Darien School Board Approves $2.4M In Cuts, Including Staff Reductions

DARIEN, CT — This week, the Darien Board of Education approved $2.4 million in cuts and added revenue to bring the school district's spending plan in line with the town's figure of $119.8 million, and included are several staffing cuts.

The administration had been looking for ways to realize savings in recent weeks. Ideas floated by Superintendent of Darien Public Schools Dr. Alan Addley included eliminating paraprofessional positions and instituting pay-for-play athletic participation fees, but those were ultimately avoided.

However, a Middlesex Middle School Spanish teacher, middle school math teacher, an elementary school art teacher and an elementary school music teacher, along with a high school campus monitor, were part of the cuts approved during the BOE's regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was broadcast via Darien TV79 and is available to watch on demand here.

Addley ran through several recommendations to get to a $2.4 million reduction.

Of note, aside from the staffing cuts, Addley recommended restructuring equipment replacement schedules at Darien High School and for the administration.

With paraprofessionals restored, Addley recommended reducing the number of proposed building substitutes by three at Hindley, Holmes and Tokeneke.

Since April, seven teacher retirements have allowed the district to move 28 teachers at MMS to teach five sections across social studies, science, Englsh and physical education, resulting in a savings of $943,219.

Addley also recommended moving state fingerprinting, background checks, and groundskeeping to in-house.

Added revenues will come through increasing the price of a basic school meal by 50 cents, resulting in an extra $200,000.

Additionally, earlier this month, the BOE approved moving ahead with the expansion of athletic field advertising at DHS in conjunction with the Blue Wave Booster Club, which is anticipated to generate $25,000.

While some BOE members voiced concerns about the proposal and the budget process as a whole, the package of cuts was unanimously approved.

Board member Kadi Lublin expressed disappointment about the budget process, and said she wanted to run through the proposed cuts line by line.

"We do not approve up and down budgets without discussing things line by line," she said.

Lublin tried to reinstate the four middle school and "specials" teachers while removing two additional assistant principals at DHS and MMS, but her proposal did not receive support.

"There are things in this proposal I do not support, but I think this is the best of the worst," said BOE member Sara Parent. "This has not been an easy process. It is a process I do not believe the board of education should be put into. I do not believe that the town cannot afford our original budget, but we are forced into this position and I will be voting for things I do not want to vote for."

Fellow member John Sini said "it's a given" that members were voting for elements of a reduction they did not fully support.

"I think we should reflect as a board at how we conducted our own budget process so we don't wind up in this situation again in the future," he said.

Board Chair Jill McCammon thanked the administration "for their hard work finding material operational savings, all the while focusing on minimizing the impact to student experience."

"Going forward, I recommend we as a board hold on to two truths; one, that we can and will deliver academic excellence that serves the whole child and meets the needs of all our learners," she said. "And two, that we must work to do so with the greatest efficiency for the taxpayer. We as a board need to hold ourselves and school management to both truths every day. As we do this, we need to expect our partners to walk the walk with us. We have work to do to prepare for next year."