ANSONIA – Ansonia Public Schools has rescinded nine out of ten pink slips that were sent out about a month ago, Superintendent Joseph DiBacco said.
DiBacco said in a phone call Wednesday (May 13) that the district was able to rescind the pink slips because state legislators passed a budget bill that gives an additional $939,474 to the school district.
“There’s still one pink slip remaining. I do hope that through attrition and how things happen, that that person will be able to be called back, but there’s still just one,” DiBacco said.
DiBacco said the remaining pink slip is for an elementary-level teaching position. It’s still there because an administrator whose position was eliminated had bumping rights under a union contract.
The district had originally warned it could lay off ten staffers in March. The pink slips came as Mayor Frank Tyszka’s administration proposed a budget that would flat fund Ansonia Public Schools over the next year at $38,612,089.
The school district had originally requested an increase of $923,004 in January.
Although the city’s budget proposal hasn’t changed, the new state money will fund the schools at about the level of their original budget request.
“When you had a zero budget, we had to notify people (with pink slips). And then when we got the money back, we were able to notify them (to the) contrary,” DiBacco said.
However, DiBacco said the district is still eliminating five administrative positions from its budget. Those positions were originally created under COVID-19 era grants which have since expired, according to comments he made at past school board meetings.
He said most of the administrators whose positions were eliminated have found jobs in other districts.
Additional Funding Won’t Affect City Budget Next Year
The state money is coming as part of a funding package passed by state legislators which will send a total of $180 million to school districts around the state.
The way the new funding is being distributed is complicated. However, it won’t affect Ansonia’s own legal obligations when it comes to funding the schools, according to state Rep. Kara Rochelle, who represents Ansonia and part of Derby in the state House of Representatives.
School districts are bound by a “minimum budget requirement” (MBR) under state law. It bans cities from reducing their school budgets compared to the year before, with a handful of exceptions.
The current city budget proposal funds the schools at the lowest number allowed under that state law.
The $939,474 from the state “is exempt from MBR for next year,” Rochelle said in a text message.
The money comes as lawmakers have continued a years-long debate over the formula the state uses to calculate aid to local school districts – and whether districts such as Ansonia get their fair share.
That formula – the “education cost sharing” formula, or ECS for short – has been a target of reform by both Democrats and Republicans at the state level.
Rochelle said the legislature will revisit that formula next year.
“The legislature also intends to do a larger review of ECS in the off season and pursue additional improvements in the coming year,” Rochelle wrote.