East Granby School Board Approves 5.3% Spending Increase

The East Granby Board of Education Monday evening unanimously approved an operating budget for the 2012-13 school year that calls for a 5.3 percent increase, or $720,988, over current year’s spending.

But with the Board of Finance last week requesting that the school board and town cap their budget increases at 2.5 percent, the debate over the budget has only just begun, as school board Chairman Kirby Huget noted prior to the vote.

“I’m prepared to support this budget, but it does not relieve the board’s obligation to reach the 2.5 percent increase,” Huget said. “This board’s work is just beginning.”

Huget said that the board would have to continue to “crunch the numbers” to show the finance board what exactly a 2.5 percent spending increase would look like.

Superintendent of Schools Christine Mahoney initially requested a 5.7 percent spending increase, which was pared down to 5.3 percent after insurance premiums were readjusted. Mahoney said that the proposed $14.31 million budget contained no new spending initiatives and would be “used to fund basic programs.”

“Everything we do with this budget is basic programming,” Mahoney said.

School administrators, for their parts, turned out en masse to support Mahoney’s proposed budget.

“All of the administrators are supporting the proposal and wanted to say how concerned they are at the building level,” East Granby Middle School Principal Tom Russo said. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it.”

Russo said that the cuts made in recent years have been “invisible” to the children. But any further cuts to the budget - if it is reduced further from 5.3 percent - will result in a greater impact on the students.

“There’s no room left,” he said. “It’s not going to be invisible any more.”