![]() ![]() “I have to provide … those supports”Ĭommon Council members continued to air concerns about the proposed budget during a meeting on Tuesday.īoth Council Majority leader Eugene Nocera and Minority Leader Philip Pessina said that a six percent increase was a steep request that would fall on taxpayers in a period when inflation was already placing pressure on people’s personal budgets. “That’s another level of transparency that I think is needed in public budgeting,” he said. He said that there were certain lines in the budget, such as for paraprofessionals or certified salaries, that included increases or decreases without delineating how many positions were being funded or what those positions were. ![]() The district also pushed back against some of the mayor’s objections regarding decreases in funding lines for professional development, building substitutes and additional compensation.įlorsheim told CT Examiner that his biggest concern was about transparency. “The problem that I see there, and this is something that we deal with on the city side too, is that even when you’re keeping a budget flat, or even if you’re just giving up the contractual increase … that’s still, in many cases, essentially a flat funding or even a reduced level of funding,” he said. ![]() Vazquez-Matos said this would also allow the district to continue recruiting and keeping teachers on staff given the benefits offered by other districts.įlorsheim, however, told CT Examiner in an interview last week that the decreases in the overall spending lines on teacher salaries at the schools were concerning. The written rebuttal also noted that of the six percent budget increase, over $3 million was contractually-obligated for staff salary increases. He said that staff returning to the district were all getting an increase in pay, and that staff salaries were increasing overall by 2.9 percent. Responding to Florsheim’s concern that the budget would still decrease funding for teacher salaries in six of the district’s eight elementary schools, he explained that these cuts were due to the retirement of teachers with higher salaries who were then replaced by teachers earning a lower salary, a common practice in school districts. In a meeting with the Common Council on Tuesday, Vazquez-Matos said that anything less than the six percent would “drastically limit our ability to maintain our baseline.” The board is proposing a school budget of $97 million, an increase of 6 percent, or about $5.5 million over last year. Using our strategic operating plan as our guide, we strive to deliver an exceptional educational experience for our students on a daily basis.”. “Every component of the Board’s proposed budget invests in our employees and our community. MIDDLETOWN - The town’s superintendent and Board of Education pushed back hard against recent charges by Mayor Ben Florsheim that the proposed school budget shows a lack of investment in school staff and a lack of transparency.Īn eight-page document signed by Superintendent Alberto Vazquez-Matos and Board Chair Deborah Cain offered point-by-point rebuttals to criticism leveled by the mayor in his April 1 budget address, calling the idea that the district was cutting funding for school staff “patently false.” ![]()
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