School Board Passes $76.5M Education Budget As Crew Supporters Pack Chambers

An impassioned group of parents and students 100 strong showed up at Tuesday night's board of education meeting to implore the administration not to cut fall boys and girls crew and ski clubs at the schools.

The board voted 6-2 to approve the $76.47 million 2013-2014 budget approved in May by the common council.

Middletown Crew Coach Wendy Sheil said 39 people addressed education board members.

"Last night was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the outstanding crew programs, both spring and fall, of Middletown High School," Sheil said. "The kids from the program were the superstars last night. They spoke so eloquently and passionately about the sport and what a huge difference it has made in each of their lives."

Sheil said the highlights were the clarification made that fall crew is different than spring crew, that participation in fall crew is critical towards getting kids recruited into collegiate programs, that there is great opportunity for college scholarships, the sport is incredibly inclusive and diverse in its make up and that we won over some new fans!  

"As a parent of three rowers, I'm grateful to the athletic director, the superintendent and to the board of education for listening and reconsidering their actions," said Macdonough Elementary School first-grade teacher Joanne Jukins. "I'm hopeful this amazing program will continue to grow and flourish. Our kids did a commendable job Tuesday night speaking for 90 minutes!"

The parents shared the myriad changes they have seen in their kids and how incredibly supportive they are of their kids involvement in a challenging and time consuming, yet rewarding sport, according to Sheil.

"Last night was a huge step in gaining support for the program and in further promoting the great value the program has to the school and the greater community," she said, adding, "crew is a great example of the kind of activity that makes a wonderful use of our city's greatest resource, the Connecticut River."

In other news, Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles said a Spanish teacher and family and consumer science teacher will be laid off, according to the Hartford Courant.

In all, 5.4 elementary school positions, 1.95 secondary school positions, one adult education position and two custodial positions, previously unfilled, were cut, according to the Middletown Press.

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