Norwich school budget deficit projection is $2.3M Widow of slain officer protests at killer’s hearing
Norwich — By shifting some salaries, restructuring grants, putting a freeze on expenses in several categories and receiving some voluntary cuts from contractors and vendors, school administrators have cut the projected budget deficit for this year in half.
The total deficit, though, still sits at $2.3 million.
The City Council in June approved a $78.4 million school budget, but school officials warned that the total would fall $4.5 million short of the district’s needs. When the school board adopted the budget with that total, administrators immediately enacted a spending freeze in many categories, and the board asked Superintendent Abby Dolliver to send letters requesting all contractors and vendors to cut their bills to the school district by 5 percent this year.
The board’s Budget Expenditure Committee Monday reviewed the budget in detail, including state and federal grants, major spending categories and fixed costs and areas where some savings might be realized. The full Board of Education is expected to receive an even more detailed summary at its Nov. 13 meeting, including results of the responses to the requests to vendors and contractors.
Board Chairwoman Yvette Jacaruso said she was pleased that a number of contractors did agree to cut bills, but since many spending categories are frozen, the savings would be reduced.
Dolliver said “there’s a lot of unknowns” with the projections, including special education tuition, other tuition bills and winter utility bills. Director of Student Services Jamie Bender said many of the special education placements at private schools outside the district are set by the state, with the school board having no control over the setting or costs.
The biggest projected savings include $1 million in the total $9.5 million health insurance budget for both active and retired district employees, the savings mainly due to a shift to health savings accounts for active teachers, School Business Administrator Athena Nagel told board members. The district also anticipates a savings of $737,000 in special education tuition.
The district expects to save $232,742 in salaries after shifting some staff positions into specific grants, including a move at the start of the year to change former Curriculum Director Thomas Baird’s title to assistant superintendent, which is covered in the state Alliance District grant.
Baird called the grant shifting a complicated “puzzle,” to ensure that staff duties or school programs qualify under different grants. Overall, the school districts grant total rose by $438,290, despite a drop of $146,813 in the largest federal grant, Title 1, which now totals $2.589 million. The city’s state Alliance District grant increased by $509,757, which helped offset losses in other grants.
Dolliver said enrollment and class sizes are stable thus far, but there are no areas where classes can be combined, because class sizes would be in the 30s. And with nearly half the district’s teachers funded through grants, cutting positions likely would not save much money.
Dolliver said one change this year is that Norwich schools no longer provide “complimentary services” to Norwich Free Academy and the several private tuition schools located within the city. The Norwich district manages federal grants for those schools and now is charging a combined total of $88,775 to those schools to administer the grants.
Philadelphia (AP) — The widow of a police officer slain almost four decades ago was ordered removed from a courtroom after protesting a judge’s decision to extend the appeal hearing of former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Maureen Faulkner had flown in from California, hoping for an end to the long series of appeals by the former Black Panther convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia officer Daniel Faulkner.
Defense attorneys are seeking to have Abu-Jamal’s previous appeals vacated so they can file a new appeal, arguing that a state Supreme Court justice should have recused himself from the case. When Justice Ronald Castile was Philadelphia’s district attorney, his office succeeded in getting the high court to uphold Abu-Jamal’s conviction.
Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker on Monday granted a 30-day extension to defense attorneys who say they are trying to recover a document that they hope will support their case. Tucker scheduled another hearing for Dec. 3.
The paper reports that Faulkner stood up and cried out to the judge, saying with her voice breaking “With all due respect, your honor! I have another 30 days that I have to go through this pain and suffering?”
As sheriff’s officers pulled at the sleeve of her sweater and pleaded with her to calm down, she continued to protest and was then ordered removed. As she was escorted out, she said “Thirty-eight years! This is wrong!”
After she was removed, the judge said the court was “sensitive to both sides” but wasn’t going to “rush to judgment.” He said “no matter how long it takes, this court is going to do the right thing.”
Outside, the paper reported, Faulkner apologized and said “My emotions got the best of me. I mean, when is this case going to end for us?”
Abu-Jamal spent 29 years on death row following his conviction in the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Despite decades of appeals, his conviction has never been overturned, but in 2008, a federal appeals court threw out his death sentence, citing flawed jury instructions. Prosecutors agreed in 2011 to reduce his sentence to life without parole. In 2012, the state Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, which involved forensic evidence in the racially charged case.
Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence and has become a symbol for groups seeking changes in the criminal justice system. More than a dozen demonstrators on both sides of the case protested outside the hearing.