Schools

School Board Chairman Comments on Dropping His Republican Status and the 2013-14 Budget

He has began the process of dropping his political affiliation.

Board of Education Chairman Deale Houle on Wednesday released the following statement on the proposed 2013-14 budget and his decision to drop his Republican political affiliation and become unaffiliated

"I am going to respond to the recent letter to the editor from Town Council member Julie Clay regarding the budget that they are presenting to the voter of Vernon in a referendum on May 7. I am currently the chairperson of the Board of Education and have been part of the Republican majority for the past 10 years. I have recently changed my voter status to non-affiliated because I don’t agree with the recent comments, actions or tactics displayed by the Republican Mayor and council members in Vernon. 

"In 2012, I was surprised as were many others to learn that Vernon was ranked in the bottom 30 school districts in Connecticut. I was appalled at learning this information, but at the same time happy that the state was going to provide some funding to help us change that statistic. I learned that Vernon could apply for “Alliance District Funding” in the amount of $671,000 and that, once approved, that grant would be provided for the next five years.  We were not told that the funding would be increased year over year. It was determined that the funds should be used to build capacity in the Vernon Public Schools to address our needs. Subsequently, our Administration drafted a plan with the state's input that would build that capacity and it was approved. 

"The Board of Education begins its budget process early in January, when the superintendent presents an estimate of the expenditure for the upcoming year. We deliberate the budget over several weeks; adding and subtracting, as we feel appropriate. We must present our budget to the Mayor’s office by Feb. 10 (so this year, that meant by Friday Feb. 8). On Feb. 8, the Board of Education knew nothing about the proposed additional funding for Alliance Districts in 2013-2014. The Board of Education sent a budget to the mayor that truly represented our district’s needs. 

"After the budget was sent to the mayor’s office, the superintendent, other board members and I began meeting with every PTO in town to explain our budget and why we requested a 7.24 percent increase. I also caucused with the Republican council members to explain our rationale for the budget request. "I am extremely disappointed with the actions of the Republicans on Wednesday, April 3. The message they sent to the voters that evening did not convey the fact that this town needs this budget to pass and that it represents the needs of the town.  They basically implied lets send it to referendum and see what happens.

"I support the budget the Board of Education presented to the mayor and Town Council, I stated exactly why it’s needed, and I believe it was fiscally responsible. 

"I heard one council member state his position in a very dramatic fashion finishing with “I cannot afford this!” If there were tears, I would have nominated him for an Academy Award! Another member felt that the Board of Education should be able to address its needs with a 1 percent increase, but offered no explanation of how to make it work. Yet another member made his ideas known after the meeting stating, “I am concerned that it will not accomplish its intended purpose” referring to the Board of Education’s presentation and its goal of getting out of the Alliance District and he found the information “unpersuasive.”

"Councilman Winkler eloquently articulated his rational for supporting the Board of Education budget and desire to add back the requested additional funding (Thank you).

"Over the past 10 years the Board of Education has worked hard to negotiate reasonable contracts, consolidate services where we could and to find savings that could keep our budget requests to extreme minimums because of difficult economic conditions. In addition, we have not funded a capital budget. We have instead utilized a capital non-recurring emergency fund to address capital needs.
 
"This year’s budget presented challenges that require additional funding and the board presented a budget that reflected our needs and requested support from the Mayor and subsequently the Town Council. The Mayor responded with an immediate reduction to our budget request. The Republican council members choose to move forward with the Mayor's suggested budget after defeating attempts by Councilman Winkler to restore some additional funding to the Board of Education without stating why they did not support the addition funding. "So to address Councilwomen Clay’s editorial

• What will the Board of Education do with 1.4 million dollars of Alliance money? We are committed to a plan that was agreed upon with the state for $671,000. The additional $700,000 has been allotted at this time. This is a proposed increase in the governor’s budget request which is currently being debated in Hartford and the final outcome will likely not be known until the end of June. If funding is increased, it will likely require a plan of action, which will be created at that time. I would assume that all-day kindergarten would be a priority since the Town Council did not wish to support funding it in the Board of Education’s budget.

• What can we do with the medical insurance surplus of $130,000? The Board of Education did not receive any bid information until early February when we were submitting our budget to the mayor’s office but did make some assumptions based on initial analysis of the responses. That said, the savings from re-negotiating our medical insurance were already factored into our budget estimates. We will not realize any additional savings until staff members shift from their current PPO to the HSA.

• What can we do with a $2 million budget increase? This will likely mean another reduction in staffing because the Board of Education required 2.375 million to fulfill our current obligations to maintain the same level of programing as 2012-2013.

Based on the aforementioned, we must past this budget at referendum or we are going to devastate the Vernon Public Schools and cause many more families to seek out Magnet Schools or leave town.


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