About 100 people showed up to a public hearing on Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti’s budget proposal Tuesday, and the vast majority of those who spoke asked Aldermen to give the school district more money than the mayor had proposed.
Board of Aldermen President John Anglace angered many in attendance toward the end of the meeting after he asked a high school student recalling his experiences inside the city’s schools to “focus on commenting on the budget.”
The student had been talking for about 4 minutes about how he was put in special education classes within the school system, and how he hard to work harder than most to learn information. He credited Shelton teachers.
“You can tell us your life story on Thursday when we have a Board of Aldermen meeting,” Anglace told the student, Zak Shilleh. “There’s a public portion at the beginning, you’re welcome to come back and tell us anything you want.”
“That’s kind of unfair to me,” Shilleh responded before calmly finishing his remarks, agreeing with an audience member who pointed out a prior speaker had gone on for nearly 15 minutes.
The exchange can be viewed in the video at the top of this story, along with a reaction from a Shelton resident. The video was also posted to Facebook, where it received more than 2,700 views overnight. Reaction has been swift.
The back-and-forth didn’t sit well. After Anglace adjourned the meeting quickly, residents Michele Bialek and Lisbeth Olsen Condo chided him for interrupting the student.
People who were there echoed those sentiments in Facebook posts afterward as well.
The interchange capped a two-hour public hearing during which Shelton schools were the dominant topic already, and not because of the recent prom dress controversy, which was mentioned in passing by one person.
Aldermen allocated $67,845,000 to the school district for 2014 – 2015.
This year, the school board requested $72,050,033 for 2015 – 2016.
In March, Lauretti proposed $69,345,000, or $2,705,033 less than requested.
Click here to read more about Lauretti’s proposal and see a video of his budget remarks in their entirety (note — Shelton microphones don’t amplify the speakers’ voices).
The mayor said a $1.5 million increase should be enough.
School officials have said otherwise.
Click here, here, and here to watch videos of the school board giving a budget presentation to the tax board in April.
The Aldermen have until May 31 to adopt a spending plan for 2015 – 2016.
They have scheduled budget workshops for May 19, May 21, and May 28 at 7 p.m. in the City Hall auditorium.
Note: The Valley Indy will be uploading more videos from the public hearing over the next two days.
