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Health & Fitness

Belief Vs. Disbelief

It seems that no other topic in the Town of Monroe can get people riled up more than the discussion of the school system budget.

It seems that no other topic in the Town of Monroe can get people riled up more than the discussion of the school system budget. And while we are long past budget season thanks to our one vote referendum this year, there are still many voices out there protesting school spending.

As someone who attends and/or watches on TV as many school board meetings as I can, I often see a lot of misconceptions routinely thrown around as fact in these budget discussions. In my conversations with my peers, I will often explain how a certain board policy works or how state law works in order to explain this or that strange circumstance with our budget.

Just as recently as yesterday, I had a discussion with a close friend who vowed to vote no against next year's budget because of the large surplus of unexpended funds the Monroe Public School system. “It's because of things like this that people start tuning out during budget season,” she told me. “If we end each year with a surplus, and this year we've ended with nearly $700,000, why did we cut teachers last year? You can't believe what they say. I'm voting no.” 

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I have to say, my first impulse is to agree with her. Frankly, I feel a little miffed that each of my children sat in classrooms with 24-25 other children this year due to budget cuts; $700,000 certainly would have covered some of those positions. It seems nonsensical to me that there could have been that much disparity between last year's cost estimates (and remember, last year over $2 million was cut during our budget process) and the actual numbers. It makes me feel a little like I was duped. I stood outside of Monroe Elementary on voting day with my happy face on getting sworn at by those who felt the budget was still too high. I'm not going to lie, it feels pretty foolish right about now.

And if "I" feel that way, as well as scores of my "education loving" pals, one can only imagine what those who have a natural sense of distrust for the schools and their budgeting process are thinking right about now.  

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Here's the problem as I see it. There's been no real public outreach or explanation of this overage. I've seen a bit of information in the Comments section here on the Patch, but you'll pardon me if I don't always believe everything I read there. It seems like the wrong place to launch a PR campaign about school spending, frankly.

I am sure there was mention during the last Board meeting about savings in health care, worker's compensation and pension funds. Unfortunately, if you did not follow the Board meetings, or if you didn't see the comments lost in the anger and frustration at nearly three quarters of a million dollars being divided up like Monroe Public Schools had suddenly won the Lotto, you would assume that our elected officials are maybe hiding something.

I don't claim to have all of the answers, but at the very least, I would suggest more open and transparent communication from our superintendent and all involved with the school budget. It can't possibly be a surprise to them that there are people shouting from the rooftops about this budget surplus.

Wouldn't have it made somehow more sense to issue a press release about the overage, complete with explanations of how it came to be? Perhaps more widely distributed commentary about how SmartBoards and iPads are a wise use of this overage, rather than being confronted with angry speculation? Maybe a reasonable bullet point list about why no funds were returned to the town, as has been done in the past?

I'm a firm believer in the adage that more information is always better than less. In my conversations with parents in this town, what is always clear to me is that people simply don't understand the process. When people don't understand, they often try and fill in the gaps of their knowledge themselves, with whatever their natural tendency leads them to. And in this town, that often leads to a sense of distrust and disbelief, as evidenced in microcosm in the comments section of this website daily.

It's obvious that our current way of doing things isn't exactly building more trust in our elected officials. More information might not make our town all sunshine and rainbows, but it certainly could go a long way in helping bridge the yearly divide that pits neighbor against neighbor each year.

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