Community Corner

Vernon School Board Takes a Gamble on All-Day Kindergarten

More than $400,000 was taken out of the 2013-14 spending plan for the program but extra state aid will be used for the kindergarten implementation, according to a motion.

The Vernon Board of Education likes the odds on the big board in Vegas, er, Hartford, and has essentially put down a wager on the town's favorite team this budget season. 

All-Day kindergarten. 

In a 4-2 vote cast at just before 11 p.m. on Monday, the board took out $475,458 designated for the implementation of all-day kindergarten in the 2013-14 budget request. The decision came with the stipulation that extra "Alliance District" money received be used for the program. 

The town is eligible for $730,603 in extra state aid under the presumption that it has to get out of "the bottom 30," a group of school systems the state has deemed under-performing, mostly in terms of test scores.  

All-day kindergarten is considered a vital step in not only emerging from the Alliance hole, but in preparing young students for the new core curriculum. Much of the budget commentary has centered around that concept. 

Voting to take the gamble were William Nicholson, David Kemp, Laura Bush and Anne Fischer. Voting no were Michele Arn and Terri Goldich. Arn had made a motion - seconded by Goldich - to take $810,000 out of the technology account earlier in the night, but it failed. 

Before casting a vote on the all-day K money, board members implored Director of Business and Finance Michael Purcaro to give them odds on getting enough Alliance money to get the program going. Purcaro said The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities is fairly confident that most of the $730,603 approved by the legislative Appropriations Committee will get through both the state House of Senate.  

A source close to the school board said the town should get enough extra state aid to fund all-day K. After the meeting, Bush said she would not have voted for the reduction without being all but sure the wager would pay off. 

The school board had to do something on Monday, the day before the annual budgetary town meeting (Tuesday, 7 p.m., at Rockville High School). Mayor George Apel has directed a cut of $1.5 million from the school board's budget request. 

The school board also removed $15,000 from a heating oil account. 

The cuts to the 2013-14 bottom line now total $1,184,407, leaving $315,593 remaining to reach the mayoral magic number. 

The new bottom line for 2013-14 is $50,485,380, an increase of 4.78 percent  from this year's budget of $48,180,197. 

The increase must get down to 4.13 percent under Apel's directive.

Monday's meeting was at Northeast School. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here