MONROE, Conn. — The Board of Education approved a $78.3 million budget with a 4.82 percent increase in spending Tuesday night, after trimming Superintendent Joseph Kobza’s proposal by $250,000. It will now be reviewed by First Selectman Terry Rooney.
Chairman Dennis Condon said it is up to the superintendent and his team to decide what line items to cut to make up for the $250,000. After a lengthy debate, the Board of Education adopted the revised budget proposal along party lines, with fellow Republicans — Vice Chair Christine Cascella, Greg Beno, Sunny Gill and Jeffrey Fulchino joining Condon in the 5-3 vote.
Board Democrats, Chrissy Martinez, Alan Vaglivelo and Jerry Stevens voted no.
Condon said he thought there were some “loose” things in the budget and Vaglivelo pressed Condon on where he thought the $250,000 could come from.
Among the line items the superintendent could consider, Condon said the $8,335 digital recognition platform requested by Masuk High School could be privately funded with assistance from organizations like the Monroe Lions and Rotary clubs.
Vaglivelo asked if board leadership came up with the $250,000 number to get the percentage increase below five percent, and contended the goal should be improving students’ academic performances rather than meeting a number.
“Student achievement is always going to be paramount in our discussions here,” Condon said. “I think our focus should be, has been, what we can do for the school system now? What is feasible, reasonable and prudent?”
Condon said he believes the budget could be reduced by $250,000, while still maintaining the educational requirements of the district, and expressed confidence in Kobza and his administration to make it work.
Debate over Stepney
Earlier in the meeting, Condon and Cascella expressed a desire to wait until the town knows how it will plan for the future of school facilities to accommodate growing student enrollment before adding a new assistant principal position at Stepney Elementary School. Cascella said it is possible the school’s student population could be reduced, lessening the need for an assistant principal.
Kobza asked for it last year and it was taken out and asked for the $142,397 position again this year.
Vaglivelo and Martinez, who are both educators working in school systems, argued that the position is necessary for a modern day elementary school and Stepney Principal Ashley Furnari said it would be a huge help for special education, which includes numerous meetings.
Martinez said she would rather make decisions for what is going on right now, rather than a “what if” scenario of how changes to facilities may impact Stepney’s student population.
Vaglivelo asked Kobza what impact not having an assistant principal at Stepney could have on the district.
“I think the biggest impact is I want the principals to be instructional leaders in their building,” Kobza said.
Aside from involvement in teacher evaluations, the superintendent said he wants principals to have the time to walk through classrooms to make sure math and reading curriculum is being carried out the way it is supposed to be.
“That’s what I want our principals spending their time on and unfortunately, it’s dealing with a bullying case, there was an upset parent just last week, and when those things happen they take up hours of your day,” Kobza said.
He said only one other elementary school with 500 or more students in Monroe’s District Reference Group of similar towns does not have an assistant principal. Stepney had over 500 last year and is just below that this year. The other school is in South Windsor and Kobza said its superintendent was redistricting students to get the population below 500.
Currently, administrators from outside the school assist Furnari with the volume of teacher evaluations and some other needs. Condon said it is a question of whether moving around resources is meeting students’ needs. He said only Kobza can answer that.
Vaglivelo said, realistically, the superintendent will never tell the board, which employs him, that needs are not being met.
After Cascella made the motion to cut Kobza’s budget proposal by $250,000, she and Condon noted how projections in budgets become more solid later in the process. For example, the health insurance increase sometimes comes in significantly lower, so the reduction may be absorbed.
Cascella asked Finance Director Ronald Bunovsky Jr., on average, how much money the Board of Education has had left over in its budget before the year end spend over the past few years.
Bunovsky said probably somewhere between $1.5 million and $2 million.
Stevens said this is because the town has reserve accounts for health insurance and special education cost overruns that the school board would otherwise have to budget for.
Historically in Monroe, Stevens expressed a frustration over working with and trusting educators on what is best for student achievement every year, only for town officials to already have “a hidden number” in mind, predetermining what the budget will be. For example, a first selectman calling for an overall increase no higher than two percent.
Condon said the school board has to be concerned with its own part of the budget process and not what happens when it goes before town officials. He also praised Kobza and his team for finding creative ways to make spending cuts when needed.
Martinez said the town has been “kicking the can down the road” in favor of “bare bones” budgets since she has lived here.
“I cannot continue to be a part of that kicking the can down the road thing,” she said, “and I just need to say that on the record, because this is unbelievable to me right now. Joe and all of you in the seats there, I trust you. I value what you do for our kids every day. Thank you for the hours and hours and hours of time you put into this to nickel and dime everything to get us to the number you did get us to, knowing what our neighboring towns are going through as well.”
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