It turns out the Seymour Board of Finance should have made some type of change — if only by a dollar — to the proposed Board of Education budget before sending it back to voters.
The board on Monday voted to send the same $30.5 million school budget proposal to referendum, tentatively scheduled for June 14, that voters had rejected at the town’s third budget vote last month.
But that’s against Seymour’s charter, according to town counsel Richard Buturla.
“It’s pretty simple,” Buturla said. “Section 12.3 requires the Board of Finance to make a revision after a budget is rejected by the voters. . . The charter doesn’t address how big a revision, and I’m going to let the Board of Finance address that.”
The Board of Finance will meet again 7 p.m. Wednesday at Town Hall to consider what changes to make.
“Even if they cut a dollar, there has to be some revision,” said First Selectman Kurt Miller.
The Board of Finance on Monday voted 6-1 to make no changes to the budget proposal, and send it back for a fourth referendum.
Their reasoning: The Board of Education needs the money this year, after several years of stagnant budgets, members said.
Board of Finance chairman Trish Danka was the lone dissenting vote.
Danka said after voters rejected the school proposal by about 200 votes on May 30 that she didn’t think it was smart to send the same budget proposal back to voters. Doing so risks having it rejected again, and pushing the town past the July 1 fiscal year start date without a budget.
“I was a little surprised at my board’s action last night, to be honest,” Danka said Tuesday.
Reaction to the vote was mixed on the Valley Indy Facebook page. Some school supporters applauded the Board of Finance for taking a stand in support of the school system.
Others criticized the board for ignoring the voters.
It’s not clear if the Board of Finance will change gears, or make just a small decrease, at its meeting Wednesday.
“I don’t know what my board is going to do,” Danka said. “But I stand firm with what I did last night.”
I read through this budget several times and I urge everyone in Seymour to read it. I see several cuts that can be made:
Item 122 – Clerical Paraprofessional $312K – Are you kidding! Get rid of them and let the full time paid clerical staff work for their pay.
Item 127 – Special Ed. Summer School $ 58K – sounds like free daycare on our expense.
Items 140,340,615 – Tech Services/Supplies $ 600+K – this is just ridiculous.
Item 210 – Health Insurance $4.5M – NOT – Let employees pay for more of their benefits, not the taxpayers.
Item 230 – Pension Contribution $387K – NO WAY!!! – GET RID OF THE PENSION PROGRAM.
Item 295 – Retiree Benefits – $384K – NOT – this is going up $108K??? Could this be because someone is retiring this year…. hmmm.
As I see it, the BOE can cut at least 1.2M from the budget and not hurt any student. How do the children benefit from any of the above mentioned increases?
Amanda – the list you suggest is a true impossibility. Every cut listed would impact teachers – from the paras that help them in the office, to summer school for children who would slide backwards without it, to the technology that helps them do their jobs better, to the health and retirement benefits. If we cut these things, our teachers would have every reason to leave us – our benefits are right in line with other school districts – the way to help kids the most is to put a great teacher in front of every child every day – these cuts would virtually guarantee a loss of our very best teachers. Additionally, we have contracts in place that have required staff to pay more for health insurance each year and we have phased out many retirement benefits. All this having been said, I will inquire about the clerical paraprofessional line item – I am not as familiar on that one as I should be. – Sincerely, Kristen – BOE member
The Board is dense… The taxpayers don’t want any increase…
James – calling a group of people “dense” who are elected vounteers for your community isn’t a very good way to have a productive conversation. Noone – including any Board member – “wants” a tax increase. We live here too. But what I want less than a tax increase is to cheat our town’s students out of the education they deserve. And by the way, regardless of what happens with the BOE budget, you will have a tax increase – the town budget already passed and it contains an increase.
I understand tax payers frustrations with tax’s going up – as a society no one wants to pay more than they have to for anything including education. This is something that is usually said in business and life “you get what you pay for” – if you want good education you need to pay for it – if you want your home values to continue to decrease and you want your children to have zero programs so they can better themselves – then the choice is simple don’t pay for it – what are you left with – a town that no one wants to live in other than people who can’t afford to live in a nicer town and schools that are below the standard. I know that most of the valley is rich in sports history and sports have been such a big part to with life in this area – why not eliminate all the athletic programs and focus that money toward hiring more teachers to reduce class size or enrich the curriculum at all the schools so our kids in Seymour come out with the best education in the state. If parents want there sons or daughters to play sports then let them pay for it just like other towns do and just like little league or football have done for years. I think Amanda is a little narrow mined in her thinking of eliminating Health Insurance and Pension Benefits – with out those two very key components would have no one to teach our kids. I believe that the Town of Seymour has gone up every year on co-pays for their teachers over the last 5 sessions so the employees are already paying a fair share of their health insurance.
I think it is a pretty easy choice – if you want crappy schools and zero opportunities for your children vote no again and again or if you want good to great schools and opportunities for your children pass the budget.
Just remember “you get what you pay for”
Amanda….after seeing you “proposed cuts” I find it very ignorant and appalling your statement about the special Ed summer program being a free daycare. Any time you would like to trade places with a parent of a special needs child let me know because EVERY program is a battle to fight for MY CHILD!!!!!!!!!!
Gee I’m glad someone is reading the Charter!
What gall from the Finance Board to think that they can send the same budget back to the voters! Do that and it will be rejected again. On the positive side, Glenn’s comment about eliminating funding for sports programs and putting the money into education (aka teachers) makes a lot of sense. Yes, let the parents pay for the sports programs for their children. That’s the way it was when i was a kid in school. If you want your kids to be involved in sports then pay for it – not the tax payers.
If you want a yes vote get that budget down lower!