School Board Sticks to Its Budget

The Board of Education will fight to defend the budget figure for 2010-11 that they approved as a board in February rather than support the lower recommendation made by the Board of Selectmen when the finance board begins budget deliberations next week.

At a March 3 meeting, the Board of Selectmen recommended cutting about $489,500 be cut from the school budget—this charter-mandated recommendation is nonbinding—decreasing the school board-approved propsosal of $78.35 million, down to $77.82 million.

The possible reduction included the $294,434 the schools are slated to be reimbursed by some federal stimulus monies, a $40,000 fuel reduction contingent on building a gas main that connects to Veterans Park and East Ridge Middle School and a $195,000 in operating budget cuts.

But at the school board meeting on Monday night, members disagreed with the cuts, which would potentially eliminate a literacy resource teacher position and would spur a need to look for more places to pare funding in a budget year when they hope to bring full-day kindergarten to the district.

"We have to assume that the people on the Board of Finance are not going to be punitive just because we don't agree with what Rudy and the gang did," school board member Irene Burgess said, referring to First Selectman Rudy Marconi and the selectmen.

School board chairman Austin Drukker told fellow members that the Board of Education does not need to make decisions incorporating the recommended decrease into their budget and that they will present their approved budget to the finance board at the two public hearings coming up.