Re-examining the Budget Debate

When members of the Republican Town Committee held a May 12 press conference to detail the ways the Board of Education could save $2.5 million from its budget request without teacher layoffs, some critics derailed the Republican figures as inflated and overly optimistic.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, who had budgeted teacher cuts earlier in the process for unrelated reasons, as well as some education board members continued to maintain that additional teacher layoffs were inevitable unless some of the $2.5 million was restored.

In the end, $200,000 was restored to the $67 million schools budget but the education board also determined there was another $300,000 in unspent money from the 2009-10 fiscal year that might help balance next year's budget.

, contrary to what Robinson and others had predicted earlier.

The end result proved they were right, Republicans said.

"Republicans laid out a plan that we believe took in all the factors," said John Kortze, the Board of Finance chairman who organized the May press conference. "We were right."

Kortze said that while the to the schools budget as a political "olive branch" to education supporters who threatened to vote down the referendum for a third time, many of the proposed savings presented during the May press conference, such as in self-insurance, came to be accepted eventually by Robinson and the entire education board.

That despite being initially labeled as misleading by critics, Republicans said.

"Our facts actually were dead-on," said Kathy Fetchick, an education board member who also was at the May press conference.

Robinson could not be reached for comment.

Board of Education chairman Lillian Bittman said the insurance numbers kept changing as officials and their consultants worked through the figures. Although the Republican figures were based on what consultants hired by the town were coming up with, the school district's consultant had different figures, she said.

"That was what our side was telling us," Bittman said. "It was very frustrating."

Fetchick and other Republicans said school district officials should have known better, and despite assurances from town officials on the validity of the insurance savings presented at the Republican press conference, school district officials continued to resist accepting the figures until a May 19 Legislative Council meeting.

Bill Hart, another education board member, said that grasping the intricacies of self-insurance and understanding the interplay between the town's and school district's responsibilities took time.

"At the time, that's what we thought the numbers were," he said. "I really honestly believe people didn't fully understand the complexity of self-insurance."

Mary Ann Jacob, a Republican Legislative Council member, said school officials should not have continued to insist that teacher layoffs were inevitable because it wrongly instilling fear in parents.

"Doing that gets to only one purpose and that is to rile people unnecessarily," she said.

Bittman said she maintains that teacher layoffs could have been a real possibility had the council not added money to the education budget.

"Had the $200,000 been not put back, I think we would be looking at teacher layoffs," she said.

Hart, said that while the school district may not have had to lay off teachers, it took some hits in deferring some school maintenance projects and increasing pay-for-play fees on families.

Officials also they did not know until a few weeks ago that the district would end the current fiscal year with more than a $300,000 in unspent money -- a portion of which will go to buy computers, and in turn free up money for the 2010-11 year. Had that money not freed up, the situation might have been different, Hart said.

"You just don't know that it's going to come through," he said of the surplus.

Additionally, officials said while the budget has been set, there is a possibility something unexpected might happen that would throw off all of their calculated savings -- for instance, if the state issues less grant money than expected.

But Kortze also maintains the budget contains additional savings, such as through the padding of unemployment compensation figures, he said, that would likely offset that risk.

"Is it fair to say there's risk involved? I would say sure," Kortze said. "It is extremely smaller than what was purported and it is infinitely more manageable."

Kortze, Fetchick and Jacobs, who gave a joint interview, said they want to see future budget debates improved.

"It can't always be the sky is falling," Fetchick said.

Bittman also said the controversy surrounding the budget was counterproductive, and created a lot of fear, particularly among teachers and staff who wondered whether their jobs were in jeopardy.

"It's very frustrating to me," she said. "I don't want our teachers and staff upset."

Editor's note: Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson returned messages seeking comment after this story was published on Tuesday. Her comments were reported in the story found at this link.