The Valley Indy chatted with Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri Friday about the proposed Derby school budget, which carries a 7.25 percent — or $1.28 million — increase over the current budget.
If adopted by the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation in its current form, the school budget would increase taxes by $275 on a property assessed at $189,000.
Valley Indy: You announced this week you will seek re-election. The last line of your press release says you wished the school system reported to you. What would you cut from the school’s proposed budget, if you could?
Mayor Staffieri: “I would make them accountable for every penny they spent — and make them spend it in the areas they’re always asking for. They always ask for money for textbooks. We give them the money for textbooks and they don’t buy them. I don’t understand. Last year they gave back $70,000 to the city. Why didn’t they buy textbooks with them?”
Valley Indy: School leaders keep saying Derby under-funds the district. They keep pointing to data from the state Education Department. You think that’s the same old song?
Staffieri: “It’s a charge that’s easy to make. Throw mud against the wall and see what sticks. How can we under-fund education when we just built a $28 million middle school? How are we under-funding the school district when there are many in-kind services the city does for them? Public works plow their parking lots. All they have to do is shovel the sidewalks. When you put everything together, we give more than most cities. Look at Ansonia. They spend less per pupil than Derby and they have better grades. What’s the magic there? They spend less and get a better education.”
Valley Indy: When you say you want to see accountability in the school district, what does that mean?
Staffieri: “In the private world, when someone doesn’t do their job, whether it’s an employee or whether it’s an administrator, either they lose their job or they get a reduction in pay. But not in the school system we have now. And it’s not just in Derby. This is throughout the whole state, the whole country. Things need to change. Teachers and administrators doing a good job should be rewarded.”
Valley Indy One thing that Judy Szewczyk asked the other night, which was sort of along the same lines of what you’re saying, she said ‘Look, if we give you guys a $1 million increase each year at what point can we no longer afford it?’ You’re saying change is needed on the broader level, because the way it is right now a small city like Derby is going to go bust because of the system?
Staffieri: “Exactly. They can’t keep going the same way. Their solution is ‘give us more money.’ How about some creative thinking? How about things that don’t work, you stop doing and you change it? How about what these salaries are for teachers that work 183 days out of the year? You get into this conversation and you could spend all week on it. Let’s just use some common sense. Common sense and accountability.”
Valley Indy: I called your opponent, or who could be your opponent in the election, Dan Foley. He said you’re politicizing the school budget instead of working with the school district leaders.
Staffieri: “I am far from politicizing the school budget. I am for running the government like a business. I’m looking at departments (on the city side of the budget). They’re going for no increase. Everybody is working together to keep a zero increase, not asking for a crazy amount of money and having no accountability.”
