Ansonia’s school board finalized a $31,260,484 budget Wednesday that will result in four layoffs.
A total of 9 positions were eliminated districtwide, school officials said, but employees in many of them were reassigned to other jobs that were open due to attrition.
Meanwhile school sports — which school administrators had said were on the chopping block — will be funded fully after Mayor David Cassetti promised about $200,000 more to the school system than what was allocated by Aldermen last week.
In addition, an elementary school art teaching position reduced to part-time last year was restored to full-time.
Three teachers from Mead School and a behavioral specialist from Prendergast School will be laid off, said Mathew Hough, the president of the teachers union.
Briefly
The school board had requested a total of $32,093,707 for 2016 – 2017, which would be a 6.79 percent increase over its current budget.
Last week Aldermen voted — after weeks of talks and negotiations during which school officials warned of dire cuts — to allot $31,060,484, a 3.35 percent year-over-year increase, to the schools.
Click here to read previous Valley Indy stories about the budget.
During Wednesday’s meeting the school board voted unanimously to adopt a series of cuts proposed by administrators. There was no discussion before the vote.
Article continues after the summary.
NOTE: The bottom line listed on the document does not include the $200,000 that the mayor announced would be allocated over and above the number voted on by Aldermen last week. Thus, the “ONLY VARSITY SPORTS” notation on the document is inapplicable.
Ansonia BOE Budget 2016 – 2017
Layoffs, Other Cuts
The staff cuts finalized Thursday:
- Six reading intervention teaching positions ($327,627)
- One maintenance position ($57,000)
- Two administrators ($268,000)
- One life skills teacher ($57,000)
- One board-certified behavioral analyst ($77,000)
School administrators and union officials said during the school board’s monthly meeting Thursday that they had been meeting through the weekend to figure out how to save as many jobs as they could.
Still, Hough called Wednesday the worst day of his 16-year career.
Combined with the layoffs, Hough said, the school district also “had to reposition some of our most veteran teachers.”
“That’s a significant impact on teachers and students,” he said. “I’ve said it from the beginning, it’s the students that are going to suffer because of this.
“It’s really unfortunate it came to this,” Hough went on. “We tried the best we can to save every job we could. Most years we don’t have to lay anybody off. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case this year. I hate to see teachers leave but if there are openings hopefully we’ll be able to bring teachers back.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Merlone and William Nimons, the president of the school board.
Merlone said she’s already dreading next year’s budget process. There’s simply nowhere left to cut, she said during Wednesday’s board meeting.
In addition to the positions cut, the school board also reduced planned spending for tuition for out-of-district special education, employee benefits, and electricity.
On the administrative side, the superintendent said one of the middle school’s co-principals will be reassigned to Prendergast School, where current Principal Joseph Apicella will be leaving at the end of the year for a job in Milford.
In addition, Sara Crooks, currently the assistant principal at the high school, will be reassigned to the same position at Prendergast, where an interim assistant principal had been filling in after the departure of Sherrod McNeil, an award-winning administrator who left the district for a principal’s job in Stratford.
The middle school co-principal and high school assistant principal positions weren’t technically eliminated, Merlone said — they just won’t be filled.
Nimons, the school board president, said Merlone and the rest of the school district’s administration “did the best that they could” in making the cuts as minimal as possible.
“But it’s unfortunate that some teachers had to be told today that they had to be laid off,” he said.
He hoped that the four teachers laid off could be called back and offered jobs if other positions open up due to attrition.
City Promises About $200,000 More
During the public session of Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor David Cassetti said he’d send about $200,000 to the school district in an effort to preserve school sports and a kindergarten teaching position.
The mayor said the money would come from anticipating a slightly higher tax collection rate and a planned sale of tax liens that will happen at some point this summer.
Board of Education Secretary Fran DiGiorgi asked the mayor whether he would first have to go to the Board of Aldermen to seek their approval.
Cassetti said no — though as the city’s ultimate fiscal authority, the Aldermen will have to approve the additional expenditure at some point.
Board of Aldermen President Phil Tripp said Thursday the $200,000 will be on the agenda for the board’s regular meeting June 14. He said he anticipates the measure will pass.
Some Good News
School officials did note one shred of good news during Wednesday’s meeting — an award of $1,225,000 in grants from the state for infrastructure improvements.
The funds were part of more than $21 million the State Bond Commission voted May 27 to award to “alliance districts” throughout Connecticut.
Nimons said after the meeting the funds would pay for HVAC improvements throughout the school district, as well as lighting, cameras, and other projects.
Full details of the improvements are listed in the document below.
