Taking pride in work on school bus, facilities contracts

I’ve been on the Board of Education in Middletown for 3½ years and I want to let the citizens of Middletown know how much I appreciate the opportunity to serve. I have always stood up for what is right and fought for the taxpayers, unions, parents and students alike and always will.

It took almost three years to finally get the Board of Education to take the proper course of action in regards to the DATTCO bus contract by voting to send the bus contract for 2018 out to bid.

Since 1987, the bus contract has been with the DATTCO bus company and has never gone out to bid. At an annual cost of over $7.1 million plus to the taxpayers, anyone with common sense would naturally be outraged, since we overpay by hundreds of dollars per student per year compared to similar-sized towns.

But this is the city of Middletown where anyone that makes waves or disagrees with the powers that be, whether on the Board of Education, other city commissions, city workers and even regular citizens at times, will endure intimidation, threats, scare tactics and the like.

When I first started asking questions about why almost nothing was going out to bid, I was told, “That’s the way it has always been.” When I continued to pursue my public questioning regarding what I believed to be wasting of Middletown taxpayer dollars, I received two very real threats of violence, from two different people, that if I did not stop asking questions, my “safety” was in question and that “You know it is all in the contracts.”

In all honesty, I was scared at the time but don’t worry, the proper authorities were notified. I decided to continue asking questions and pointing out when I thought something just didn’t seem right. This is when I started to find out about others that have endured, either through their jobs or situations, similar intimidation. As you can see, by this one example, I will do what I was sworn to do as a member of the board.

It took two years to get rid of Sodexco, a situation where I endured, early on, verbal assaults and threats, but even though I constantly felt like I had a bullseye on my back, my chest and forehead, I pushed the issued to the nth degree and now we are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.

I appreciate the support of the board members that saw the light and wanted to do the right thing by protecting the financial well-being of Middletown Public Schools. — Linda J. Szynkowicz, member, Middletown Board of Education