“I only wish the school system reported to me.”
It’s the last line of a press release issued Friday morning by Anthony Staffieri, who has been telling the media this week that yes, he will seek another term as Derby mayor.
The sentence marks the first time Staffieri has commented publicly on the Derby Board of Education’s request for a 7.25 percent increase in funding for the school district.
That proposed school budget is now in the hands of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation, who discussed it with Superintendent Stephen Tracy at a meeting March 29. Click here to read the Valley Indy story on that meeting.
Citing the tough economy — coupled with the looming tax increases on the horizon from Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget — Staffieri had previously requested all city departments to keep their budgets flat for next year.
Friday marked the first time he expressed displeasure with the school budget.
“ …I have made every effort to keep taxes down on the already over burdened tax payer,” Staffieri said in a prepared statement Friday. “That effort continues each and every day. I have asked all departments reporting to me to produce a zero-growth budget. They have and I expect the Board of Apportionment and Taxation to realize the tax payers of Derby are not a bottomless pit for money. I only wish the School System also reported to me,” he said.
Staffieri’s statement is posted in its entirety at the end of this article. Click here to read a Q & A with the mayor on the school budget.
The school board’s funding request would increase its budget by $1.28 million. It would raise taxes by $275 next year for a residential property assessed at $189,000.
Dan Foley, a retired Derby teacher who is running for mayor as a Democrat, said Staffieri is wrong to politicize the school budget. He also criticized the mayor for not attending the tax board meeting with the school board.
Phil Robertson, the mayor’s assistant, attended the meeting and took notes.
“Instead of trying to come to a compromise, (Staffieri is) playing the sides against each other, which is unfortunate,” Foley said. “And he’s indirectly attacking me, because I’m a former teacher. I’m sure he will try to make that a campaign issue.”
Foley said data from the state Department of Education shows Derby has been under-funding the school budget for several years when compared to similar districts in the state.
He said Staffieri’s stance on education is short-sighted, because without a good school system, home values will drop.
A drop in home values will mean Derby will never attract the kind of commercial or industrial development it needs to generate the kind of tax revenue it needs to fund the school system, Foley said.
“Education should be the foundation of the community,” Foley said.
Still, Foley hesitated when asked if he would approve the school budget in its current form if he was on the Derby tax board.
Foley said he would look for ways to trim the budget, such as reducing the amount of money going to the school district’s central office.
The tax board is scheduled to talk about the school budget again on April 19 at 7 p.m. in Derby City Hall at 1 Elizabeth St.
The tax board is also meeting all this month and next to consider budget requests from every department in the city. Example — on Tuesday they’ll be talking about the police department with new Derby police Chief Gerald Narowski.
All meetings are open to the public.
A public hearing on the budget — school and city dollars combined — is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 10.
In Derby, the tax board sets the budget, not the mayor nor the Aldermen.
The tax board could have a budget could be in place by May 24.
