The town’s education budget will go to a historic fourth referendum on June 10 after voters rejected a zero-increase spending plan by 129 votes Tuesday.
The $29.1 million schools proposal failed to pass with a final vote of 845-974.
The $20.25 million town budget passed 1015-802.
Trouble
Now, the finance and school boards are left in a bind: voters’ rejection of the school budget could mean they want more cuts, but state statutes prohibit the board from reducing the school budget below its $29.1 million level without facing the removal of state education funding.
The state requires that school budgets not be any lower than the year before, and takes away money at a two-to-one ratio.
If the finance board cuts $100,000 from the school board budget, the state will remove an additional $200,000 in state special education funding as a penalty.
Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo called the rejection of the zero-increase school budget “fiscally irresponsible.”
School board member Jeanne Loda said this was the worst she had seen the budget situation in her years on the board.
“It’s just such an irrational reaction,” she said. “How far below zero can you go? It’s going to affect the whole system.”
Both Mascolo and Finance Board Chairman Mark Thompson declined to say what will happen with the school budget from here.
Cuts and Consessions
After the second vote May 11, the education proposal was trimmed down by $690,000, to a zero percent increase.
Now, the finance board must meet within five days to discuss a new budget proposal for the schools.
On June 10, voters will go to the polls again to vote on a fourth school budget.
No further cuts will come from the town side of the budget after voters approved it Tuesday.
First Selectman Paul Roy said he was glad to see voters respond to the concessions offered by all town employees, who took week-long furloughs, wage freezes, or both.
“It seems to be what the townspeople were looking for,” he said, thanking employees and unions for concessions.
The total proposal is for $49.4 million, which meant a 0.98-mill, or 3 percent tax increase.
It would cost the owner of property assessed at $150,000 an additional $147 in taxes.
Turnout
The turnout of 1,819 voters at Tuesday’s budget referendum was more than then 1,794 that turned out at the first referendum, which is surprising, said moderator Lucy McConologue, as turnout usually declines with each successive vote.
But then again, budget votes usually don’t go to a third referendum – McConologue said only the schools had previously gone to a third referendum.
The education vote was closer Tuesday than at the second referendum, May 11, when voters rejected the school budget 649 to 1056.
What’s Next?
The town must have both budgets approved by June 15, per the charter.
The town budget will go into effect then, but if the school budget is not approved by then, the town will begin using the most recently rejected budget.
Tax bills will be sent out soon after that, based on whatever budgets are in effect.
Votes will continue through the summer until a final school budget is approved, then the final tax bills will be sent out based on the total budget.
Sending out a round of tax bills costs about $20,000, while each referendum costs between $3,000 and $4,000, Roy said.
Seems to me that the voters are sending a very LOUD and CLEAR message to administration…clean up your act, you’ll get the votes you need. The days of the “poor children will miss out” are over — you cried wolf too many times. We are not dumb, we are actually bright, intelligent, hard working citizens who have had enough of your smoke and mirrors. Someone from the top needs to go — then you will see that you will get the support you need. The time — is — NOW!
Seymour Mom,
My heart aches for the children of Seymour. YOU have now made them a pawn. Do you think voting NO over and OVER again will take away from the Administrator’s pay? They have a contract. It is done. If you don’t like that then show up during their renewal and fight it. You are only hurting the children who will lose out on smaller class sizes, new programs, etc.. You are hurting them. You are not hurting the people you point the finger out. So so so sad.
This has nothing to do with the school children and everything to do with the school administration. The USA is in a recession and financial indicators are leaning towards a double dip recession. There are budget cuts everywhere and in every sector. Companies are leaving CT, closing, freezing pay, conducting salary cuts or laying off employees. There should be no exception for Seymour. Also, other valley towns are cutting budgets, so Seymour can take a lesson from them (i.e. the City of Shelton. Shelton has a business tax base to lessen the burden on the taxpayer, unlike Seymour and they are cutting their budget and conducting laying offs). The new motto is “more with less” everywhere and that includes Seymour. The school budget and employment structure will need to be modified to reflect the budget on a “more with less” basis. Also, the school employees are and have been extremely fortunate as they have very lucrative benefit (health/pension/unions) packages. It is time to scale back and not at the expense of the taxpayer or the school children.
What more do you want? Do you even know what you’re voting against? Do you realize the stakes? Or are you letting some moronic talking heads – heads who haven’t even heard of Seymour – blab to you?
You all should be ashamed. Absolutely ashamed. Your pathetic “anger” got Paul Roy into office, and now you’ve neutered him. You’re not even letting him do his job. They literally can’t cut anymore. Now, you’ve turned your own children into pawns in your stupid political fight. Over what? So you can save $100 a year? You simple-minded fools.
I grew up in Seymour. I lived there most of my life. I’m ashamed of that now. Between Seymour and Derby, I feel like I no longer have a home.
I agree with you Valleygirl3. Furlough some of the top money makers in from 98 Bank Street. No “donation” of increases…that’s a joke, pure give backs. Teachers have given enough blood, sweat and tears, but I don’t see the same “pain” coming out of 98 Bank…come on guys – you can do it too!
