I had an unexpected companion at the most recent North Haven budget meeting. My 5 year old daughter joined at her request. She asked lots of questions and took sweet, kindergarten-level notes with a pen and paper I found in the bottom of my purse. It felt like a good exercise in civic engagement… until she asked me why they have to have less school instead of being able to make the classrooms cooler.
Kids ask parents hard questions. It’s their job. But it’s the responsibility of adults to be able to answer those questions and in a room full of the town’s most dedicated public servants, we just didn’t have a good enough answer.
For the second year in a row I listened to first responders make the case for the town to invest in essential staffing and tools to support an appropriate response team. Still no additional roles for the fire department. At the same time, the town’s superintendent worked to make the case for why we must invest in our greatest resource- our public school system. He was asked to cut more from a budget that doesn’t begin to address the fact that all of North Haven’s elementary schools are long overdue for critical updates, including HVAC overhauls and asbestos remediation. We’re kicking the can down a road that ends in a cliff.
Despite the fact that North Haven’s elementary schools do not have air conditioning, resulting in several half-days at the beginning and end of school years, we received none of the more than $122 million in state grants to address air quality needs. Instead, we got handed an unfunded state mandate to assess the HVAC systems at all six public schools that will cost taxpayers at least $200,000.
We’ve created a scenario where we’re forced to choose between appropriately funded schools and a sufficiently funded fire department at a moment where taxpayer dollars aren’t going nearly as far as they used to. I listened to similar stories in North Branford and Wallingford. This is not a sign of the times- this is a policy decision.
District 34 deserves representation that allows us to fund what matters most without passing the full burden onto the community. We deserve a State Senator that will work to modernize education funding and allow us to invest in our future.
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