Parents, students, teachers, administrators, and even non-Middletown residents who work in Middletown spoke for almost three hours. Some spoke specifically on behalf of individual programs, such as middle-school sports or the Youth Program, while others championed the results from this past year's CMTs scores as evidence the district has momentum in the right direction: "To cut programs and staff now, after all our hard work and the progress we've made, that would just destroy our ability to move forward," one teacher commented.
One of the MHS biology teachers spoke about how the past two years of "zero budget increases" for the school district have affected his ability to buy books for his program: "We used to buy new books every five years, but now I've had to mooch funds from other places just to cover the consolidation we did from three levels of classes to two levels. I had two different books, one published in 1999 and the other in 2001: one wasn't available anymore at all and so I was stuck with how to pay for the right book for everyone. In my AP course, I have to choose between de-certifying the course because I don't have the right book or spending funds I don't have to get new books....what am I supposed to choose?"
A small portion of the people who spoke expressed distrust or disapproval of the way the Board of Education or the Superintendent are seen to handle the budget process. Some did specifically accuse the Superintendent of fraud or wasteful spending, but others encouraged the city to look for energy savings by turning off lights or using rainwater collection as a means to trim the budget.
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Thomas Serra, the Majority Leader, announced that the Majority would caucus on the budget on May 5, 6, and 9, and then he would call the Minority Leader, Phil Pessina, on May 10 to share the budget proposal. The anticipated budget adoption date is May 12. Serra listed the following as his priorities:
- No increase in taxes
- Proper city services provided
- Looking for money to move around from one place to another in the budget
- Trimming any excess out of the budget
- Potentially approaching the State of CT for more revenue
Author's Note:
I spoke at the public hearing and urged the Common Council to think about the school budget process as something more than just saving individual teaching jobs. Consider this example: pretend we had to cut the Police budget, but we saved all the police jobs. There wasn't enough money to buy cruisers or full utility belts, but we could afford red wagons and squirt guns. How safe would you feel? How well could the police do their job to protect the citizens of Middletown?
In the same way, at some point, just saving teaching jobs without providing the underlying program structure becomes an exercise in complete frustration for everyone involved. It might be great that we have smaller class sizes, but if there's no glue sticks, workbooks or adequate textbooks, we still have a serious problem.
The other issue to consider is that we are spending considerable time and money to help high school kids "catch-up" to being in high school. If our resources were concentrated at the elementary level, and if we made sure kids had the basics (like being able to read at grade level) they needed to succeed in junior high and high school, we wouldn't have to work so hard to meet CMT standards at higher levels.
Finally, we can not seriously expect to maintain a zero-increase education budget if we also expect teachers to be able to get raises, and if we know that health care costs increase, and if we demand small class sizes. The ONLY way to achieve this is to cut some teaching positions so that others can get raises (but class sizes go up), or cut programs and materials (quality of the student experience decreases). We just can't have it both ways at the same time under the present formula for funding education. Perhaps one day we could think of another way to construct the system, but that doesn't help us right at this moment with the decisions we face.
The complete BOE budget presentation is available here. If you have questions about where the money is spent, browse through the budget book and see for yourself. In summary, the proposed $71,952,813 budget breaks down like this:
- Salaries: 58.34% ($41,974,170)
- Employee Benefits: 16.98% ($12,214,193)
- Purchased Services: 12.12% ($8,719,200)
- Supplies: 5.68% (4,089,479)
- Property: 1.75% (1,259,177)
- Dues and Fees: 0.08% ($59,518)
- Capital: 0.27% ($195,000)
- Tuition: 4.75% ($3,442,076)
I see the figures, but by Chairman Raczka's statement a couple weeks ago "once the budget is approved, we can spend it any way we wish". The tax payers have no control or transparency of what the BoE does with the money.
ReplyDeleteI was at the meeting where Frechette defended his budget and clearly stated that 88% was for salary. Now I see its just under 59%. If Frechette is willing to lie about this why would he not lie about other things (which he has). I cannot see how the budget can be increased until Frechette is removed from his position and replaced with someone with integrity.
ReplyDeleteWhat frustrates me as a taxpayer that this dog and pony show did not ask one question about step increases. What sacrifice is being made by the administrators. The only sacrifices will be made by the taxpayers in higher taxes.
ReplyDeleteMostly in regards to the 9:40AM comment...
ReplyDeleteGotta love when people quote others out of context. If I remember correctly, Mr. Raczka's comment was specifically in regards to the Mayor's desire to dictate how the Board spends the money allocated to it, not just some random ****-you statement to the public at large as you seem to be making it out to be.
State statute clearly lays out the fact that, yes, Boards of Ed can spend money at their discretion once the money is given by the municipality, and the Mayer (or other municipal workers, for that matter) can't just make desicions about how it is spent. How the Boards spend money is up to them. In Middletown, our town hall seems to forget this, or just doesn't want to accept it, saying instead that their whims, the charter, or whatever other random reason they picked that day is the final word.
I've got news for you - it's not. State statue trumps all. If you'd care to look it up, check Title 10, sections 220 onward. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/pub/chap170.htm
As far as transparency - what do you think the whole public budget presentation process is? What do you think the annual audits are for?
As far as taxpayer control - Boards are made up of elected officials, chosen by... the taxpayers!
This whole "budget shortfall" can be solved by eliminating or lowering the positions/salaries of a small handful of administrators. Period.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Peifer
Once more I see people accusing officials of lying, and I wonder if it is possible to ask commenters to stop and think, or maybe ask a question, before assuming the worst of everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (May 1, 1:50 pm) takes the position that Superintendent Frechette is lying about salary percentages in the proposed budget. I look at the same set of numbers and see that salaries, benefits and contracted services add up to about 88%. Am I being charitable, or perhaps just realistic, in thinking that would be the obvious explanation? It does seem reasonable that that's what the Superintendent was referring to. After all, there are no other choices -- we either pay people salaries with benefits, or we hire contractors.