DANBURY -- In any other time, news that the mayor wants the city schools to operate next year with the same amount of money as the current year, educators would be horrified.

But Tuesday, when school board chairman Susan Podhajski and Superintendent Sal Pascarella learned Mayor Mark Boughton proposed to give them $111,895,291 -- no increase, instead of the three percent increase they'd requested to serve the city's 10,000 students, the two were philosophical.

They hope for concessions from the administrators' union --since the teachers' union agreed to delay raises that created a $500,000 savings. They've asked the district's vendors to reduce their prices, and hope to find some help from the federal stimulus money intended for education.

Pascarella said the economy continued to deteriorate after the school board presented his budget request and saw that a $3 million increase would not be realistic.

"At this point, we'll have to reexamine everything," Pascarella said. "We want to minimize the impact on teachers in the classroom."

Eighty-two percent of the education budget is for salaries.

The original $115 million spending plan gave only half a dozen line items more money than last year. They included a 2.71 percent increase in salaries and benefits, 10 percent in special education tuition, and a 16 percent increase in the school district's contribution for the federal Head Start program.

The plan also required cutting eight teaching positions at the high school, four at the elementary level, nine at the middle school, one and a half math specialist positions, and not replacing seven of the 67 teachers who accepted a retirement incentive package.


"It's a matter of coalescing and evaluating every position that comes open,'' Pascarella said. "We're looking at benefits packages and refining that. We're working diligently. I think it's very tough news, but our heads were not in the sand. This is certainly not something we want to do. We will save every dollar we can."

The teachers union agreed to changes in its contract that saved the district $500,0000, and Pascarella said the administrators' union has indicated a willingness to sit down to discuss concessions with him.

When Podhajski was in Florida last week visiting family, she read an article in the newspaper there about the local school board cutting $30 million from its budget and considering closing schools and making massive layoffs.
"Every time you think you have it rough, there is always someone who has it worse,'' Podhajski said. "I'm grateful for the $112 million. We'll figure the rest out because that's what we have to do."

Now the board will have its work cut out, she said.

"We were proposing 24 to 29 staff cuts based on the 3 percent request, so now we'll have to re-look at everything. It probably will call for more layoffs and probably some program cutting,'' Podhajski said.

"The goal is to explore ways to save as many jobs as possible, because that's what in the best interest of the children."


Contact Eileen FitzGerald
at eileenf@newstimes.com
or at (203) 731-3333.