District 13 Proposal

I think the current track is so deplorable that even jogging on it is a safety concern. The CRHS athletic facilities should be up to par with the surrounding schools like North Branford, Haddam-Killingworth, and Valley Regional, just to name a few. Putting up bleachers and a press box will enable the whole community to come out and watch our athletes compete, something that isn't easy to do with the current state of our track/field.

Oh, wait a minute, we do have a Fund Raiser. It's that faded, weed-stricken thermometer on the side of Main Street in front of Strong school. Now it’s been removed because it was an embarrassment. But I feel if should stay and serve as a testimony to the hypocrisy of some of the people of this town. These are the ones who yell the loudest with their mouths wide open, at the Board of Education of how “we have to have this” for our kids and “we have to have that” for our kids. They say things like “spare no expense for our kids,” and “this other town has this thing” so we have to have one, and on and on. But, when it comes to putting their wallets where their mouths are with actual money, these same people never even heard of the District 13 school system. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You put such heavy burdens on the old and poor of this town, and the residents who don’t have children, for your own self-interests. Once those interests are satisfied and your last child has graduated its "let's pack our bags and move on out of this town, the taxes are too high". If you calculate the amount of money collected from that fund raiser that has sat on the side of the road for some 2 1/2 years and subtracted what came from businesses and that one lump sum donation from a private individual, what you have is roughly $4 per child per year. The problem isn't that its taken so long to repair this track or that the kids don't deserve it (they do), its that the parents of the children who would most utilize it are cheapskates and are not entitled to an elaborate sports makeover. Just make the essential repairs to get the track and courts functioning and leave Viccaro's “Taj Mahal” sports improvements to the generosity of its beneficiaries.

Yes a new track is needed for the town, but your rationale is foolish. "Our taxes pay for many things why not something that needs it?" I like your suggestion that we waste tax dollars, I bet you didn't even realize you wrote it. "If it wasnt for our kids being schooled in this district with parents that pay taxes for YOUR benefit, this town would be another trashy dumpy place." I also love your undying faith in our mediocre public school system. Maybe if kids who were motivated to learn, and to not just achieve high grades, this town would not be a 'trashy' mediocre place to live. Most suburban schools in CT are essentially the same in 'performance,' so Region 13 is not necessarily elite or special in any way. I remember looking at a Summer 2007 Our Town insert of the Hartford Courant, and these differences were very large when spending per student was compared. Then how do we manage to pay significantly higher taxes for our school system compared to others in our Shoreline region(many of whom also have recently undergone renovations)?