It’s that time of year again! The weather is warmer and spring allergies are in full swing, but this also means, budget season. The arduous multi-month process in which everyone elected or appointed volunteer in Seymour, spends countless hours preparing proposals in which we feel are in the best interest of our respective areas.
Since 1996, the CT State Board of Education classifies districts into reference groups, or DRGs. It groups public school districts together based on the socioeconomic status of the students. It is a wonderful indicator of how well a municipality can pay for public education. While these groupings are not an indicator of performance, the districts in the upper DRGs are typically high performing academically and socially. In Connecticut, there are nine groups ranging from A at the top, to I at the bottom. Seymour is in Group E.
That being said, the continued comparison between Seymour and its neighboring towns is just not practical. All of the districts in the Valley are either higher up in the groupings, or below. Out of the twenty-one districts in DRG Group E, Seymour ranks second in median income, third in home value, but is dead last in education funding. The two closest districts to Seymour within DRG‑E are Griswold and Plainfield. The education budgets in those districts represent 77% and 74% of the town’s overall budget. Seymour won’t crack 60% with the current proposal.
Each year the board of education sits down and listens to every need of each school. Unfortunately, while this list has continued to grow annually, we have to constantly deny requests that are truly needed. Starting off this year, the board was seeking a 7.5% increase, but after a reduction in medical benefits, we were able to reduce an additional $900k, down to 5.2%. Finally, we took one more look and brought the ask down even further to 3.8%.
For the Board of Education, there is a large misconception that we are very top heavy in terms of administration. This is simply not accurate. We have changed several responsibilities, updated titles to align multiple roles, and achieved a reduction in those top ranges of the salary base through attrition and reclassification.
While the current operating budget of $38,659,535 is now in the hands of the voters, this budget as was all the previous budgets during my 13 years as resident of Seymour is under attack. It makes me scratch my head every spring. I will never understand why we as a board are repeatedly tasked in making near-impossible decisions as it pertains to our most vulnerable residents. For the past two years, the board has even come in lower percentage-wise than the town side, but no one seems to realize that fact.
We have incredible heroes in Seymour, but they are not the elected officials that represent the board of education. They are the food service workers, custodians, secretaries, coaches, advisors, counselors, administrators and teachers, who have all adapted to the ever-changing educational landscape that is vastly different from when many started their careers.
In closing, I urge every resident in Seymour to come out on May 4th and support the proposed budget for not only the board of education, but the town’s budget as well. Vote Yes!
Chris Champagne
Seymour Resident
Board of Education Chairman
