POLL: What Should Happen to the Schools' Proposed Budget?

The budget that Mayor Ron McDaniel has proposed for the 2012-2013 fiscal year is $55,718,440, a 0.21 percent increase over the current year’s budget.

The mayor’s proposed budget holds the school department to a zero percent increase, not the 2.7 percent increase it requested.

To read more details about the proposed budget, click here. To look at the budgets themselves, click on the pdfs in the photo box.

The changes McDaniel would like to see could mean laying off as many as 18 teachers, though that is not a certainty. The teachers who are potentially being laid off have received notices informing them of the possibility, as required by law.

More than 100 people packed a public hearing Tuesday at Montville High School to speak about the proposed schools budget, and to listen to the speakers. To read that story, click here.

Most of the 35 people who spoke were in favor of the Town Council accepting the proposed schools budget as is, though several spoke with conviction about the necessity of keeping taxes as low as possible.

What do you think? Please take our poll!