To the editor:

(This letter was addressed to the Barrington School Committee)

Unfortunately, my husband and I cannot make the school committee meeting on Feb. 2 to voice concern regarding the additional funding needed to implement a later start time for our schools.

It is time for our town's elected officials (town council members, school committee members, etc.) to be held accountable for the spending of taxpayer dollars. 

It is time for our elected officials to treat our town's budget as if it was a personal household budget.  

If you did, hopefully you would assess the benefits before making a major purchase. If you did make that major purchase, wouldn't you assess whether that major purchase met your expectations and provided the value you wanted? Then again, maybe you are all very wealthy and really don't have to deal with a household budget.

As taxpayers, it would be beneficial for you to provide us with a cost benefit analysis to better understand what will be gained by implementing later start times and how you intend to measure the success of your program. 

If approved, then you need to report to the taxpayers on that success (i.e., did you do what you said you would do within the allotted cost). I'm thinking that this is wishful thinking on my part, because there really are no consequences for you if you don't deliver on what you promise. After all, it's really not your money that you are spending.

My husband and I are retired. We have a fixed income. The increase in our property taxes due to the cost of a new middle school will be burden enough.  

Increasing our property taxes even more to implement a later start time program is just adding insult to injury. I have to wonder whether you don't care about our senior population and the diversity we bring to this town, because you are taxing us to death!

One last comment... I grew up in this town and was educated in our school system. I survived just fine with early start times. My parents were responsible for making sure I had enough sleep to be a good, productive student instilling the values of hard work and discipline.  

My husband and I are able to live in this town (so far) and pay these incredibly high taxes; because we did work hard, were successful in our careers, and stuck to a household budget. That hard work and success had nothing to do with the time school started.

Sincerely,

Barbara Carlin

Barrington