Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti presented a $117,945,680 budget proposal for 2014-2015 Friday (March 21) he said would see property taxes remain flat year-over-year.
The mayor’s proposal, which will now be reviewed by the city’s tax board and Aldermen, would see the Board of Education receive $67,600,000, about $1.5 million less than the school board requested.
Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden said after Lauretti’s speech that the mayor’s proposal would not be enough to implement full-day kindergarten in the school district, and might even result in layoffs.
Lauretti said school officials “say the same thing every year.”
By The Numbers
The city’s current budget totals $115,828,907.
Lauretti’s proposal represents an increase of $2,116,773, or 1.8 percent, in year-over-year spending.
But the mayor said the city’s mill rate of 22.31 would remain the same if the budget he proposed Friday is passed by the Board of Aldermen.
“The economy has not improved since last year, and the job picture is probably worse in Connecticut this year, and more and more pressure is being put on our neighbors to pay more and more taxes,” Lauretti said.
The mayor’s full statement is posted in the video below. Article continues after the video.
“My budget concentrates on fiscal stability, focusing on the needs of the community and the ability of the city’s residents to make ends meet,” he said.
The city’s grand list increased slightly this year — 0.5 percent — but Lauretti predicted an uptick in development is “almost certain,” citing as an example the recent completion of the Avalon Shelton apartment complex on Canal Street.
The mayor hinted that further development at the former Spongex building next to the Derby-Shelton bridge and another site adjacent to that could be imminent.
In a familiar refrain, Lauretti emphasized the city’s relatively stable tax rate in recent years.
“Simply put, we are predictable, and predictably remain a city that is affordable from year to year,” he said.
Schools
The mayor said he has sought to provide “equity and fairness” to school funding while “keeping in mind that student enrollment continues to decline and the cost of services does not.”
The school board had requested an increase of about $3.5 million in funding. Lauretti’s proposal would see them receive a $2 million increase, or about 3 percent year-over-year.
Board of Education Chairman Mark Holden said after Lauretti presented his budget proposal that he was disappointed.
Asked if the $67,600,000 figure would be enough to implement full-day kindergarten, which a vocal group of parents has been demanding for about a year, Holden flatly said “No.”
Click here to read how readers reacted to the proposal on the Valley Indy’s Facebook page.
“As it stands right now the Board of Ed will work with whatever we ultimately end up with as an appropriation at the end of the day, but the mayor’s proposal is less than our rollover (costs) at this time,” he said.
“Realistically we’re probably about $500,000 short of where we need to be” just to maintain contractual obligations and fixed costs, Holden said.
He said Shelton students outperform students in more than 100 school districts in the state at the same time the city’s per pupil spending is only higher than 15 others.
“The Board of Ed is doing our part to deliver traditional Shelton value,” Holden said. “We’d like to be able to do full-day kindergarten, but there’s a limit to what we can accomplish if the city is not increasing our allocation as much as our expenses are going up.”
He said he hopes the school district “will be able to make a strong case” to the tax board and Aldermen to increase funding.
Will there be layoffs in the schools?
“Layoffs are a word you never want to use, but certainly it’ll be a challenge to prevent that,” Holden said. “I’m disappointed at where we are but I’m hopeful we’ll be able to make some inroads and progress.”
“They say the same thing every year. ‘It’s not enough, we have to cut,’ this and that. Come on,” Lauretti said.
Asked what he thought his proposal meant for the popular full-day kindergarten proposal, Lauretti was non-committal.
“I can’t tell them how to spend their money,” the mayor went on. “You give them money, they spend it on whatever they want and nobody says anything, it’s OK.”
“There are some people who are going to demonize me,” he added. “Let them do it, let them get it out of their system.”
I would like to start by stating that we need full day Kindergarden un Shelton. Maybe our enrollment is declining due to the fact that our schools do not offer full day kindergarten and parents are looking elsewhere for their childrens first year and continue with alternate education in following years.
Shelton is growing not only in the amount of residences, but also socially.
I am a very involved wife and stay at home mother and I can speak for myself as well as multiple other parents of children going into Kindergarten that we are all very worried about our childrens social and educational growth if Shelton continues with a half day program.
When I think of my children going a half a day with the very extensive program and it makes me honestly look into other options for the Kindergarten school year. Do we now need to home school our children through Kindergarten to keep them from getting stressed out over working snack time and not getting to socialize which is the very Core of education!
I wish times were different, even two years ago the program in Shelton was so much less vigorous. But.. it is not. The program is very extensive and the children havr to learn and our wonderful teachers have to teach what others are getting a whole day to teach!
Studies show that full day Kindergarten reduces the amount of children who who will need to receive extra educational support in coming years and also allows our children to learn appropriately not forced to learn in half the time all the other Kindergarten classrooms in Fairfield County.
I believe that children learn through “play” also at that age.
Yes I said it, Play! An educationally appropriate setting with centers so children learn through “play” may take Moe hours than half day..but learning this way they will build a fantastic core educationally socially and emotionally which is what we as parents and our amazing educators would be forced to deprive thes 4,5,6 year olds of..they need a full day to learn and teachers need a full day to teach appropriately what is expected of our children in the State of Ct.
I personally am sad for my children if there is half day Kindergarten because they are so very anxious to go and I am not sure if I will allow them to be put in the atmosphere where it is so rigorous and demands g on our children and teachers. I may as a parent opt out of Kindergarten and home school through and enroll the followinf year foe First grade.
I love our teachers in Shelton and we are lucky to have them all
I am sorry for them if half day continues because in my opinion it forces them to squeeze a full day curriculum into a half day program and simply does not allow the educators to teach Kindergarten aged children the way they would learn best..
Michelle (mother of 5 daughters and 1 step daughter )