BOE Mulls Cuts, Hears Pleas

The Board of Education Tuesday night heard from speaker after speaker, many students, pleading for the panel to preserve sports and the Academic and Gifted program, among other things.

The four-hour meeting took place in 's auditorium, which was half-filled at about 100 people.

On the block are swimming, tennis, cheerleading and girls and boys hockey.

Swimming especially helped alumnus Albert Palatiello, who, after college, returned to coach the swimming team and is now in the Bridgeport Police Academy.

Another swimmer said pay-to-play costs about $200 while it would cost $500 to join the Pisces, a non-school-based swim team. Swimming also helped him improve his grades, he added.

THS Athletic Director Mike Herbst, led off, telling the audience “athletics are a vital educational tool…as important to the development of adolescents as the classroom.” He noted that one of the lessons of athletics is that personal success is team success while classroom accomplishments are purely personal. 

Some 20 students spoke about what they have learned about themselves through competition, what they had learned about being team members and even how the lessons of competition had helped them as students. Many also cited the help sports gives them getting into and paying for college. 

Most also said that would pay more than the current $200 per sport to participate in their programs.

Another speaker's issue was the Town Council's transfer of $1.074 million in health care funds to the townside, which an education attorney hired by the board has called unlawful.

Emma Connolly, a THS junior and president of the Student Council told the board that the “Student Council was disappointed by the Town Council’s transfer”… that they “gather it was unlawful.”  They support the board’s hiring an attorney and oppose “removing more than $4 million from the budget.”  She received a rousing hand from the audience.

Tammy Baillargeon, president of Trumbull Education Association, the teachers’ union, said the TEA represents over 550 teachers.  She commended the board for its “transparency and fairness.”  She emphasized “the need for maintaining existing class sizes and assuring that Trumbull students have quality teachers.”

Baillargeon noted that 37 teachers have been given non-renewal notices, that none has a job next year, and that teachers are taking zero percent increases next year. She added that she hoped the board will retain all its teachers. 

One notable dissenter was Tony D’Aquila, who said “the town council elected to spend $1 million to collect leaves rather than retain teachers.”

He applied the same rationale to “sports versus class size” and talked about his daughter, who is working for a doctorate as a research biologist.  She played sports at THS, but drew more from inspired classroom teachers. He ended with “academics or sports – it’s your decision." 

Schools Supt. Ralph Iassogna ended this segment by saying that last year’s budget would have brought the town to where we are now were it not for having obtained $1.7 million of federal and state funding, and applying $825,000 of cost savings to offset program losses.

No such funding is available today, leaving difficult choices, Iassogna said.

After a break the superintendent addressed the health insurance matter.  Iassogna said Chairman Ted Lovely and board member Steve Wright, an attorney, are working with town council Chair Massaro and member Michael London to arrive at a resolution “short of litigation.”

He said there are major issues that must be resolved – the Town Charter requires a final budget by April 30, and the board of finance plays a role in any change from the approved budget. 

Iassogna said that education attorney Tom Mooney advised them that until the money is returned to the district, the budget must be assumed to be $85.9 million. He said that level of funding will “wreak havoc, but something must be done quickly to respect teachers, parents and other members of the school community.”

He emphasized that “I don’t want to go to the courthouse.”  The issue, he added that “the town does not like the board’s process, its ability to transfer funds from one account to another within the schools budget. It’s not about insurance, it’s about control.”

A motion was made and approved to hold special strategy meeting on May 10.  If no clarity on the return of the $1.074 million is reached by then, the board must determine its next steps.

Iassogna said that Mooney believes the matter is “black and white” and that the board’s position is correct. Precedent was set in a similar case in Ellington, in which the board sued the town for taking district money and telling the schoolboard how to spend it. 

No action was taken, as this agenda item was meant only to inform the board and the public.

After another break the board began work on identifying cuts to get the to the Town Council-approved 2.375 percent.  The superintendent walked the board through a presentation detailing the $2.55 million of eliminations required to bring the budget down to the First Selectman’s request of $87 million.

It was noted the amount approved by the Town Council would require the elimination of so many teaching positions that one elementary school would have to be closed.

Member Michael Ward, a retired educator, opened the discussion, asking for restoring TAG, restoring the full appropriation for Channel 17, but leaving a discussion of athletics until an analysis of the cost of each sport compared to it pay-to-play revenue is complete. 

Ward concluded, saying “no school closing.”

The school meets again today at its Long Hill Building at 7 p.m.