STATEMENT OF NO CONFIDENCE

In the Avon Public Schools Superintendent & Chair of Avon's Board of Education:

We, the undersigned, lack confidence in the leadership of our public schools as a result of:

• The Administration’s decision to eliminate all Social Workers from our public schools;
• Avon High School has dropped in state and national rankings below that of the other Farmington Valley high schools during their tenure. Our high school has fallen from 4th in the state to 22nd in the most recent rankings.

We find that the leadership that has led to these unfortunate developments is not in the best interests of our public school children and the community as a whole because:

• The community was not given an opportunity to provide input during the decision-making that led to the elimination of all school social workers;
• We have not received a full, transparent explanation for their decision to compromise the mental health support services resulting from the elimination of the social workers;
• The decision to eliminate the social workers does not reflect long recognized best practices that address how to support the mental well-being of our students and community and we are opposed to the untested experimentation with the mental well-being of our public student children caused by the absence of social workers;
• All other school districts in the Farmington Valley and similar socio-economic districts follow best practices and will continue to have social workers working in their schools. For decades, Avon Public Schools have had social workers;
• The opinions of professional mental health providers who were opposed to the decision to eliminate social workers were ignored by the Administration;
• Ridding the district of social workers is inconsistent with the State’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission's recommendations regarding the need for social workers;
• The drop in the prestige of the high school diminishes our town and schools’ stature and negatively impacts our property values.