At last night’s budget roundtable at the Third Congregational Church in Westfield, Mayor Giuliano was critical of the Board of Education’s proposed 2009-2010 budget. In particular, the school district duplicates many services the town already operates such as buildings and grounds maintenance, payroll, insurance and snow removal. Mayor Giuliano is proposing that the city take over these “non-education functions” of the BOE to save significantly on the school district’s operating costs.
Currently, because the school budget is a single line item in the town’s budget ($69,408,000 or 53% of the 2008-2009 budget), the town has no say in how the BOE spends those funds once they are transferred to the school district’s control. State law currently allows the BOE full discretion of how funds are spent, and monies can be transferred between any of the line items in the school budget as the BOE sees fit and when the BOE sees fit (the town is specifically prohibited from doing so in its own budget). So, in the case of the above mentioned “non-education functions,” the BOE can allocate money in those areas, but then use it for something else later in the year if it wants to.
Additionally, the Middletown School District receives some $7 million in grant funding each year, but the budget cycle for those monies is different that the town budgeting cycle, and so those funds are not accounted for in the budget the BOE submits to the town. Grant money is also able to be rolled from one year into the next, so the BOE has the capacity to spend the town’s (i.e. the taxpayer’s money) FIRST and COMPLETELY before it spends grant money.
Councilman David Bauer referred to the school district as a “giant slushing of funds from one place to another,” and stated that there’s always money available “if the BOE wants to find it and spend it.”
Councilman Phil Pessina then decried the BOE’s recent cutting of 13 teaching positions and the resulting increase in elementary school class sizes as a nasty trick to inflame public opinion and to make the Common Council look responsible for cutting those positions by not fully funding the proposed school budget.
Many members of the public (including yours truly) told the Mayor and both Common Council members present that the Superintendent and BOE’s refusal to protect jobs and class sizes in this difficult economy was totally unacceptable. Almost every day, the Hartford Courant reports on other school districts, and almost without exception, you hear other Superintendents say as West Hartford Superintendent David P. Sklarz did: “under no scenarios would he recommend increasing class sizes” (Hartford Courant, March 4, 2009).
Even if the town cuts its 2009-2010 budget by 3% from last year, property taxes still have to increase to compensate for the lost in revenue the town expects during the budget cycle starting July 1, 2009. As previously reported, it looks like a minimum of about $224 for the average home valued at $200,000 (assessed value of $140,000). Wouldn’t it be better to close the estimated $5,794,941 gap in the city’s budget by trimming wasteful spending FIRST and then adjusting the mil rate AFTER all fat has been trimmed? Would you pay multiple contractors to duplicate work on your home?
I don’t think so…Middletown residents shouldn’t have the patience or the pockets to accept this kind of budgeting any longer. It’s time the Board of Education does its budgeting in the light of day, and stands accountable for what it’s spending where. Most importantly, if we have a Superintendent and a Board who are willing to use our children as political pawns to AVOID responsible budgeting, what else are they doing (or not doing) that we don’t know about?
3 comments:
It is for this exact politicization of our schools that we will be leaving Middletown the first chance we get. I will not send my child to a school system that makes him a political football.
We never hear what the level of spending is in the various accounts in the BOE budget for the current year or prior years. They shuffle money around to suit their needs. Perhaps its time to chage the law and give respossibility for the BOE budget to the town councils, town managers or Mayors.
It is outrageous what the BOE does. Simultaneously the BOE exrtracts funds from multiple levels of government: Federal, State and Middletown. This is nothing short of a Ponzi like scheme. They cry poverty to each level of government for funds while not reconciling the income. It is time for the Common Council to reject the BOE budget and reduce it by 20%. This will force the BOE to renegotiate the outrageous labor agreements. and eliminate the bloated administrative overhead.
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