By James Lomuscio
Before a packed Town Hall auditorium of students, teachers, parents and administrators, Westport’s Board of Finance tonight unanimously approved the Board of Education’s proposed $100.2 million budget for 2012-13, an amount that jumped to $114.3 when debt service was added.
Don O’Day addresses tonight’s Board of Finance meeting.. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
In approving the budget, the finance board also finalized the overall Westport budget including municipal government for a grand total of $188 million.
Calling the school system “the crown jewel of our community” and the reason he and his family moved to town 16 years ago, finance board chairman Avi Kaner, a Republican, assured the crowd at the meeting’s outset that his board would not wield a heavy fiscal ax.
“Any thought that we will take an ax and make draconian cuts is not true,” said Kaner. “And while we want the best schools, we want them to operate efficiently.”
Kaner’s positive tone was echoed by Democratic finance board members Janis Collins and Brian Stern who noted they would vote in favor the $100.2 million, a 2.17 percent increase over the current year.
Kaner also pointed out that the finance board under state statute could not make any line item cuts or demands as it did with the municipal budget, but just vote on the total budget.
That caveat, however, did not deter fellow Republican board member Tom Lasersohn from making a motion that was seconded my Michael Rea, also a Republican, to trim the budget by $200,000.
Lasersohn said he was bothered that the budget eliminated seven teaching positions while funding two administrative ones when middle school class sizes have climbed as high as 24 students.
He said he would vote for full restoration if the school board came back with a plan to decrease class size.
He later withdrew the motion when Donald O’Day, school board chairman, made a promise that reducing class size would be a priority.
Before being withdrawn, however, the motion drew the ire of Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon who came to the defense of administrators.
“Without them, our teachers couldn’t teach and our children couldn’t learn,” said Landon, who noted that the number of administrators has been reduced from 49 to 46 since 2009 due to consolidations. “We have some of the best administrators anywhere.”
He also noted that the new administrative positions, actually 1.5 as opposed to two, were designed to enhance curriculum, “not to feather anyone’s nest.”
The finance board will met again on April 11 to consider restoring any of the $309,000 in cuts to the municipal budget, mostly on the transit line.
The Representative Town Meeting (RTM), the town’s legislative body, has final say on the budget and will take it up in the first week of May.
THANK YOU!! This is great news— And I sincerely hope Mr O’Day is able to find a way to reduce class size. I just had a long discussion with teachers/administrators on this subject. Class size is key to academic success. So many kids just fall through the cracks otherwise. And, its stressful for the teachers. They are not able to be as effective or have the positive impact that they would like…
Excellent news indeed! Now we need to speak up about other cuts such as the commuter bus service to the train station! They want to eliminate the entire program which will impact many residents who use it to get to and from the train station during commuter hours because the wait for a parking pass is so lengthy.