Westport Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon has recommended that the Board of Education ask the Board of Finance to restore $1.3 million cut from its 2009-10 budget. He said the cut will harm present and future schoolchildren.
Elliott Landon: Cut will harm schoolchildren. Dave Matlow/WN file photo
The Board of Education will discuss the recommendation at its Monday meeting.
In a memo to the board released today with the agenda packet, Landon said the schools had found $100,000 in savings. Thus, he said he was not seeking the full $1.4 million removed from the budget by the finance board on March 18. (See WestportNow March 18, 2009)
The original $96 million requested education budget represented a 2.01 percent increase over the current year.
The Board of Finance voted Tuesday night to reduce the First Selectman’s proposed $60.4 million budget by $1.7 million. The requested town budget represented a 1.4 percent increase.
The finance board will meet April 6 to consider any requests for restoration to both budgets.
Landon described the $1.4 million reduction as “unprecedented and onerous.”
The schools superintendent, who has not joined First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff’s call for wage concessions from town and school employees to help achieve needed savings, said the cut would have lasting effects.
“(It) will have a profound negative impact upon the educational services provided the children who attend our schools during the next school year and its consequences will be repeated year after year for the young citizens who will follow,” Landon said.
Landon listed 15 possible ways the Board of Education would have to deal with a $1.3 million budget cut.
They included increases in class sizes, elimination of the elementary world language program in whole or in part, elimination of the fifth grade band, and a freeze on restorative and preventive maintenance projects.
At the same time, the schools superintendent criticized the Board of Finance for deciding to substantially increase contributions to the town’s pension and health benefit accounts for municipal retirees, including some who worked for the school district.
Landon said there was “no legal obligation under federal or state law for the town to fund these two reserve accounts to the levels being recommended … especially when it will have such a negative impact upon the educational programs and services offered to the children of Westport.”
1. Why are “non-union” teachers set to receive salary increases, Mr. Landon?
2. Why are you not cutting your more than $220,000 salary (before juicy benefits), Mr. Landon?
3. Unemployment is rising at this very moment, yet you claimed the economy was “turning around as evidenced by Citibank’s stock increase”—that suggests you are out of touch with reality.
Remember, you are an “employee” of us tax payers, not the other way around.
I agree with Mr. Pisacane. All Mr. Landon can do is use the old scare tactic of the “childrens education will suffer”. Mr. Landon sounds more like the “Shop Steward” than a leader of the education process in Westport. If all Mr. Landon can come up with is $100,000 in savings then he is taking the easy way out by throwing the whole problem back in the laps of the Board of Finance. The Board of Finance is reacting to the displeasure about a tax increase from the electorate. The Board of Finance is showing some political courage. Mr. Landon is showing nothing more than his ability to flip a hot issue back onto someone else to solve for him. Perhaps the best way to solve the issue is to find an individual who can manage and lead a first class educational system and manage a budget that fits into the financing parameters dictated by the Town. Then we can say goodbye to Mr. Landon
Tom Bloch
Mr. O’Day…do the right thing…hold the line and make Landon “give” in this critical fiscal time. He needs to “get real”!
Our town has significant accrued Pension Liabilities that the Board of Finance is seeking to prudently fund now.
Mr. Landon’s reckless position, “There is no legal obligation… They are taxing people now for something you don’t have to tax now (Westport Minuteman, pg 1, March 26, 2009)”.
Fiscal responsibility demands that unfunded, accrued pension costs be funded now—-see the auto industry and California for the consequences of ignoring these future, taxpayer financed legal obligations.
Don O’Day and the rest of the BOE have acted professionally and responsibly. Most recently, the BOE agreed to turn back $400k – from this year’s budget – to the town going against the principle of “use it or lose it.”
While I disagree with Dr. Landon on our pension obligations, I respect and value his efforts advocating on behalf of the schools (which is his job).
Avi Kaner
Board of Finance
I’m certain that when Landon leaves, he’ll be standing in line to collect his pension and health benefits!!
Mr. Kaner your job is to look out for the interest of taxpayers….which we expect you to do….NO TAX INCREASE!!
Mr. Leyden – I believe the entire BOF is looking for a tax increase as close to 0% as possible. The disagreements have to do with where the cuts come from and their extent. The interests of taxpayers in this town also include having top notch schools and town services. Other variables include our reserve levels, amounts we fund the pension plans, and revenue streams like conveyance taxes and building permit fees. The goal is to position ourselves for the years ahead instead of just this one year. For example, if we do not adequately fund the pension plans, we will have a larger gap to fill next year and beyond.
Avi Kaner
Board of Finance
Dear Mr.O’Day,
Will you and the other Board members do the yearly rubber stamp of Mr. Landon’s salary increase? Could you at least *try* to make it look to the residents that there was an actual vetting to justify an increase? Make it look good to us. Window dress it. Then the board can pull out the stamp and go for the full increase.
Correction. That would be implies…I need to go back to school..
Please Dr. Landon…using a line which implying the children will be impacted…Priceless. Focus on cutting the fat out of the budget. Look at it creatively. I am sure you and the BOE will be successful in your efforts to meet the BOF’s request.
In his memo included in the meeting agenda packet, Dr. Landon refers to the Board of Finance’s narrow 4-3 decision to cut his budget by $1.4 million as “onerous and unprecedented.” He is asking the Board of Education to request a full restoration. Had the three members of the Board of Finance who voted “no” prevailed, the cut would still have been $1.2 million, as they had offered the smaller reduction as an amendment to the higher cut.
Can one assume, therefore, that Dr. Landon only needs a restoration of $200,000, the difference between the successful motion and the failed amendment?
Elliot Landon: “The ones who will suffer the most for a reduction of this magnitude are the children, the weakest and most vulnerable of our populace.”