Rocky Hill Board of Ed Adopts Budget

The Board of Education on Thursday approved a motion to adopt the 2012-13 superintendent’s budget of $30,353,935, which represents a 3.54 percent increase from this year's budget. 

Republican Chris Buckbee was the only board member at who voted against the budget. He has previously said he would have supported the original budget presented by because it included a smaller spending increase.

was $30,192,498, which represented a 2.99 percent increase from the current year's budget.

However, at their , the board added three items to Villar's budget plan, which boosted the proposed spending by $161,437.

A third-grade teacher at  was originally eliminated in Villar's proposed budget, however the board believed the position should be kept.

The board also made the proposed math supervisor, whose main function would be to develop curriculum, into a full-year position. Villar originally budgeted for a math supervisor, which was cut from last year's budget, for only half of the year.

The board added $40,000 to the budget for SMART Boards that would be placed in mostly second-grade classrooms. SMART Boards are digital whiteboards that can allow teachers to manipulate the information on the screen by touch, project video and be used with tablets. The original proposed budget already had allocated $15,000 for the SMART Boards to be added to the third-grade classrooms.

There was no discussion on the budget before it was approved by the board at Thursday’s meeting. 

The Town Council still has to approve the town budget. They can reduce the amount of money that the board has to work with, but the council cannot tell the board which line items to cut. 

High School Calendar

On Dec. 22, the Rocky Hill High School had to be closed because high winds caused the building to lose power. On Thursday, the board voted to extend the calendar year for the high school until June 19, which will be the final day of classes and graduation.

Superintendent’s Speech

publicly addressed the Board of Education and Rocky Hill residents for the first time Thursday night.

Winzler, who has been officially on the job since Feb. 1, discussed how he visited all the schools on his first day and met with every administrator, teacher and staff member.

“I thought it was important for staff to associate a face with a name,” he said.

Winzler has been invited back to some of the schools. He has already attended an assembly at and will be viewing the technology education classes at .

“That way I can get a true feel for the Rocky Hill School system,” he said. “I know how to be a superintendent, but I do not know Rocky Hill. I need to mesh those things.”

Winzler, who has worked on two high school building projects in the past, has also attended faculty meetings, the budget workshops and the . However, he has focused most of his time working on the .

Winzler said he wants to communicate as much with administration, staff, parents and community as much as possible.

“I am going to try to be as visible and as accessible as possible,” he said.

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