Taxpayers to vote on regional schools budget

FALLS VILLAGE — The proposed 2012-13 budget for the Region One School District calls for spending $14, 967,549, an increase of $288,453, or 1.97 percent over this year’s budget.The new fiscal year begins July 1.The budget and two questions concerning funding for building projects at Housatonic Valley Regional High School are on the ballot for a referendum vote Tuesday, May 8, at the six town halls in Region One — Canaan (Falls Village), Cornwall, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon. Voting is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.The Region One budget has three distinct parts. One is the high school. The other two serve the entire region: Pupil Services (which includes Special Education) and the Regional Schools Service Center, often referred to as the Central Office, where the superintendent and other administrators work. The RSSC office is in the high school building.• The proposed budget for the high school is $8,479,851, up $230,911 or 2.8 percent.• The proposed budget for Pupil Services is $5,550,269, up $26,651 or .48 percent.• The proposed budget for the RSSC is $937,529, up $30,891, or 3.41 percent.Salaries and benefits account for almost 75 percent of expenditures across the three component parts of the budget, according to Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick.Region One got a break in health insurance — expenditures for 2011-12 were significantly lower than budgeted amounts. The health insurance renewal premium hike was 6.8 percent, a full percentage point lower than expected. This is the third and final year of a teacher retirement incentive package, at $126,430 per year.A substantial part of the proposed high school budget is in new technology. After a technology audit and report issued in January, the school would like to add SMART boards for math and English ($10,000); 40 faculty laptops ($36,000); a virtual server ($18,000); switches ($5,000); five desktops for the science department ($4,500); five printers ($4,000); a Dell mobil cart ($19,750); and 10 computers for the Career Center ($8,000).Changes at the high school include: The addition of a part-time position to the art department, to teach black-and-white and advanced photography ($7,745); in the music department, a MacBook 10 workstation ($12,340), a new piccolo ($2,000) and clarinet ($1,000), and components for the music lab ($5,617).The science department is getting new equipment, including wireless microscopes, a forensic comparison microscope and Whiteboards ($22,500). The English department is requesting $11,772 worth of Kindle e-readers, and social studies is upgrading 80 civics textbooks ($5,643).At Pupil Services, there are 21 certified teachers, including one position that was paid for by federal funds that have now dried up. The salary line for Special Education is up $80,257 to $1,550,165 (5.46 percent).Region One anticipates providing out-of-district services for 10 students, at an average cost of $50,797 per student. There are also three students who will receive services in the district, at $55,500 per student.At RSSC, notable changes are in the contracts for administrators. Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain, Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves, Herrick, Pupil Services Director Carl Gross and Special Education Supervisor Martha Schwaikert all received one-year extensions and 2 percent raises.A split Region One Board of Education voted to approve the 2012-13 proposed budget to go to public hearing, including the administrative contracts, on March 28. The vote was 4-2, with Chairman Phil Hart (Cornwall), Scooter Tedder (Salisbury), Vice Chairman Jonathan Moore (Kent) and Laura Freund (North Canaan) voting yes and Gale Toensing (Falls Village) and Marilyn Yerks (Sharon) voting no. Toensing and others have been publicly critical of the practice of extending administrative contracts, saying that doing so amounts to renegotiating the contracts and puts Region One at a disadvantage in negotiating future deals.Hart and others have countered by noting that the contract extensions were recommended by the All Boards Chairmen committee of the Region One school board. That committee is made up of the chairmen of all six town boards plus the Region One board.Defenders of the status quo also make the argument that not renewing administrative contracts sends a signal to the employee that they should consider finding work elsewhere.For a story on an informational meeting held in Falls Village April 19 by Region One representative Gale Toensing, go to The Lakeville Journal’s website at www.tricornernews.com.