Politics & Government

Council Responds to Board of Education Budget

'Does the tax increase equal just a straight increase to a teacher's salary?'

At Tuesday’s public hearing on the Town Manager’s budget, residents talked and the Town Council just listened. But Wednesday, the council members shared a few of their thoughts on the Board of Education budget.

“The struggle I’m going to have with this year’s budget is going after the taxpayers and asking them to pay more taxes and the bulk of that is going to be teachers. Outside of that, the rest of this budget is an easy thing to support, it really is,” Town Council Chairman Mike Clark told the Board of Education as they reviewed their budget.

The council seemed to agree with the dozens of parents who had spoken Tuesday that the board had made every cut it comfortably could to programs and staff. The remainder of the budget is made up of mandated services and contractual obligations to provide a raise to the teachers. The Farmington Education Association contract, negotiated in November 2008, is in the last of a three-year term. A new contract will be negotiated in July. But until then, the success of the school budget – and the overall Town budget – may be determined by how people feel about the teachers’ raise and their refusal to give back for a third year in a row.

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Acting Board of Education Chairman Betsy Kaplan told Clark the board shares his frustration.

“We went to the leadership and have tried hard to do that but in the spirit of unity, and I hope you take it as such, we did negotiate the contract together,” she said. “Regardless of how any of us feel about it we are obligated to meet that… the unfortunate part for us is because salary takes up such a significant portion of our budget, we have to go somewhere else. And you’re right, it will come from our less senior teachers - and they are fine teachers - or they’ll have to come from programs, from our students.”

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Where, specifically, would the cuts come from, the council asked.

“The budget that we brought forward is the budget we truly believe that we need. That said, we understand the pressure you are under,” Kaplan said. “It would be remedial programs, class sizes… we will hit core programs and art, music and physical education. There’s no way to avoid it depending on the number that you give us.”

During the rest of the presentation, some council members balked at the high cost of the proposed technology program - $500,000 for a wireless network at Irving A Robbins Middle School and Farmington High School, plus some equipment.

Jon Landry, Board of Education member and part of the ad-hoc technology funding committee, said the board had delayed improvements for too long already and that students were suffering as a result.

“Technology is not just a separate subject that we learn. It’s part of the fabric of what we do,” he said. “I think we’re at the point where we can no longer afford not to do it without dire consequences to our students.”

And council members Charlie Keniston and CJ Thomas took issue with the board’s decision to put the technology infrastructure above fixing the leaky IAR roof.

“The high school environment is going to move into the computer age,” council member John Vibert said. “All we’re talking about here is how quickly we’re going to get there.” He noted that even if the wireless network were delayed, either at IAR or FHS, the equipment upgrade would be necessary.

Superintendent Kathleen Greider said an investment in technology could be a cost-savings in the future. The district, she said, is looking into offering additional classes, specifically Mandarin Chinese and world languages, online.

Keniston recalled his own childhood, with large classes, saying that he was just fine. He took out several bills and a few coins, totaling $100. Then he took away a few of the coins.

“To some people, it doesn’t look like much of a cut was done [by the Board of Education]. It may be the first day of Lent, but in some people’s mind this doesn’t look like much of a sacrifice,” he said.

He recommended the board save money by simply increasing class size.

Nancy Nickerson said that while every penny of the board’s budget is well spent, “there are different levels of needs and priorities."

Patty Stoddard offered a similar sentiment.

CJ Thomas said he was reluctant to see program cuts.

“When we lose programs, when we lose years of education, those are things that cannot be replaced,” he said. But he came back to the teachers, which is where Clark ended the discussion.

“The big question by the citizenry is ‘does the tax increase equal just a straight increase to a teacher’s salary’ and we’ll have to answer that at the end of the day with our budget… We’ve set targets and the board has kind of ignored the target and come in with the need,” he said. “Part of our job is to weigh the options - take into account the schools and the rest of the community and put together something that’s fair.”


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