Superintendent Stephen Tracy is scheduled to make his pitch for funding to the Derby tax board in City Hall Tuesday (March 29) at 7 p.m.
The meeting is scheduled to be held in the media room, which is in the building’s basement. City Hall is at 1 Elizabeth St.
In Derby, the tax board (formal name — Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation) decides how much money is needed to run the city and the school district.
The school board is asking for roughly $19 million for the next school year. That is a $1.28 million increase over the budget currently in place.
The budget-to-budget proposed increase is 7.25 percent.
If every other department in Derby sticks to Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s request for a zero-percent increase, a resident with property assessed at $200,000 would pay roughly $200 more in taxes next year, according to numbers provided by the school district.
The meeting Tuesday is considered a workshop — public comment is not required, according to tax board chairwoman Judy Szewczyk.
A formal public hearing on the Derby budget has been tentatively scheduled for May 10.
Tracy and school board chairman Ken Marcucio, Sr. will go through the reasons for the spending increase in their presentation to the school board. They will also take questions from members of the tax board Tuesday.
In a letter to the school board posted on the district’s website, Marcucio outlined the spending increase.
Some of the reasons included:
- $191,000 in wage increases
- $147,000 in health benefit increases
- $186,000 increase in energy costs
Marcucio’s letter is posted below. Article continues after the document.
The initial budget request — from Tracy to the school board, proposed Feb. 3 — included nine layoffs.
However, the school board voted to put full-day kindergarten back into the budget, along with several athletic programs that were going to be tossed.
The latest version of the budget eliminates two teaching positions at the high school, along with two more at the city’s two elementary schools.
In an interview with the Valley Independent Sentinel earlier this month, we asked why teachers were getting a 2.9 percent increase in a bad economy. Tracy’s answer is posted below:
The Valley Indy also asked Tracy to explain why the budget is on the rise. Keep in mind the interview was conducted prior to the Derby school board tweaking the spending plan.
