Council Education Subcommittee Begins Budget Review

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Legislative Council’s Education Subcommittee began its review of the Board of Education’s proposed 2011-12 budget on Monday, March 21, by posing a list of questions to school board Chair William Hart, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais, and the school district’s Business Director Ronald Bienkowski.

The list of 47 questions was created with input from the community, according to Education Subcommittee Chair Kathy Fetchick at the meeting. While the subcommittee did not pose all the questions to the school district representatives during the meeting, the remainder will be consolidated and asked during the subcommittee’s next meeting, scheduled for Monday, March 28, at 7:30 pm, at the Newtown Municipal Center.

As passed by the Board of Education on February 8, the school district’s proposed 2011-12 budget was $69,201,017. The Board of Finance later recommended the 2011-12 school budget on March 3 to the Legislative Council for $68,703,427, a $497,590 difference that reflected adjusted numbers in health insurance and fuel costs.

After reviewing the budget, the Legislative Council Education Subcommittee will present its findings to the full Legislative Council on Wednesday, April 6.

Questions asked during Monday’s meeting covered topics from the teacher observation efforts at the high school to special education issues, like cost savings connected to moving Education Connection’s Project Succeed into the school district during the current budget year.

At the end of the meeting, Ms Fetchick asked Mr Bienkowski to provide a printout of all of the original accounts within the 2010-11 budget since July 1 at the subcommittee’s next meeting.

“It’s very difficult to look at these budgets year over year,” said Ms Fetchick, who noted the budget reports did not show changes made the previous year.

The 2011-12 budget, Mr Bienkowski said, was created reflecting the most recent budget transfers, as of December.

“It doesn’t make any sense to put in a budgeted figure that is $30,000 less than what we anticipate paying,” Mr Bienkowski said. “We want it to be as close as possible to what we anticipate paying this year.”

Mr Hart said the school board could be compliant with providing the printout, but questioned whether the request was an exercise to see if the school district could provide the information.

Assessing Teachers

Responding to the first question of the evening, Dr Robinson and Mr Dumais said a committee at Newtown High School is looking into how to assess teachers in the future.

“I’d say we have made great gains in this past year,” said Dr Robinson.

She also said the bar is set high for nontenured teachers, and each year teachers who are up for tenure are evaluated.

“These last few years we have been very vigilant on this,” the superintendent said.

Teacher observations and evaluations, Dr Robinson said, are happening in each of the schools, not just at the high school.

Speaking in support of the added assistant principal position in the budget for the next school year, Mr Dumais said Newtown High School is 19th out of 21 schools in its state designated District Reference Group for having the most students per administrator at the school. Adding the position, Mr Dumais said, could move Newtown to being number 8, 9, or 10 on that list.

Also discussed was the Project Adventure teacher position that was not added to the 2011-12 budget for Reed Intermediate School but was requested by Reed Principal Sharon Epple for the upcoming budget. Project Adventure, a physical education program that teaches team-building skills, was added to the high school level for the coming school year. Dr Robinson explained the program was less expensive to implement at the high school, because there is already a certified instructor for the program at the school. Adding the program at Reed Intermediate School, she said, would require hiring for a new position at the school. The program was lost at Reed after a teacher left the district and was not replaced the 2010-11 budget.

Ms Fetchick pointed out that not adding the position at Reed was impacting the school. Dr Robinson agreed.

“The cuts were going to come from somewhere,” said Dr Robinson, reflecting on the 2010-11 budget. Adding, “We had hoped we would be able to overcome the scheduling issue.”

Mr Hart said he has heard many complaints reflecting Ms Fetchick’s statement that she is hearing there is a problem at the school; he has also heard from parents who love the school.

While the district found savings, as Mr Hart said during the meeting, when Education Connection’s Project Succeed program was moved into the district earlier this school year, the district also learned of possible higher costs associated with the special education budget since the school board adopted its 2011-12 budget. Mr Hart presented new numbers concerning out of district students, students that need to be transported to another area for educational services, that will increase the 2011-12 budget by roughly $150,000. Noting the school board has not spoken on the topic of changing an expected state special education grant, the Excess Cost Grant, amount to a higher percentage, Mr Hart said savings could be found to make up some of the $150,000 if a new percentage was determined.

Questions listed to be posed to the school district representatives during the subcommittee’s next meeting range from providing backup data for services and equipment in the district to what processes are in place to encourage seeking spending reductions.

(An audio recording of this meeting is available online at NewtownBee.com)