The Seymour Board of Finance Wednesday cut $150,000 from the school budget request — after initially saying they wanted to send the same budget back to voters for a fourth time.
Residents will vote on a $30.39 million budget on June 14.
It’s still an increase of 2.02 percent over current spending, but school officials said it’s not enough to fund all programs and staffing levels.
The Board of Education will meet soon to talk about where it can cut from its budget proposal.
“I was surprised when at first they didn’t cut it at all,” Board of Education chairman Yashu Putorti said Thursday morning. “Because that was the way the board went, I didn’t think they would make a drastic cut this time.”
Putorti said it’s not clear yet where the schools can cut — although some people have suggested pay-to-participate in sports.
Voters have rejected three previous school budget proposals at referendums.
On Monday, the Seymour Board of Finance voted to send the same $30.5 million budget proposal that was rejected on May 30 back to referendum, saying the schools need the money.
But the move violated the town’s charter because they didn’t make any revisions to the proposal — if only by a dollar.
So the board held another meeting Wednesday night to make some revisions.
The result: They trimmed $150,000 from the proposal.
Board of Finance Chairman Trish Danka said she was pleasantly surprised at the change of heart. She had urged the board to make cuts at its first meeting Monday.
Danka said the board decided that if a revision of some kind had to be made, they should really look at what decrease would make sense.
“They decided it was one thing to draw the line in the sand,” Danka said. “But if a cut absolutely had to be made, they didn’t feel a token cut was fair.”
Danka proposed the $150,000 cut — saying it was “marketable to the public and palatable.”
First, at about 2 percent increase, the Board of Education budget is now roughly on par with what some people are seeing in cost-of-living raises.
Also, the $150,000 cut is roughly the salary of one administrator, Danka said. While the Board of Finance doesn’t agree with the notion that the schools are top heavy, and has no say over where the Board of Education makes its cuts, Danka said the number would be easier to sell to residents.
The vote was unanimous, Danka said. Two members were absent from the meeting.
“Every single one of us said it pained us to do it because we support the Board of Education budget this year 100 percent,” Danka said.
“But we do represent the majority. That’s our job,” she said.
If voters approve the school budget at referendum on June 14, the town’s new mill rate will be 32.83.
The current rate is 27.62 mills. However ‚the town underwent a revaluation.
Town officials have recalculated the current rate to 31.95 to allow residents to make a better comparison.
