The spending plan will be the subject of a public hearing — and then, possible changes — at a meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday (May 24).
Teachers, administrators and parents Thursday urged the Aldermen to allocate more money for Ansonia schools, saying veteran school leaders are leaving the district at an alarming rate and that the budget as is will do heavy damage to the city’s school system.
The Valley Indy streamed the meeting live on the web.
The video is posted above.
School officials said the city was using outdated and incorrect information regarding how much money could be saved by having teachers move to health savings accounts. City officials pegged the number at $600,000. The dollar amount is outdated, school administrators said. The savings are about half that, they said.
Health insurance costs have been the major sticking point in this year’s budget discussions. In addition to moving to health savings accounts, Mayor David Cassetti and his administration said the city and school district could also save big bucks by moving to self-funded insurance.
About 1 hour and 2 minutes into the video above, Schools Superintendent Carol Merlone asked Mathew Hough, the head of the teacher’s union, to clarify the move to health savings accounts.
The Board of Education voted to make that change at a meeting May 4, according to meeting minutes, though as of Thursday — more than two weeks after the meeting — the adjusted contract had not been filed in City Hall, as required by law.
Around the 1 hour and 5 minute mark, Merlone took the podium herself, pleading with the Aldermen to give the schools more money. She stopped to ask Alderman Matthew Edo to stop smiling, setting off a brief argument after Edo said his children do not attend city schools.
FYI, around the 1 hour 25 minute mark the video crashed for about five minutes because City Hall’s WiFi went down. During that period, Alderman Frank DeLibero proposed adopting the “tentative” budget.
The vote happens about 1 hour and 42 minutes into the video.
The Budget
The spending plan would lower the city’s property tax rate by 0.207 mills.
That means a person with a house assessed at $150,000 would be taxed about 30 bucks less if approved.
Article continues after the document.
Ansonia Tentative 2016 – 2017 Budget by ValleyIndyDotOrg
It calls for a $30,805,484 budget for the Board of Education, with a 2.5 percent, or $752,389, increase in school spending.
In February, the school board voted to request $2,040,612 million more in year-over-year funding, which would represent a 6.79 percent increase over its 2015 – 2016 budget of $30,053,095.
City officials had also suggested that the school district move to “self-funded” insurance in combination with the city.
But the school board voted unanimously not to pursue self-funding for insurance for 2016 – 2017 at a separate meeting Thursday.
Article continues after video of that meeting.
School officials have warned of dire consequences if not funded to their full request.
Aldermen Frank Delibero, Anthony Cassetti, Charles Stowe, Lorie Vaccaro, Matthew Edo, David Blackwell, and Phil Tripp voted for the “tentative” budget.
Aldermen Randolph Carroll, Denice Hunt, Joseph Jeannette, and Richard Kaslaitis voted no. Carroll noted the Aldermen did not have enough time to review the latest draft of the budget on which they were voting.
The Aldermen meeting began with about 15 minutes of public comments, mostly by people who asked Aldermen to spend more on the school district.
Richard Bshara, the city’s assistant comptroller, then went through a number of adjustments he had recommended in the spending plan, after which the Aldermen discussed and eventually voted to adopt the “tentative” budget submitted by Bshara.
The Aldermen will reconvene May 24 at 7 p.m. in City Hall to have a public hearing on the spending plan, make any adjustments, and put it to a final vote.
