Town manager presents FY25 budget proposal

Proposed $120.8M budget includes 3.93% tax levy increase, bumps local appropriation to schools by $225,000

COVENTRY — A municipal budget proposed by the town manager would give to the school district just a portion of the local funding it has requested.

The Fiscal Year 2025 budget presented this week by

Town Manager Dan Parrillo totals $120.8 million, and includes a tax levy increase of 3.93 percent.

The proposed budget calls for a $225,929 bump in the school district’s local appropriation — an amount significantly less than the $2 million, or 4 percent, increase that the school committee is after.

“I know the school [district] is disappointed, probably, in the local aid appropriation,” Parrillo said during Tuesday's town council meeting.

The district, he added, explaining his reasoning, has "extensively researched a path forward to realize the savings they need in order to balance their budget.”

“The school department has done their due diligence in identifying a projected budget deficit and came up with a viable plan to address it,” Parrillo said, “which at the end of the day was not implemented for reasons unknown to me.”

A plan to reconfigure the town’s elementary schools would have saved the district $2.1 million, according to a presentation by Supt. Don Cowart. But that plan, despite “hundreds of hours” having gone into developing it, Parrillo said, ended up being scrapped.

Proposed by Cowart to address a projected deficit of at least $1.8 million, the reconfiguration plan would have consolidated buildings, reducing the number of elementary schools from five to four and converting Blackrock to an early learning center.

The proposal, which was brought to light in January, was met with fierce opposition by members of the community. Amid that backlash, Cowart decided to withdraw the proposal before the school committee had the chance to vote on it.

Councilor Kimberly Shockley said Tuesday that she worries about Parrillo’s proposed appropriation to the school district. Her concern, she said, is that the budget was built based on an assumption that the district could in fact have saved a significant amount of money by reconfiguring schools.

“It’s not responsible of us to say that we think you should do this, and we’re going to make a budget in accordance with what we think you should do,” Shockley said, “when we don’t really even know if it’s the best [way].”

She said she wants to see the numbers — which neither the council nor town administrators have seen — indicating that reconfiguration could actually save as much money as was suggested.

“We should really look into this other option,” Shockley said. “If, fiscally, it’s the way to go, and we decide as a council to force their hand in a budget, then let’s do that.”

But, she added, if it turns out that the plan wouldn’t result in the savings that the superintendent said it would, then the budget that the town manager has put forth could be “dangerous.”

“This is a department of this town,” Shockley continued. “They go under, we do too.”

Councilor Jonathan Pascua, on the other hand, said he worries that suggesting the school committee again consider the proposed elementary school reconfiguration would be “overstepping.”

“The school committee has their own authority to balance their budget, make decisions,” Pascua said. “They could prove to us that they could save $2.1 [million], but in the end, it’s a political body that’s influenced by its voters.”

Hillary Lima, president of the town council, echoed that.

“The only way that we can make sure that we take accountability, fiscally, for the entire town is through our appropriation. And that’s it,” Lima said.

Recalling the school committee’s approval of a threeyear teachers’ union contract under which teachers in Coventry are to receive a 3.25 percent raise in the upcoming fiscal year, Lima added that “at some point you have to take responsibility for the financial decisions that you make.”

The local appropriation increase requested in the school district’s budget, adopted earlier this month by the school committee, can be largely attributed to salaries and benefits.

The district is projected to spend $1.8 million more on salaries in 2025 than in the current year — with 17.5 teaching positions proposed to be cut, that number is actually quite a bit smaller than what was originally projected.

“The school [district] has a budget,” added council vice president James LeBlanc, who along with Lima voted in August against ratifying the Coventry Teachers’ Alliance contract. “They said to us that they could afford that contract. Apparently, to me, based off of these numbers, they cannot.”

While his budget allocates to the schools barely more than a tenth of the funding increase that was requested, the district will actually be getting more next year than what's reflected in the local appropriation, Parrillo said.

Taking into account proposed allocations from the town’s pandemic relief funds, its capital improvement program — the budget puts $511,710 toward capital improvements, including $130,000 for the schools — a debt service payment and a $140,000 appropriation as part of a deficit reduction plan, the district would actually be receiving an additional $1.16 from the town in the upcoming fiscal year.

In addition to what it sets aside for the schools for capital improvements, Parrillo’s proposed budget earmarks $55,000 for a new vehicle for the police department, $139,000 for the parks and recreation department; $151,710 for the public works department and $36,000 for engineering.

And, separate from the budget, Parrillo has suggested various uses for what's left of the funds awarded to the town under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Having received $10.4 million, the town currently has around $3.6 million of those federal funds left, and they must be appropriated by the end of this year.

Among the other highlights of Parrillo’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 are the elimination of the deputy finance director and administrative assistant to the town manager positions, and the additions of a planning technician, CDBG coordinator and a full-time outreach librarian.

The town council is scheduled to adopt a provisional budget on April 9, with public hearings set for April 30 and May 4. The council will vote May 7 to adopt a Fiscal Year 2025 budget, and it must be approved by a super majority.