State BOE moves to enforce Winsted MBR

WINSTED — The State Board of Education has filed a complaint against the town for noncompliance with the minimum budget requirement (MBR).

According to Superintendent of Schools Tom Danehy, the complaint has been filed under Connecticut General Statute section 10-4b and means the State Department of Education will take all necessary action, including a court order if necessary, in order to enforce the MBR.

At a special Board of Education meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6, Danehy said that he is hopeful a resolution to the MBR process would occur by December. The State Board of Education voted to go forward with the complaint on Oct. 5.

If a resolution to the MBR issue is adopted, Danehy said that the school district will not have to pursue mid-school year budget cuts and layoffs that would have been required to meet the $18,600,000 town-approved education budget.

The state Department of Education vote came right after a Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Oct. 3 where the selectmen formally voted against providing the school district with the MBR set by the state at $19,958,149.

Members of the Board of Education applauded at the Oct. 6 special meeting when Danehy announced the state’s actions.

Getting serious

“I think that when a judge issues his decision [over the MBR] that things will get serious,” Board Chairman Susan Hoffnagle said. “If [the town] does not obey the orders of the court, [the selectmen] may be held in contempt. The state indicated to us that they wish to have a resolution [by December], but that by no means is a guarantee.”

While board members were celebratory at first, they then turned skeptical that the Board of Selectmen would ever comply with any state ruling.

“I think we need some disaster preparedness,” board member Mari-Ellen Valyo said. “I think the superintendent should consider talking to the teacher’s union representatives about potential layoffs. I don’t think we should anticipate [the selectmen] backing down at any point, judge or no judge.”

Board member Christine Royer agreed with Valyo and added that the school district needs to be careful in choosing what to cut.

“I would assume that we should go after soft costs, [for example] we should go after things such as the five extra reams of toilet paper first,” Royer said. “You need to be very careful. Speech pathologists and special education teachers are all mandated by the state. With the number of special education students we have, you cannot just willy nilly drop teachers. The [teachers union] might want to participate in the form of concessions.”

Chairman Hoffnagle seemed to be frustrated that many of the programs that people have suggested to be cut have already been cut by the district.

“There was one suggestion that we cut our pre-kindergarten program, but the only problem is that we really don’t have one,” she said. “We do have a special education pre-kindergarten program, but that is mandated by law. Another suggestion was that we cut out a school principal for the district and we have already done that [for school year 2011-12].”

“I hate to say this with the press sitting here, but is art [education] mandatory?” Royer asked Danehy.

Danehy said art programs were not mandatory under the 900 hours of instruction required by the state.

“The only [program] that is safeguarded is physical education,” Danehy said.

The board unanimously voted for Danehy to come up with a list of potential cutbacks that the district can make if the MBR is not fully funded.

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