Townspeople send $30.6 million package to May 25 referendum

WINSTED — After approving a series of cuts designed to simplify accounting for school-budget funds next year, townspeople voted Tuesday, May 25, to send a $30.6 million budget to referendum.

The Winchester Board of Selectmen agreed earlier in the evening to suggest the series of line-item reductions, in light of concerns that the Board of Education’s budget is in the red by approximately $200,000 this year, according to the most recent figures provided by school officials.

The school system will again receive federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds in the amount of $1,116,210 next year, and Mayor Candy Perez said the Board of Selectmen wants to make sure the money is properly spent.

Part of the problem, Perez said, is that school officials have repeatedly come to the Board of Education with revised figures suggesting an ever-deepening hole in funding for the current year. In the past week, the estimated overage for the school system increased from approximately $125,000 to nearly $200,000, raising alarm among selectmen.

“I was disappointed with the way all of these financial numbers have come to us,� Perez said in an interview Monday. “And I’m extremely disappointed in the way communications have been handled.�

Perez outlined a series of cuts for the public to consider at the town budget meeting, including a $748,861 reduction to next year’s school budget, a $225,000 reduction in capital improvements to the schools on the municipal side of the budget, a reduction of just over $50,000 for town crossing guards in the municipal budget and a decrease in the town’s Education Cost Sharing revenue line item of $1,116,210.

The end result, Perez explained, would be that the school system will receive the same amount of money as originally budgeted, but that the federal ARRA funds received by the school system will be accounted for properly.

“Confusion and complications regarding this appropriation have caused our auditors to recommend that we limit the town’s exposure to the possibility that the Board of Education may ‘technically’ spend both the full appropriation of $19,792,397 and the ARRA funds of $1,116,210,� Perez said.

The board’s suggestions to reduce the school-budget line item and other line items were approved without significant discussion. A strong majority of voters accepted the explanation that the moves were simply accounting procedures that had no impact to the overall proposed budget. The series of cuts passed by a vote of 116 to 67. A subsequent motion, to use the town’s fund balance as a revenue item in the event of school-budget overspending, was defeated by a vote of 82 to 44.

After making the selectmen’s recommended cuts, voters began discussing the restructured budget, which remained at $30.6 million. Debate regarding taxation and the school budget was relatively brief, compared to recent years, with just one reduction motion made by former Selectman Russell Dutton Buchner, to cut the school budget by $1.5 million.

Buchner said he has lost confidence in the town’s semi-private high school, The Gilbert School, and that spending for high-school students in town has increased by more than 40 percent in the past 10 years, largely due to an exodus of Hartland students who have chosen to be educated in other towns under a voucher system.

“We’re paying for 100 empty seats that Hartland students used to sit in,� he said.

Buchner’s motion was ultimately defeated by voters, who then voted by a simple majority to send the proposed budget to referendum.

In general, critics of the school budget were outnumbered by supporters, including Board of Education member Dr. Richard Dutton, who said cuts to the board’s originally proposed budget will result in a “profoundly different� school system next year.

“More than $1 million has been cut from an educationally sound budget proposed by the superintendent, which means that the system will lose many of the younger and perhaps more enthusiastic members of its staff,� he said. “Transportation, sports and administration all will be visibly affected.�

Dutton noted that the Winchester school board has presented suggested changes to The Gilbert School Corporation regarding the process for determining the school budget each year, giving more decision-making authority to the town.

Gilbert School Corporation Chairman Steve Sedlack acknowledged that the corporation has asked the town for an increase of approximately $290,000.

“The lion’s share of the increase is due to the rising cost of medical insurance and the need for facility improvements,� he said. Sedlack also noted that negotiations last year with teachers at Gilbert resulted in an agreement to freeze wages for one year.

Sedlack said Gilbert representatives were disappointed to find out that a proposal to move seventh- and eighth-graders to the school had been abandoned.

“Such a move could have saved approximately $700,000 to the operating budget of Winchester and reduced the tuition charge from approximately $16,000 down to $12,000 per student,� he said.

Sedlack also echoed Dutton’s concern about reductions to the originally proposed school budget.

“We realize that the original budget proposal for the Winchester Board of Education has been reduced by more than a million dollars,� he said. “A cut of that magnitude may be politically necessary but it is educationally irresponsible. The Gilbert School Corporation will do all that it can to work with Winchester to reduce costs to mitigate the effects of those cuts. Since the members of the town meeting cannot increase the amount budgeted for education, we urge you to support the budget as presented.�

Monday night’s meeting was adjourned to a referendum on Tuesday, May 25. The vote will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Pearson Middle School.