Superintendent’s Proposed Budget Passes School Board With Changes

By Eliza Hallabeck

The superintendent of school’s proposed budget for the coming year was passed with changes that bring the budget down to a 1.74 percent increase from last year, by the Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday, February 10.

After multiple budget meetings, the proposed budget that was originally presented by Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson had a 2.73 percent increase from this year’s budget. Subsequent deliberations reduced that increase and on Tuesday the school board adopted a $67.2 million spending package.

After public participation, board member David Nanavaty took a moment before the board began to discuss the budget to remind the board members of their purpose by reading the state statute.

“I think it’s clear what everyone has spoken about during public participation tonight is a duty that this board has,” he said, “to provide equity of access, to provide an educational program for all the children in the district, not just a few. And I hope that tonight when this board looks at this budget, we all keep that in mind.”

He also went on to say the superintendent’s reductions to the budget were almost $3.5 million.

“And that deals with some out-of-the-box thinking,” said Mr Nanavaty, “with the decrease of the school year by six days, a combination of furlough days and the removal of three days that were half-days. It deals with a reduction in staffing, which appears in the front of the budget book, a reduction of building and site improvements, and other reductions. And in looking at this I wonder how many people understand that part and parcel of this, for example, is to eliminate the late bus at the middle school.”

Mr Nanavaty went on to specify further reductions in the budget as proposed as the elimination of special transportation for children with crutches, one magnet school bus, lightening protection at Hawley School, lightening protection at Reed Intermediate School, and lightening protection at Newtown Middle School.

“When I hear that the Board of Selectmen get it, it’s clear that our superintendent gets it too,” said Mr Nanavaty.

Mr Nanavaty concluded that everyone is working to get the “best bang for our buck.”

As the discussion continued, Board of Education Chair Elaine McClure said the proposed portable classrooms were passed by the Board of Finance the night before, and will be a capital item, which saves the school district’s budget $114,000. Other savings to the board’s proposed budget as Ms McClure said are the elimination of an in-school suspension supervisor, which saves the budget $41,000, and the administrators in the district unanimously opting to take furlough days saves the board more than $46,000.

A large portion of the budget discussion focused on financing the Tap and Flex school programs at the high school, which are programs that focus on students who do not fit with normal classroom practices, the loss of the lead teacher position at Hawley School, which was taken out in the proposed budget, and new proposed positions at the high school.

Mr Nanavaty suggested not increasing the Tap program, which would mean keeping the funding where it is, in order to move the money to Hawley School for the lead teacher position.

NHS Principal Charles Dumais spoke regarding the Tap program, and said there is no mistake that there will be an increase of students at the high school for this coming school year. He said the proposed new positions and the increase in funding for the Tap and Flex programs were small steps to maintain the status quo. He added that requirements at the school have also been changed, so students will need to take one more class to meet the minimum graduations requirements, and in order to meet that increase in teaching alone, he said, the school would need another 1.2 teachers.

Regarding the teachers who teach the Tap program, Mr Dumais said, “We’re talking about a group of people who have been underpaid for the last four years.”

Hawley School Principal Jo-Ann Peters spoke previously at a budget meeting regarding the importance of the lead teacher position at Hawley School, which she reiterated briefly during Tuesday’s meeting.

Items the school board voted on to remove or add back to the budget included: the Tap and Flex programs at the high school were kept in the budget, the addition of an athletic trainer was kept in the budget for the high school, the proposed new position of a world language teacher at the high school was kept in the budget, a proposed addition of a school bus to the Tier 1 run was removed and the Gifted and Talented Program, called GATES, was added back into the budget.

Before the proposed school district’s budget went before the Board of Education during its final budget meeting on Tuesday, the teacher’s union president said the teacher’s contract was not open for negotiations, regarding wage freezes, an issue which has been in question.

“The contract will remain closed,” said Teacher Union President and Newtown Middle School eighth grade social studies teacher Ron Chivinski during a conversation on Thursday, February 5.

He said the question of teacher’s contracts being opened for negotiations regarding the school districts proposed budget for next year has been put to rest.

“We’re not opening it,” said Mr Chivinski.

Normally scheduled negotiations for teacher contracts are set to open for discussion this summer, and the current contract is good until 2010.

“These things need to be in good faith talked about,” Mr Chivinski said.

Teachers will already be effected by the proposed budget with furlough days and the cut of three half days for students.

Reed Intermediate School Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore announced at Tuesday’s meeting that the Administrators Union had unanimously voted to accept furlough days for themselves, which took out more than $46,000 from the school’s proposed budget.

Joanne Didonato, the secretary at Sandy Hook School, and the president of the Secretaries Union, asked the school board during public participation to consider the economy and question added expenses at this time.

There are seven unions involved with contracts with the school district.

The proposed budget has been placed on the school district’s website at www.newtown.k12.ct.us, and school board members have created an open group on Facebook, an online social network, for those who are interested following the discussion. The group on Facebook is called Newtown CT 2009 School Budget Feedback Group.