Last Night's Meeting

Einstein defined insanity as doing something over and over again expecting a different result. I’m afraid that’s what is happening with our school referendum process.

Last night at the special council meeting I could not believe what was being proposed by our Board of Education. Instead of listening to the voters who unanimously rejected the last plan by a ratio of 3:1, they repackaged basically the same proposal with the hopes that the town council would again send it to referendum.

I voted against the $92 million plan last time because I thought it was more of a wish list than a need list of expenditures. The taxpayer waste was into the millions of dollars in extras we simply didn’t need. Seriously, do we really need rip up and move perfectly good tennis courts at a cost of $250,000 and install more student parking costing hundreds of thousands more? Do we need a wellness center at the high school? Do we need to bond for twenty years and pay for technology with a useful life of five? Do we really need a new elementary school or would a simple addition to Stevens solve the problem?

Judging by the margin of defeat in the last referendum, many residents tended to agree with me. But somehow our message didn’t echo load and clear to the BOE and we have what was presented last night. The failure of the BOE to understand the voters in this town truthfully worries me.

The BOE honestly believes that the past referendum failures were because voters were uninformed and uneducated, not based on cost and a large pie-in-the-sky wish list. Their whole “revised” plan last night was to “market” this proposal again and “educate” the voters why they should vote yes this time instead of listening to residents in the first place and doing something sensible with our schools.

Truthfully, I do not need to be educated and neither does the rest of the town. They voted for what they felt was right and the BOE should respect that. If anyone needs to be educated it’s the Rocky Hill Board of Education.

Let’s face it. The issues with the schools didn’t happen overnight and they will not be solved in one grand plan.

So what would I do?

I would support a long-term ten-year strategy to improve the infrastructure of our schools. It starts with looking at the current bond debt and creating a plan to implement new bonding when old bonding for the town hall and police station is retired. We would create a schedule addressing needed and critical upgrades that will directly benefit and improve the education of Rocky Hill’s students. If elected, I refuse to support any short-term items being financed with long term bonding. I will not allow any frivolous spending.

We’re in some tough financial times and we need tough people willing to challenge the school issues on behalf of the hardworking taxpayers of Rocky Hill. I’m willing to get up there and get my hands dirty. I will make sure our schools get the upgrades they need sensibly. I just need you, the person reading this, to show up at your district polling place and vote for real change.

Sincerely,

Jeff A. Murray