Paul, I am disappointed in your stasystement. Show some support for the board of education and maybe the towns people will too. Stop acting as is it is a separate entity. The schools are part of the town and it should not be a separate vote. Also in reply to everyone who says “cut from the top” what exactly are you suggesting? If you have some great ideas for how the school system should be run with less money than we had last year and higher expenses please step forward with them. We do actually need administrators. Just because they make more money than you is no reason to be out to get them. Maybe if you were more educated you could make more too. Apparently if that is what I want for my children I will have to go elsewhere.
Dear Educateyourself,
Sounds like you need to go educate yourself! The reason the they have 2 separate votes is because under CT State Statute, the Board of Education is the ONLY entity that can decide how the money that is voted on is spent. The town, it’s Selectmen and it’s people have absolutely NO SAY in how they spend it. You can vote on a $$ amount, but after that – the Board of Ed is free to spend it as they will. If both amounts were combined the town budget would never pass!
Once again the ignorant old people and misinformed masses shoot themselves in the foot by voting down the school budget. Its a shame Seymour is dominated by the elderly who don’t have children and don’t care about the children in our schools.
As was previously mentioned, the adminstrators have contracts. Already negotiated. Not changing. The no vote will mean a cut in TEACHERS and SCHOOL PROGRAMS, as well as a loss of state money as a result.
The old people of Seymour are destroying the town.
To SeymourMom, I know that we can not tell the board of ed how to appropriate their budget. Do you walk in to the police department and tell them how to use theirs? We are a town and the schools and the children in them are a part of the town. We have not always voted on these two budgets separately and the budget did pass. Also i would like to say that we can not blame the senior citizens of Seymour for the results of this vote. They are to be commended for their turnout. If we could get all the parents of our school children to do the same and not be so apathetic we could have passed this the first time around as our numbers would greatly outweigh theirs. Two parents of each of approximately 2500 students and we only get 800 yes votes. That is sad.
Do you realize that $12,000.00 has ALREADY been spent for these three referendums? The fourth will cost another $4,000.00. This is a person’s salary somewhere. I am so sad to see our school’s being punished. Go to BOE meetings. Speak your mind if you want to see money allocated somewhere but DON’T REPEAT THIS HURTFUL ACT of voting no AGAIN. Please read the above information regarding our school’s loss since we are going negative 0% increase. I think the people who are angry about administrative salaries are just MEAN. That’s all you have?
Schools are being punished because the BOE’s top administrators want to continue to fatten their wallets. People can blame and insult the elderly, the Selectman, and the community but cannot blame the fact that there is no Federal monitoring of any BOE budgeting in the USA and even if they do not take salary increases they increase their fringe benefits for themselves, don’t let them fool you. If a Town can lower a budget below their past version, they should be awarded not punished and I can only speak for myself when I say its time for change in the Educational Departments across America.
The members of this BOE are like kids in a candy store, taking advantage of us by using our children and teachers as pawns for personal gain by giving themselves outragous salaries and hiring too many people to do one job. Go to the BOE meetings… all they ignore your concerns and do what they want anyway.
Get rid of the overabundance of administration. There is no need for principals to have their own personal secretaries and the personal secretaries to have their own interns and so forth.
Lets vote in all of the BOE, especially the highest paid executive administrators such as the Superintendent, Asst. Superintendent, Principal’s,and the Business Manager.
Let’s start setting an example in this community and stop these referendums since all they do is waste money anyway. We vote for the Town Selectman in November, and if he does a poor job we only have ourselves to blame plus we have the opportunity vote him out with another qualified person in a few years. It should be the same thing for the BOE. Just think if this was done we could have saved the town $12,000, that could have re-instated some school programs for the students of this town.
You’re worried about $4,000 for another referendum vote? I’m worried why they are budgeting $420,000 for varsity bleachers, over $4M for health benefits, have made no mention of the Chatfield addition they want to do in a couple of years, and having the Superintendent as the highest paid employee in Town ($189,000 a year with tax shelters)who bullies the community yearly by threatening to lay off teachers and cut student programs (mostly sports and programs colleges look at).
Most of all I’m worried as to why it is not obvious to some of the community that the Seymour BOE has too many Chiefs (administrators and interns) and not enough Indians (teachers), and in my opinion that’s why the budget is not passing.
I feel sorry for our children also since they are being used yearly as bait for personal gain of the BOE administration and causing turmoil within the community. Let’s open our eyes it’s time for a change.
