Board of Education Priorities

To:  Simsbury Board of Education

We the undersigned support Simsbury Public Schools.

Our support comes in the form of approval of annual operating budgets and involvement in our respective PTO organizations.

We, as parents, voters and taxpayers urge the Board of Education to realign its proposed spending for the 2008-2009 school year.

Under the assumption that the voters approve the 3.5% budget increase ($2,032,8560), we understand that you are proposing:

• Allocating $609,000 to classroom technology purchases.
• 39% of the $609,000 is earmarked for K-6 technology:
o $74,000 for Smartboards (K-3)
o $165,000 for laptops and carts for K-6 ($1300/laptop)


Thus requiring:

• CUTS in other area of the budget to keep the technology spending in tact.
o 14-20 Special Education elementary Paraprofessionals ($131,000)
o 2.0 FTE elementary teacher positions ($142,000)


Therefore resulting in:

• INCREASED Class sizes at the K-3 level at each of our elementary schools,
with a projection by Dr. Ullman that 4 classes at Squadron Line will exceed the guideline. (2/26 BOE mtg.)
• Teachers who have larger class sizes and fewer support staff from paraprofessionals, resulting in a negative impact to ALL students.


PLEASE continue to keep K-3 classroom size and paraprofessional support as your TOP priorities.


Teachers teach our children, computers do not!

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Board of Education Priorities Petition to Simsbury Board of Education was created by and written by Julie Meyer (jkgmeyer@sbcglobal.net).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.