It’s that time of year again, when the Brunswick school board puts together next school year’s budget. We truly hope they take heart to the dire situation this country and the residents of this town are in financially, with all of the federal and state cuts as well as job losses and cut hours.

In the last couple of months, the school board has noted the big increase in homeless students. Hopefully that will give you some idea of the family situations here in the Town of Brunswick. We hope you will consider all of the families just getting by paycheck to paycheck, if they even have one. There are also many senior citizens not making ends meet.

First, we will mention the cost to repair, renovate and add to Robert P.T. Coffin Elementary School and repairs at Brunswick Junior High School. Every school board has appropriated funds for repairs and maintenance, but it always goes elsewhere.

The board should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the junior high school to get as bad as it is now; they are endangering the students in these two schools.

When they allocate the money, they should spend it on repairs as they come up. In this household, it is much less expensive to pay for a small repair than to wait for major damage.

The bond amounts they are going to ask for are way out of line. They need to come up with a realistic figure just for repairs and nothing else. We do not want another Jordan Acres issue.

For once, they need to come up with a flat, realistic school budget, as every year, the budget goes up by leaps and bounds, even with fewer students. No one here in town can figure that one out.

They should really think of increasing class sizes again, though we see your reasoning for not doing so: It would mean having to lay off some teachers and making the remainder teach full-day schedules.

Other towns and cities are making drastic budget cuts. If they can do it, the Brunswick School Board should do so, as well.

We are sure no one on the school board has ever known what it is to wonder how to pay bills and put food on the table. We do. It is not a very good feeling.

Come up with a realistic budget for a change the people in this town can live with. Many of us do not have the luxury of having a regular paycheck with raises to cover all expenses, and many go without because they just do not have the money.

No doubt there are some very fortunate families here in town that don’t care how much their taxes go up. They are the ones who aren’t afraid to speak up at your meetings, and they are the ones you always listen to.

We are not against school spending; we want no child’s education hurt. But the time has come to rein the budgets in to realistic figures.

Stop inflating the budget and keep it within reason so we can continue to be able to afford to live here. You may not like having to make majors cuts this year but you really need to do it for a change.

JEAN POWERS is a resident of Brunswick.