Region 7 school budget goes to vote

REGION 7 — Region 7 School District voters will go to the polls Tuesday, May 4, to vote on the school board’s proposed $17.9 million budget — a 1.75-percent increase over current spending levels — for the 2010-11 school year.

Voters in all four towns the district serves — Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford and Norfolk — will have the opportunity to cast their ballot during a machine vote referendum on May 4.

The district will still hold its annual budget meeting at the high school on Monday, May 3, but members will adjourn the meeting’s vote call to the next day’s referendum.

The school board unanimously endorsed the spending plan following a public hearing on the budget at Northwestern Regional High School on April 19.

The final budget proposes reductions in certified and non-certified staffing levels throughout the district, including classroom teachers.

If the budget is approved by voters, the staffing reductions will effect 14.6 FTE (full-time equivalent) employees — 6.1 certified and 8.5 classified staff members — with some being laid off outright and others having their regular hours reduced.

While the hearing budget does not include proposals to eliminate any district programs, it does call for the scope of some to be reduced.

Particularly affected would be the availability of some electives at the high school, especially art and technology education classes.

In addition, the budget proposed the elimination of replacement schedules, heavy cuts to equipment/infrasturcture replacement and maintenance, as well as significant cuts to the purchase of general supplies and textbooks.

Currently, the district is operating on a $17.6 million budget for the 2009-10 school year, which represented a zero-percent increase from the previous budget.

The driving force behind this year’s budget difficulties — in addition to the struggling economy — is a $372,278 jump (almost 22 percent) in health-care benefit package payouts for teachers and staff, an expected increase of $336,753 in special education costs and rises in teacher and staff salaries negotiated under collective bargaining agreements.

The board had asked the school’s employee unions to consider reopening their contracts to provide some salary and benefits concessions, but only the administrators agreed to a pay freeze.

Staff members employed “at will,� or those who are not members of a union, however, did agree to have their salaries frozen at current levels for the next school year.