Parents Plead With Education Committee To Spare The School Budget

By Jeff White

Outside the Board of Education’s meeting room Monday night, Jennifer Iassogna studied for a history test and her brother, Matt, thumbed a video game. Inside their father, Mike, joined a large contingent of parents who spoke out during a meeting of the Legislative Council’s committee on education.

Speaking to the committee in support of the school board’s proposed 2000-01 operating budget, Mr Iassogna felt confident that funding has been earmarked for necessary products and services. “I credit the Board of Education for preparing a budget that is still focusing the dollars where they are needed,” he stated.

Since the school board submitted its request for a $39.9 million spending package last month (up 14.4 percent from this year), town officials have been concerned that the likelihood of the town approving a significant increase in the town’s overall operating budget would be remote.

The message from the parents Monday night was pointed: let the people decided what they will and will not spend.

“If you give people the chance to vote the budget, you’ll be surprised,” one resident, Cathy Lombard, said at the meeting, believing that much of the town would support a large budget request.

Though some remarks were aimed at the town’s overall proposed budget, up 15 percent from this year, parents realize that the school board’s budget comprises the largest percentage of the town’s spending plan. Supporting the school district’s budget means supporting the town’s budget.

Parents urged the committee to recommend that the full council approve the school budget “as is,” and leave it to the citizens to vote it down. Since the town can vote for or against each line item in the budget, it can decide exactly what it is willing to fund.

“As a taxpayer, I want to have a chance to chose,” Mrs Lombard added.

“My big concern is if [the education committee] passed on additional cutting recommendations, it would come from areas that will seriously affect students,” Deborah Hoffman remarked. “If more cuts are made,” she said, “this year, we will definitely feel it.”

“We will step [to the budget] and we will approve it,” she added.

The education committee took up the district’s proposed spending plan last week during a meeting highlighted by detailed discussions. Though no one area was the focus of reduction discussions, questions centered on the district’s technology request and how the district pays out health benefits.

A depleted technology fund and an almost nonexistent health insurance reserve account are two seemingly insurmountable issues in this year’s school budget.

One reason that committee members have not identified obvious areas for reductions is because the school board delivered a budget that was already reduced by $1,075,554. Committee Chairman Joe Borst noted this week that this year is the first year in his tenure that the school district presented a budget that it trimmed. “The Board of Education has done a very commendable job, making a million dollars worth of cuts,” he said, adding, “[It] makes our job a bit tougher.”

A few members of the committee seemed poised Monday night to recommend that the full council approve the district’s spending plan without additional reductions. But the issue was tabled until next Tuesday night to give some committee members time to review additional information supplied by the school board. The school district’s Director of Business Ron Bienkowski provided a substantial packet of answers to questions raised by committee members the previous week.

Committee member Dan Rosenthal stated his support for school board budget adoption by the full council without further cuts, but concluded this week that it was prudent to give members additional time for review. He stated, “I would rather have everybody on the same page.” For Mr Rosenthal, the council has to answer one question concerning Newtown’s schools: “Do we bite the bullet and take care of [the budget] this year, or wait and see it next year?”

Given continued concern from longtime council members Pierre Rochman and Melissa Pilchard, who spoke out against the town’s proposed $70 million spending plan during a meeting of the council’s finance committee Wednesday night, it is not clear whether education committee members will have to look harder for reductions.

Superintendent of Schools John Reed was confident this week that the district’s budget will move on to the full council intact. “I think they have a job to do, and it’s obvious that they are taking it very seriously,” Dr Reed said Thursday. “Our role is to cooperate with any reasonable request they make, and we have been attempting to do that. I’m optimistic that in the end [the education committee] will support the [school board’s] request.”

As many of the parents present Monday night returned home to studying and sleeping children, the hope was that town authorities would allow voters to exercise more decision making power.

“For the time being, we’ll pay for it,” one parent, Cheryl Clark, said.