About 75 Ansonia parents and educators crowded a public hearing held by the city’s tax board Monday to plead for a larger school budget increase for the 2013 – 2014 school year.
“I don’t think we’re giving our kids what they need in Ansonia,” said Darlene Zawisza, one of the parents who warned that the cumulative effect of year after year of tight budgets was making Ansonia an undesirable place to send a child to school.
They said the public schools have had to eliminate teacher positions, increase class sizes and do away with advanced placement courses, sports teams and all-day kindergarten — and warned of more to come if the schools don’t get more money.
If the tax board approves the 2 percent increase proposed for the Board of Education — far less than the roughly 6 percent increase the school board requested — the parents and educators said the school district could have even bigger class sizes and may have to eliminate art and music classes.
In March the district also put 38 employees on notice that their contracts may not be renewed for 2013 – 2014.
The tax board voted unanimously to approve a proposed “tentative” budget which includes the 2 percent school budget increase.
But Chairman Rick Sturges said the board will meet again Thursday (May 16) to discuss the comments from the public hearing and, perhaps, make changes in the 2013 – 14 budget proposal.
The board is scheduled to vote on a final proposal May 20 at 7 p.m. in Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall.
Numbers
The tax board’s tentative budget totals $60,626,428, which represents a 3.3 percent overall spending increase.
A citywide revaluation reduced the grand list by about $280 million, which will result in a mill rate of 39.15 if the budget is approved as currently proposed.
The revaluation means how much more a resident pays in taxes will depend on how much the value of their property changed.
The current mill rate is 27.65.
To calculate how much your taxes would be under the proposal, multiply the “new” assessed value of your property by .03915.
Meeting Gets Heated
At one point during Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall Sturges summoned an Ansonia police officer to help him keep order after parents interrupted him when he tried to answer some of their comments after closing the public hearing.
One woman dared him to have her ejected.
“I don’t care,” she said. But nothing more happened.
Earlier this year, the Board of Education had requested a $28.8 million budget representing an increase over current spending of 6 percent to cover increases in employee health insurance, transportation, special education and salaries.
Click here for a previous story detailing the school board’s request.
Aldermen in February recommended a a $27,540,000 school budget, an increase of 2 percent.
Sturges said the biggest problem facing the tax board is that while the city budget must be approved next week, the state budget won’t be approved until June.
Until then, he said, there will be uncertainty regarding the amount of state education aid Ansonia will receive.
Right now, the Ansonia schools are supposed to receive a $566,000 increase in its Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, but Sturges said if the state approves a lower amount instead, the Board of Education budget cannot be adjusted to make up for it.
But the parents and educators saw the problem as one of the deterioration of the school system, which, they warned, would have economic consequences for the city’s tax base.
“We need to make this town some place people want to move to, and you do that through education,” said one mother.
Schools Superintendent Carol Merlone read a letter from Ansonia High School 2013 Valedictorian Paige Orlovsky, the only student in the school’s history ever to receive a perfect score on the SAT exam.
In the letter, Orlovsky said she competed on the tennis team until this year, her senior year, when the team was eliminated because of budget cuts.
“For five years I have come to this board and for five years I have heard that times are tough,” Merlone said.
Yet this year Derby is adding Spanish language instruction at the elementary school class level. “Ansonia will be lucky to keep Spanish at the high school level,” she said.
“Am I going to get the support of this city?” Merlone asked the tax board. “I don’t know.”
After the meeting adjourned, Merlone said, “Little by little, what we’re doing to our school system is a travesty.”
