The following was a letter from the leadership of the elected Board of Education to the New Haven Register.

Milford Aldermanic vote pleases school board

The Milford Board of Education thanks the Milford Board of Aldermen for restoring $990,000 of the $2.1 million cut made to our budget request by the Board of Finance.

We realize the aldermen faced a difficult challenge trying to balance the needs of the students with the needs of the taxpayers. Families are facing economic hardships seldom experienced. The cost of living is escalating at an alarming rate.

Fortunately, the aldermen understood that the Milford student cannot wait out these difficult times. Come September, thanks to the 10-5 vote to restore a large part of what will be needed to effectively run our schools for 2008-09, our students will have the appropriate number of teachers and relatively small class sizes.

The Board of Education and the administration will do our best to ensure that children are effectively challenged and enlightened throughout the coming year. We thank the aldermen, for their thoughtfulness and foresight.

David J. Hourigan (D) is chairman, Greta Stanford (D) is majority leader, and Joanne Rohrig (R) is minority leader of the Milford Board of Education.