New Milford school board's proposed budget likely to face scrutiny and cuts

NEW MILFORD -- Some town leaders and some taxpayers are concerned the school board's proposed $58.73 million budget, a 3.14 percent increase over the current year, is too high.

"I think all of us must be mindful that there are struggling families, and any increase, while maybe small to some, are really huge to another family,'' said board member Lynette Rigdon, who was with the minority in Wednesday night's 5-3 vote.

She predicts the Town Council and Board of Finance will want no increase in spending for next year.

Town Council member Roger Szendy said with school enrollments on the decline, taxpayers expect budgets to decline, but that never happens.

After attending all four recent budget hearings and being present at the vote, Szendy said he was disappointed the school board came up with less than $30,000 in savings from the original plan.

The board decided to restore a nurse and a part-time music teacher at Sarah Noble School, a social studies teacher at the high school, and keep para-educators for the full school day rather than trimming 15 minutes from their schedule.

They chose those things instead of replacing old windows in the central office building and purchasing equipment.

School board members questioned whether all of the unions, including teachers and administrators, have been approached about concessions. The only union that has made concessions to date is the paraeducators.

Paddyfote said the unions have been approached, but no proposals have yet been made.

"There are still people (employed in the district) who could be heroes in this budget,'' said board member Alexandra Thomas.

"I'm hoping we can see a way for some collaboration with the unions,'' said board chairwoman Wendy Faulenbach. In these difficult financial times it is imperative to "put our heads together to take a dime and squeeze it into a dollar,'' she added.

The proposal Paddyfote presented to the board includes staff cuts that were not undone Wednesday night: a part-time kindergarten teacher at Hill and Plain, and a seventh-grade German teacher and a four-teacher team at Schaghticoke Middle School.

Things the board did not touch were the gifted and talented program, extracurricular activities and sports programs. No one proposed reinstituting fees to play sports.

In the coming months, though, those programs are likely to be on the table again, board members and town leaders agreed.

Board member William Wellman said New Milford is far from the only school district in the state or nation that needs to improve education without spending more money, so it must be more creative about how it offers instruction. He suggested offering online courses to save money.

Fellow member David Lawson disagreed. "The most important thing we must have is people in the classrooms, not machines,'' he said.

Debate over the proposed budget was halted after about two hours, when members Lisa Diamond and Thomas McSherry said the hunt for a few extra dollars to reduce the bottom line was futile. They recommended sending it to the Town Council, which will begin its budget discussions Feb. 15.

"No matter how hard the board tried, we weren't going to get down to a zero (increase),'' Faulenbach said.

Contact Nanci Hutson

at nhutson@newstimes.com

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