School board reviews proposed 2011-12 budget

WINSTED — Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno presented his proposed 2011-12 budget to the Winchester Board of Education Tuesday night, March 8, at Town Hall, giving board members a week to discuss and revise the budget before presenting it to the Board of Selectmen March 15.The $23 million package had been slightly revised from a proposal given to budget subcommittee members at a meeting last week. Salerno acknowledged at that meeting that a proposed 11 percent increase “is not going to sell.”A full outline of administrative and instructional salaries was included in Salerno’s presentation Tuesday night, with the price tag for teachers’ salaries coming in at almost $5 million for 40 positions. Salaries range from approximately $44,000 to $79,000 per year, with most in the $70,000 to $75,000 range.The budget presumes grades seven and eight will move to the town’s semi-private high school, The Gilbert School, as decided last year by the school board. Salerno, who is in the final year of his contract as the town’s superintendent, did not specify a monetary savings achieved by that move. He said in an interview with The Winsted Journal last week that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on the fiscal prudence of the decision.At Tuesday night’s meeting, Salerno told board members that there are fewer teachers overall in the new K-6 district in 2011-12, but there are a few new positions, including three reading specialists and a speech therapist. In an interview conducted on Friday, March 4, Salerno said the proposed budget restores instructional positions that were cut last year. “Last year we cut nine teaching positions because of lower class sizes,” he said. “The budget also deals with a number of cost increases for a number of contracts, including fuel, energy, insurance and unemployment.”According to a draft budget ledger provided by Salerno, the new proposed positions would include reading teachers for the fourth, fifth and sixth grade, each costing $44,707.The budget also calls for a speech therapist at $70,000.Salerno said that the board originally discussed 13 teachers transferring to The Gilbert School.He said as it stands right now, the district is looking at five teachers going up to the school.According the the draft ledger, teachers Sharon Cifaldi, Eileen George and Linda Smith have accepted early retirement packages.Teachers Jennifer Schroeder and Sherrie Tanguay are marked on the draft ledger as being potentially laid off.In the draft budget, the district proposes the hiring of 10 new paraprofessionals to add to the existing 49 paraprofessionals already employed by the district.If passed as proposed in the draft budget, the budget for administration salaries will be $853,351.26, the total for teacher saleries will be $5,143,281, clerical staff salaries will be $257,941.20, maintenance staff salaries will be $351,369.48, nursing staff salaries will be $129,158.20 and paraprofessional salaries will be $941,997.50.As proposed in the draft budget, the highest paid employees in the school district will be the director of special of education at $115,457, followed by the middle school principal at $115,456.86 and the elementary school principal at $113,339.34The teachers in the district will make anywhere from $41,115 at the lowest salary to $80,591.96 at the highest salary.If passed, the budget will pay a total of $7,677,098.36 in salaries.Shaw Israel Izikson contributed to this story.