Wallingford School board, administrators have more budget work ahead

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday May 22, 2013

By Eric Vo
Record-Journal staff
evo@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@ericvoRJ

WALLINGFORD — School administrators and the Board of Education are looking at a number of options to bring their 2013-14 budget in line with the money approved by the Town Council. They need to trim $550,000 from their proposal.

The board originally requested a 3.56 percent increase over the current year’s budget, and was pleased when Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s budget included much of that money. But Dickinson presented a revised budget to the Town Council last week after learning that less state money than originally projected would be coming to the town. The biggest change in the revised proposal, passed last Tuesday by the council, was a cut of $279,311 to the schools’ budget.

School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said he and the board will have to examine options to decide how to cover the deficit. Menzo said he will have to look at Title II funding,federal money made available through the state, as one of the options.

“We may have to isolate some of those funds that were previously designated for other resources,” he said.

But whatever the board decides to do, it has to decide soon. The Town Charter requires the Board of Education to approve its final budget by June 30, school board Chairwoman Roxane McKay said. There’s one more Operations Committee meeting next month, where McKay said she hopes the board can agree on what to do in regards to the budget.

“It will definitely be a hot button for June’s Operations meeting,” McKay said. “I’m hopeful we don’t need an additional meeting and that we make our decision in that one meeting.”

If necessary, another meeting can be scheduled to further discuss the budget.

The schools had planned to spend money next year on security and technology upgrades and curriculum development materials. Menzo has been thinking of possible recommendations on reductions in the budget to present to the board, McKay said, and those include reducing technology spending by $400,000 and curriculum development by $150,000.

Although the Common Core State Standards will be put into effect at the start of the next school year, Menzo said making a cut in the development of curriculum won’t put the school system in jeopardy or ultimately impact the students negatively.

The Common Core State Standards were adopted by the state Board of Education on July 7, 2010, and establish what students should know and be able to do as they progress through grades K-12, according to the state Department of Education website.

Menzo said the school system will continue working with the Curriculum Writing Consortium, organized by Area Cooperative Educational Services and involving 19 school systems. Last summer, 20 teachers participated in the consortium working on curriculum. Similar plans are being carried out this summer.

As an emphasis is placed on upgrading technology throughout the schools, Menzo said computers and devices may have to be purchased throughout the course of the school year, rather than all at once.

The extent of any cuts won’t be known until the school system figures out how much money it actually will have available for the 2013-14 budget year, Menzo and McKay said. Administrators are waiting to hear back from the state on multiple grant applications, which could bring in as much as $250,000. And there may be unencumbered funds available once the spending for the current fiscal year is wrapped.

“We’re hopeful,” Menzo said. “It’s not going to be easy, but we’re hopeful to get as much accomplished as possible.”