School Bd. Reviews Budget Cuts,

Hires An Assistant Principal

By Eliza Hallabeck

Members of the public waited in the hallway outside of Reed Intermediate School’s library as the Board of Education interviewed a candidate for a new assistant principal position at Newtown High School on Tuesday, May 26. During the meeting, the school board also discussed the school district’s budget and its five-year capital improvement plan.

After returning to public session, the doors of the library were opened for the public, and the school board unanimously voted to hire Jaime Rivera as the new assistant principal at NHS. Mr Rivera will start work on July 30.

“I think [Mr Rivera] brings a lot to the table,” said board member Anna Wiedemann. “He has a wonderful disposition about him. He has a handle on understanding high school students. He’s got a great background with technology. He’s done a lot of other things prior to coming teaching. I think he is a well-rounded individual. I’d like to welcome him to our school.”

Although by the end of the meeting the school board postponed decisions on the school district’s budget and on its five-year capital improvement plan, both were discussed during the meeting. The capital improvement plan will be presented to the Board of Finance in August, according to Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson during the board meeting.

 Board of Education Chair Elaine McClure said as of Tuesday afternoon numbers in the budget had changed.

Dr Robinson said finding the exact costs for transportation in the district has been the primary topic having an effect on the outcome for the budget. 

“Next year’s routes don’t mirror this year’s exactly,” said Dr Robinson, “and now we have the new rates.”

Dr Robinson then gave a brief history of the budget. In January, the total budget presented to Dr Robinson from administrators in the school districted reflected $71,285,331, or a 7.96 percent increase. The superintendent’s proposed budget cut that to a 2.73 percent increase over last year’s budget. And the budget continued through the Board of Ed, the Board of Finance, the Legislative Council and a referendum. Now the total approved budget is $66,314,928, or a 0.20 percent increase from last year’s budget. No specific cuts from the budget have been decided upon.

Dr Robinson asked the board not to make a decision on Tuesday, because exactly what will be eliminated from the budget is still being worked out.

Savings in the budget now, as presented by Dr Robinson at the meeting, came from many areas, including union concessions and health rate savings. Almost everyone in the school district, Dr Robinson said, has had some kind of cut.

“That total comes to $998,486, which exceeds what we were looking for in terms of cuts of $866,667 by $131,819. So we were being zealous in terms of our cuts, and in the meantime things were going on that gave us some savings too. So at this time we have overcut by $131,000.”

During her Superintendent’s Report, Dr Robinson told the board 1,191 teacher positions have been eliminated in the state due to budget cuts.

“Every time savings came through,” Dr Robinson told the board, “that equated to a teacher.”

In total, six teaching positions will be eliminated in the budget, according to Dr Robinson.

“Our retirements have really been at the high school,” she said, adding the teaching positions to be cut are proposed for the kindergarten through sixth grade levels.

As of now, after school programs at Reed Intermediate School and the middle school are back in the budget.

One area of the budget discussed was the athletic trainer at the high school. Now the position is provided by an outside company and paid for by the school district. Requested in the budget, the athletic trainer position would be paid for completely by the town to maintain the position and held by the same current trainer.

During public participation, multiple people spoke in favor of bringing the current athletic trainer at the high school to work for the district instead of an outside company, and, therefore, clearly establishing the position at the school.

The capital improvement plan now facing the board as a draft moves the purchase of property next to Hawley Elementary School, at 27 Church Hill Road, into the first year of the plan. Roofs at the middle school were also moved to the first year in the draft.

No decision was made on the capital improvement plan, because project costs have yet to be specified.

In other business, the Board of Education learned Business Director Ronald Bienkowski will be taking a medical leave, and Diane Raymo will be filling his position temporarily.