Education Board Makes Budget Cuts Without Teacher Layoffs

The Board of Education will cut educational assistants, leave a couple of other positions open, delay maintenance projects, increase pay-for-play fees at the high school and find savings in electricity, health insurance, early retirement and other measures to meet its $67 million budget for next year.

Equally significant are some of the possible cost-saving measures the board chose not to do. It won't cut teacher positions, it won't institute a pay-for-play system for Newtown Middle and Reed Intermediate schools and it won't put off buying new computers for Reed.

The decisions made during Tuesday night's education board meeting was greeted by applause by a packed Board Room at the Municipal Center, with many teachers and school administrators in attendance.

Some board members were quick to say the decisions came at a cost, so as to dispel potential misperceptions, they said, about what the actions they took on Tuesday and what they had said months earlier.

"None of these choices have been easy," board member David Nanavaty said. "I don't want people to think our discussion with regards to teachers was a smokescreen because it's not."

Some board members had said months earlier that given the magnitude of the amount removed from the board's initially proposed budget – $2.3 million – cutting teachers was inevitable.

While they did not do that, board members eliminated about five educational assistants and left open two positions that had been planned but not yet filled – a technology specialist and bus driver. The board also delayed some maintenance projects, such as a floor replacement program, high school visitor bleachers, window replacement at Sandy Hook School and window repair of Newtown Middle School.

"We've been able to save the teachers that we were projecting that we were going to have to let go," Nanavaty said.

Board Chairman Lillian Bittman also said the $200,000 the Legislative Council put back into the education budget helped.

The board's action was the culmination of a long and controversial process that began with a budget proposal from Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson who had recommended some teacher cuts at the elementary school because of enrollment decreases.

After the board revised the budget request, the Board of Finance then recommended a further reduction of $2.5 million, a decision that was initially supported by the Legislative Council.

But then after two failed referendums and under pressure from education supporters, the council voted to add $200,000 back into the schools budget request. The budget became final on June 8 when the third referendum passed.

In addition to making cuts, the board was able to maneuver some spending to this fiscal year, which would then free up funds for next year. That recently emerged as an option after the school district projected it will end the fiscal year on June 30 with about $307,000 in "surplus."

While the school district had planned to spend $90,000 to pave the driveway at the Newtown Middle School because it is in disrepair, education board member Bill Hart and others said that project should be delayed for at least another year.

Those board members said instead, the district should purchase new computers for Reed School immediately. The computers at Reed are on a schedule to be replaced once every seven years, which Hart and others said they did not want to elongate further.

By moving up the $213,300 purchase, the board then would be able to spend that money for other purposes in 2010-11.

Even after doing that, about $90,000 in surplus would be left in the 2009-10 budget, which Hart and others said should be returned to the town as a "good faith" gesture.

"Sending something back to the town is a symbolic gesture we can make," he said.

Nanavaty also proposed that if the district was able to identify even more of a surplus, Robinson should have the discretion to spend the money to buy Smart boards for the middle school and other technology for the high school.

That would mean the district would still return to the town about $90,000 to $100,000 in surplus, but any more and Robinson could spend up to that amount or $75,500 – whichever is less – on the technology products.

Board members approved that proposal with Kathy Fetchick dissenting.

In other matters, the board also approved adding an early release day to every month in the upcoming school year to allow teachers to participate in professional development as part of a "professional learning communities" program. That would mean the addition of 10 early release days across the school year, and allow teachers to regularly participate in professional development.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article had an inaccurate version of the Board of Education worksheet. A corrected version has replaced it.