Board, Council Talk Priorities Ahead of Budget Season
NEWINGTON - An enhanced seventh grade World Language program and an expansion of in-district early educational opportunities were among a slew of priorities voiced by the Board of Education during its first joint meeting with the Town Council last Wednesday.

       The meeting-expected to be followed with later sessions-marks an early start to the pre-budget discussions that typically take place between the two bodies.

       The idea to begin talks during the Fall-brought up initially by Board members Steve Silvia and Sharon Braverman-was proposed by the Board as a way of sharing goals early and increasing communication between the two parties following a contentious budget process this past Spring.

       â€"It’s about time we got together outside the budget battleground to discuss issues of common concern,” said Mayor Roy Zartarian at the start of the meeting.

       Among those issues are building projects, unfunded mandates from the state, and finding cost savings in anticipation of reduced state aid revenue.

       On the Board side, unfunded mandates have come in yearly and at volume, said Superintendent Bill Collins. Recently, he turned his attention to a student data privacy bill that prohibits the use of software from third party vendors without first signing a contract. The legislation-which took effect October 1- is expected to strip classroom teachers of the ability to try out new apps on the fly, essentially rendering the IPads for the district’s newly-implemented 1-to-1 technology initiative unusable.

       â€"The way they are coming down is not sustainable to us,” Collins said of the unfunded mandates in general. â€"We don’t have the staff to do it. We don’t have the resources. And often they conflict.”

       Meanwhile, the Board has been sitting on the roadmap for the district’s envisioned World Language program, which will take its next step forward with the hiring of four seventh grade Spanish teachers once they are able to include the items in their budget.

       That didn’t happen this year, with the initiative falling by the way side amidst a lengthy list of reductions prompted by a push to prevent teacher layoffs.

       â€"We have bits and pieces, but we’re not fluent. Our goal is to go back into the elementary schools and implement a full program,” said Board Chair Nancy Petronio.

       That starts at the middle school level, according to advice the Board got from other districts such as West Hartford. The process of revamping Newington’s World Language curriculum started a while ago, taking a decade to get the eighth grade level â€"on the core”, according to the Board.

       A new partnership with Central Connecticut State University will help with languages the district doesn’t offer. With the dual enrollment program in place, Newington High School students can take college-level courses in a variety of subject areas for credit.

       So for now the Board is focused on building at the middle level, and then working on down. Hiring one seventh grade Spanish instructor would cost $71,000.

       Another long-awaited initiative has been the expansion of early childhood education. Collins and the Board have examined various possibilities in the past, including adding preschool space to the aged Anna Reynolds Elementary School building.

       That’s the Board’s next major building project, but preschool classrooms were not mentioned in education specifications presented to the Council recently.

       By federal mandate, the district has a program that can at the very least accommodate special education students, and it does. The issue has been achieving the recommended 1-to-1 ratio between special education and their regularly developing peers, Board members said.

       â€"We are woefully under that,” said Board member Josh Shulman. â€"It’s a space issue, because we don’t have enough rooms, and it’s a money issue, because we don’t have enough teachers.”

       Early childhood education sets the tone for a student’s academic career, and initiatives to that end can provide financial savings to a school district like Newington as well, Shulman said.

       Students can attend CREC’s preschools for free, and the calculated cost of the current 78 students from Newington remaining in the magnet system beyond that point could cost around $8 million, he said.

       Shulman envisions pursuing an early childhood center-possibly out of a central location such as the Senior Center-that would utilize a handful of community resources, including volunteers.

       As a Project Choice participant, the district might be able to work out an arrangement for some state funding, he said.

       â€"Which would be a great opportunity both for our students, and students from Hartford,” Shulman said.

       Members of the Council had questions, but they held off from specifics pertaining to their own needs. Among their top priorities has been successfully advancing a plan for the aged Town Hall building, as well as bracing to have less money to work with in coming years.

       â€"As much as we’d like to make all of these priorities, there are so many unknowns around the state,” said Councilor Gail Budrejko.

       Deputy Mayor David Nagel had similar thoughts.

       â€"We on the Council are very concerned about education, but we also have concern for other things like taxes,” he said. â€"We have to make tough decisions with a limited amount of money.”

       Board member Steve Silvia suggested pursuing some additional cost sharing initiatives-both within the district as well as beyond it. He pointed to the recent merging of IT services between Town and Board entities in neighboring Wethersfield, and even made a pitch for some collaboration with other school boards.

      
STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA   |  Oct 13 2016  |  COMMENTS?