Post by admin on May 23, 2007 17:47:06 GMT -5
Good letter form BOE member Andrew DeFonzo
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2007/0523/Editorials/103.html
Your Turn
Financial constraints lead to difficult decisions
Andrew DeFonzo
Guest Column
To start, I have to say that what I am about to say is in no way the opinion of the Freehold Borough Board of Education. I do not speak for the board or any of its members, this is all just my own personal opinion.
You know what, I read the letter in last week's News Transcript ("Reassigning Teacher Hurts School Community," Letters to the Editor, News Transcript, May 16, 2007) and I have seen and heard other such complaints about the board moving Leslie Daley out of her position as art teacher and back into a first-grade classroom. Now it's time for me to put in my 2 cents on the matter.
I love art and music in schools. I started playing the saxophone in the fourth grade at the Freehold Learning Center and continued all the way through high school and college. I loved art classes all throughout school as well, and while I was never very good at art, those classes were always among my favorites if for no other reason than they made me forget that I was still in "school." Today I am a very big fan of just about all sorts of artistic expression. I love going to museums and seeing works by the masters, but I also love walking through the school halls to see what tomorrow's masters are putting together.
As many already know, I voted against the school budget a couple of months back because I did not approve of the limitations the state has put on us concerning caps on our budget. That, combined with the lack of funding, continuous mandates, and a general (in my opinion) lack of any sense of real concern from the state officials over the education of the children in our town, made me vote against the budget. Not because I thought our superintendent and business administrator did a poor job developing it, but because I would not put my name behind a budget that I knew would not provide the students of Freehold Borough with less than the thorough and efficient education they are entitled to.
Having voted against the budget, I sat there April 30 when it was time for the board to vote on the changes that had been proposed, and it dawned on me, how can I support these changes that are coming about due directly to the budget that I voted against just a few weeks prior? And for that reason, I abstained from those votes.
Now, all that being said, let me say this. Teachers are a special breed of people. They have decided to dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others.
They do this because they love those "aha" moments that Mrs. Daley spoke about that night; they love seeing a child "get it" when teaching a lesson; their greatest memories are watching their students grow and progress through their school years and into young adulthood; they basically love helping children excel in life.
I know Mrs. Daley had found her "home," so to speak, as an art teacher, and she has done countless wonderful things in her time here in the borough as an art teacher. But the district is in dire straits at this point in time, and changes had to be made that many people didn't want to make, and I am not just talking about the teachers who were reassigned.
Many people have said teachers need to realize that in the so-called "real world" you just take a reassignment and deal with it. Well, let me say that teaching is something different. When you have a teacher that excels in a certain subject, you try like hell to keep that teacher in that subject, because when it comes to shaping the minds of the children in our world, I defy anyone to admit that we should not always strive to have the best person at every single step along the way for them. But again, this district is in dire straits, and some very tough decisions had to be made.
Looking at a lot of the things that were mentioned in last week's letter - work on school productions, leading the kids to paint the downtown windows during the holidays, decorating for the eighth-grade dance, etc. - these are all things that Mrs. Daley did above and beyond her normal teaching day because she cared so much for art and her students, and I can think of no reason why she could not continue to do these things as a first-grade teacher. In fact, I would hope that, though I can understand her being upset, she will continue to be involved in these projects, sharing her expertise and her special abilities with the students she has come to love so much, and who have come to love her in return.
Mrs. Daley is a very special teacher, there is no question about that. In fact, Freehold Borough has a whole staff of special teachers who have been asked to continually do more with less for years now, and they are still able to provide wonderful opportunities for the children of our town.
Mrs. Daley and a number of other teachers have been asked to now make another sacrifice, albeit one that probably hurts a lot more than many of the others they have already made. There are some that have even had to lose their jobs because of the ridiculously poor fiscal condition the state has forced us into. I would hope that one more time, these wonderful teachers will be willing to take this latest blow and rise, once again, to the occasion and continue to show their love for their very special, very selfless, and of course (in my mind) very underpaid profession.
For my part, all I can do now is promise that I will continue to fight and be a thorn in the sides of every lawmaker and pencil pusher in Trenton in order to get our schools the money they need and deserve. If and when money becomes available, enough money that will allow the district to get our schools back on the right track, I will do all I can to be sure that first and foremost we provide our students with everything they are supposed to be getting in order to receive their thorough and efficient education, and then make sure we have the best teachers in their best subjects, so that we can maximize the quality of the education we are giving the children of our town.
Teachers are a special breed of people. They dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others. Our district has already lost so much due to financial restraints, I pray we don't lose those amazing teachers that affect the lives of each and every student that passes through our halls.
