

Acting Superintendent Cummings assured the audience that despite the closing he would ensure that "AP classes would not suffer.. and overall class sizes for all students would not be significantly affected" but warned that any "further cuts by the board of finance would negatively impact teacher jobs and the quality of education in Milford."

The video below is some of the highlights filmed by Steve Borer of the Milford Independent Party.



Some asked for my thoughts so here they are...