Norwich school, utility officials defend budget proposals
Norwich — A door-sized poster with the headline “We Can’t Afford to Lose Anymore” adorned the entrance to Council Chambers on Thursday as school officials prepared to defend their requested $83 million budget, a 9 percent increase over this year.
On Monday, City Manager John Salomone recommended funding a $77.7 million school budget, a 2 percent increase over this year. In March, the school board issued a statement threatening to take the city to court if adequate school funding is not provided.
Superintendent Abby Dolliver on Thursday pressed to the City Council the urgency of the board’s position following an hourlong presentation of details in the budget.
“We couldn’t even cut enough staff to meet the request and still open schools,” Dolliver said of the 2 percent increase. “We just couldn’t.”
Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick said she found it “quite offensive” that the school board threatened to sue the city if the proposed school budget is cut.
“What was your goal in threatening to sue the city?” Philbrick said. She said the city budget “pie” is only so big, and the school budget already is more than half the total budget.
School board members attended the presentation, but Dolliver and School Business Administrator Athena Nagel answered most of the questions.
Dolliver said the school board and administrators have no answers on
how to fund city schools without the money. She said school officials have met with state Department of Education officials three times “from the commissioner on down” to explain the school district’s challenges — including high school tuition, special education cost increases, low-income families and a high number of immigrant students.
Dolliver said the board doesn’t have the option of not paying tuition and payroll. There is no space available in existing buildings to close a school and consolidate, as has been done three times in recent years. Tuition for high schools, some magnet schools and special education totals $34.2 million, including 129 special education students expected to be placed in specialized programs outside Norwich.
“If we don’t meet our obligations, we can’t run our schools,” Dolliver said. “... We’re in a situation where, how do we run mandated 180 days of school if we don’t have the funding to do it?”
Dolliver said the threat of legal action was “at the bottom of the list” of options of what the school board would do if presented a budget without enough funding.
One page of the school presentation mirrored the poster on the wall, showing cost-cutting moves made over the past 10 years. Three elementary schools have been closed, the alternative high school turned over to NFA, a special education program for high school students closed, while Norwich opened special education programs in-house to save some money from out-ofdistrict placements.
The district maintains 15 separate buildings.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re going forward with a facilities review,” Dolliver said, referring to a new effort to study the schools for a possible renovation and expansion project.
Mayor Peter Nystrom said he would schedule two budget workshops specifically with the school board over the next month before the council makes budget decisions.
Following the school budget presentation Thursday, Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda presented highlights of the combined $95.8 million for the utility’s four divisions: electric, water, natural gas and sewer systems.
NPU officials are proposing rate increases in all four divisions for the coming fiscal year. The budget calls for a 5.4 percent electric rate increase, an 8.68 percent water rate increase, a 9.1 percent increase in natural gas rates and a 6.54 percent sewer rate increase. The Board of Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing April 24. If approved, the rates would take effect July 1.
NPU had no rate increases since 2016, when water and sewer rates rose, but electric rates dropped by 4.2 percent. Bilda called NPU’s rates competitive within the region for water and sewer, and 3.4 percent lower than investor-owned utilities.
Questions from aldermen centered on the proposed rate increases, with aldermen presenting a few examples of the cost of business being lower in other cities and towns in the region.
Last year, the City Council asked that NPU increase the amount of revenues turned over to the city each year from the current 10 percent of gross revenues from electric, water and natural gas revenues to 12 percent. The city charter calls for contributions of no less than 10 percent, and Alderman William Nash, who proposed the increase last June, said the annual payment has never been above 10 percent.
Nash said aldermen are in an “extremely difficult budget year” and is trying to avoid a tax increase.
The proposed rate increases do not include raising the contribution to the city.
“Let me be real clear about anything that changes with the 10 percent,” Bilda said. “There’s only one place Norwich Public Utilities gets funding from. It’s from the customers. So if any change were to happen, it’s simple, it would cause a rate increase. That’s the only place we can get the money from.”