BOE Closes Out Budget, Awards Execs Contracts, Nonunion Raises

By John Voket

The Board of Education closed out its 2004–2005 budget year Tuesday evening announcing the school district will return $9,006 to the town as unexpected year-end revenue. And later that evening, following a lengthy closed session, the board voted to extend the contracts of, and award increases to several key school administrators and nonunion employees.

Superintendent Evan Pitkoff, Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson, and district business director Ronald Bienkowski each received contract extensions through 2008, with annual salary increases awarded at 3.25 percent. All district nonunion employees will receive about a 3.36 percent increase according to Mr Pitkoff.

“The nonunion average is 3.36 percent, but that amount might be offset by insurance co-pays and other considerations,” Mr Pitkoff said.

The superintendent said that the increase for nonunion employees is a close approximation but is not precise. He said because of the complicated discussions and negotiations among individual nonunion staff members, final increases in this area will be confirmed at a later date by Mr Bienkowski.

Mr Bienkowski was not in the office Wednesday, and was expected to be out for the rest of the week Mr Pitkoff said. Copies of the final contracts were not available to the press or public Wednesday because of Mr Bienkowski’s absence, a finance office assistant said when contacted by The Bee.

While the level of increases were not surprising to Newtown Finance Board Chairman John Kortze, he said that many workers in other professional circles may find the automatic increases excessive. That feeling was echoed by Legislative Council chairman William Rodgers.

“Without a thorough review of the contracts to determine the other benefits awarded, all I can say is those administrators should be very happy with the numbers in this current contract given the current national and local economic environments,” Mr Rodgers said.

Mr Kortze said that the 3.25 increases seem to be the norm, or “going rate” for similar positions in the education arena.

“If you are in that area of the workforce, I guess it’s a relatively normal scale of compensation,” Mr Kortze said. “If you aren’t in that area of the workforce, well, I don’t know of a lot of other places where these level of increases are automatically awarded year after year, especially in a tough economy.”

The finance chair said he was also concerned that the 3.1 percent increases for nonunion employees could become the benchmark, or basis for beginning subsequent increase negotiations for other labor groups in town.

“It’s clear that any contract obligations we agree to sets a precedent for all others,” Mr Kortze said. “But it’s important to remember that there are a lot of pieces to these contracts and the negotiations and salaries are just one of them.”

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said that in his assessment of salary increases within the white collar demographic, the increases may actually be slightly below the average.

“Without regard as to whether or not the overall salaries are appropriate, some national (compensation or annual increase) standards I’ve been tracking in the private and public sector are slightly higher,” Mr Rosenthal said.

The first selectman said that while he hasn’t awarded increases to town-wide nonunion employees yet, he expected those increases would, “be in the mid-threes,” and that most negotiated town union contracts, “are in the 3 to 3.5 percent range as well.”

Budget Year Closeout

During Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Bienkowski presented his year-end budget wrap-up to the Board of Education, detailing several key points including the aforementioned $9,006 in unanticipated fund balances, which by charter, must be returned to the town. His report included all known expenditures and encumbrances representing financial obligations for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

His report noted in two areas that all figures were unaudited, and subject to change.

The report reflects an encumbered balance of $55,300 to complete most of the district’s scheduled building and site improvements, and that $32,000 of project money was “redirect(ed) to cover other board liabilities.” Those specific liabilities were not detailed in the report summary or in Mr Bienkowski’s comments.

Board member David Nanavaty asked that by the next Board of Education meeting, the district prepare a list of all projects that were promised to taxpayers during the budget process, but were not completed with funds from the last fiscal year.

The report indicated that staff and program development services were scaled back by $12,000 in response to June expenses, and an undisclosed “amount of money was encumbered in the Educational Assistants account to cover the potential need for retroactive salary adjustments upon conclusion of arbitration,” the report stated.

In another line, Mr Bienkowski reported that $43,000 from the Professional Services budget was disbursed to compensate for legal advice tied to that and other arbitration, termination, due process, and related legal matters. He stated that an additional $13,000 was held back in Professional Education Services line to help with legal expenses.

In other budget highlights, Mr Bienkowski detailed that $22,914 was expended in June to cover a 33.5 percent increase in electricity bills resulting from “very hot weather,” and that any remaining funds in the fuel oil account were expended to cover electricity overruns as well as natural gas overages of $16,500.

As discussion on the year-end figures concluded, board member Paul Mangiafico commented on the $1.4 million in salary encumbrances carried past the budget close out and into the summer months. Mr Bienkowski said that the salary encumbrances were provided to a segment of the teaching staff who elected to receive 26 paychecks over a 12 month period instead of 22 checks issued until the end of the fiscal year.

Both Mr Rodgers and Mr Kortze said they believed this practice was common and extended as a courtesy to certain staff members requesting it.

“As the son of a teacher, I can verify that this practice is not only financially necessary for some, but also a good recruitment and retention tool compared to districts that do not offer it,” Mr Rodgers said.