Schools

Dems: 'Spectacle' is Possible over Acct. Transfer

In a press release, the DTC says the school board Issues town an ultimatum: reverse the fund shift or face lawsuit

The Board of Education voted this week to give the town seven days to reverse a contentious shift of funds out of the school budget or risk a lawsuit testing whether the town violated state statute in making the shift.

“The Town Council, through an incredibly reckless action, has set up the possibility of a spectacle that might be unprecedented for Trumbull: The Board of Education suing the town,” said Democratic board member Steve Wright. “This unlawful action must be reversed.”

The council last month moved slightly less than $1.1 million into a newly created account on the town side of the budget designated for school-system health insurance. The amount represents the anticipated 2011-2012 increase in health-insurance premiums for school system employees, plus an additional $223,000 that was moved through an apparent administrative error on the part of the council.

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The council’s unilateral move followed the lead of First Selectman Tim Herbst, who has argued that the school system and the town should pool their health-insurance accounts and thus obtain cost reductions.

But it was directly in contravention of a school-board vote seeking the creation of a bipartisan tri-board panel to investigate the various models involving town control of school system employees’ health insurance and create recommendations.

Find out what's happening in Trumbullwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Instead, the council, in a puzzling session on April 14, created what it at first called a “placeholder” account with no intention to do anything with it—and then, after a 20-minute caucus, moved the $1.1 million into it.

The move created a high-stakes legal dispute. Under Connecticut General Statute, Chapter 10-222, Boards of Education are granted absolute control over money allocated to them by local legislatures. The town violated that statute, according to Thomas Mooney, one of the state’s foremost education-law attorneys. Mooney was retained by the Board of Education.

“What the Town Council did is a violation of state statute and a breach of good faith relations among town boards,” said Democratic school board member Lisa Labella. “They need to move that money back to the school board’s control or take some other action that guarantees our ability to use it. Without such a move, we have to assume we don’t have that money and will need to act accordingly.

The board meets next Tuesday, May 10, and will decide then whether to seek an injunction against the town.


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