Balancing Costs to Changing Needs the Theme as School Board Candidates Face-Off

Southington ranks 144th out of 169 Connecticut municipalities in per pupil spending, but the schools systems success has been much higher. With a continually struggling economy leaving taxpayers stretched, growing mandates for evaluations and Common Core standards now part of the local budget and the need to advance schools to prepare students for the 21st century, how can the future Board of Education keep the town moving in the right direction?

These were the questions posed to aspiring members of the 2013-15 Southington Board of Education candidates Tuesday evening as the Southington Education Foundation held a candidate forum in the Council Chambers at Southington Town Hall.

The concepts on funding varied, with some calling for increased communication between boards and education in the community to highlight town needs, but all of the eleven participants were pretty set in what is needed; a strong staff with proper training and evaluation, upgrades in technology and proper resources, and first and foremost school safety.

“The focus, as with any business, lies in the return on investment,” said Republican incumbent Terry Lombardi. “I have two sons that graduated from Southington schools and I never knew we were 144. What I knew was what they were coming home with and leaving Southington with.”

“What made the difference was the teachers they had, the programs and after-school programs available and the camaraderie with families.”

There were many similarities between Democrats Bill Lutz, Gail Doerfler, Zaya Oshana, Jerry Belanger and Pat Johnson, and Republicans Lombardi, Colleen Clark, Patricia Queen, Jill Notar-Francesco, Terri Carmody and Brian Goralski, but things got interesting when discussing the best way to fund the budget.

David Derynoski, longtime Democratic incumbent to the board, was unable to attend due to a death in the family.

Want to see where each candidate stands on the issues? Be sure to look back through our elections section and see the full profiles for each candidate.

Lutz, a newcomer to Southington but former member of the Berlin Board of Education, challenged the efforts in recent years to obtain a full funding request through the Board of Finance and Town Council, saying he believes more education is necessary to show the need.

“There are many needs. Languages should be introduced in elementary school and the district should be teaching Italian, German, French, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. We need to inspire interest in all our kids. We have a great engineering program and need elevate rest of our technology to same level. That’s what we need to go from a really good 21st century district to a great one.”

With less than needed funding on reasonable requests, unfunded mandates and one of the lowest per pupil spending in the state, we said this is a challenge – and one that will affect the whole town. Increasing school quality, partially through increased per pupil spending, will lead to economic growth, increased land value and better quality of life for everyone.

But Goralski, the standing Board of Education Chairman, said the board has put all needs forward and reached out to educate the public and town officials.

Over the past several years, the schools have tightened their belt strings and continued to meet the needs through crafty spending, community partnerships and strong leadership and work with teachers to address the greatest needs first.

“I want a Mercedes and my wife’s favorite car is a two-seater convertible,” he said. “But I drive a Ford because it fits our budget. Southington isn’t Farmington or urban community that uses funding to skew the numbers. In Southington, we get the most for our dollars.”

“We do communicate, and do so with respect, dignity and honesty. When students continue to achieve, excel and improve, we have one group to thank – the teachers who teach our kids,” he said.

Clark said that while there may be some subtle, or even not so subtle differences in how to go about improving education, the candidate forum showed one thing is clear – everyone is in it for the children of Southington.

“We all share the same vision: education and how we can do even better,” Clark said. “We all want to improve the lives of our students as they leave the confines of the school district. Here on this board, it doesn’t matter what party are, we are in it for the betterment of children.”

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