New Fairfield’s Board of Education (BOE) met for a second Budget Workshop on Thursday, 1/27. With the news that the Consolidated Early Learning Academy (CELA) addition to Meeting House Hill School will be ready to open in the fall, there was an opportunity to reduce the proposed budget with a unanimous vote from 3.98% to 3.84%, due to operational savings in oil and electricity. Though the opening will bring savings, the amount was offset by some factors including that the electrical costs will increase at CELA, due to addition of air conditioning. Plus the school will offer increased pay to teachers for moving their classrooms. Administrators also came prepared with answers to several questions that arose from board members at their 1/25 workshop.
With a packed Zoom audience of over 100, the Board discussed the hot-button issue of the ways that moving into the CELA addition might affect staffing at the school(s). Having floated the possibility of a new structure of administrators at the previous workshop, board members learned that eliminating one administrator position would decrease the budget by $150K. Board members questioned what had been promised to voters regarding the buildings being treated as one vs. two, which remains to be detailed. The Town Tribune reported in 2019, throughout the process leading up to the votes on the buildings, that administrators expected approximately $350K in staffing savings when CELA opened.
Some board members expressed discomfort, especially in light of recent public backlash on social media, with the notion of eliminating an administrator and the psychological, rather than physical, leap of the schools merging into one. Board Chair Mr. Dominic Cipollone stressed that “I think we need to look at everything. We’re in a tight, tight, close-to-the bone budget and to not at least look at it and see what it represents…wouldn’t be appropriate. So I think we need that information in order to be able to make the best decisions moving forward.”
The board looked at the hard figures behind dropping a classroom per grade level in the elementary grades and at the Middle School level and what the impacts would mean to class sizes. In kindergarten,1st, and 2nd grades, the potential class sizes were outside of the district’s overarching guidelines for ideal class sizes. It was noted that a contingency teacher would be needed, if this scenario moved forward for K-2. While in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades the totals bear out that the class sizes could withstand reduction and stay within guidelines. Assistant Superintendent Ms. Julie Luby explained how the team approach can be shifted to accommodate an odd number of teachers, which would be the case if further reductions occurred.
Luby explained in depth why there is a high level of comfort behind the Superintendent’s budget’s proposed recommendations regarding the reduction of support positions, such as a reading interventionist at Consolidated School. She detailed the percentage of need and the way that the number is broken down into three tiers of support and arrived at the fact that the school can cover the needs of the students without the additional positions. She went on to say “if we had all the wealth in the world and can have everything we wanted, we certainly would love to have the reading interventionist position, but knowing that we are aiming for a lean budget and trying to make really smart choices, we believe that with the two reading interventionists [that remain in the budget], we can work with the students who need our support.”
In public comment a couple of teachers and a few parents spoke out against class size increases. Another parent encouraged people to let their thoughts known to the town’s Board of Finance. And a final parent spoke to remind the audience that significant staffing savings were repeatedly mentioned throughout the process before the town voted on the two new school buildings.
By Sarah Opdahl