Winsted schools out of compliance with MBR

WINSTED — The town is not compliant with the minimum budget requirement (MBR) for school year 2011-12, according to Brian Mahoney, chief financial officer for the state Department of Education.At a budget referendum in late May, voters approved the town’s budget proposed by the Board of Selectmen, which set education funding at $18,600,000 —$1,449,466 below the MBR.The approved budget has led to months of controversy and bickering between the Board of Education and the Board of Selectmen.The bickering evolved into a lawsuit filed in late May by the Board of Education against the town and the Board of Selectmen for creating a budget that funds the school district below the MBR.At a special meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16, new Superintendent of Schools Tom Danehy shared Mahoney’s letter with the Board of Education.“Based on the information [Danehy] certified on Aug. 12, Winchester is currently in noncompliance by $1,358,149,” Mahoney wrote. “Given the current noncompliance status for 2011-12, and in order for the department to determine its next steps, please indicate by Aug. 26 if you anticipate the town providing the Board of Education with additional funds during this fiscal year.”Mahoney noted that, according to state general statutes, failure to meet the 2011-12 MBR would result in a forfeiture in an amount equal to two times the shortfall, which would be deducted from the state’s 2013-14 Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant.Mahoney calculated that, based on the shortfall amount, the state would reduce the ECS grant by $2,716,298.Copies of the letter were sent to various members of the town government, including Mayor Candy Perez and Town Manager Dale Martin.“The [State Department of Education] sent this letter asking the town if they would provide us with the MBR, and if they’re not, they [the State Department of Education] will take it to the next level and pursue it,” Danehy said. “I am hoping that we prevail with the MBR.”The Board of Education eventually and unanimously passed a motion to set the school year 2011-12 budget to $18,600,000.However, the way the motion was worded, the budget number did not include the pending receipt of the MBR of $19,958,149.The approved motion also authorizes the district to pursue any and all legal remedies in order to get to the MBR.According to Danehy, he has not heard a response to Mahoney’s letter from anyone in the town government.On Wednesday, Mayor Candy Perez scheduled a special Board of Selectmen’s meeting for Monday, Aug. 22, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall to discuss a response to Mahoney and the State Department of Education. The meeting may include an executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations pending claims and litigation.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less