Andrew DeFonzo is a member of the Freehold Borough Board of Education.
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2007/0523/Editorials/103.html
Your Turn
Financial constraints lead to difficult decisions
Andrew DeFonzo
Guest Column
To start, I have to say that what I am about to say is in no way the opinion of the Freehold Borough Board of Education. I do not speak for the board or any of its members, this is all just my own personal opinion.
You know what, I read the letter in last week's News Transcript ("Reassigning Teacher Hurts School Community," Letters to the Editor, News Transcript, May 16, 2007) and I have seen and heard other such complaints about the board moving Leslie Daley out of her position as art teacher and back into a first-grade classroom. Now it's time for me to put in my 2 cents on the matter.
I love art and music in schools. I started playing the saxophone in the fourth grade at the Freehold Learning Center and continued all the way through high school and college. I loved art classes all throughout school as well, and while I was never very good at art, those classes were always among my favorites if for no other reason than they made me forget that I was still in "school." Today I am a very big fan of just about all sorts of artistic expression. I love going to museums and seeing works by the masters, but I also love walking through the school halls to see what tomorrow's masters are putting together.
As many already know, I voted against the school budget a couple of months back because I did not approve of the limitations the state has put on us concerning caps on our budget. That, combined with the lack of funding, continuous mandates, and a general (in my opinion) lack of any sense of real concern from the state officials over the education of the children in our town, made me vote against the budget. Not because I thought our superintendent and business administrator did a poor job developing it, but because I would not put my name behind a budget that I knew would not provide the students of Freehold Borough with less than the thorough and efficient education they are entitled to.
Having voted against the budget, I sat there April 30 when it was time for the board to vote on the changes that had been proposed, and it dawned on me, how can I support these changes that are coming about due directly to the budget that I voted against just a few weeks prior? And for that reason, I abstained from those votes.
Now, all that being said, let me say this. Teachers are a special breed of people. They have decided to dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others.
They do this because they love those "aha" moments that Mrs. Daley spoke about that night; they love seeing a child "get it" when teaching a lesson; their greatest memories are watching their students grow and progress through their school years and into young adulthood; they basically love helping children excel in life.
I know Mrs. Daley had found her "home," so to speak, as an art teacher, and she has done countless wonderful things in her time here in the borough as an art teacher. But the district is in dire straits at this point in time, and changes had to be made that many people didn't want to make, and I am not just talking about the teachers who were reassigned.
Many people have said teachers need to realize that in the so-called "real world" you just take a reassignment and deal with it. Well, let me say that teaching is something different. When you have a teacher that excels in a certain subject, you try like hell to keep that teacher in that subject, because when it comes to shaping the minds of the children in our world, I defy anyone to admit that we should not always strive to have the best person at every single step along the way for them. But again, this district is in dire straits, and some very tough decisions had to be made.
Looking at a lot of the things that were mentioned in last week's letter - work on school productions, leading the kids to paint the downtown windows during the holidays, decorating for the eighth-grade dance, etc. - these are all things that Mrs. Daley did above and beyond her normal teaching day because she cared so much for art and her students, and I can think of no reason why she could not continue to do these things as a first-grade teacher. In fact, I would hope that, though I can understand her being upset, she will continue to be involved in these projects, sharing her expertise and her special abilities with the students she has come to love so much, and who have come to love her in return.
Mrs. Daley is a very special teacher, there is no question about that. In fact, Freehold Borough has a whole staff of special teachers who have been asked to continually do more with less for years now, and they are still able to provide wonderful opportunities for the children of our town.
Mrs. Daley and a number of other teachers have been asked to now make another sacrifice, albeit one that probably hurts a lot more than many of the others they have already made. There are some that have even had to lose their jobs because of the ridiculously poor fiscal condition the state has forced us into. I would hope that one more time, these wonderful teachers will be willing to take this latest blow and rise, once again, to the occasion and continue to show their love for their very special, very selfless, and of course (in my mind) very underpaid profession.
For my part, all I can do now is promise that I will continue to fight and be a thorn in the sides of every lawmaker and pencil pusher in Trenton in order to get our schools the money they need and deserve. If and when money becomes available, enough money that will allow the district to get our schools back on the right track, I will do all I can to be sure that first and foremost we provide our students with everything they are supposed to be getting in order to receive their thorough and efficient education, and then make sure we have the best teachers in their best subjects, so that we can maximize the quality of the education we are giving the children of our town.
Teachers are a special breed of people. They dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others. Our district has already lost so much due to financial restraints, I pray we don't lose those amazing teachers that affect the lives of each and every student that passes through our halls.
Andrew DeFonzo is a member of the Freehold Borough Board of Education.