misconceptions

I think that the budget negotiation has turned into an unreasonable fight between the incoming students' parents and those students who are looking to enrich their academic profile. I think that we need to stop and realize that all of the people who voted for the budget initially never wanted anything to be cut. We are a community and as a civilized society, we want all of our members to succeed. It is the American dream for each generation to exceed their prior ones. I have two sons who were in GATE . One son had half day kindegarten and one had full day. My full day son lost out on speech services due to the budget cuts. What I think people are failing to realize is that it is not sports/clubs vs. full day kindegarten ; it is budget vs. non budget. Please direct your anger at the people who originally voted no. No one wants taxes to rise, and lets be honest, everything is rising in costs, fair or not. No one has mentioned why we have such fixed costs in the budget and if there is a way to eliminate them or hold them constant . Even if our budget passed initially, no matter what the taxes would be; are you aware that we are already losing in relation to our neighboring school districts? The lote program begins earlier in Comsewoque, Three Village has pit orchestra at the junior high level, Three Village not only has a GATE program but a separate school for those who exceed its curriculum. College is now just an extension of the educational process so clubs (which encompass honor societies) are not for fun but ways to enrich a transcript. Let's be honest here, this is not the most affluent of districts and alot of families can not give their children the enrichment opportunities outside of school. No one wants jobs to be lost!!!! Lastly, there are opportunities for corporate sponsorship and private grants that big businesses do grant to school districts in need. If my child is already buying a snapple at a school vending machine then let that company pay to advertise at the school ballfields. The unhealthy things that are already prevalent inside our schools are already attracting my kids so if we can charge for more advertising space, so be it. We need to look at future expenditures and other ways to bring in income not just knee jerk responses that hurt everyone. Remember it takes a village!