Flatto Not Thrilled With 4.9% Increase in Proposed School Board Budget

First Selectman Ken Flatto's not too happy with Supt. of Schools David G. Title's recommended $148.5 million Board of Education budget for 2011-12, which rises 4.9 percent from the current $141.6 million education budget.

"The superintendent's budget definitely appears to be on the high side. I was hoping for it to be a lower budget," Flatto said Monday evening, noting that the increase in Title's recommended budget is above the rate of inflation.

But Flatto added that Title, hired as the schools' chief on July 1, deserved the chance to present and explain his recommended budget before town officials' views of it become set in stone.

Nevertheless, Flatto added, "I think it will be difficult for town boards, and I think even for the Board of Education, to take a fairly high number like this at face value, even if it's well-defined and explained. It's going to have a lot of scrutiny, and people will look to scrutinize it and seek ways to adjust it."

Flatto said he hopes Board of Education members, when they review Title's proposed budget Tuesday and Thursday nights, "will make a strong effort to seek to incorporate as many cost savings as possible from their audit and possibly go deep into the audit suggestions." Flatto said past school boards have "rubber-stamped" the superintendent of schools' recommended budget without doing enough work to find savings.

Title's budget identifies $866,500 in savings from recommendations in the audit performed by Prismatic Services, Inc. of Huntersville, N.C. The majority of savings identified by Title in his recommended 2011-12 budget is due to moving the start time at both Fairfield Warde High School and Fairfield Ludlowe High School to 7:30 a.m.

Ludlowe High's start time is now 7:40 a.m. and Warde High's start time is 7:50 a.m. Moving the start times for both high schools to 7:30 a.m., which Title's proposed budget says would save $500,000, is likely to raise concerns from parents who lobbied school officials in the past about the need to start school later in the morning so students can get enough sleep.

The 4.9-percent increase in Title's proposed budget would drop to 4.54 percent if the anticipated Education Cost Sharing grant from the state comes in at the level Title is predicting. The ECS grant this year is going to the town, instead of to the Board of Education.

The biggest increases in Title's proposed budget include: $2.58 million due to contractual salary increases for existing Board of Education employees, a wage and benefit reserve and the loss of State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF); $1.6 million due to increasing the medical retention fund balance and loss of SFSF funds; $1.1 million due to increased special education costs and loss of American Recovery Reinvestment Act money; and $1.1 million for additional staff due to increased enrollment at the middle school and high school levels and loss of grants for existing positions. Those four categories account for $6.38 million of the proposed $6.9 million increase in the Board of Education's budget from this fiscal year to 2011-12.

Flatto's opinion is significant when it comes to the proposed Board of Education budget, because, after the school board adopts it on Jan. 25, it will be sent to him for review and adjustments. Flatto then takes his recommended school board budget and combines it with his proposed townside operating budget and annual debt service to form his overall proposed town budget for 2011-12. Flatto is scheduled to unveil his overall proposed town budget next month.