Updates of Middletown Happenings from Vice Chairmen Adam Hayn
February 27, 2025
Tomorrow is the deadline for the US Department of Education’s directive reevaluating Federal funds under the direction of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. We still have the DEI program in our schools. Say what you want about the program’s merits (merit is the operative word here), but, the Department of Education is a significant source of funding for MPS. Anticipated grants for this current year from the Federal Government in the Superintendent’s proposed budget was $3,612,103.22 (numbers always seemed to be buried deep in these documents). It’s a small percentage of the budget…but it is still 3.6 million dollars. What if that funding goes away? Will Middletown tax payers be on the hook for that because we want to play chicken with the Federal Government?
Connecticut, on the whole, receives over a billion dollars from the Federal Government. 8.2% of its funds (couple year old data sourced from https://usafacts.org/answers/what-percentage-of-public-school-funding-comes-from-the-federal-government/state/connecticut/.) That’s a lot of money the state will have to get from somewhere else…I don’t make that much money. – Adam
May 26, 2005 – (Day after Memorial Day)
I’ll never forget when working at my first job. A woman came to my cashier line and said Memorial Day wasn’t a real holiday. I just was stunned, but didn’t speak up, because I was a shy 15 year old kid.
My grandfather served in WWII as a combat engineer. Mechanical wizard. Building lookout towers on Omaha Beach. Building bridges in haste to let the military through the Battle of the Buldge…then blew them up after they crossed! Helping building the allied command center In Berlin. He had quite a story. Of course i didn’t really know this until I was older. Wish I could hear those stories in person, once more. I am thankful for his long life. Apparently driving cattle down Main Street, Middletown was one of his adventures!
But so many did not have that luxury.
Now, it’s a bit different. Randoms shout of “freedom” might be heard on Main Street 
. Today is not just another day…it disgusts me to know I didn’t speak up. Well, I suppose that is how one grows. The day is to honor those that paid the ultimate. Whether you agree with the war or not, you can honor what these men and women did. We were thankful to our two Vietnam-era friends for joining us…one could only imagine how this day impacts them. Call a veteran, be an ear to them, thats one thing that costs nothing.
And extra thank you for my father for donating his time and equipment, and to Endless Stitch for their artwork and signage. The setup was supposed to portray the infamous Iwo Jima flag raising, but apparently our guests didn’t want to wear fatigues!
June 13, 2025 – 3 days until Mayor Floresheim prematurely steps down.
Agree with him or not, I credit his service. Serving is not easy, it’s not fun most of the time, and it’s a thankless job…if you’re in for the wrong reasons.
With that said, it’s time to find a new mayor. I respect acting mayor Gene Nocera greatly, as a man and educator. I’ll never forget how he took care of me personally as a second grader that had his finger chopped off in the school door… Yeah, you read that right. He was my boss for a short time working as Woodrow Wilson Middle School. And he was the council member that made the motion to get me approved for the board of education. I believe he will be a steady hand that the city needs until November.
The Republicans will step up, and we will step up big. Come this November we will steer the city in a new direction…one of fairness. A direction is which we dont favor one group over another. If we are truly “in this together,” as was the rallying cry for so many years, then we ought to have a government that reflects that.
June 14 – days prior to the vote on Board of Education proposed budget mitigation
(On April 9th) I told Middletown via social media, “Last night, the Middletown Board of Education passed the superintendent proposed budget by a 5-2 vote (2 abstentions) … Making it the Board of Education’s budget
During our two budget workshops, we proposed that the superintendent “mitigate” the budget by reducing expenditures where he could. The tactic that was used this year, as it was last year, was to go right for personnel as it means to cut the budget. This is not acceptable to me. I’d like to think every employee within the school district has value. They were hired for a reason. They are needed to help our young community grow. They are needed to help them gain the skills needed to become productive members of society.
It’s alarming to me that this is the typical go-to. Is it a scare tactic or is it a serious proposition? I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs. It’s also alarming that the answer is to go to the lowest paid employees. From my time working in school systems, these are some of the most valuable. We currently have a serious vacancy problem with paraprofessionals, which are causing strain on our teachers. We need to start at the top.
To follow-up on my comments from last night, let’s not go for the elimination of personnel. Let’s try everything we can to avoid that.
Let’s go department by department. Let’s reduce expenditures where we can. Let’s buy used equipment where we can, let’s look into a cheaper paper for copies, let’s open up those vendor contracts for cheaper pens and pencils. Let’s open up each contract for services and personnel and cut where we can. And let’s do it in an equitable fashion. A raise to a paraprofessional or a cafeteria aid is more impactful, even life-changing, compared to that of an administrator.
The reason we asked the superintendent to decrease his budget ask was because we knew the dire fiscal situation of Middletown. We were already told by the city that the allotment given to the BOE would be far less than even what the mayor was proposing.
Truth is, I would love to give the superintendent every dollar he is asking for and more if it meant our students would succeed. But, I know it’s not realistic. We are already taxed as a city beyond what we can afford.
How much more can we ask residents of Middletown to pay in taxes? The Board of Education is proposing that your taxes will be raised…again. I’m not going to be a part of that.”
…They didn’t start at the top. And we got a LOT less than the superintendent was hoping. As predicted, we wasted time. Now are backs are against the wall to pass a mitigated budget. staff jobs are on the line if we vote “yes.”
One of the administrators did step up, in a big way…but just one. The others…nothing. I am not going to be a party to the vote that will eliminate jobs. We spend too much money. Had the administration stepped up and gave up a portion of raises, mileage or other stipends…I would believe that they believe in the severity of the situation. I am serving on this board for the community…not to fire them.