The first budget proposal from recently hired Derby Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway carries no new spending, other than covering 2.5 percent raises for school workers.
Those raises, school administrators said, are the result of previously negotiated and approved union contracts.
At a Derby Board of Education meeting Tuesday (March 19) Conway and newly hired chief financial officer Clarence Zachery unveiled a $16,163,663 budget for next year that seeks a 1.92 percent increase — or $304,719 — over the current budget.
There is a caveat, however.
The school district is considering whether to spend $200,000 to bolster security within the city’s schools. The initiative comes after the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.
If you add the security money to the total budget proposed, the year-to-year budget increase is 3.1 percent.
School officials have been working with Derby police and outside security firms to come up with a plan to protect staff and students.
However, school officials haven’t settled on a dollar amount.
They’ll have an idea of what to spend after they hear from parents at a school security forum scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 25 at Derby High School.
Listen to Conway talk more about the security forum and the potential $200,000 security expenditure in the audio clip below.
The school board meeting Tuesday was quick, just 45 minutes. That’s because the vast majority of line items in the proposed 2013 – 2014 budget were the same as the current budget, other than the 2.5 percent wage increases.
“What you have before you is a budget that represents what we know we can run the school district on, provide services for our students and meet the expectations of parents,” Conway told the Board of Education. “Within this budget the only increases you are going to find are those that are contractually agreed to through teacher, paraprofessional, clerical and custodial contracts.”
The proposed budget allocates about $2.8 million for the Bradley School, $3.1 million for the Irving School, $2.55 million for Derby Middle School and $3.4 million for Derby High School.
Conway said any new programs or learning initiatives in the school system would be paid for using grants such as the state’s new “Alliance District” funding.
Because Derby schools have scored poorly on standardized tests, the district received an additional $280,532 from the state. The money was used to initiate reform efforts within the city’s struggling Irving School.
The five school board members at Tuesday’s meeting voted unanimously to accept the superintendent’s budget as presented.
Next up for the proposed school budget — an introduction to the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation, scheduled for April 2 at Derby City Hall.
That board ultimately decides how much money to give to the schools each year.
School board member Kim Kreiger wondered whether the school board was taking a risk giving such a bare-bones proposal to the tax board, since the board never fully funds the district.
Conway, who has been attending tax board and Aldermen meetings since being hired in December, said he has been talking with city officials to give them an idea of what’s coming.
School board member George Kurtyka said the board should get aggressive if the tax board funds less than a 1.9 percent increase.
“Nothing less. We’re not going to accept anything less than 1.9 percent or we’ll have to get the parents together,” Kurtyka said.
