Ledyard’s choice: teacher layoffs or interim tax bill

$1.5 million deficit not offering easy solutions

Ledyard — Confronted with a more than $1.5 million budget deficit, the town may be forced to choose between laying off teachers in January or sending taxpayers a supplemental tax bill. Cuts in state aid, much of which targeted education, have left the town trying to make up ground in the middle of the fiscal year. And now, after seeing budget cuts result in reduced library hours, residents may soon see more drastic ramifications.

“The Board of Education and town council have been very cognizant of the expense throughout the years and have kept budget increases very low,” said Superintendent Jason Hartling. “There’s very little left to cut that doesn’t dramatically impact the students’ day-to-day experience.” In an attempt to make up the deficit, Hartling said the Board of Education is looking to pull together as much of a savings as it can while limiting the day-to-day impact on students, specifically in regards to maintaining classroom teachers. The district has also asked the teachers’ union to accept a twoday furlough, which would save about $170,000. The teachers’ union will vote on the measure this week. Discussions are also taking place with other bargaining units. Hartling said he hopes that presenting significant savings along with the teacher furlough days will cut enough money to avoid potential “redline cuts,” which would most likely be layoffs of classroom teachers in the middle of the school year. “A mid-year layoff of a teacher in a public school system will have reverberations throughout multiple classrooms,” he said. “And to make

up the deficit we’re talking about, it’s an extreme number of staff.” But earlier this year the teachers’ union rejected a one-day furlough, and Hartling said he fears without the two-day furlough the Board of Education would have to look at other options to cut the budget, such as laying off teachers.

Hartling also said he believes there are other alternatives worth exploring, such as the town not depositing money into its capital reserve accounts. “When you get an extraordinary circumstance like that I think you need to plan and attack it in a different way,” Hartling said.

“A combination of short term adjustments in our budget utilizing funds that usually we’d normally set aside ... cuts to our Board of Education budget that are there but aren’t directly changing a student’s classroom teacher in the middle of the year. Those two things can mitigate the problem collectively as a community,” he said.Meanwhile, the mayor and town council have sought to make cuts on the town side as well, which among other things included cutting the hours of operation at the Bill and Gales Ferry libraries, which reportedly saved $118,000. Town Councilor Linda Davis called $1.5 million “a lot of money for a town like Ledyard.”

“There is really almost nothing left on the town side to look at,” she said.Davis said the town is currently waiting to see if the teachers’ union will agree to the two furlough days, adding that by the joint Board of Education and Town Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, all areas where cuts can be made should have been identified. Davis also stressed that there is no perfect solution regardless of how the teachers’ vote turns out. If the teachers’ union does not accept the furlough days, she said she is not sure there will be a way to avoid an interim tax bill, something she does not favor.”In my mind that really is the last option,” she said.