School Board Budget Unrealistic
By Editor at February 10, 2024 | 9:00 am | Print
You can’t blame the school board for hoping it gets more money in the upcoming budget. After all, principals are counting pieces of copy paper, hoarding toilet paper and waxing floors less often. Classroom sizes are getting bigger every day.
Costs are consistently rising including salaries, insurance and vendors.
But, this budget with a $13 million increase is unrealistic. It will not and should not be approved.
Mayor Tim O’Brien said he will fund the schools more without raising taxes. That is a great plan.
For years the schools have asked for a budget and received the minimum. That has led to problems that are catching up with us.
People have complained that the board is not transparent.
Handing the mayor an 11.5 percent increase knowing it cannot be funded means the real issues of where money will go will be decided in June. That makes it not transparent as the council does not know exactly what the school board will cut.
Each year the school board claims they will cut teachers. Each year they do. But, not as many are cut thanks to grants etc…as are expected.
This year a grant writer was added. That is a necessary position and must be kept.
Let’s face it. New Britain residents are poor. We cannot compare to Farmington or West Hartford.
We have to work with what we have. It’s not fair, but life’s not fair.
The school board should begin finding places to cut now. If it knows it is inevitable, why wait?
There may be “no wiggle room”, but there is only so much money in our City. Residents can barely pay the taxes they have.
A $3-4 million increase is much more realistic. The board needs to see what it can do with that. Anything more is just impractical.
