With parents lining the walls and spilling out into the hallway from the media room in the basement of City Hall, school Superintendent Stephen Tracy broke the bad news to the Derby tax board Tuesday.
“We’re going to present facts tonight that are uncomfortable — and we are going to ask you to increase taxes,” Tracy said.
How much?
$275 per year — or $23 per month on a property assessed at $189,000, Tracy said. That number doesn’t include the city side of the budget, which is just being formed.
Whether the tax board will view that as reasonable remains to be seen, but Tracy had their full attention as he walked them through a 30-minute presentation detailing why the school district is asking the tax board to allocate $19 million — a 7.25 percent increase, or $1.28 million, over the current budget.
Much of what Tracy said has been covered previously by the Valley Indy.
Click here to read everything we’ve published so far on the proposed school budget.
The reasons Tracy gave for the increase in spending are listed at the end of this article.
A copy of the superintendent’s presentation is posted below. The article continues after the document:
FY2012 BoAT Presentation SHORT 2011-03-29
Tax board members asked questions about certain items in the proposed school budget, but none of the inquiries revealed what they thought of the spending plan one way or the other.
The latest version of the school budget calls for the elimination of four positions from the school district.
Tax board member Timothy Conlon asked Tracy whether those layoffs were real. Click play on the video below to see the question and response.
Tax board chairwoman Judy Szewczyk said last year her board would have loved to fully fund the school district’s funding request.
A question Derby has to ask — how long can a struggling, tiny city continue to fund an additional $1 million to the school district each year?
Click play on the video below to hear Szewczyk’s comment. Article continues after the video.
Tracy said the school board has formed a strategic planning committee. A subcommittee of that group will be examining ways to cut costs in the school district. The subcommittee just held their first meeting and are exploring things such as whether to close Derby High School or consolidate the Bradley and Irving schools. Click here to learn more about that subcommittee.
Click the video below to listen to Tracy talk about the long range planning underway in the school district.
The many parents who attended the meeting did not get a chance to voice their opinion on the school budget.
The tax board meeting was considered a workshop, one in which the board did not offer public comment.
The tax board and school officials will meet again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday April 19 in City Hall to presumably pepper Tracy with questions.
The meeting is open to anyone who wants to attend, but public comment is not expected to be offered at that meeting, either.
A public hearing on the entire Derby budget is tentatively scheduled for May 10.
The increase:
Tracy said about 77 percent of the proposed $1.28 million spending increase are due to factors the school district has little to no control over, including:
- $191,000 in wage increases for teachers
- $344,000 in benefit premium increases
- $186,000 increase in energy costs
- $147,000 in unemployment costs
- $22,000 in transportation
- $21,000 in special education tuition
- $50,000 for substitute teachers
- $33,000 to expand a special education position mandated by enrollment
Tracy and the school board are also asking for:
- $40,000 for curriculum development
- $40,000 for teacher training
- $30,000 for a reading program to bolster Derby’s below average test scores
- $20,000 for an online learning program that could help the dropout rate at the high school
- $31,000 to improve the technology infrastructure
- $50,000 to begin to address problems pointed out in a recent Derby High School study
