The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Schools at odds over proposed budgets
Gilbert School wants tuition hike; Board of Ed wants to keep spending flat
WINSTED — The Winchester Board of Education is aiming for a zero percent budget increase for the 2019-20 school year, but representatives of The Gilbert School want a tuition increase of 10 percent, Winsted school officials said.
A recent meeting between the Ad Hoc Negotiations Teams from the town and the school was held to discuss the differences in the two budget requests, but a funding agreement wasn’t reached, according to the minutes.
The town’s proposed Gilbert School tuition budget is $6.475 million, a flat dollar amount from last year. However, Superintendent of Schools Melony M. Brady-Shanley said the school requested $6.75 million.
School corporation member Charles Seaback, an alumnus of the school, told the two teams at the meeting that the proposal “does not seem to reflect the Gilbert situation as Gilbert perceives it,” according to the minutes.
The school corporation includes three public representatives from Winchester and one representative from Hartland.
When it became clear that negotiations
were not moving toward a decision, the teams agreed to meet again on Feb. 5. That meeting was canceled by a snowstorm.
Minutes show it was to have included “negotiations regarding a successor contract between Winchester Board of Education and the W.L. Gilbert School Corporation.”
The Gilbert School is a private secondary school that admits public high school students from Winchester and Hartland. Northwest Regional High School No. 7, located in Winsted, serves students in New Hartford, Barkhamsted, Norfolk and Colebrook for grades 7-12.
Brady-Shanley said the town’s board of education predicts The Gilbert School will have 6.8 percent fewer students in the 2020 school year. Gilbert School Superintendent Anthony Serio could not be reached for comment.
The board of education’s proposed budget for the 2019-20 year totals $19.9 million, not including state grants and funding programs, expected to equal $2.1 million, for a total of about $22.1 million.
The total budget reflects a decrease of 7.9 percent, or nearly $1.9 million less than the approved 2018-19 budget.
The next school budget meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Feb. 26, and will be held at town hall. The agenda does not include any discussion of The Gilbert School tuition increase.