Board of Education 'Exploring Options' in Wake of Potential Budget Cut

With potential cuts of $1.1 million from the Board of Education proposed 2013-14 budget looming and the state reducing funding to the town last week, members of the school board are preparing to move forward in case funds are not restored by the council later this month.

Board of Education Chairman Brian Goralski said district administrators have been asked to prepare a tentative operation plan with a $1.1 million reduction from the original $85.3 million budget that the board requested in January.

"We have instructed (School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi) and his staff to prepare a plan that moves forward, both looking at the reduction with all-day kindergarten remaining in place and a reduction without the implementation of all-day kindergarten," Goralski said.

“We realize that it is still early in the process and will continue to seek that the funding be restored, but we need to be prepared,” he said.

During a public hearing last week, supporters came out in large support of seeing funds returned to the Board of Education budget after members of the Southington Board of Finance voted unanimously to reduce the request to $84.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year.

With the reduction, as well as reductions to the town’s general operating budget, the average taxpayer would see a decrease in their tax bill of $4 in the upcoming fiscal year.

Goralski and Erardi each said during the hearing that the board “can justify every dollar” and expressed concerns that cuts could mean eliminating new programs such as all-day kindergarten designed to assist in meeting state core standards or cutting back on badly upgrades to technology.

“Please listen to majority talking to you tonight and not give in to vocal minority that believe the opinions of teachers, parents and neighbors don’t count,” said Gloria Brown, wife of Southington Education Association President Bob Brown, during the hearing. “Some of us realize that in the public sector you get what you pay for, that’s true everywhere. Please consider restoring funds cuts.”

The board and residents in favor of restoring funds received vocal support from members of the Democratic party following the hearing, but in the days that followed, the town saw its state funding slashed by the legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback said the cuts included the elimination of more than $800,000 in unrestricted spending from a “Hold Harmless” grant, instead reallocating the money to restriction Local Capital Improvement, or LoCIP, grants and eliminates more than $420,000 entirely.

The result is an immediate shift from a 0.02 decrease in the mill rate to a 0.11 increase, he said.

“It’s a state decision that would flip the potential reduction into a $20 annual increase for our average taxpayer,” he said. “At this particular point in the game, that the best that we could hope for is to have them restore the governor’s proposal as presented.”

Goralski said he realizes the change makes the chance of full restoration “difficult,” but said the district will continue to look for new sources of revenue to see the funding restored.

He addressed rumors that the Board of Education has approached the town about reallocating savings from the Self Insurance Fund for use in the upcoming school board budget, however, saying no such request has been made.

“That’s a decision for the (Self Insurance Committee) to make,” he said. “They haven’t met for end of the year review yet and it’s too early to look at that as even being a possibility right now.”

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