BOE Delays Budget Decision Pending Union Response

The Board of Education (BOE) will wait to receive decisions from four bargaining units later this week on whether they would be willing to take up to 1.5 furlough days during the next fiscal year before it .

The BOE members said at their regular meeting Wednesday night that they hoped to have answers from unions representing the teachers, administrators, custodians and secretaries by the end of the day Friday and would hold a special meeting next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Brookfield High School (BHS) media center to make revisions in their proposed budget so that it would conform to the $36,150,000 appropriation that .

The proposed education package had been defeated by nine votes in the first referendum, which was held May 14, .

That budget for the fiscal year that will start next month represents a 2.06 percent increase over current spending.

Superintendent Anthony Bivona said this week that administrators were hoping to get a decision soon from the BOE on its revised budget so they could proceed with class schedules for the next academic year, which will start in late August.

Board members said they would feel more comfortable about modifying the budget after they had received a decision from the bargaining units about the furloughs.

Board Chairman Ray DiStephan discussed that option at the May 18 BOE meeting, one night after the BOF trimmed $150,000 from the proposed schools budget.

The BOE chairman said he recently had productive discussions with the leaders of the four bargaining units about taking furloughs during time that had been scheduled for professional development.

DiStephan has estimated that 1.5 days of furlough time would save the school district about $150,000. He has also discussed getting 1 day of furlough time, which would net about $98,000 in savings.

He said by accepting the furloughs, the teachers, for example, would lose some opportunities to accumulate the Continuing Education Units (CEU) that are needed every five years to maintain their certifications.

However, DiStephan said he believes that there still would be enough professional development time for teachers to get an adequate number of hours toward their CEU requirements.

The school district’s administrative team proposed at the May 18 meeting that the gap be closed by eliminating a sixth grade teaching position at Whisconier Middle School (WMS) and a .6 world languages and a .4 English position at BHS, both of which would be accomplished through staff attrition.

Additionally an unspecified secretarial position would be eliminated and the school district’s contribution to the town’s pension fund would be $19,000 smaller than had been proposed.

Bivona said last month that the school board had been seeking a 69 percent boost in that contribution over the current fiscal year and would still have a hefty increase even with the $19,000 reduction.

“I don’t like any of the options,” DiStephan said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a better option.”

He said although the administrators’ plan wouldn’t impact class sizes in the elementary schools, “we could be creating an issue at the middle school or the high school.”

“However, there has to be some acknowledgement that these recommendations came from the educational experts,” DiStephan added. “They know the schools better than we do.”

BOE member Victor Katz said he wanted to wait to revise the budget until after the bargaining units announced their decision on the proposed furloughs.

DiStephan said if the BOE took immediate action on lowering the budget, it had the ability to reinstate items if the bargaining units agreed to the furlough time.

BOE Vice Chairman Rob Gianazza said that revising the budget this week “could alter” the decisions by the bargaining units.

The BOE did vote unanimously to adopt the $36,150,000 appropriation so that, for example, pending purchase orders for materials that would arrive after June 30, the end of the current fiscal year could be submitted.

Gianazza has proposed that the BOE consider eliminating an assistant principal’s position at either Huckleberry Hill Elementary School (HHES) or WMS and have a remaining assistant principal be a roving administrator between those schools and Center Elementary School (CES).

He pointed to declining enrollments at HHES and WMS and that the middle school recently added a fifth grade guidance counselor, which might make it possible to have fewer administrators.

WMS added a second assistant principal in 2001 as its enrollment was climbing.

DiStephan said he still has reservations about that plan since it might disrupt administrative functions, but didn’t dismiss it.

“I want to at least think about it,” he said.