To ValleyResident28
You do realize that it is not possible for a superintendent’s job to be an elected position? Not just anyone off the street is qualified for the job. It is unfortunate that our other town positions work that way. Maybe if our finance committee actually had finance backgrounds and were educated in that area(and i know that some of you are) we would put forth more responsible budgets and certainly not go below a zero increase when it will cost us state funding. As for overabundance of administration ,when was the last time you were actually in a school? Do you know the kind of things that go on there? The number of state mandates that they must meet. All the testing that HAS to be done. Reports that must go out. Please do not bash things that you do not understand. As for the superintendent being the highest paid town employee, who else should be? Who else has that much responsibility? Close to 3000 students and hundreds of employees are dependent on her. Not many of us would even be willing to take on her job, even for that much money. Believe it or not the Board of Education does have the best interests of our children at heart. They want to improve their education, maintain our schools and prepare our young people to compete in a world outside of Seymour Unfortunately that does take money. I understand that people don’t want to pay more taxes. I don’t either. But the local level is the right place to pay them. If you want lower taxes, next time, don’t vote for OBAMA
Let’s step back and look at ALL the facts. Wait, we can’t because the taxpayers don’t have ALL of the facts. The line items in the BoE budget don’t tell the whole story. I calculated that approximately 14.4% of the 2010-2011 BoE budget is for health insurance coverage – not one penny of that will be seen by a student. What are the details of the BoE health insurance package ? How much are the co-pays for doctor visits ? What type of prescription plan do BoE employees have ? How about the dental plan ? It seems that we the taxpayers are being hoodwinked into paying for a free “Cadillac” benefits package. How can the voters make informed decisions without all of the information ?
Many taxpayers are facing layoffs and reduced medical benefits coverage, while also not receiving pay raises. I am sickened by those who use the children as pawns in this “game”. Cutting programs and teachers/para-professionals is not the answer. Find the “pork” that is being hidden from the taxpayers, and remove it. The teacher’s union MUST make concessions to ease the burden on the taxpayers. Enough is enough – in these difficult economic times, we all have to share the burden. More transparency and details of the BoE budget line items are needed in order for the taxpayers to make the right decision. After all, it’s our money.
I am a former employee of the BOED. I know what goes on behind the scenes. I was very active in the schools. There is a message being sent by the residents of Seymour. We do care about our children. Instead of adding more administration, (such as our newest asst. superintendent), we should be looking to these same people to be giving a percentage back so our children are not loosing anything. How many times do offices need to be renovated? Parents and teachers supply many items that should be coming from the schools. You have PTA’s that are active and give much to the schools. Parents of our children can only give so much, most people have had to do with less in their own homes. The public, and not only the elderly, are telling you loud and clear they are tired of funding these high salaries with no results. (In addition, administrators have expense accounts that buy many things that the public is unaware of). Our high school was in jeopardy of loosing their accreditation, our drop out rate is one of the highest, if not the top in the state. We lost many students when Oxford pulled out of Seymour, yet the residents paid greatly for the addition on the high school, we built a new middle school, they voted in favor of the new work that will be done to Chatfield School. Maybe we need people in the top positions who truly care about Seymour, not their own salaries. The public has spoken, you have just chosen not to listen.)
So many mistakes posted here.
1. There is not an abundance of administration positions.
2. They are not overpaid.
3. Its a fact that we lose $2 for every $1 we cut below “zero” increase, look it up.
4. The teachers should NOT be cut or take cuts in pay or benefits to lower our taxes. Our taxes should go up to retain the teachers and their benefits.
5. You people do NOT represent all of Seymour. The people of Seymour did not vote down the budget, a few people of Seymour did. Its a shame people didn’t come out to vote, but to claim that the results are representative of the “will of the people” is fallacious on its face.
6. President Obama LOWERED your taxes. I can’t tell you how many people blindly claim he raised them while depositing their big, fat tax return checks.
The BOF needs to propose the same zero budget again and again and again until it passes. Heck, if I were them, I’d propose the first budget again. Let them eat that.
Valley Resident,
If more people shared your views and felt as strongly as you do, then surely there would have been a greater turnout of Yes voters. Not once, not twice, but three times. Come on, now. Should teachers have competitive wages and benefits ? Yes. Should teachers enjoy excessive benefits because they belong to a union ? No. Do we really want to end up like the state of California ? Read this opinion piece in U.S News and World Report: “The Crippling Price of Public Employee Unions” http://tinyurl.com/3x75ykk
The unions are a tool used by politicians to get elected and re-elected. The bottom line is that the majority of people in the private sector are fed up with ever increasing taxes and the false assertion by the BoE that school programs must suffer if they don’t get the requested tax increase. Those programs do not have to be cut IF the union is willing to make concessions. If the BoE and union REALLY care about the children, then concessions will be made. We need to find a better solution fast – none of us wants to lose the state money.
The Chatfield budget is coming out of the Town side of the money. The Town owns and builds the schools, then the BOE moves in and runs them. But yes – That is a stupid project that can’t be afforded now.
The schools budget is a travesty. LAW says they can’t cut it lower than last year. PERIOD. THE END. If we do then the Town side has to fork over the fines and fees.
If you all hate MM so much then start a petition for her removal, go sit at Stop & Shop and Walgreens etc, and get signatures. See if you get more than the patheticly small amount of folks who voted.
NOW you all should fix the town’s budget by demanding that the tax leaks that are ridiculous be closed. There is a 1.88 acre plot farmland on Mountain Road…. assessed as worth $390 dollars Why so low???? What is the tax on that being collected? $1.11 a year for nearly 2 acres???? and that is not the only one.