Papallo Presents Draft Budget

Superintendent Bill Papallo presented a draft of the operating budget to the Board of Education and public at a sparsely attended gathering in the community room at City Hall last night.

The current operating budget stands at $155 million dollars, a 3.4% increase ($5 million) increase over last year. 

Prior to the meeting, Dr. Papallo attended a meeting with the Board of Estimation and Taxation at which Mayor Richard Moccia said that the BOE should anticipate a zero increase budget.  (See today’s Hour Story for more on that meeting).

“What I heard at the BET meeting was not surprising,” said Dr. Papallo. “This budget is well below bare bones, but we are already trying to find ways to reduce this number.”

“Think of the budget like an onion,” said Dr. Papallo. “For years we have been adding a layers.  Now the onion is going to be peeled back and it's going to be painful.”

The budget includes a contractual 1.35% raise for teachers as negotiated by the Norwalk Federation of Teachers and the BOE this fall.  It also assumes an increase in enrollment in the elementary schools thereby including salaries for seven reserve teachers (who may or may not be hired according to enrollment at the time.)

As for other staffing changes, there are three new staffing positions added to the budget:  two In-School suspension teachers as required by a new State law and a data clerk.  One speech & language teacher position in the Special Education Department is being eliminated. 

Board Member Steve Colarossi had several questions and comments on the budget. In particular, he asked why it appeared that there were cuts in teachers' aides in Rowayton and Marvin elementary schools.  CFO Dan Cook said that he will do an analysis of this.

Mr. Colarossi also said that the legal fees budgeted seemed excessive.  Mr. Cook said that based on a decision by the Finance Committee (of which Mr. Colarossi is chair), an RFP is going out for legal services that may bring this cost down. 

Mr. Colarossi also questioned the use of IT overtime, HR advertising, the cost for superintendent designees at expulsion hearings, and the need for additional portables.  He asked why there is no reduction in the cost for trash pick up given that NPS has begun a recycling program and why trips to Roton Planetarium appear twice on the budget.

“I don’t mean to be picky,” said Mr. Colarossi. “But a few thousand here and there can add up.”

There were no questions from other board members. 

During the public comment section of the meeting, Dr. Lynn Moore, principal of West Rocks, asked how was it going to be possible to arrive at a zero increase budget. 

“There is nothing in this budget that addresses the segregation in our schools and the inequities of our buildings,” she said. 

Bruce Mellion, president of the NFT, said that Human Resources is understaffed and that teachers are not getting clarification on many of their HR questions.  He also said that the budget need to take into consideration that there are 40-50 teachers retiring in the near future. 

He added that NPS needs additional staff in English Language Learners program and that all income taken in by NPS should be accounted for in the budget.

Mr. Mellion said that it should not be overlooked that by switching to the Health Savings Acoounts, teachers have incurred substantial savings to the school system.

Kerry O’Neill, PTO president of Silvermine Elementary school, said that the possibility of going through the budget line by as was done during last year's reconciliation is “quite scary.”

“I’m afraid that we are not addressing some long term strategic issues,” she said. “We need to do some soul searching.”

“Are we really tackling the achievement gap issues and other inequities?  We need to think of our students,” she said.

The budget is on the agenda at tonight's regularly scheduled BOE meeting and will be discussed further at the Finance Committee meeting on Thursday.