Town Council Member Defends School Board From 'Beat Down'

Most parents agree: It's been a tough year for the New Canaan Board of Education and school administration.

First it was Superstorm Sandy in October, which knocked out power to the schools for more than a week, resulting in the loss of six full school days.

Then there was the fierce debate over how to make up those lost days — as well as an additional three "snow days" incurred during the winter — with the board ultimately opting, much to the angst of some school parents, to shorten spring break.

Then there was the tragic school shooting in Newtown on Dec. 14, which sent the district scrambling to implement new school security measures.

That, in turn, led to yet another contentious debate over the hiring of five security guards for the elementary schools and middle school.

Meanwhile there was the "perfect storm" of factors predicating the substantial increase in the proposed 2013-2014 school budget — including negotiated wage increases for teachers and staff; a major hike in health insurance premiums; the implementation of the state's Common Core Standards, including staff training and a new methodology for evaluating teachers; and a host of capital projects needed to maintain school facilities; among other factors.

What's more the school administration used a new methodology to provide a much more detailed and "transparent" budget proposal, for the benefit of the Board of Finance and Town Council, only to find itself facing more scrutiny and criticism than in past years.

To top it all off, in March the Board of Finance imposed a cut of about $2.5 million to the proposed 2013-2014 school budget — a cut which one school board member said was the largest she's seen in more than 10 years.

"It really been a baptism by fire for [new Superintendent of Schools] Mary Kolek this year," said school parent Maria Weinberg during Wednesday's Town Council meeting. "With the new assistant superintendent; human resources [staff]; accounting staff; the new [budget] coding and recoding procedures; as well as the numerous snow storms and power outages, including Hurricane Sandy, it's been quite a year for our administrators... and the parents."

Weinberg was among about a half dozen or so school parents who urged the Council to refrain from making further cuts to what they called an "already very lean" school budget, currently representing an increase of about 3.75%.

During the meeting, Town Council member Tucker Murphy, who heads up the Council's Board of Education Subcommittee, expressed dismay over the deep cuts to the school budget — as well as the sometimes uncivil approach to budget negotiations.

"We asked for, and I believe we received, a detailed and fair review of the present [2012-2013] budget, as well as the proposed [2013-2014] budget before us tonight," Murphy said in a prepared statement. "I support this type of analysis. What I do not support is the manner in which this review was conducted."

Murphy said despite the Board of Education and school administration's effort to increase the level of reporting and analysis in the school budget, for the benefit of the Board of Finance and Town Council, both feel that "not only we have we not worked with them, we have worked against them."

"The New Canaan school administration is made up of the some of the finest and most respected professionals in the state," Murphy said, addressing her fellow Council members. "We hire these people to run our schools and teach our children — our most precious asset. But what do we do at the end of the day? We beat them down over and over again. To the point where relationships long in the making were destroyed — possibly forever."

"Trust and respect seem to be a thing of the past — and personal attacks were cast," she said of this year's budget process. "At the end of the day we ended up with a group of professionals and volunteers who were physically and emotionally exhausted."

Murphy said it was unfortunate that, instead of focusing on the job of educating the children, the school administration has been bogged down this year "responding to Freedom of Information requests and having felony charges hurled at them," among the other challenges.

Murphy was referring to allegations brought by resident Michael Nowacki that the Board of Education failed to properly disclose to the town and the state that it had unexpended grant money totaling nearly $4 million leftover at the end of the school year.

"Fact: Connecticut General Statute 10-222 requires school district's to annually supply costs for operations to the municipal authority," Nowacki said during the public hearing portion of Wednesday's meeting. "This action requires that account transfers may occur between budgeted items only. The New Canaan Public Schools and the BoE regularly ignore their fiduciary responsibilities in their oath of office to uphold the law of the state of Connecticut."

"Fact: Connecticut General Statute 10-224 and 10-227 requires regular annual reporting to the state Commissioner of Education on the use of federal and state grant money, receipts, income, expenditures and statistics by Sept. 1 of each year," Nowacki added. "The New Canaan Public Schools did not disclose this fiduciary responsibility of the statute, which requires them to declare to the State Commissioner of Education nearly $4 million in excess educational cost grants, which they did not declare..."

Nowacki said despite a "clear and unambiguous" request from Board of Finance member John Sheffield during the BoF's March 12 meeting for copies of the information required under Statute 10-227, "the Board of Education and the New Canaan Public Schools refused to deliver the report."

Nowacki said he went to the state Commissioner of Education, with the assistance of the Chief Counsel of the Freedom of Information Commission, and obtained a report for the Council "that clearly indicates that this board has been in substantial non-compliance with the Freedom of Information Act in the course of its duties."

"You should all know that on Monday, under Connecticut General Statute 53a-199 (6), I named 25 public officials in this town on a charge of larceny and defrauding the public," Nowacki said before quickly walking away from the podium.

The Council members did not respond Nowacki's statements.

Town Council member Roger Williams disagreed with Murphy's statement that the Board of Finance and Town Council failed to appreciate the amount of hard work the school board and administration put into the proposed school budget.

"With respect Tucker, I think it's been a good healthy budget debate this year," Williams said. "And I don't think many of the things you said in [the prepared statement] are accurate or relative to the working relationships we have."

"You know the subtle saying — it's like sausage and politics, you should never see either one being made — it's a hard job here on the Council," Williams told Murphy. "We are the ultimate guardians of the taxpayer's dollars... how we allocate them and how we spend them. That requires rolling up your sleeves and digging into the thing, and asking questions. I think it's been a healthy process."

Town Council Chairman Mark DeWaele said while he mostly agreed with Murphy's feelings about the matter, "we need to remember that [the budget process] a collective effort — at the end of the day, we're all townspeople — we're all in this together."

DeWaele said he agreed that the BoE and school administration have had an extraordinary number of distractions this year, and that they "need to be allowed to get back to the job of educating the children." He said he hoped that the bad feelings between the town bodies to which Murphy alluded "isn't something that's irreparable," and added that because this was a "transition year" on several different levels, the budget process should go more smoothly next year.

DeWaele reminded Murphy that while the Council's goal is to "provide the best education for the children," it has to be done "in the most cost efficient way."

"The taxpayer has to be remembered — they have to know that we've put in our homework and that we are being mindful of the dollars that they are trusting to us to spend in the best manner possible," he said, adding that it is a challenge that can sometimes put board members in "untenable" situations.