Ansonia’s school board Friday (June 6) voted unanimously to eliminate two teaching positions and cut four secretarial positions and a library clerk’s job in 2014 – 2015.
The cuts happened because the Board of Education needed to close a roughly $980,000 difference between what the school district wanted and what the city’s tax board was able to allocate for the schools.
The tax board granted the schools a $900,000 increase, but school officials said the other $980,000 was needed to keep cuts at bay.
Though seven positions are being cut, it appears only one person — most likely a teacher — is actually losing his or her job. The other positions are being cut through attrition or shuffling staff.
Nevertheless, “it is a sad day when any position has to be cut,” Superintendent Carol Merlone said Monday (June 9).
“It’s my understanding that there will probably be only one job lost,” Board of Education President William Nimons said.
School administrators and school unions had been negotiating for several weeks to come up with a plan that closed the funding gap without large-scale layoffs. The discussions included reducing previously approved raises for teachers and secretaries, but the unions did not support the idea, school officials said.
During a school board meeting June 4, Bob Cerritelli, a field representative from the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut, noted the unions had previously sacrificed for greater good.
“Our last two contract negotiations, we gave a freeze in the first year of the contract. We gave furlough days in the past. If asked to make concessions to save fellow workers’ jobs, we’ve done that,” he said last week.
Ultimately the administrators agreed to give two unpaid furlough days to save money, a move approved by the school board Friday.
Cerritelli said Monday he hadn’t yet heard about the school board’s Friday afternoon budget shuffling.
“Obviously we’re pleased if they’re adding any positions,” he said, referring to earlier discussions when more secretarial/library clerk positions had been on the chopping block.
He said he couldn’t say more about the spending plan without knowing more specifics.
During the June 4 school board meeting, several teachers spoke against eliminating classroom support positions.
“We as teachers feel that there is no way possible to run a school efficiently with a dramatic reduction in secretaries and media specialists,” Nicole Dlugas, a third-grade teacher at Prendergast School, said before handing in a petition from teachers opposing the cuts.
“Our district is currently among the 30 lowest-performing districts in Connecticut,” said Sue Matican, a reading intervention teacher at Mead School. “These cuts can only hinder our students’ progress and our growth as a district.”
Board of Education president William Nimons responded by reading a statement saying the school board has directed administrators to limit hirings of non-classroom positions.
He also blamed a lack of state and federal funding for many of the financial problems faced by the school system.
“A lot of the comments and suggestions directed at us should be directed at the state of Connecticut,” Nimons said, claiming the state is short-changing the city and referencing a pending lawsuit several cities have filed against the state over education funding.
“If we had that money we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
