Superintendent Seeks $58M School Budget For 2005-06

By Larissa Lytwyn

Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff’s proposed $58,055,560 budget for the 2005-06 school year is a 9.29 percent increase over the current budget.

Dr Pitkoff’s biggest new requests included a $70,000-a-year personnel director, in-school suspension at Newtown High School, the addition of part-time early intervention teachers at Hawley, Head O’ Meadow, and Sandy Hook Elementary School, and a 0.10 early intervention teacher at Middle Gate.

In opening his presentation, Dr Pitkoff said there was “compelling reason” to make a “slight departure” from his budget presentations in previous years.

“I decided to provide a snapshot of the current school year, including some of the previously unanticipated costs that have affected our budget,” he said.

He began with the recent oil spill at Reed Intermediate School. It is still unknown exactly how much the oil spill cleanup will cost the district.

Several accounts in the current budget, including funds for building projects, curriculum projects, professional workshops, supplies, engineering, and architectural studies have been frozen until a clearer conception of the spill’s exact financial impact is known. 

“Currently, we have received about $200,000 in bills as a result of the spill,” said Dr Pitkoff. “We anticipate incurring costs of at least $100,000 more.”

Dr Pitkoff next identified several items in the current budget whose costs exceeded their original budget.

In addition to an overall rise in the cost of employee health benefits, the district is currently handling 13 cases whose medical costs are $50,000 apiece.

Worker’s compensation costs, thus, have also risen significantly.

Further, the long period of arbitration involving the eventual approval of the 2005–2008 Administrator’s Contract increased costs for legal services above the $30,000 originally budgeted.

Another impact was the Board of Education offices’ recent move from Canaan House to a slightly smaller but much safer location in the Kendro facility at 31 Peck’s Lane. Dr Pitkoff estimated that the cost of the move would end up being between $30,000 to $50,000, largely because of some partition building, painting, and cleaning done in preparation for the transition. 

Fuel costs, meanwhile, continue to climb. The district currently uses about 133,000 gallons of fuel during the school year. While the current budget allocated a 1.08 per gallon fuel rate, fuel is currently costing the district about 1.48 a gallon.

Next year, the district is budgeting to accommodate an approximate rate of 1.50 a gallon, though Business Director Ron Bienkowski will not officially “lock in” a number until clearer projections are available in March.

Shifting forward, Dr Pitkoff began to speak about his requests on the elementary, middle, and high school level.

He emphasized the importance of paying heed to Newtown’s educational goals in relation to the district’s mission statement that all children “can and will learn well.”

A major part of ensuring children’s educational success is identifying at-risk students earlier to prevent later academic and disciplinary problems. Thus, Dr Pitkoff requested the addition of part-time early intervention teachers at Hawley, Head O’ Meadow, and Sandy Hook Elementary School and a 0.10 early intervention teacher at Middle Gate.

“The reason we need early intervention teachers,” explained Dr Pitkoff, “is that we have found that a significant number of students enter kindergarten each year without readiness skills.”

Readiness skills means the ability to be academically and socially prepared to progress to the next academic level. A lack of readiness can be traced to a number of different sources, such as developmental delays.

“Research shows that the earlier we intervene, the more likely we are to build the readiness skills students need for reading and math,” said Dr Pitkoff.

The early intervention teachers would be used to extend the kindergarten program for identified at-risk students so that they had a full day, instead of a half-day, of kindergarten.

For Reed Intermediate School, Dr Pitkoff requested an additional reading teacher, guidance counselor, 0.4 music teacher, and 0.2 physical education teacher.

Dr Pitkoff also proposed replacing Principal Donna Denniston’s request for three educational assistants, totaling a cost of $68,000, with one certified special education teacher, whose salary will be approximately $63,000.

The special education teacher would work about 27 hours a week.

“In addition to the cost-savings factor, I feel that it would be better to have one fully certified teacher,” said Dr Pitkoff.

For Newtown Middle School, Dr Pitkoff requested the addition of two teachers for grade 8, the addition of a 0.36 physical education teacher, and an extra section in math.

Meanwhile, Newtown High School is anticipating an increase of about 38 students in the 2005-06 school year.

To support the expansion of the school’s music technology curriculum program and additional sections in Italian, Dr Pitkoff requested a 0.4 music teacher and a 0.4 world language instructor.

Most striking, however, was Dr Pitkoff’s request for a 0.4 in-school suspension period.

“I find it ironic that when a student does something inappropriate, such as cutting class, their punishment is staying out of class by being suspended out of school,” said Dr Pitkoff.

Often, he said, the students view suspension as a “vacation,” he said.

The in-school suspension would be used for relatively minor offenses, such as class cutting.

In addition to being monitored, in-school suspended students would have the opportunity to do their schoolwork.

Over the past year, the school board has spent a significant amount of meeting time revising its substance abuse and discipline policy. Board members, as well as school faculty and administration, overwhelmingly supported the idea of an in-school suspension program.

