Seymour’s Board of Finance cut $35,000 from the school budget proposal that failed at last week’s referendum in the hope that voters will approve the modest cut at a June 6 vote.
The new school budget proposal totals $30,942,984, an increase over current spending of roughly 1.8 percent.
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Numbers
Residents defeated the $30,977,984 school budget proposal 827 to 727 at the referendum May 23.
They approved a $22,045,915 town budget by a vote of 806 to 752.
If voters approve the school budget June 6, the town’s mill rate for 2013 – 2014 will be set at 33.23, a 1.2 percent increase over the current 32.83-mill tax rate.
That means a person with a house assessed at $230,000 would pay $7,642.90 in property taxes next year, an increase of $92 over their current tax bill of $7,550.90.
Discussion
The vote June 6 will be the third attempt to get a school budget passed in Seymour.
Several finance board members said they went into Tuesday night’s meeting with a larger cut to the school budget proposal in mind.
“I was coming in with $50,000, and it’s not because I want to cut $50,000,” Trish Danka, the chairman of the finance board, said. “I do not want the next referendum to fail.”
But after school officials told them that they needed about $45,000 more to maintain the district’s current level of services than they anticipated when they first passed a budget proposal in January, the finance board settled on the $35,000 figure.
“I don’t think it’s a crippler, but I don’t think it’s egregious, either,” finance board member Bill Sawicki said.
Click the play button on the video above to see Sawicki and Danka discussing the budget proposal.
The $45,000 in increased costs outlined by school officials breaks down as follows:
- About $26,000 in tuition for students “outplaced” to schools outside Seymour,
- About $6,600 more in school bus fuel costs
- $12,750 for property and liability insurance at Chatfield-LoPresti School.
Board of Education Vice Chairman Fred Stanek said the school board learned of the increased costs last week.
In asking finance board members not to cut too much from their proposal, Schools Superintendent Christine Syriac said the school board presented a “conservative” budget request in January.
And, she said, further cuts wouldn’t necessarily just mean rolling back the board’s planned new initiatives, which totaled about $200,000, and included new teaching positions at the middle school and buying another school bus.
“It’s not as simple as not implementing the new positions and the new school bus that the board has requested,” Syriac said. “Seymour Middle School has class sizes that are too high, and when I have this discussion with the Board of Education, I will be advocating that we keep those new positions in, and what that means is that existing items in our budget will need to be cut.”
Article continues after video of Syriac’s remarks.
“I agree that we should be held accountable for our use of the taxpayers money, “ Syriac added, saying that the funding increase the school board got last year allowed officials to preserve full-day kindergarten.
As a result, she said, 85 percent of students entering first grade were reading at grade level this year, up from 60 percent last year.
“I respectfully request that you consider a modest reduction in the Board of Education budget,” Syriac said.
Stanek called the current budget proposal a “very reasonable amount” and also asked for a “modest” cut.
“We can move forward,” he said. “To cut us substantially will really hurt our continued programming.”
Stanek went on to say that though people have told him they think the schools are “top-heavy” and have too many administrators, the Board of Education listened to the same criticism during last year’s budget process — and acted on it.
“We cut an administrator during this school year,” Stanek said. “In terms of our present administrative staff, I think we’re where we should be. We have downsized over the past several years as Oxford left us and we’re where we should be.
“Would we like more? Yes,” Stanek went on. “Would all of us like to have a new car? Yes, but we realize we have to be reasonable, too.”
First Selectman Kurt Miller did not attend Tuesday’s meeting but sent a letter to the finance board recommending a cut of between $25,000 and $50,000 that would “allow the Board of Education to move forward with some of their new initiatives, but at the same time, will take into account the will of those who voted.”
Miller also noted that because of changes approved last November to the town’s charter, if a budget is not adopted by June 15, the town will have to send out tax bills based on last year’s tax rate, then send another bill to residents once the budget is finalized.
