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“School to me is just boring,” Jordan Lampo told authorities. Without the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program — now on the budget chopping block — “I’d just be twiddling my thumbs.”
Jordan, a sixth-grader at the Conte/West Hills school, said she looks forward every week to jumping on a bus and taking part in the TAG program, where she does brain teasers and science experiments along with other top-performing students her age.
“I don’t have a challenge in plain school,” explained Jordan (pictured with fellow TAGgers Elias Rodriguez and Joseph Lampo, at center and right).
The 11-year-old appealed to Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo to keep the TAG program intact as he drafts the budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. She was one of over 50 students and parents who showed up to the school board’s regular meeting Monday evening on Meadow Street to fight to keep TAG in the budget.
The outpouring of support Monday came one week after Mayor John DeStefano announced he would slash $6 million out of his $471 million budget to appease outraged taxpayers. He proposed cutting the TAG budget in half, by $800,000, as well as canceling July 4 fireworks and the annual holiday tree on the Green. The aldermanic Finance Committee approved those cuts last Wednesday; they’re set to take a final budget vote on Thursday.
TAG is an enrichment program for qualifying smart kids in grades K to 8. Students are taken out of their classrooms and bused to central location for weekly TAG sessions. The program is run by 11 TAG-specialist teachers. The number of kids participating was not available as of press time.
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Mayo (pictured) said he won’t cut the whole program. He aims to keep it intact for grades 4 to 8. Four TAG teachers would be dismissed from the program and sent back to regular classroom duty. He gave that response after hearing 10 impassioned pleas to rescue the program.
Parents warned that eliminating TAG could leave the district’s brightest kids isolated and disengaged in school, leading them to drop out, or causing their parents to give up on the public school system.
Jordan’s mom, Dianna Zeilik, fought to debunk what she called a false stereotype about the program.
TAG “is not a clique of the elite rich kids,” said Zeilik, who lives in Fair Haven. She has two kids in TAG, and another on the wait list.
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Doron Flake (pictured), a graduate of the city’s public schools, gave an impassioned defense of the program he participated in as a student.
Flake said kids like him were picked on for being smart. TAG provided a peer group, a creative outlet, and a chance to learn the value of community service, he said.
“I say cut it,” he argued, feigning an argument for the opposing stance in an attempt to stir the school board to his side. “We don’t need a peer group. We don’t need a place where we can feel like we’re creative. … If you don’t think it’s important, cut it.”
Dawn Ray, an out-of-district mom with two of three kids in New Haven’s TAG program, argued that the program is essential because it may be the only time her children are challenged in school. When kids aren’t challenged in middle school, they cruise along without learning study skills, and then they end up struggling in high school, she said.
To cut the TAG program would be to “short change our kids” and hurt their prospects for future success, she argued.
Ray and Hooker School mom Jane Savage both questioned the reason TAG was being targeted. Savage asked if the cuts indicated a philosophical shift in the public schools.
After hearing about 10 voices of protest, Superintendent Mayo explained his case.
Mayo said in his entire tenure as superintendent — 17 years and counting — “I’ve never looked at cutting the TAG program.” But this year is different, he said.
“We are in difficult economic times,” he said. Based on what he’s hearing from the Board of Aldermen, Mayo said, he expects to have to cut another $5.5 million from the Board of Education’s $176 general fund budget (out of a $324 million overall budget, when outside revenues are counted in).
“It’s not going to be easy,” he said. “At this particular time, everyone will feel some pain.”
The superintendent pledged to “try to save as much of the 4 – 8 program as we can.”
Even if TAG is cut for grades K‑3, the district will try to keep serving gifted those students by distributing TAG lessons to regular classroom teachers, he added.
“It’s not like we’re just abandoning the system that’s in place,” Mayo said.
Board member Alex Johnston called the arguments “very compelling” for saving the TAG program. But for every person who showed up to defend TAG, there’s someone who would argue that homeowners can’t afford a tax hike, he said.
Johnston said the discussion drove home the need for a more transparent budgeting process.
“The [school] board has not historically shaped the city budget,” Johnston said. He warned that the board has a steep challenge ahead in fiscal year 2012, when the state faces a $4 billion deficit — enough to wipe out all Education Cost Sharing funding two times over.
“What we’re talking about cutting this year is a fraction of what” will likely need to be cut next year, he warned.
The fiscal crisis will mean the board needs to find a way to “prioritize funding” — and prioritize cuts. This will require being more open about how money’s being spent in each school, he argued.
“People in general don’t understand how resources are allocated,” he said.