In addition, Dr Pitkoff requested an additional school psychologist and a 0.2 social worker.

While state guidelines advise a 750:1 student-psychologist ratio, Newtown High School currently has an approximate 1,600:1 ratio.

The inclusion of an additional psychologist would create a much more manageable 800:1 ratio.

“Currently, we have one social worker who comes in four days a week,” explained Dr Pitkoff. “We would much rather have that person serve a full five-day week. You never know when a crisis-level student need may happen, and require the services that only a licensed social worker can provide.”

On the district level, Dr Pitkoff requested an additional teacher for the district’s preschool program and a state grant-reimbursable speech and hearing specialist.

Dr Pitkoff explained that over the past year, Pupil Personnel Services Director Mike Regan and his special education staff have been working to absorb more students back into the district, thus lowering outplacement transportation and tuition costs.

Rhe success of the “focus find” program, however, has increased the number of students in the preschool program, which match special needs students with a nonspecial-need peer.

An anticipated 41 students are already expected to enter the preschool program for the 2005-06 school year.

In addition, Dr Pitkoff recommended hiring an entry-level technology specialist to support the district’s “considerable” maintenance needs.

There are currently only 3.2 tech specialists managing 1,723 computers and 51 servers districtwide, he said.

Dr Pitkoff also proposed hiring an additional custodian to support the Newtown High School staff.

“It’s a very large area and we are simply understaffed in that area,” Dr Pitkoff explained.

Personnel Director

Perhaps the most arresting addition, however, was Dr Pitkoff’s request for a personnel director.

Currently, Dr Pitkoff, Mr Bienkowski and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Alice Jackson are handling human resource duties including contract and labor negotiations, Title IX issues, worker’s compensation, grievances, and the hiring process, including reference checks.

The addition of a personnel director would allow Dr Jackson and Dr Pitkoff to stay more focused on directly education-related issues, including the streamlining and creation of new curriculum programs and the management of teachers’ professional development workshops.

A number of surrounding towns, including Ridgefield, Trumbull, and Shelton, have personnel directors salaried at a range of $76,000 to $100,000-plus a year.

Dr Pitkoff proposed hiring the personnel director at a salary of $70,000 a year.

While, during the public participation period later in the evening, one parent said that she “respected” Dr Pitkoff’s “responsible” budget, she was concerned that a markedly lower, $70,000-a-year candidate would lack the certification and expertise of a perhaps more qualified applicant.

In addition to his requested certified positions, Dr Pitkoff proposed extending the time schedules of an educational assistant at Middle Gate by one week, a Sandy Hook clerk by three weeks, a high school clerk by 7.75 hours for nine weeks, a physical therapist for six weeks and a special education data clerk and central office personnel clerk from part to fulltime.

Dr Pitkoff explained that an enormous amount of paper work must be processed throughout the year and that the staff currently struggles to get everything that needs to be done in accordance to their work schedules.

The high school clerk is particularly crucial, he said, because of the high number of college applications that require processing in the fall.

“Our students apply to a good colleges, and a good number of them, too,” said Dr Pitkoff.

Dr Pitkoff also requested the addition of two full-sized buses and a 0.55 increase in bus run time to accommodate a rise in special needs transportation services as well as St Rose School’s increase in ridership.

Like Newtown High School, St Rose’s student population is expected to rise between 25 to 30 students for the 2005-06 school year.

Finally, Dr Pitkoff briefly reflected on the number of building and maintenance and site improvements originally requested for the upcoming school year at each of the district’s schools. The projects add up to well over $200,000.

Because of the currently frozen accounts in the aftermath of the oil spill, however, many of the projects may be “rolled over” to future years.

Dr Pitkoff spent several minutes discussing how his budget was cost-effective. His reductions include a $458,580 decrease in certified salaries, a $251,000 decline in noncertified salaries, a $195,352 decrease in related employee benefits, and a $615,300 reduction in building and site improvements.

Overall, the requests submitted to Dr Pitkoff translated to a roughly 13 percent increase over the current budget. Dr Pitkoff’s modifications have lowered it by more than three and a half percent.

The superintendent said it was important to “keep an eye” on fuel costs, enrollment figures, special education and transportation costs, staff turnover, rising medical insurance costs, and soon-to-be-negotiated nurses’ contract, which expires this June.

He concluded that he believed his budget was a “fair and responsible” one that took well into consideration the impact of such factors as the Reed oil spill.

Board Chairman Elaine McClure thanked Dr Pitkoff for a “comprehensive, well-done” presentation.

“In my dreams, I wish we could see just a three percent budgetary increase,” she said. “However, you explained the reasons for the 9.29 increase quite thoroughly.”

The public is invited to attend a budget workshop on Monday, February 7, in Room 122 of Reed Intermediate School that will begin with an hour-long interactive question-and-answer period at 6:30 pm.

The school board is scheduled to pass the budget during a special meeting at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 8, in Room 122 of Reed Intermediate School.