News Item
Letter to the Community from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Michel: We Need Your Help
December 2008
It is never easy telling the
people you care about that things are going to get difficult and
that they will not have the same level of service they had been
provided in the past. Unfortunately, this has become the reality
in which we exist now. In a recent newspaper editorial the
headline read, “The Money Tree Is Bare” – there are no truer
words to describe these desperate times.
Our school system, like all the other districts in New York, is
facing unprecedented cuts in services due to the state’s fiscal
crisis. We have several options in dealing with this pending
storm, each which requires community support and sacrifice. If
we try to keep things exactly as they are, then we will be
forced to raise taxes to whatever degree necessary to cover our
expenses. We could cut services and programs and try not to
raise taxes or do a combination of program cuts with a lower tax
increase. There is another option we also need to consider –
what if we looked at this very bad situation as an opportunity
to change what we do and still try to deliver our services and
be true to our core mission - preparing our children for the
brutally competitive global marketplace and to be good citizens.
Raising taxes has been a tried and true New York State method of
dealing with escalating costs. What is different this time is
that the people in our state and our school district are at a
breaking point. None of us would keep a car or major appliance
if the repair became so complicated and costly that it
outweighed the logic of buying a new one. Yet, we insist on
keeping the same old tax system and now want to add caps,
circuit breakers or even more taxes on top of the highest taxes
in the country. These same principles apply to our government
organizations, as well. At what point are we going to say we
need to reform and modernize these systems?
It would be easy to compile a long list of what is wrong in our
state, but we don’t have the luxury of time. We must begin to
address the issues at hand and bring them to a manageable level.
During the past two years, the Monticello Central School
District finally began receiving enough state funding to allow
us to enhance our schools and programs and support the needs of
all of our children without bankrupting taxpayers. This money
allowed us to build the academic and social infrastructures we
needed for student success. We created partnerships with the
Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, the Monticello Police Department,
Monticello Community Cares Coalition and many other groups. We
did this with the unwavering support of our community. Recent
data shows significant progress in student attendance and
success rates. Now, after all our hard work, we are faced with
the possibility of once again being underfunded. This would hurt
our progress immensely.
I know our community is focused on the future and the needs of
our students. That is why we want to open our budgetary
discussions to the public and ask for help in working out a
viable plan that addresses the pending financial storm. Our
schools serve our community - and we need our community to help
us make the difficult choices that must be made. Let us look at
this as an opportunity to affirm our core mission and make true
systemic changes that will help us lower costs and allow us to
continue to deliver excellent services to our children and their
families. The process will not be easy and the choices will be
extremely difficult.
Anyone who is interested in sharing ideas, suggestions and
expertise or who wants to be part of this community discussion
is invited and encouraged to attend our first meeting on Monday,
Jan. 5, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the RJK Middle School cafeteria. If
you cannot attend the meeting, but would still like to share
your ideas, please contact me at 845-794-7700, ext. 70910 or via
e-mail at
pmichel@k12mcsd.net.
Community discussions will also take place during the Firehouse
Chat series, scheduled as follows:
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Rock Hill Firehouse Chat - Thursday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m.
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Monticello Firehouse Chat - Wednesday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.
-
Chase Elementary School Library - Thursday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m. (due to the lack of meeting space at Wurtsboro Firehouse)
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White Lake Firehouse Chat - Tuesday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m.