Vernon Superintendent: Librarians Odd Positions Out In Budget Crunch

VERNON, CT — Though he said it pained him to cut librarians from the school system budget proposal for the 2023-24 fiscal year, Vernon Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary said it came down to "simplistically" balancing finances and academic needs.

Macary offered a detailed budget explanation to Patch Tuesday in the wake of the Vernon Board of Education approving a $58 million spending plan for the next fiscal year on Feb. 6.

The increase over this year's budget is proposed at 4.47 percent and the bottom line of $58,267,876 represents a reduction of $25,174 from what Macary submitted to the school board. Macary said that "a lot of the drivers were big ticket items" that led to a dollar increase of $2,492,397 and added, "Certain drivers didn't allow us make any changes."

He cited:

• $188,000 that was a contractual increase in year 2 of a busing contract
• A contingency of $288,000 needed to sustain expenses for four collective bargaining agreements that have not yet been resolved
• Contractual obligations that total $621,000 (a 1.8 percent raise)
• Employee benefit obligations that total $679,696 more

Macary said it led to "forced" staff reductions that include seven teachers, five paraprofessionals, three librarians, a school climate specialist, a health aide, and a "a non-affiliated employee."

Macary thinks a teacher and paraprofessional can be put back, but that created a hot-button issue with some residents who asked that the librarians be put back. One was Pegi Deitz Shea, a children's book author and Vernon's Inaugural Poet Laureate, who said a key to her career was, "the guidance of perceptive and caring school librarians."

Macary said it wasn't so easy in a climate of tight budgetary constraints. He said the demand for the same amount of library time would be met under a shared services schedule that gave Northeast School a librarian on Mondays and Tuesdays and Skinner Road School one on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Lake Street and Maple Street schools would also be able to share a librarian and Vernon Center Middle School would still have one librarian, he said. Center Road School, the biggest elementary school in town with 24 active classrooms, would still have its own librarian, Macary said.

"It was kind of simplistic," Macary said. "From a student perceptive, every child is still getting 30 minutes of library time each week. It would be hard for me to look at myself in the mirror and and cut, say, a math interventionist over a librarian we don't need. The students' needs will still be met."

The school system budget is now in the hands of the Mayor and eventually the Vernon Town Council.