School board gives nod to $58.7 million budget

In a 5-3 vote on Jan. 27, the New Milford Board of Education approved a $58.73 million budget for the 2010-11 school year.

The plan was slightly less than school administrators had requested, yet it would restore some staff positions from a previous draft.

Some town leaders and taxpayers are concerned the school board's proposed budget, a 3.14 percent increase over the current year, would be too high.

"I think all of us must be mindful that there are struggling families," said board member Lynette Rigdon, who voted with the minority, "while any increase, while maybe small to some, are really huge to another family,''

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

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

After attending the four recent budget hearings and being present at the vote, Mr. 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 Intermediate School, as well as a social studies teacher at the high school, and to 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.

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

"I'm hoping we can see a way for some collaboration with the unions,'' said board chairman Wendy Faulenbach, who said it's important to "put our heads together to take a dime and squeeze it into a dollar."

The proposal presented by Dr. Paddyfote to the board included 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.

Among the items not touched by the board were the gifted and talented program, extracurricular activities and sports programs. No one proposed reinstituting fees to play sports.

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

The proposed Board of Education budget is due Feb. 15 at the finance director's office. It will go Feb. 16 to the Town Council for the start of its budget discussions.