BOE Targets Special Education, Stipends in Latest Budget Cuts

Despite reducing the Region 13 school budget by more than $134,000, school administrators have been asked by the Board of Education to make deeper cuts.

At the conclusion of a nearly four-hour long meeting Wednesday night at Strong School, board members felt the budget's 3.84 percent net increase was still "too high" for voters in Durham and Middlefield to support it.

"We need more cuts," said board member Nancy Boyle.

Reductions to Superintendent Susan Viccaro's initial $34.41 million budget proposal were made in several areas, including givebacks from school principals that totaled more than $40,000.

"I really tried, in all sincerity, to pick items that I thought would least impact kids," Korn Principal Laurie Sinder told the board. Sinder and the other principals found savings by agreeing to reduce spending on things like postage, office supplies and books.

Administrators cut an additional $8,550 from the budget as a result of the recommendations made by board member Jeremy Renninghoff to reduce spending on departments that had shown a history of not spending their entire budget appropriation.

Other cuts include a $30,500 reduction in special education services and $12,000 in fuel savings, the result of a newly negotiated oil contract.

But despite the cuts, board members pressed the administration to reduce the budget further. Board member Kerrie Flanagan was outspoken at the meeting in her support of not only reducing the budget but also reallocating money to ensure student success.

"Over time... our allocation on a cost per student basis of monies given to instructional support and instructional supplies continues to decline," she said. "The money is being shifted elsewhere."

One area that needs closer scrutiny, according to Flanagan and board member Robert Fulton, is student support services, a department that handles the district's special education services. Fulton said nearly half the $550,000 in salary increases in next year's budget would come out of special education.

Amy Emory, the district's pupil personnel director, responded to the board's concerns by pointing out that student support services includes guidance, social workers, school psychologists and regular ed. "The department reaches all level of kids in the district," she said.

"We have to make decisions," Flanagan responded. "How do you ever get a lid on the cost of special education?"

For the second straight year, the board is also trying to get a handle on stipends. The additional payments to teachers who serve as club advisers, department heads and coaches, makes up $1.2 million of the budget, aother figure that concerns Flanagan.

"If you look at our cost per student, which continues to rise, it's areas like this that are driving it up. We have to make a decision as a board, we can fund extracirricular activities or we can fund education," she said.

While the district is contractually obligated to pay for some increases to stipends, Flangan said the board should take a hard look at eliminating under-utilized clubs.

Coginchaug Principal Andre Hauser, however, cautioned the board from eliminating clubs in order to solve the rising costs of stipends. He said he feared doing so would have a negative impact on the school's accreditation review which will take place next year.

Other suggestions made by the board in an effort to reduce the budget include the elimination of a seventh grade teacher at Strong School. Member Norm Hicks said a decline in enrollment in the middle school presented the board with a two-year window for savings.

"I think that's doable and I think that would be a tremendous savings," Hicks said.

While the board considers reducing the teacher position, four positions have been added to the budget. At the recommendation of board members, Viccaro has proposed hiring four part-time literacy tutors at a total cost of $39,200.

The tutors would work in each of the district's four elementary schools and play a key role in preparing students for the Common Core standards, Viccaro said.

The board, which will meet again on March 28, also plans to look at the areas of athletics and buildings and grounds for possible additional reductions.

"I personally think we need to go down a full point," Flanagan said. "We're almost halfway there."