Reed To Introduce Budget Thursday

By Jeff White

“I know enough that January will be interesting,” said Superintendent of Schools John Reed in a recent interview, commenting on the school system’s budget that he will introduce Thursday, January 20, at the high school, which will be televised live on Channel 17.

In the last few weeks, there has been a feeling of urgency coming out of the school system’s Queen Street office. Addressing a swelling student population and a need for space, the district and its authoritative body, the Board of Education, have fueled their push for a fifth- and sixth-grade school by requesting preliminary funds from the Legislative Council. The school board recently delivered its five-year Capital Improvement Plan, listing eight projects that would require significant funding from the town. Moreover, at budget time the school system is staring at an under-funded health insurance plan and no reasonable reserves of money to channel into school technology. For Dr Reed, this year is a moment of truth for the town, a year in which the town’s taxpayers have to send a message to the school system   

“The school system has proven that we are a wise shepherd of the public dollar, but we are at the end of our rope,” Dr Reed said recently. “We are going to need a significant infusion of dollars into this school system or we’re going to have to begin to reassess our expectations.”

Thursday night, in front of the school board, the district will be requesting a “significant” budget increase, according to the superintendent. Dr Reed said that there would be two space issues that the school system would confront in the budget that would be costly.

One item in the system’s operating budget will be the procurement of four modular classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School to address its overcrowding problem, which the district plans to have in place by the start of school in the fall.

Dr Reed also plans to present to the board a proposal that would have the school system vacating its current office this summer and taking up residence in the building JP Maguire is constructing on Berkshire Road, across from the high school. By renting this commercial space, the current district office can be retrofitted for use by the middle school.   

Other significant items the budget will aim to address is the district’s current health insurance problem, which Dr Reed said stems from past under-funding, and how to purchase new technology.

The superintendent has been here before, in front of the town at the beginning of budget season, asking for significant fiscal responses from taxpayers and government decision-makers. Last year the message was the same, but the Legislative Council cut the school board’s budget by $800,000.

“It sounds like a broken record, but I sort of feel that we earned our stripes being fiscally responsible,” Dr Reed explained, commenting on the fact Newtown does not spend as much on its schools as other neighboring towns do.

“I think this district should get an A++ for being fiscally responsible. And all I’m trying to say to people is that we’ve wrung everything we can get out of that, and the only answer right now is that we’re going to have to get a generous increase in our budget or we’re in big trouble.

“I’m afraid that the initial reaction among some people is going to be ‘What, are they crazy?’” he added. “My answer is going to be, No, we’re not crazy, we’ve been trying to tell this story for the last couple of years.”

More than ever this year it is a story Dr Reed wants local residents to have an active part in. The school board has decided to move the venue for the budget introduction from the superintendent’s office to the high school. The presentation will be carried live on Channel 17 and repeated for the next seven nights at 7 pm, with an afternoon showing at 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Dr Reed said he wants the public to have as much opportunity as possible to digest what he will be requesting.

The school board agreed to move the meeting from its original date of Tuesday, January 18 due to the fact that the Legislative Council’s finance committee met that night to address the district’s request for architect funds for a 5/6 school.

“I’ve chosen to make this perhaps a year where there’s going to be some discomfort and some stress and strain, but I think it is the right thing to do,” Dr Reed remarked. “This is the third year I’ve given this message, and in my opinion in the last two years it hasn’t been heard.”

According the WPA, the Dodgingtown section of Newtown was “a crossroads hamlet named for the many drovers, horse-traders and peddlers `on the dodge’ who congregated at the crossroad taverns.”