The purpose of this petition is to demand a re-vote in the form of a ballot referendum to determine if the community wants to fund armed guards or not. 

Whether or not you support armed guards in the Connetquot Central School District (CCSD), you should be outraged at the manner in which the guards’ approval was obtained. It is a controversial issue. It has a huge impact on our taxes. It has a huge impact on school culture.

From the beginning (January 2020), multiple Board of Education (BOE) members stated that such an initiative should only be done with the community's input and backing. A referendum specifically addressing the question of whether CCSD should have armed guards would have allowed the community as a whole to voice their opinions about the issue. A separate referendum would also have allowed the CCSD community to know arming guards was “on the table”.  Pass or fail, the referendum’s vote would provide definitive proof of the CCSD community’s standing on the issue.

Instead of allowing the CCSD community’s voices to be heard through a referendum, the BOE voted to make the armed guards a  line item in the budget. As said by a BOE trustee, an issue of this nature should only be a referendum if you want it to fail. A fair, professional, and transparent process should occur and is being demanded by the Connetquot community on not just this issue, but on all future issues.

This year, the standard budget newsletter was not sent via mail. In all previous years the budget newsletter was always sent via mail. Why was it different this year? Per the BOE, time did not allow for this. While the entire budget (consisting of approximately 900 lines) was available on the website for voters to review, the average person does not have time to look at this detail. And for those who did have the time to review the budget online, the columns in the budget that reflect information regarding the dollar change and percent change were left blank, making it even harder to find the information for this new armed guards budget item.

On February 25, 2020, a BOE meeting took place where the Superintendent of CCSD recommended the BOE award the Armed Security Guard Service bid to a specific company. This was months before the June budget vote and before any definitive financing for this initiative was in place. The BOE did just this with a motion carried by 4 BOE members who voted in favor of awarding the bid to the recommended company. To add to the lack of transparency, there is no attachment of the bid (item 8) in the meeting minutes like there are for the other similar agenda items (2-7).

Bottom line, many voters were not aware armed guards were part of the budget vote. A change of this magnitude, per the words of one BOE member, should have been highlighted “on a billboard.” It was not. Regardless of your opinion, please stand up for the rights of all in the Connetquot community and let the BOE know we want a democratic, transparent process. We demand a re-vote in the form of a ballot referendum to determine if the community wants to fund armed guards or not.

***Please note that a re-vote does cost CCSD money if they were to do it now (Summer 2020). They could also table the guards and run the referendum next year at no additional cost to CCSD. (Budgeted line items for the armed security guards in the current budget is over $720,000). Thank you!