Still sore from Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s video accusation that they spend “money like drunken sailors,” the Derby Board of Education Wednesday trimmed $310,009 from their initial $16.1 million funding request to the city.
Last month the tax board allocated $15.8 million to the school board. It’s less than the school board wanted, but still a 2 percent increase — or $310,960 — over the current budget.
The school board made the reduction without any drastic staff cuts — but sports and the high school’s music instruction programs saw reductions of $15,000 each.
Overtime for custodians took a big hit — $16,009. The school board also scratched the idea of hiring librarians for its middle school and elementary schools, which resulted in $100,000 in savings.
School board president Ken Marcucio, Sr. said the district hopes to restore some of the reductions made Wednesday by using money from a new state grant that targets the lowest-performing school districts of Connecticut, such as Derby.
The school district is applying for about $280,000 through the state’s “alliance district” money.
Superintendent Stephen Tracy said that’s a roll of the dice, though, because the state could say alliance district money must be used for true reform programs — not for everyday items such as librarians.
Applications for the state money are due in August.
Before the school board voted on adjusting its budget, Tracy — who leaves the district June 29 — made a statement in which he expressed disappointment with the Derby tax board and the Derby budget in process in general.
He said he had invited Staffieri, who advocated a zero-percent increase for the school district, to attend Wednesday’s meeting. The mayor didn’t attend, but tax board members Jim Butler and Anita Dugatto were in the audience.
When deciding on how much money to give to the schools, Tracy said, Derby elected officials “play tennis” with percent increases rather than focusing on the needs of Derby students.
In addition, Tracy pointed out the city side of the budget saw an increase of about $637,000 — more than double the school district’s increase.
See the video at the top of the story to watch some of Tracy’s statement.
The school board will likely finish the year with a surplus of about $100,000 to $150,000, district officials predicted Wednesday. That money is returned to the city.
In addition, the school board this year made out better than anticipated in areas such as unemployment insurance and utility costs. The district spent about $285,000 of those savings on items such as athletic supplies and new lockers. The district hadn’t purchased new athletic supplies in two or three years and the high school lockers were some 40 years old.
While it was a very bumpy budget ride for Derby schools this year, Derby still emerged in better shape than Ansonia, where staffers are getting laid off, and Seymour, where residents have rejected school budgets in three town-wide votes.
However, Derby educators and school board members point out the city schools are historically underfunded — a point made in a blistering paragraph within a report published last year on the high school authored by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges:
“The school currently has an excellent team and many excellent teachers, but the continued battle of having to face no curriculum coordination, no certified librarians, not enough textbooks for all students, larger class sizes and an unresponsive Board of Education and a city governing body that turns a blind eye to its young people and their pressing needs may cause them to abandon this very high cause,” the report stated.
The Staffieri administration points to the new middle school as testament to the mayor’s commitment to education.
