Schools Focused on ‘Individualized Learning’ After Budget Adjustments

With a total of $1.1 million in budget adjustments to make following approval of the annual budget last month, members of the Southington Board of Education voted 7-2 to cut the SOAR program at the elementary school level in favor of implementing all-day kindergarten.

The decision was not one made lightly, Board of Education Chairman Brian Goralski said last week, but it is a change that will allow the district to continue moving forward in better preparing all of the town’s students for the future.

“It’s not something we wanted to do and it came with a lot of thought and discussion,” Goralski said. “Three years ago, we got rid of the high school piece, then the middle school piece and with this have eliminated elementary school piece.”

“If look closely at what education is, becoming it is about the individual child. At high school, we have implemented the leveling system and at the middle school, it is is about differentiating in team setting. With common core standards, we are focused on doing what’s best to help improve learning for every student and child.”

SOAR, the gifted and talented program for elementary school students, was one of several cuts and adjustments made on May 23 when the board voted on changes to account for a $1.1 million reduction in their proposed budget for the upcoming school year.

Sherri-Lin DiNello, director of business and finance for Southington schools, said the district was able to realize savings in health insurance costs of nearly $300,000 and another $43,000 in unemployment and workers compensation costs based on the latest estimates for the 2013-14 school year.

In addition, the district was able to use a 25-percent supply hold back from the current year to fund a variety of equipment and supply needs for the upcoming year. The change leaves little contingency for emergency costs, but with less than a month remaining in the fiscal year, the district is confident that they will be able to stay within budget, DiNello said.

“The district doesn’t have a contingency, but we have traditionally held back 25-percent,” she said. “We are utilizing the 25-percent that we weren’t allowing principals to spend to purchase what is needed for next year’s needs.”

The changes also avoid layoffs, staff said, by reallocating existing staff to meet new needs for all-day kindergarten. In addition, the purchases made this year will help fund supply needs to get the program running, as well as addressing textbook needs and infrastructure needs across the district.

For a complete look at the changes, see the PDF attached above.
These changes passed unanimously, but when it came to eliminating the SOAR program, board members David Derynoski and Zaya Oshana said during the meeting that the could not support a change that eliminates an enrichment need for some of the district’s best students.

Board member Patricia Johnson also suggested that the school board table the matter one meeting, expressing a desire to try and find a way to keep both programs alive, before eventually voting in favor.

Derynoski and Oshana wished to support both programs, something that Goralski said in a perfect world the entire board would have liked to do, but with tough decisions to make on how to serve every students, Goralski said the board eventually reached the compromise.

“I have always prided myself in not pitting one program against another,” Goralski said. “Cutting the program was not something that anyone of this board supported, but it was something we needed to do.”

TELL US: Did the Board of Education make the right decision in implementing the all-day kindergarten program and eliminating SOAR? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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