Derby Schools To Request More Money From The City

The Derby school district’s tight budget is being stretched beyond its limits, so Superintendent Stephen Tracy hopes the Derby tax board will give the schools another $99,000.

However, school officials said the request won’t affect the city’s bottom line.

The school district has incurred about $240,000 in unanticipated expenses since the fiscal year started July 1, Tracy told the Valley Indy.

Example — the school district had more students enroll for the second grade in the city’s two elementary schools, causing the district to hire two new teachers — as mandated by class-size limits in the teachers’ union contract, Tracy said.

By contract, we had to hire two additional teachers and that’s about $50,000 a piece when you do that,” the superintendent said.

In addition, the school district had to hire more para-professional staffers than anticipated. Para-professionals help kids with special needs, generally, and the school district can’t pick and choose who gets the service.

For the most part, the school district has been able to deal with the unexpected costs by moving money out of unemployment insurance and reducing the amount of money budgeted to buy supplies.

However, given it’s only October, Tracy said it makes sense to go back and talk about the situation with the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation (tax board).

The $99,000 being requested won’t hurt the city, school officials say.

Here’s why:

Back in May, at the suggestion of Mayor Anthony Staffieri, the tax board decided to cover expenses connected to the school district’s health benefits.

That took roughly $3 million in health care costs out of the school budget and transferred it to the city budget.

However, Tracy said about $99,000 of that $3 million included benefits to long-retired teachers who no longer qualify for their benefits.

Since the money isn’t needed for health care costs, Tracy and the school board would like the money back in the school budget.

The city will not be paying that money out because the people who would have received it are no longer eligible for it,” Tracy said.

The superintendent made this same request back in August, tax board meeting minutes show.

The tax board didn’t take action on the request. Instead, members opted to see how the new health plan was working, according to meeting minutes.

The Derby Board of Education gave Tracy permission Oct. 4 to make a second request to the tax board.

Tracy said he would be calling tax board chairwoman Judy Szewczyk with the hope the money request would be added to the tax board’s next meeting agenda.

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