Groton Town Council asks school board to cut more

Groton — The Groton Board of Education will consider Monday whether to cut the education budget further to help deal with large revenue losses in town.

“At this point, we are nickel and diming everything,” Town Councilor Karen Morton told the school board during a budget session last week.

The Board of Education submitted a budget with a 0 percent increase for the coming fiscal year, and recently voted to return $600,000 to the town from the current fiscal year. Town Councilors said they’re grateful. But they still need help.

“We couldn’t ask for a lot more except we’re going to,” Mayor Bruce Flax told the school board. The council has been taking apart the town budget line by line, as taxpayers face a potential 8.3 percent tax rate hike under the proposed $125.6 million budget for the coming year due to declining revenue. The Board of Education will consider a cut during its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in the school administration office.

The lowest amount Groton may spend on education without penalty from the state — called the minimum budget requirement — is about $76.46 million. That translates into a cut of $263,000 from the zero increase budget the board submitted. It would help if the school board could give a little more, Morton said.

“It’s such a tough year,” Councilor Diane Barber said. “What I would like to know is, could you be comfortable with that number? We don’t want to cripple you.”

School Board chairwoman Kim Watson said the district worked hard to reach a zero budget increase while it’s trying to look forward and entice students back. Hundreds of students have left Groton to attend magnet schools elsewhere, and the district is paying $2.4 million in tuition.

“We would like to say, ‘stay with us,’” Watson said.

The school board “robbed” its health care savings account to get the budget down to zero, board member Rita Volkmann said.

“And I was very concerned about going down to zero, because I felt that, ‘Oh well, if you can go that far, you could go lower,’” she said. “Well, we can’t anymore.”

Groton must provide health care to 100 more paraprofessionals starting July 1, and may have to raise their pay as it’s losing staff to other districts that pay more, she said. School officials just learned that they must open a new preschool class by next week.

The class is required to provide services for children who have a developmental delay. The number of special education students is up by 70, assistant Superintendent Susan Austin said.

“I understand that you have to look at how much per child is spent,” Board vice chairwoman Andrea Ackerman said. “As a young family, I would not be looking at that. I would be looking at a town who spent zero money ...” She had to pause to collect herself.

“I get passionate about this ... zero money on their education budget. Zero money on their children. Then gave back $600,000. And I would be headed right across the bridge.”