Hundreds Turn out in Support of Education Spending

Hundreds of Meridenites, some carrying signs or their children on their shoulders, turned out to support the Board of Education’s proposed 2011-2012 budget at a press conference on the steps of the Board of Education building early Wednesday evening. The budget, which has been shaved down considerably since the board’s original 2.93% increase request, still remains 0.87% higher than that proposed by City Manager Larry Kendzior, who wants to keep education spending flat for the second year in a row.

The press conference was hosted by the Meriden Coalition for Educational Excellence, comprised of education advocacy groups including Meriden Children First, the Meriden-Wallingford NAACP and Meriden Family Resource Centers. Citizens of all ages stepped up to the podium to express their belief in the importance of education and their solidarity with the school board, whose proposed budget was up for review by the City Council Finance Committee tonight.  

School Superintendent Mark Benigni said, “Today you made a statement, and it was loud, and it was clear. It wasn’t about you. It wasn’t about me. It was about the kids and the future of this city.”

“Our kids cannot continue to go with less,” he said before asking the crowd to join him across the street as he presented his version of the budget to the city’s Finance Committee. “Can you do that?” he asked, and the crowd responded with a rousing chant of “Yes we can!”

Much of the throng did try to squeeze into the packed city council chambers where Kendzior and Benigni made their cases before Mayor Mike Rhode and the city council. While they started out about $2 million dollars apart, the budgets proposed by the city manager and the school board now differ by about $870,000.

 “We’re closer than we’ve ever been” at this point in the budget process, acknowledged Kendzior, who submitted a school budget totaling about $92 million.

The school board’s 1.7% budget increase could be whittled down to less than 1% by implementing an additional $855,000 in savings measures outlined by Benigni. Those measures include ending an outsourced contract at the Venture Program, reducing staff and expenses for the Expulsion Program, filling long-term substitute positions in house, reducing incoming central office staff salaries and benefits, and changing psychiatric evaluation service options.

In his presentation to the Finance Committee and the public, Benigni took the opportunity to share the successes the Meriden school system has enjoyed over the last few years. “The achievement gap is closing,” he said. “Meriden students are advancing at a faster rate than the state average.” Think of it as a race, he explained. Meriden isn’t winning, but we’re gaining faster than most others.

Board of Education President Mark Hughes stressed that the school board is doing everything it can to reduce costs. He related that a teacher recently said to him, “Mark (Benigni) is pinching pennies so much that I expect him to come in any day and collect the leftover pieces of chalk.”

Members of the public, some of whom spoke at the press conference earlier, were given the opportunity to address the Finance Committee. Several students spoke of their concern about possible cuts to sports and extracurricular activities. Parents expressed fears that cuts in teaching positions could increase class sizes, already larger than they would like in some schools.

Said Debbie Lawrence, PTO President at Casimir Pulaski Elementary School and grandmother to a second grader there, “If any one of you, our elected politicians, can look into the eyes of a child and explain a 0% increase, I challenge you to do so.”

Kendzior took her up on the challenge. “I don’t think a budget with a 0% increase needs to result in layoffs or cuts to extracurricular activities," he said.

For salaries, the lion’s share of school spending, the board of education has consistently requested more than it has spent, Kendzior explained. The difference has averaged about half a million dollars a year over the past five years.

Kendzior pointed out several areas of the budget where he felt the school board overestimated costs, adding up to more than $3 million. “I could be 50% wrong, or even 75% wrong,” he said, and the difference would still add up to more than the $870,000 increase the school board is requesting.

Even if the board’s proposed increase is passed by the city, cuts in teacher positions may have to be made, Benigni admitted. Federal grants funding 26 teaching positions have ended. Those positions may be cut or spared only at the expense of other positions. But the requested budget increase could save at least some of those positions, he said.

Councilman Walter Shamock drew attention to the proposed 2.3% increase in salaries and benefits in the board’s budget. “I believe teachers should consider a pay freeze,” he said. “How about the average person out there who’s getting nothing?”

Benigni told the committee that the teacher’s union’s next contract negotiations are scheduled for August, when they will be expected to take a 0% increase.

There are still six or seven weeks left in the budget process. The public will have another chance to air their views on the subject on April 13 at a public hearing at City Hall.