April 6, 2010
AVON - In the midst of a stubborn national recession and its sibling malady — anti-tax fever — should a Connecticut town raise taxes to pay for a world language program and high school electives?
A coalition of school-proud parents, teachers and students answered that question Monday night with a school band playing "March Onward" and minivans festooned with "Vote Yes for Schools!" as Avon observed the usually sleepy public budget hearing with a festive display for school spending.
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Avon, with one of Connecticut's most respected school systems, faces a dilemma: a proposed $47.7 million education budget that is 6.91 percent more costly than the present budget and would require raising taxes. If the board of finance trims that budget to no increase, school administrators said it could force them to eliminate as many as 40 faculty and staff positions, cut ice hockey, fall crew and swimming from the high school sports programs and language and music offerings in the lower grades.
Members of the Coalition of Citizens for Avon, which advocates raising taxes to maintain school programs, say this would gut Avon's identity as a mecca for quality education and drop the town behind equally prestigious schools in West Hartford and Farmington. Back-to-back years of school cuts, they say, have cut staffing and programs to the bone and are beginning to threaten Avon's ability to place students in competitive colleges.
After organizing parents, students and teachers with e-mail blasts and phone calls over the past three weeks, the coalition marshaled nearly 1,000 demonstrators at Avon Middle School. With T-shirts printed with "I'm 4 Avon/I'm 4 Schools," and SUVs painted with "SOS-Save Our Schools," the pro-spenders marched down West Avon Road to the high school, where a capacity audience waited in the auditorium and an overflow room. Choir singers and the high school jazz band provided pre-hearing entertainment in the gym, and teenage athletes in the cafeteria baby-sat for the younger children of parents.
But the marchers were also met at the high school by members of the Avon Taxpayers Association, who were handing out a "Town of Avon Employee Compensation Report," detailing how dozens of Avon teachers and administrators earn more than $100,000 a year in salary and benefits.
The taxpayers' group has argued during budget hearings this spring that Avon's school costs are growing faster than its student body, compromising the town's ability to pay for its schools.
Pam Shand of New Hartford, a secretary in the guidance department at Avon High School and a co-president of the local Service Employees International Union that represents support staff in the school, said that last year budget cuts reduced the staff of secretaries who help high school students process their college applications and register for SAT and Advanced Placement tests.
"Earlier cuts are already affecting how much we can help kids get into good colleges, and now they want to cut more," Shand said.
Susan DelGallo, the physical therapist for Avon schools, has two children in Avon schools and attended the rally in the middle school driveway.
"There are art teachers operating off a cart in the hall because there aren't enough classrooms," DelGallo said. "I have a son who is applying to college next year and they just don't want kids who are good students and athletes. They want well-rounded people exposed to the arts, community service and after-school programs. But that's what we're beginning to cut now. It's the students we'll hurt in the long run."
Avon resident Khan Malik, who has two children in the schools, typified what is apparently a large segment of the Avon population — parents who moved to Avon for its schools. He was standing in the Avon Middle School parking lot, helping to steer the crowd toward the high school.
"I moved from Dubai to be able to put my children in the Avon schools, and I don't think people in this town quite understand what they mean to the rest of the world," Malik said. "If you take your typical Indian or Middle Eastern doctor or professional who know they can come to America and get great jobs, they go on the Web and look up schools in America. Well, the Farmington Valley and West Hartford are known throughout the world as having great schools. If it takes more taxes to keep them as great schools, fine. That's why we came here."
The sentiment inside the crowded auditorium clearly favored the pro-spending coalition. When acting School Superintendent Jody Goeler finished his budget presentation and then encouraged town residents to unite behind the budget, most in the audience gave him a standing ovation. Sustained applause and cheers greeted many residents — high school seniors, parents, a small business owner — who spoke in favor of the budget.
But a few determined residents spoke against increasing Avon's taxes to support the school board's proposed 6.91 percent increase in school spending.
"The board of education resorts to half truths and misinformation to bamboozle the public," said Avon resident Diane Carney, who argued many people living on fixed incomes could not afford a tax increase.
When Carney suggested class sizes could be increased to save money, grumbling could be heard.
Taxpayers association President Florence Stahl asked the crowd to remember the people in town who are suffering in the recession.
"There are 600 people in Avon who have recently lost their jobs, top executives, middle managers, support staff," Stahl said. "There's probably another 600 who are underemployed. They have nothing against education. This is their Avon, too."
Abha Bernard, co-chair of the Coalition of Citizens for Avon, later presented the finance board with a pro-budget petition holding 1,600 signatures collected in the past 10 days, not counting those gathered "in the past four hours."
The finance board will meet for a workshop at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Senior Center, when it could decide the budget's fate.
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