School Board Wrestles With Line Item Reductions

By Eliza Hallabeck

After debating multiple changes to the proposed superintendent’s 2010-2011 budget February 9, the Board of Education passed $69,415,876 for next school year’s budget, a roughly 4.8 percent change over last year’s spending package.

As presented by Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, the budget contained 19 proposed position cuts across the district, 17 of which are from the kindergarten through middle school levels, and the elimination of the director of transportation position. The budget also added four teaching positions at the high school, resulting in a net reduction of 11 positions.

After school programs at Reed Intermediate School and Newtown Middle School, except those that are self-supporting, were also proposed for elimination within the budget. As presented to the school board, the proposed superintendent’s budget reflected a 4.94 percent increase over last year, for a total of $69,600,105.

The motions to change the proposed superintendent’s budget began with board member William Hart, who was out of town but spoke with his colleagues on the board via phone link. He suggested a $200,000 cut from building and site improvements listed under the plant operation and maintenance budget, and $90,000 from the $429,000 total proposed budget for property and equipment. In the superintendent’s budget, the total for the projects listed under building and site improvements was $514,000. 

“Let’s let the professionals go do some really aggressive shopping and tradeoffs between all the various needs,” said Mr Hart, explaining the reason behind a bottom-line cut instead of going through the budget by item.

After board secretary Debbie Leidlein proposed a greater reduction to the property and equipment budget, Mr Hart recommended a compromise reduction of $115,000, which is what the board unanimously approved. The $200,000 building and site improvement cut also won unanimous approval.

The trend of cutting from the overall individual budget totals continued during the meeting. 

Dr Robinson reminded the school board before it looked into specific positions at the central office and at Newtown High School, that each time an employee is laid off, the unemployment costs also need to be factored in.

Mr Gaines proposed restoring the transportation director position to the budget, at a cost of roughly  $70,000, and to remove $100,000 from the superintendent’s staffing budget to be dealt with at her discretion. Mr Nanavaty seconded the motion.

While Ms Fetchick said the two secretaries in the transportation department, not affected by staff reductions in the proposed superintendent’s budget, could handle the work load without the director of transportation position being filled, Mr Nanavaty said he did not agree.

“I think we all agree on the $100,000 number, and that becomes a personnel decision for the superintendent,” said Mr Nanavaty.

Earlier in the meeting Mr Nanavaty pointed out that Newtown has an owner/operator system, individually contracted bus drivers, in town.

“I’m concerned about the fact that by eliminating the transportation director, you would essentially be putting additional job responsibilities on our superintendent and our business director,” he said.

The motion to restore the transportation director and remove $100,000 from the central office staffing salaries budget passed four to three, with Ms Fetchick, Ms Leidlein, and board member Christopher Lagana voting against it.

Later, Ms Fetchick moved to reduce the central office staff budget by an extra $40,000, but, after being seconded by Ms Leidlein, the vote failed five to two, with only Ms Fetchick and Ms Leidlein voting in favor of the additional cut.

The board then considered a proposal by Ms Fetchick to eliminate three of the four proposed teaching positions at the high school and one education assistant requested in the superintendent’s budget.

“We are still, at the high school, well below our teacher-to-student ratio target,” said Mr Hart. He said he supported NHS Principal Charles Dumais in requesting four teaching positions in favor of bringing class sizes down at the school. “And we have increased the requirement for them to do 22 credits to graduate. I would recommend against cutting those [three additional] teaching positions.”

He said he would be in favor of keeping two of the four proposed teaching positions at the school.

“Just to put this in an educational context,” Dr Robinson said to the board, “remember, this is a school that is on warning by [the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)]. We are going to be reviewed by NEASC in their next visitation. You cannot get ready for NEASC one year ahead of the visit; you have to start planning at least four years ahead. I have heard for two years since I have been in town that this used to be a Blue Ribbon school, and yet we just fail to put in enough people to do what we need to do at this school.”

Dr Robinson said adding two of the four proposed teaching positions to the school would be a start.

“The reality is,” said Dr Robinson, “our population has increased at the high school, and it has decreased at the lower levels.”

 Ms Fetchick said she remembers hearing last year that the high school had the students, had the teachers, and just needed the space.

“To add a teacher for a couple of years makes no sense,” said Ms Fetchick, after speaking to projected decreasing enrollment.

Ms Fetchick’s motion failed by four to two, with school board Chair Lillian Bittman, Mr Gaines, Mr Hart, and board member Christopher Lagana voting against it.

Mr Hart then proposed to remove two of the proposed four additional positions at the high school, and that motion passed five to two, with Ms Fetchick and Mr Nanavaty opposed.

A motion to add back one physical education teacher and one library clerk at Reed Intermediate School was made by Ms Fetchick and seconded by Ms Leidlein, and it passed unanimously. A motion to add back extracurricular activities at Reed, made by Ms Fetchick and seconded by Mr Nanavaty, also passed unanimously.

The Reed art teacher and the NMS art teacher positions were also restored to the budget by a four-to-three vote, with Ms Fetchick, Ms Leidlein, and Mr Lagana voting against the motion.

Rising Insurance Costs

Ms Fetchick also proposed a reduction to the budgeted amount of money to be spent on health care, citing the town’s 11 percent increase budgeted for health insurance. Earlier in the day, Dr Robinson said she spoke to the school board’s health insurance agent at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the board is still told to expect a 22 percent increase.

While Anthem notes that going to a self-funded health insurance could lower the cost to the school district to a 14 percent increase over last year, Mr Nanavaty said setting up a self-funded health insurance program is not a simple thing to do. The motion failed five to two, with Ms Fetchick and Ms Leidlein voting in favor.

Mr Nanavaty then moved to add back the NMS family science teacher into the budget for a cost of $53,868, with Ms Fetchick seconding for discussion.

“It is more than just home economics, it is actually a life learning program,” said Mr Nanavaty. “And as [NMS Principal Diane Sherlock] indicated tonight, it is part of her curriculum, it is part of her rotation. I think there might be other areas in the school that we can look at to cut, but I would hate to have us reduce this program.”

Ms Leidlein and Ms Fetchick both said they did not support funding the position. Some areas covered in the curriculum of the family and consumer science course, according to Ms Leidlein, are redundant with other curricula at the school.

Reminding the board that cutting the position of the family and consumer science teacher would be cutting the curriculum, Mr Gaines questioned micromanaging the school’s budget versus deciding on a dollar amount to reduce the NMS budget by, which would allow Ms Sherlock to decide what to cut.

“We have been given a lot of detail in the budget,” said Ms Fetchick, “and we are here to make the hard decisions. I think we are abdicating our responsibility if we do not pick specific positions.”

Mr Nanavaty, after deliberation with the school board, withdrew his first motion and moved to add $95,334 for staff adjustments at the middle school, with Mr Gaines seconding.

Other cuts proposed at NMS in the superintendent’s budget included an art teaching position, a world language teaching position, one education assistant, a library media associate, and coaching and activities salaries.

The vote passed five to two, with Ms Fetchick and Ms Leidlein opposing.

“What has frustrated me about this year’s budget process is my feeling is education is not driving these cuts,” Ms Bittman said. “The cuts are being driven by the cuts themselves.”

The evening’s final motion to change the superintendent’s budget was made by Ms Fetchick, who moved to eliminate the lead teacher position at Hawley School for a roughly $71,000 reduction. Ms Leidlein seconded the motion for the discussion.

After Hawley Principal Jo-Ann Peters spoke in favor of keeping the position, the vote failed six to one.

The 2010-2011 school budget is scheduled to go before the Board of Finance during its February 25 meeting at the Newtown Municipal Center.