Phil Robertson, Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s chief administrative officer, is taking issue with a report on Derby High School authored by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
The 80-page report — authored by 15 visiting educators from throughout New England based on interviews, data and a visit to the high school — mentions a lack of funding several times. Click here to read the report online. A copy is also posted at the end of this article.
“Parents, faculty and staff have indicated their belief that the board of education and the city alderman have not demonstrated financial support for the high school,” the report states. “Many of the district money decision makers are believed to be embedded in the past and have little understanding of current student needs.”
NEASC is the group that decides whether a public school receives accreditation — the gold standard for schools in the state.
Robertson said that the report — specifically the statement that Derby officials were turning a “blind eye” on their students — was “intellectual dishonesty.”
“They’re formulating an opinion without even talking to the other side they’re forming an opinion about,” Robertson said.
In addition to building a new middle school, he said Derby has given out high percentage budget-to-budget increases, when compared to other Valley towns.
Robertson said the authors of the report never sat down with city officials to get their side of the story.
School officials, however, said city officials — the Mayor, along with members of the Board of Aldermen and the tax board — were invited to a forum to speak with the authors the first day the team arrived in Derby.
No city officials attended — a fact that wasn’t lost on the report’s authors, according to high school principal Fran Thompson.
Robertson also complained that school officials, when reviewing a draft of the report, didn’t clarify the city’s position.
True Figure?
Robertson said the actual amount of money the city spends on schools is not reflected in the school budget.
Example — the city’s cash-strapped Department of Public Works clears snow off school property. In addition, the city picks up the tab for worker’s compensation claims.
At a school board meeting last week, city Finance Director Henry Domurad estimated Derby picks up $1.1 million a year in school costs that are not reflected in the school budget.
He said the school district is two-thirds of all employees in the budget and the school owns 51 percent of all Derby-owned property.
The city wants the school district to begin picking up some of those costs.
Specifically, the city wants the school district to pay for worker’s comp for school district employees.
The precise dollar amount wasn’t clear — but it looks to be at least $107,000 a year, plus the salary of whoever is out on worker’s comp, plus the cost of a replacement.
School district officials weren’t 100 percent clear last week on how or when that will be absorbed into their budget.
No Money? Prove It.
At last week’s school board meeting, Superintendent Stephen Tracy said he attended a private meeting in Derby City Hall to talk about the budget process with Robertson, tax board chairwoman Judith A. Szewczyk school board chairman Ken Marcucio and others.
The meeting was to prep officials for the upcoming budget meetings to be held this month and next in front of the Board of Apportionment and Taxation (tax board).
Tracy is scheduled to go over his budget with the tax board in a public meeting scheduled for March 29 at 7 p.m. in Derby City Hall.
“They made it clear that if I’m going to continue to say we’re under-funded, I better be able to support that,” Tracy said.
The tax board will be considering a $19 million school budget, a $1.28 million increase — or 7.22 percent — over the current budget.
The percent increase — 7.22 in a cash-strapped city where Mayor Anthony Staffieri has asked other departments to strive for no increase in an election year — should make for interesting meetings between school officials and the tax board.
Do we have a new voice in City Hall? It seems as if Ken Hughes is no longer speaking on behalf of Tony Staffieri.
I’m looking forward to a mayor who can speak for himself.
I didn’t know this was about Dan Foley. Nice way to extrapolate, Sharpy.
So if what this guy is saying is accurate, let’s say the cost to the town is $107,000. Alright! So instead of spending about $18m, we’re spending $18,107,000. That’s a huge difference! Wow! That’s… not enough for two English teachers! What the heck!?
Don’t say that the City spends plenty on spending. We’re far below every other Valley minicipality in both a hard dollar amount and a percentage amount. In the former, we’re *well* below, AND we just opened a middle school. I understand it’s the job of a Stafferi staffer to talk up his administration, but this is ridiculous.
Hopefully, they’ll both be relieved of their jobs in November.
Why is this man on the City of Derby payroll?
