Residents emotional over proposed budget

WINSTED — Residents were not shy about expressing their feelings about the proposed budget for fiscal 2011-12 at a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday, May 11.The proposed $30.7 million budget, which is going to referendum on Saturday, May 28, includes $18,600,000 for the school district.The proposed budget is below the minimum budget requirement (MBR) of $20,049,466, a figure set by the state in late April.If the budget passes, the school district will have a funding shortfall of $1,361,094 below the MBR. The shortfall did not sit well with resident Ruthann Horvay, who is the school district’s Family Resource Center director and kindergarten transition coordinator.“A lot of these children are coming into the district with disadvantages,” Horvay said. “There are a lot of risk factors when families are economically stressed and they are coming from single families.”To back up her statement, Horvay said that, of the 73 families who applied for kindergarten, 10 families have single mothers, 12 families have fathers who are not employed, 32 families have mothers who work full-time and two families have both parents who are not working.“I would like for you [the selectmen] to be considering these statistics in making any decision about the budget because our children deserve more,” Horvay said. “I cannot understand why we would not think our children deserve more. If we have to cut $1.3 million from our budget, it would put our full-day kindergarten program at risk of being a half-day. Then we might have families looking for child care and it will hit the Care 4 Kids program, costing the state more money.”The Care 4 Kids program is operated by the state’s Department of Social Service to help low- and moderate-income families pay for child care costs.Resident Tina Sessa, who was the next speaker at the meeting, read to the selectmen a letter she sent to state Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) criticizing the proposed budget.“Sadly, we live in a town that does not support education,” Sessa said. “The Board of Education, while they have made mistakes, have done the best they can with what they have been given. As a parent, it is unfair that the Board of Education has been put in a position where they have to choose between our children’s safety or their education. However, that is exactly what has occurred and continues to occur. Giving them less support from the state would make a difficult situation unbearable.”In her letter to Sen. Roraback, Sessa pleaded with him not to support the idea of lowering the MBR for the town.“Lowering the MBR would have a long-term detrimental effect to children and the entire community,” Sessa said. “We must protect the future generations by giving them the best education as we possibly can. We cannot afford nor should we reduce the MBR.”Resident Caroline Christensen spoke next and proceeded to tear into the selectmen for their proposed budget.“To take money away from these children is absolutely the most absurd thing I have heard of,” Christensen said. “I can’t even consider how you would even think about doing this. It makes me livid to live here and to continuously have to fight for the kids in the town.”Christensen said the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) scores for the school district are below the state goal level in almost every single area.“Our children need as much funding as possible,” she said. “I am so frustrated with the in-fighting and the reasoning behind making decisions that are not based on our children’s needs. [As proposed], my daughter’s sixth-grade class next year will have 31 children. It’s almost ridiculous to teach that many students without help in class.”Resident James Roberts argued that the proposed $18.6 million for the school district budget is adequate funding.“Let’s say that the $20.1 million is the MBR that will provide adequate education in Winsted,” Roberts said. “If the budget passes and the school district receives $18.6 million, and if the school system receives the state funding that has been budgeted of $1.6 million, it would equal $20.1 million. There seems to be a misconception that the MBR is the minimum that can be spent to ensure quality education. That is not the case. The MBR is simply an allocation of resources used to determine how increases in education funding can be split between the town and state.”Resident Brian O’Heron was the last resident to speak at the meeting and he said he intends to vote for the budget.O’Heron referred to comments made at the meeting by Mayor Candy Perez, who took issue with unfunded mandates for the school district created by the state and the federal government.“I want to point out that we all live every day in our families with unfunded mandates,” O’Heron said. “When gas costs go up from $4.50 to $5 a gallon, we have to live with it. We have to adjust our priorities and change our ways of life. Right now we are going through a lot of unfunded mandates as a town. Our school [capacity] is at half full and we have moved the seventh and eighth grades [to The Gilbert School] to save money. We have room to be more efficient. To not manage [the town] more efficiently would be even worse for our children.”