Editor’s note: The following are remarks presented Monday at a Cape Elizabeth Town Council public hearing on the budget.

At the Town Council-School Board budget workshop two weeks ago someone made reference to the fact that well, your class sizes didn’t change. This made me think about the phrase, IF NOTHING CHANGES THEN NOTHING CHANGES.

It’s great that the class sizes will remain the same, but it’s also true that over the past several years due to ever tightening budgets, from the state and local level, many changes have occurred.

Just to list a few: Field trips monies, stipends for teachers doing additional work, money for professional development, no increase in high school science labs, support for our Latin program, Pond Cove’s summer school, extension of laptops in the high school, half-time guidance counselor at Pond Cove, early release days for curriculum development and assessments during common planning time, paying for our athletics, decreased technology supply budget, a full-time nurse for all schools, capital improvements for such things as classroom furniture, kitchen equipment, cleaning, carpets, repairs for our theater curtain (not a new curtain, a repair), custodial supplies and replacement books.

When the Pond Cove Parent Association grant was awarded, three of the grades will actually use their $1,500 for books. We by no means spend the most on our teacher salaries nor do we spend the most per pupil, in comparison to other communities in Southern Maine. I can’t list them all, but what I would like to point out is that, these are not extravagant or frivolous expenditures. These are the building blocks, the staples if you will, of a good solid school system. These changes are not benign, they will change our schools, maybe not today, but the changes will show through.

hope that we have not overreacted with the Town Council’s two resolutions. The first resolution, to place a 3.3 percent (which is tied to the consumer price index) cap on the school budget and resolution number two, a promise to return back to the tax payer 100 pecent of educational monies from Question # 1 and the EPS funding for property tax relief.

I appreciate your commitment to give monies back to the taxpayer, but is 100 percent reasonable and even equitable? I think you may underestimate the citizens’ support of our schools.

Don’t forget, twice in the past two years our citizens have voted overwhelmingly in support of our schools. The two building referendums and the defeat of the Palesky tax cap. It was not a small voter turnout in either case. The vote was loud and clear in support of our schools.

In terms of the Palesky tax cap defeat, it just goes to show you that our taxpayers aren’t willing to risk everything regardless of the outcome in support of lower property taxes. They saw what it would do to our community services, safety and our schools.

I want to ask you, did the Town Council hold a public hearing like the one tonight to discuss these two resolutions, or were they passed without public input at a regular Town Council meeting? These resolutions are far reaching and have a huge impact, to not have had a hearing, like we have for cell phone towers or building permits. Maybe I was unaware of the fact that there was a hearing.

I tried to think of an analogy that would be appropriate to the position our schools are in. I find it is very comparable to health care and preventative medicine. In order for a person, just like our schools, to remain healthy and strong you need to take preventative measures.

It is more difficult and certainly more expensive to fix an unhealthy or weak school, and it is easier and much more cost effective in the long run to maintain, support and promote a healthy school system. I encourage you to be creative and supportive in our School Board’s efforts to maintain the excellent schools Cape Elizabeth has and is known for and that we all benefit from.

Jenna Sisselman

Cape Elizabeth

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