Board of Finance Approves School Requests, Tables Action on Fire Department
- Peter Prohaska
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
In Southington, as in other municipalities across the state, costs for public education make up the lion’s share of the town’s yearly budget. Consideration of how to balance school funding and town revenue began in earnest at the Board of Finance’s February 18 meeting, which featured a presentation from Superintendent of Schools Steven Madancy. Another major focus of discussion was the Fire Department.
School System Budget
Board of Education Chair Zaya Oshana introduced the Superintendent’s budget request, which gained his group’s approval earlier this month. He described a bipartisan process that took a slightly different approach this fiscal year. A preview period gave Board members the opportunity to study Madancy’s request in advance of its first workshop. Board members were also able to discuss line items directly with heads of department to get more information about the requests.
Oshana highlighted one move the Board took to reduce the ask: moving four special education teachers from the budget into the grant-funded portion and reducing the request by $224,000.
Madancy then addressed the Finance Board. He explained that district costs, such as the numbers of English-language learners and students with special needs, have increased, while funding from state grants and federal sources has remained flat. He emphasized that funding has been flat for the past 15 years, under the leadership of both parties, but said he was “optimistic” that this legislative session may see Hartford step up its contributions to Connecticut schools.
According to his presentation, the main drivers of the budget (96.7%) are salaries, benefits and purchased services (such as transportation, energy and rubbish removal), the costs of which are built-in, and in many cases rising.
“I don’t think we have a spending problem, I think we have a funding problem,” Madancy said. He also pointed out the timing difficulty that accompanies the fiscal year.
“We don’t know what the excess-cost reimbursement rate is going to be prior to the adoption of this budget,” he said. “We don’t know what the Governor’s budget is going to be. There may be unfunded mandates in it.”
Despite the challenges, Madancy highlighted that key performance metrics have improved in Southington schools even though its per-pupil spending is lower than in similar school districts.
“You’re getting a good return on investment,” he asserted.
SHS Tennis Court and Parking Lot Referendum
Madancy also presented a plan to address the difficult parking situation near the high school by constructing a lot with 143 new parking spaces. The Superintendent said that improving safety and access were key concerns, and that Police Chief Jack Daly has been fielding complaints about the parking situation for 23 years.
New tennis courts are also part of the plan. The current courts were originally installed in 2007, but due to sub-surface shifts now have cracks wide enough to fit a tennis ball, per Madancy. The courts have had to be repaired several times over the years, with each fix costing over $10,000. The courts are not regulation-size, lack lighting and ADA accessibility, and pose a challenge for spectators. The rebuilt courts will offer long-term fixes for these issues.
Madancy noted that some money had been set aside for the project in last year’s capital plan, and that Town Manager Alex Ricciardone had included additional funds in his proposal for this fiscal year that were designed to cover some of the plan’s total cost of $4,210,000.
Board of Finance Chair John Leary asked Madancy about the wisdom of spending public money on these proposals, given that Southington voters in 2022 rejected a referendum item that would have spent $16.9 million on similar projects. Madancy answered that the ballot question was posed to voters at the same time as a roof replacement, and contained some “nice-to-haves” at a time, post-COVID, of financial duress.
Leary ultimately recommended taking $2,623,500 from the town’s reserve funds to spend on the project. He explained that those funds, which the town is required to keep on hand, can only be used for capital projects and not for operating expenses, such as hiring teachers or firefighters. The Board unanimously approved the recommendation.
“We can afford this, we can afford it with cash, and we’ll still have cash left over for capital,” Leary said. “We want it to be a win for the community, the right thing for everybody,” he added.
The Town Council will now have the final say on approving the plan.
Fire Department Staffing and the Chief’s Contract
Leary also led a discussion of ways to add firefighters to the Southington Fire Department, in response to ongoing concerns about understaffing.
“I’m watching my volunteer force dwindle,” Chief Scott Lee said at the meeting. “We had a fire this morning and I was only able to get two volunteers. I’m relying on mutual aid, and that comes at a cost to those municipalities too.” Firefighters from Bristol, Meriden, and New Britain all responded to the scene of that fire, while Cheshire and Plainville provided coverage, according to a Fire Department release.
Leary’s motion to add three more firefighters was frustrated by restrictions in the contract language, negotiated years ago, that mandate backfilling in certain stations. The Board decided to study the issue more closely and reconsider its options for funding these roles at a future meeting.
Towards the end of the session, Board member Stephen Salerno raised a separate but related issue, arguing that Lee’s new contract, recently approved by the Board of Fire Commissioners, was “not normal and not good for the town.” While stressing that his concerns have nothing to do with the Chief personally, Salerno expressed concern that the contract provides the Chief with “all other allowances” that other Town employees receive, including employees in other departments.
One example Salerno cited was a $1,800 per year allowance for uniforms, one that police officers get for equipment such as bullet-proof vests that have to be replaced regularly. Another was $7,500 for an Apple Harvest Festival stipend that the HR Director receives. The third was $500 for a car allowance, though Lee already has use of a vehicle, and, finally, a social club membership.
Referring to the vote by the Board of Fire Commissioners to approve the contract, he said, “it’s either malfeasance, incompetence, arrogance, or indifference, or maybe you make a big snowball and it’s all in one.” He called for the town’s labor attorney to review the contract.
The Board of Finance will continue its budget workshops next week, with a public hearing on the budget scheduled for March 2.
Correction: the original version of this article indicated that a voter referendum would be held to approve the tennis court and parking lot plan. In fact, the construction will be paid for with cash from the town's reserve, and no referendum will be held. We regret the error.
