The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
School budget worries public
Student performance, cuts cited as board looks to trim proposed increase to 3 percent
TORRINGTON — The Board of Education this week listened to residents express concern about possible cuts and student performance during a public hearing on the proposed city schools budget.
Board members took straw polls on a series of potential cuts to the budget, hoping to trim the proposed 3.7 percent increase to 3 percent, but took no official votes.
Prospective alterations included not replacing a retiring head custodian, cutting rental payments for alternative education and preschool programs, eliminating software contracts and cutting two coaching positions.
Board member Peter Vergaro suggested returning to half-day kindergarten for one year, saying he believed the Board of Finance would not agree to a 3 percent spending increase. The idea would open up classroom space and prevent the literacy/numeracy coaching jobs from being cut, he said.
In past years, the board reduced the budget at each school, which diluted the district’s educational quality rather than focus on mandates, he said.
This idea was dismissed by fellow board members, who said they worried funding would not be returned to the budget.
“Having been around for more than just two years following budget talks — if it comes out, it very
rarely goes back in, unless it becomes another mandate,” said Torrington Middle School teacher Jason Lafreniere, faculty liaison to the budget committee.
The sports program at the middle school, reduced in 2016, was returned to the spending package for this goround.
Superintendent of Schools Denise Clemons met with Mayor Elinor Carbone about moving school administrators from their traditional home on Migeon Avenue to City Hall, which would bring some savings, she said.
Shuttering East School decreased the proposed budget by about $19,235, considering utilities, aintenance and required moving costs, Clemons said.
Barbara Gall, a former teacher at Vogel-Wetmore Elementary School, questioned the financial wisdom of closing East School, at least for the 2018-19 school year,, and wondered whether the board had longterm plans for its maintenance and use.
“There are some tragic examples of closed or shuttered buildings in our town,” Gall said. “Are you just going to let (the building) die, and then have to accept the cost of demolition? And then what happens? The mice will rule — that’s my comment tonight.”
Resident Diane Holland said she was concerned about possible faculty cuts, reducing the amount of money spent on education in general, and the upkeep of the East School.
She said she was displeased with the Torrington schools becoming an alliance district, considering it was an embarrassment to be one of the 30 lowest-performing districts in the state, she said. She wondered where the district would get the $500,000 or more it will receive from the state, once the district’s status is changed.
Christina Augliera said her son had been outplaced to a program in Bloomfield because he could not be educated appropriately in Torrington.
She asked board members to carefully consider their cuts, as well as the potential affect on students needing aid, as well as the possibility of creating new special education programs.
“I hear about a lot of what we’re talking about — just looking at lines on paper, and saying that we want to take this money away to save from this overall budget,” Augliera said. “But when you think about that, really think about the needs of the kids that we’re cutting these things from, because there is a significant need in this district.”
Budget committee Chairman Armand Maniccia Jr. said the proposed budget would be finalized at the board’s April 11 meeting.
“Cuts are never good, but we need to be fiscally responsible,” said Maniccia. “It’s not something we like doing . ... We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”