About 30 people were present in the Shelton City Hall auditorium April 26 when Board of Aldermen President John Anglace brought a public hearing on the budget to order and asked if anyone wanted to share their thoughts on the 2012 – 2013 spending plan.
No one raised a hand or moved to the podium.
After Anglace prodded those in attendance to share their thoughts — a recurring theme for the night; at one point he jokingly solicited the opinions of the four reporters present — Freeman Burr, the city’s superintendent of schools, got up to offer his thoughts on the school board’s $64,336,129 request.
The school budget was the most frequently discussed topic among the four people who spoke at the hearing.
That’s up more than 18 percent from the current rate, 18.57, but officials say most residential property owners would see their tax bills decrease because of a revaluation that dropped the city’s grand list by nearly $770 million.
Burr said the school board, when crafting the budget request it approved in December, was “very cognizant” the city would be undergoing a revaluation.
“We wanted to make sure that we could offset costs in the budget before we looked at any additional increases,” Burr said.
To that end, Burr said school officials identified $665,888 in accumulated sick leave that will come off the books next year, as well as $256,496 in savings from eight retirements.
That totals $922,384, but increases in so-called “fixed costs” — teacher, administrator, and non-certified salaries, health insurance, and student transportation — total $1,358,513, resulting a $436,129 “net rollover amount,” according to a handout Al Cameron, finance director for the school system, passed out to Aldermen at Thursday’s meeting.
Burr said the school board then identified $200,000 in new program requests for updating technology in the city’s schools, preparing for a 2015 state-mandated curriculum alignment, and reducing the pay-to-participate program.
Those numbers add up to the school board’s December request for $636,129 more in funding than last year — a total ask of $64,336,129, which would be a 1 percent increase in spending. Click here for more info.
Asked after the meeting whether he thought his plea will result in the schools getting more funding than the mayor proposed, Burr said he is sure the Aldermen will take a “responsible” look at the numbers.
“I don’t go into these with any preconceived notions or foregone conclusions,” the superintendent said. “We just want to maintain stability so we can continue to move forward.”
The next person to take the podium, Aspetuck Village resident Ron Pavluvcik, said that he thought the city is doing “pretty good,” but not great.
He pointed out that the three developers most involved with swelling the town’s grand list over the past two decades aren’t on the scene anymore: Robert Scinto is under house arrest after his release from federal prison, James Botti is still in federal prison, and Monty Blakeman died last year.
“So I don’t know what else is going to come along over the next few years to keep the ball rolling on economic development,” Pavluvcik said. “We really need to put together a frugal budget this year.”
He said he didn’t think the school system should get more funding than Lauretti proposed.
“Throwing money at the school system has not been the solution in prior years,” he said. “You need to hold the line and adopt the mayor’s budget you have in front of you.”
Arlene Liscinsky, the chair of the school board’s finance committee, disagreed.
“Teachers and administrators and schools and children need resources to move forward,” she told the Aldermen, noting that the school board “certainly” recognized economic realities.
“Our schools have done more with less,” she said, characterizing the school budget request not as “throwing dollars” at the school system, but “an investment in the future.”
Aldermen have until May 15 to pass a budget. The last of four budget workshops they have scheduled will be next Thursday (May 3), with tentative adoption of a spending plan for next year to occur at the board’s regular meeting May 10.