He does NOTHING and collects $72,000 +full benefits in addition to the Mayor’s $50,000 salary and his admin’s $45,00 salary…take the $72,000 and give it to the Board of ED
Our current City Hall 1 Elizabeth Street is A1 Prime Real Estate located smack in the middle of our future business district. Our only downtown bank, Bank of America is packing up and leaving town. If the Mayor is willing, and really cares about our teachers he will move his City Hall back to where it was 35 Fifth Street. The old city hall managed the city quite well for decades. The money made by Leasing the building will save teachers jobs.
In times like these we have to think really hard and come up with decisions that won’t make everyone happy. But making everyone happy doesn’t save jobs. You cannot go out and buy a Cadillac when you can’t make your mortgage payments.
Mark Searles
While some simply throw out anything that someone may interpret as a solution, it is best to think things through first. The former City Hall on Fifth Street is not ADA compliant once you are inside the building. There is a ramp to access the building; however, there is no elevator to the former Aldermanic Chambers and the doorways on the first and second floors are not wide enough to allow a wheelchair into any of the rooms. The cost of installation of an elevator is prohibitive (the City actually investigated that alternative at one point). The City has already rehabbed the current City Hall under the Garofalo administration; and the building has served its purpose well. As the current City Hall is a newer building there are also many less inherent costs in maintaining it than those costs associated with a much older building. I guess some people enjoy seeing their name in print and that can be a strong motivator.
P.S. I don’t want anyone to misinterpret my earlier comment to mean that it doesn’t matter if the Board of Education offices are in a building that is not ADA compliant. The Board of Education meetings are held are properly held at the schools and certainly at least the new middle school must be ADA compliant. This provides the required public access to meetings.
So, again….Do you want to save those teachers Jobs? I am the only one with a plan. City Hall can be moved in a week. A few upgrades perhaps on Fifth street. Let’s get serious.
It’s been over six years since Marc G. was in office. Can we please stop blaming the past administration and start holding this administration accountable for their actions.
“Well, the DEMOCRATS did this, and the DEMOCRATS did that! That makes whatever a REPUBLICAN does fair game!”
I hate this argument on both sides. This is Derby, not a Democrat/Republican battleground. It’s a city, and it’s my home. I don’t care who did what, whether it was Garofalo, Stafferi, you name it. I know things are broken, and I want them to not be broken. I don’t care who the hell fixes it. Right now, Stafferi is a problem because our money’s been mismanaged, we’re not bringing in proper revenue to make up for it, and I could drive down Main St. right now and find 10 empty businesses with no hope of being filled anytime soon. We’re focuses on bringing in more strip malls, which is fine, because if we keep defunding education, we’ll have a lot of people that will be able to man the registers and pick up carts with their insufficient Derby education.
I don’t care if the Republican did this or the Democrat did that. Hell, the only reason I’m considering becoming a Democrat again is because it’s almost physically impossible to get anything done without being one of those two parties. I just want things fixed.
Mark, what would the costs of moving City Hall involve? Is the old building even up to code? And how can we say that building – which I remember used to be a prominent local bank – is going to attract more people to it when we have so much empty real estate as it is? Is it that much better than the old Staples, for example?
Sharpeye, trying to have a reasonable discussion with you is like trying to get food into the mouth of a colicky baby. It’s messy, and usually ends in failure and screaming. The only difference is that the baby has a better grasp of how to use commas.
Since it is so fruitless and you continually try to shoehorn me into some anti-Republican spokesperson for whoever is running for a Democratic office, I see no reason to bang my head against the wall any further. I will henceforth talk to the adults.
sharpeye: where exactly has it been posted, other than by you, that Mark Searles is Dan Foley’s spokesman? Last time I read anything official, Dan Foley seems to be speaking pretty well for himself. Up until a couple of weeks ago, Mark Searles was Dan Foley’s opponent. All of a sudden you have anointed him as his spokesman.
You clearly have political motivation to keep Tony Staffieri in office. I’m sure I’ll get a comma-laden response from you, because you just can’t help it.