Robinson: 'I Said What I Believed at the Time'

Facing criticism that she unnecessarily sounded the bell on teacher layoffs early in the budget process, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said she has no regrets.

"I said what I believed at the time," she said. "Things change, and fortunately they did."

Another tumultuous budget season ended in Newtown with officials and residents critiquing what happened, criticizing some of the tactics used in the debate and wondering how things could be improved in the future.

A group of Republicans who in May held a press conference to say that the school district could make budget cuts without any additional staff reductions said that the outcome showed their assessment of the situation was accurate. The Republicans criticized Robinson and others for early on declaring the need for teacher layoffs in order to meet budget numbers, saying that the message unnecessarily instilled fear in parents and teachers.

But Robinson said that at the time, she had already proposed teacher and staff layoffs, including two people in the district offices, and was faced with a massive budget gap that she didn't know how she was going to bridge.

"At that point, I didn't know how the heck I was going to get $2.5 million," she said, referring to the amount the Board of Finance recommended, and later the Legislative Council voted to remove from the education request.

Robinson and some other education board members said removing the amount would surely lead to more teacher layoffs and lobbied for more money. After two failed referendums, the council reversed course and to the $67 million schools package.

While the restored amount was relatively small, education officials were able to find savings in other areas, such as in insurance, and later approved a budget that deferred some building maintenance, eliminated about five educational assistants and increased pay-for-play fees but did not layoff any full-time teachers. Officials said the passage of time became an ally, allowing them to find savings that could be used to bridge the budget gap.

However, some of the Republicans who held the press conference in May said they had identified many of the savings early on, such as the approximately $800,000 in insurance, and criticized Robinson and others for not recognizing the magnitude of the savings until later. The town and school district had agreed to establish a self-funded insurance program that would over the long term save the town money.

Robinson, in her blog, put the insurance savings at only about $500,000 but then during a May 19 Legislative Council meeting finally relented to the higher figure. Robinson said that she is legally bound to fully fund insurance, and that based on her conversation with the district's consultant, she wasn't comfortable placing the savings at $800,000.

"This figure that the town was giving us, especially going into self-funding, I couldn't accept," she said. "Who's gong to have my back when that's underfunded?"

Robinson said she finally relented after realizing the meeting was being recorded and the meeting minutes would reflect that the town would guarantee to cover any overruns should the insurance program be underfunded.

"There's a risk there," she said.

Robinson said she understood she would face criticism after saying that there would be large number of staff layoffs in the aftermath of the $2.5 million cut and then eventually finding a way to keep layoffs to a minimum.

At the same time, she said the district did have to layoff some teachers and staff -- though those were done prior to the finance board's recommended $2.5 million cut -- and will lose some educational assistants, risk deferring building maintenance and significantly increase pay-for-play fees to families in order to meet the 2010-11 budget.

Robinson said she is concerned about future years.

"How many years do you think I can do that?" she asked. "I just don't know how many rabbits are going to be pulled out of a hat."