To the editor,
Autumn has arrived officially, and that means our children have been back to school for nearly a month. Over the past week I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with a number of parents, and grandparents as well, while seeing their youngsters off to their day of classes. My idea was to “check the pulse” in real time to get an honest assessment of how things have been going so far, and if there were any significant gaps which might be brought to either the Board of Education or the administration at Laurel Ledge.
I am happy to report that in my by no means exhaustive study, the first month of school has been a successful one. Not only are the busses running on time to parents’ satisfaction, but they have also been responsive to requests to adapt routes to accommodate curbside pickup of new children where needed. And while some of our students might still be longing for a return to summer vacation, for the most part they are getting back into the swing of things in the classroom.
The one area of concern of which we all need to be aware is that of drivers speeding off to their own day of work in places where children are standing in driveways waiting to be picked up. Speeding in residential areas is always a big concern, but never more so during this morning pickup time from around 8:15 a.m. until almost 9 a.m. I ask everyone behind the wheel to back off that gas pedal and try to start their commute a few minutes earlier to avoid, in the best case, adding extra stress to those young students before they even start their school day.
For all those parents I missed this time around, if you have anything you feel needs some outside help, feel free to contact myself of anyone on the Board of Selectmen or Board of Education. We will be only too happy to try and assist you in any way possible.
Chris Bielik
Selectman
Beacon Falls
