The Seymour Board of Education approved a $31.3 million budget proposal Tuesday for the 2012 – 2013 school year.
The proposal — which represents a 5.1 percent increase over current spending — now heads to the Board of Finance for further review.
The total figure as presented is $31,330,544 — a $1,535,742 increase over current spending.
The Board of Education spent the last two nights reviewing a proposal from Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo. Much of the conversation Tuesday focused on the Fine Arts program at the high school and middle school.
Arts Program
Board of Education member Fred Stanek brought up the arts program — saying the lack of art, music and theater courses at the high school could be driving students to attend other schools outside the district. Those courses also might help give students a more well-rounded education, he said.
So Stanek proposed adding two new teachers to the budget proposal — at about $61,000 each. The board agreed — voting 6 – 3 in favor of budgeting for the positions. The board also voted to add $1,700 to the budget proposal to pay a stipend for a Seymour Middle School theater adviser.
Those positions are represented in the budget proposal as approved.
But district administrators said they weren’t convinced that students want to take more music and theater courses.
“I’m not sure they would be top priority positions at this time,” said Associate Superintendent Christine Syriac.
Syriac said the district has to work to build interest in the programs with middle school students before adding positions at the high school. She said the district might be ready to ask for more fine arts teachers in a couple years.
Mascolo said her proposal — which had asked for a 4.7 percent increase — had left out some positions the high school had requested. Those weren’t fine arts positions.
“The high school staff had a number of positions that they asked for, that we said no to,” Mascolo said.
Other Budget Details
The budget proposal has a lot of different positions from the current budget — mostly because the district will close Anna LoPresti School in 2012 – 2013, and combine it with Chatfield Elementary School.
The change allowed the district to eliminate five positions — including a school counselor, a school nurse, and one elementary school teacher.
The budget proposal also rearranges other positions in the district — eliminating some positions to make room for others.
The new positions proposed include a technology teacher at an elementary school, two world language teachers at Seymour Middle School, and a technology teacher at the middle school.
The language teachers at the middle school, if approved, would allow all seventh and eighth graders to take a foreign language. Currently only some can enroll because of the limited number of teachers.
The district is also required by state law to hire a behavior specialist. The budget proposal includes about $94,587 for that position. About $50,000 of that money would come from the district’s former allocation for a part-time contract for a behavior specialist.
Will It Pass?
Board of Education members will present their budget proposal to the Board of Finance on Feb. 29. From there, the finance board can make changes before the spending plan is presented to voters.
School board officials said the budget proposal is fair and necessary — but they worry that the economic climate and past experience with school budgets in town might mean the budget will get shot down.
The Board of Education received a 2.3 percent increase in its budget for 2011 – 2012 — but for two years before that it received no increase.
“We’re trying to get back to where we were, and dig ourselves out of this hole,” said Board of Education chairman Yashu Putorti.
Putorti said he didn’t think the Board of Finance or the taxpayers would necessarily see it that way. But, he hopes that a unified voice from the Board of Education will help win support.
Mascolo called the proposal a “solid budget.”
“We put forth what we believe to be the absolute necessities of the district,” Mascolo said. “I think it’s a fair budget and we’ve worked very hard to be cognizant of the taxpayers of Seymour.”
